Standout Stock Market Systems

[Calandale]

Much as I love the 'xx games, I find the economic model somewhat less than realistic.
Sure, with some hand-waving, you can justify the core principles. But the meaning of shares
in the unreleased (presumably held by a bank?), market (general holdings by non-players?),
and the like is often just not believable. Too, the stock increment on 'did it pay out?' seems
too simple. Some of the Winsome games do better on the market implementations - with earnings
driving the price increases, and maybe even actual pick ups and delivery representing establishing
routes. But, most  lack the stock manipulation side of the equation. Baltimore & Ohio though
seems to strike a good balance of these two ideas.

Maxi-Bourse is probably the game with the most accurate representation of what actually
happens in a stock market (prices are driven by what people will pay), but like the nukes
in Supremacy it ends up being terrible gameplay. From a realism perspective, the game fails
to account for the fact that shares in such giant corporations are held by more than a
handful of players. IF there were only such a small handful, market price would be irrelevant -
it only makes sense in the context of a market which can and will buy the shares.

AH's old Stock Market Game is another interesting concept. The number of players buying or
selling affects the market values. But they are trading with the market. The conceit here is
that the players are big enough fish to actually affect the market prices, but not the only
holders of stocks.

[sparty]

I'd love to see a game that handles it well, but I suspect you'd end up having to stick to specific market segment if you wanted it to run with any detail.

This is where the action forced ranking system from Chad Jensen's Fighting Formations combined with the initiative and card system of the COIN series could add A LOT of interesting gameplay elements.

In effect, players would retain their institutional investor role, but the markets wouldn't be solely driven by player interaction.  In addition, you'd be pressed to do everything as an investment house from recruiting/stealing traders from other firms, building capital, luring IPOs, researching, etc.

It would be cool to see someone take a modern and fresh look at the topic!

What would you expect to see from a solid market "simu-game?"

[Calandale]

What would you expect to see from a solid market "simu-game?"

Dunno really. I'd like something that handled take-overs well. Maybe something like the
whole dot com bubble - there were big players there trying to game the market big time.
Opportunities up for bidding from venture capital, with uncertain returns - and a lot of
stock in outside hands.

[usrlocal]

Funny you should mention the old AH Stock Market game. I saw a copy second-hand here in town for $7. Worth picking up?

[Calandale]

Funny you should mention the old AH Stock Market game. I saw a copy second-hand here in town for $7. Worth picking up?

Probably not. Unless you're just looking for ideas.

[sparty]

What would you expect to see from a solid market "simu-game?"

Dunno really. I'd like something that handled take-overs well. Maybe something like the
whole dot com bubble - there were big players there trying to game the market big time.
Opportunities up for bidding from venture capital, with uncertain returns - and a lot of
stock in outside hands.

I agree that the tech segment would be awesome.

You could start in the 80s with IBM, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, and Bell Labs, etc.  Just some big corporate boys jockeying R&D for position with investment houses helping to fund to improve their chances at return.

You could then have a scenario about the 90s from like 1997 - 2003 covering the first bubble.

You could then have a scenario about the current tech bubble that starts in 2007 - 2016? where you have lots of small players getting bought up, new market emergence with tablets and smartphones along with broader moves to "the cloud" and track how companies progressed over time from their R&D to buying R&D as a portfolio of techs that mix and match...Kind of a meta game that's not unlike the old Civilization but instead of Salt and Wheat you're trading cloud storage infrastructure and enterprise security or microprocessor manufacturing techniques.

[Calandale]

If a good fun model existed, it could be used across many different eras.

[Eric Brosius]

I'm not sure you can get a realistic mechanism without having large numbers of participants.  Otherwise you just get colluders managing prices.  That might make a good game, but it's not much like what you're asking for.

[Calandale]

I'm not sure you can get a realistic mechanism without having large numbers of participants.  Otherwise you just get colluders managing prices.  That might make a good game, but it's not much like what you're asking for.

I don't know. If players are big dealers, I think that they could have more influence than say in 3Ms Stocks & bonds (where there is none).
Sort of a buying and selling mechanism as in AH's Stock Market Game. Limited to a single industry, it might really work well.

'xx comes close to what I'd want - but has a few too many anomalies.

[Kreator82]

I'm not sure you can get a realistic mechanism without having large numbers of participants.  Otherwise you just get colluders managing prices.  That might make a good game, but it's not much like what you're asking for.

But what would be a good number of players to give you enough market variables, without being too many that the game suffers in the long run? Plus, in terms of gameplay, what if buy-outs and takeovers force players from the game? How much "fun" would be had by the player elimination?

[Calandale]

I'm not sure you can get a realistic mechanism without having large numbers of participants.  Otherwise you just get colluders managing prices.  That might make a good game, but it's not much like what you're asking for.

But what would be a good number of players to give you enough market variables, without being too many that the game suffers in the long run? Plus, in terms of gameplay, what if buy-outs and takeovers force players from the game? How much "fun" would be had by the player elimination?

It could be done well as a giant online game.

[KevinR]

It could be done well as a giant online game.

Already done.

More seriously, a dozen traders is more than enough to get good dynamics (including bubbles).

[Kreator82]

I don't want online games in my tabletop hobby dammit!!! But yes, it would work well as an online game......I just would probably never play it.

[Trynant]

Greed Inc. is an interesting take on a loose stock market, except that its stock market is far more about insider trading and corporate fraud. Really, it's market isn't driven by non-player forces; but that the players as corporate shysters having all the control over the prices is kind of premise here. It does buyouts in a funny way in that the goal is to actually have your CEOs get fired and take as much 'severance pay' as possible to by assets (the only thing that determine victory).

I can't recommend it as an alternative take on stock markets as much as recommending Greed Inc. as a making a source material that rationalizes an 18XX-like stock market.

[gamesgocrazy]

Rolling Stock is a good stock market game.