Business sim games on Facebook

[edqmaster]

Are any of you aware of any business sim games on Facebook?

I'm surprised nobody on these boards has mentioned it yet, but for several months now, a game that hooks into Facebook has existed: Economies of Scale. It is very obviously an homage to the Capitalism series; it is effectively Capitalism built from the ground up for multiplayer, tick-based gameplay. It's slowly gaining new players, and definitely seems to fill the sort of thought space that is being discussed.

(I hate making a link to another game my first post, but I've been a forum lurker without an account for ages, and kept expecting someone else to mention EoS. Plus, it's a topic David seems particularly interested in.)

yeah eos is nice but very flawed not as good as capitalism I wonder if David would contact Scott the guy that runs EoS would be kinda cool if they would mesh their ideas together

[Jefreyy]

Well I would think including only one gamer, activity as well as a multi gamer would perform well. The single gamer activity would, perform more like the unique activity but removed down such as less, products only one town ect.

[carpii]

I've played quite a few business sims online, perhaps one of the most popular is tycoononline.nu

This is not realtime, but the server runs a 'tick' every 30 minutes or so which updates everyone.
Meanwhile you can make adjustments to your business, although its not comparable to Cap since you are not changing prices, simply building more buildings.
Also a season runs for a few months, then the database is cleared out and everyone starts again from scratch.
I played it for a couple of years but ultimately got bored because it was just became predictable

I think a Facebook version of Cap would need to be so dumbed down that it is essentially a totally different game.
Likewise a web based version could be popular, but for it to be commercially successful I think it would need to be augmented with mobile app you can play on. A lot of purely web based games are in decline these days, as many people just want to play on their tablet.

There are a slew of business games for iOS, although nothing quite like Cap. The closest is maybe a game called "Biz Tycoon" which is packed with features but essentially still boils down to building the most buildings (and then it becomes more and more difficult to stay afloat without buying IAP's). Again I played this for a good few months, but you realise there is no challenge and its just a typical freemium game to get users addicted and extract more and more money from them.

[jacklowe]

Honestly, no I don't see many options other than a rather slow paced game approach, not for a game model that is persistent. However if you want the game to have a set beginning and end it is possible. The devil is in the length in this case, how long would you want a particular game to last, a few hours, days, weeks? Each one would require a set level of time compression.

There might be a sweet spot in there somewhere that retains enough of the details that make Capitalism unique but allows the game to progress at a fairly smooth pace. Possibly in the time frame of a month or two per game. It would as already mentioned depend on having the tools to leave orders for certain things so you don't get wiped out while your at work. The AI would need to be beefed up a bit there I imagine. Another tool that could help in that regard is requiring a time length to construct buildings. If you slow down a persons ability to build their business tis true you slow the game down a bit, however you also reduce the ability for a person to get wiped out while they sleep.

Need to give a player enough to do to keep them interested. The way the game is currently built I see that being a problem. So perhaps judiciously choosing to expand certain areas of the business game will accomplish that without causing to much of a micromanagement issue. It's all in what u expand and how. For instance the nine box system works well for a non MMO game, but perhaps it should be expanded into true floor space for a MMO. Allowing a person to have more creative control over their businesses. The retail stores for example might require stock rooms, floor space for products, sales areas, perhaps facilities inside or outside to help attract customers. The same might apply to factories or farms, even warehouses. Perhaps there would be the possibility of certain buildings having multiple floors. Maybe strip malls and malls proper that need to be designed with floor space requirements that will be rented out to other players.

There's already talk of need to expand the number of products, I believe it would be a requirement for an MMO of any appreciable length. The above mentioned ideas make that possible by giving a vehicle to expand the number of products a store can sell without creating a significant amount of additional clutter on a game map. It also gives a person things to do in game that would hopefully be attractive to a gamer inclined toward this sort of game, without requiring them to spend inordinate amounts of time playing at one crack. As well as preserve and perhaps expand further the spirit of the Capitalism games. If the devs were to consider monetizing the product, offering different building styles, personalized signs and banners for stores, as well as decorative items would be a few ways to do so without creating a pay to win experience. Something that in my experience is generally bad for a game.

I like the idea of a Capitalism MMO, hopefully you will decide to undertake such a project. I hope these ideas will be of some use. I would like to mention that the same method of expanding the number of products in game as well as the number offered per store can be made to work with your present 9 box system and UI, with seemingly minimal alterations. No physical changes needed, just what information is presented with each mouse click. I don't know if the current game engine would handle the additions well however. I also don't know what it would do to general game balance. I offer the idea as a means for possible expansion of Cap Lab which additionally can be used to test these ideas for use in proposed MMO.

TY for the wonderful game.