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July 17[edit]

Computer games[edit]

What computer games are there (if any) that teach the principles of economics? 24.5.122.13 (talk) 06:19, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Check out Category:Business simulation games. Railroad Tycoon, for example. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:50, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Fun fact: the classic board game Monopoly_(game)#Early_history"Monopoly" was originally intended to teach the negative impact of concentrating ownership of properties. I bring this up because there are many economic principles at play in the game, and there are of course several computer versions. SemanticMantis (talk) 17:29, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I fixed your link. StuRat (talk) 17:44, 17 July 2014 (UTC) [reply]

What negative impact? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:52, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Bankruptcy for the other players. All good if you win. In the Super Nintendo version, losers garbage-pick fishbones. It's terrible! InedibleHulk (talk) 20:16, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Bankrupting everyone else is the object of the game. Hence the term "Monopoly". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:14, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, however the original designer of Monopoly intended all involved to feel bad about that, and thus demonstrate how real-life monopolistic behavior was bad for society. Parker Brothers cleaned up the game a tad and made it more fun. For the original version, see The Landlord's Game, to wit, "She based the game on the economic principles of Georgism, a system proposed by Henry George, with the object of demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. She knew that some people could find it hard to understand why this happened and what might be done about it, and she thought that if Georgist ideas were put into the concrete form of a game, they might be easier to demonstrate. Magie also hoped that when played by children the game would provoke their natural suspicion of unfairness, and that they might carry this awareness into adulthood." --Jayron32 21:40, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That might have been their hope, but just as likely is that it would get each kid to thinking that they need to be the one to become the monopolist. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:56, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

And when there's only one kid left, his money stops being worth anything. All he can do is gloat and quit himself. It's the point, but it's tragic. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:04, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

From the music video for "Weapon": When you're at the top there's nowhere left to go but down. That's been said in a million country songs. It's true. As true for nations as it is for their citizens. For when you are at the top you aspire to attain that which cannot be attained. And in doing so achieve the ruin of all that you have built. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:10, 17 July 2014 (UTC) [reply]

It's been a long time, but I'm fairly certain there's a provision for getting back into the game once you're bankrupt. That's a workaround for the problem of one guy having everything. In fact, the one guy doesn't have everything. The bank still has a lot of money. This is closer to real life. I see this ad every evening during the local news, about how bankruptcy can be "the best thing that ever happened to you." I don't necessarily buy into that theory, but it echoes the Monopoly game. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:20, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In the board game, you can certainly carry on passing Go, paying luxury tax and landing on Free Parking till you wheelbarrow into St. James, if for some reason you hadn't yet. And if setting up hotels there gets boring (it should), of course you can let a friend rejoin (if they haven't gone home to enjoy bankruptcy long ago). But not in the SNES version, and likely not in many other computer versions. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:35, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In case anyone's wondering, computers are better than paper for Monopoly because everything is automatic. Just like real life. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:57, 17 July 2014 (UTC) [reply]

And since the Monopoly board is based on Atlantic City, you could have a timer, simulating the passage of years, after which the hotels / casinos go bankrupt and the monopolist has to give everything back to the bank, and the whole thing starts over. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:53, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I made money on Donald Cerrone in Atlantic City last night. But my bank doesn't know. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:59, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Besides the category cited above, Wikipedia also has an article about Business simulation games. --Jayron32 21:40, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]