Imagine trading Hrithik Roshan and Tom Cruise. All in the form of stocks.
Imagine going on that dream African Safari to hunt lions, while sitting at home. Imagine flying the world's best aircrafts, in a virtual world, from your bedroom. Welcome to the world of Simulation Games.
From entertainment to education, they are being used in every sphere. A simulation game is a game that has rules, artefacts, steps, and payoffs that reflect real-world elements. Some are high-fidelity ones: The game elements reflect a comprehensive set of real-world elements to a high degree of authenticity. A million-dollar computer-based flight simulator is an example of a high-fidelity simulation. In contrast, a low-fidelity simulation game reflects a few selected real-word elements in an abstract, simplified fashion. Using wooden blocks to represent a construction activity is an example of a low-fidelity simulation.
So go to the Bollywood Stock Exchange and indulge in your wildest of fantasies by trading hot stocks like Hrithik and Aishwarya and not so hot oldies like Rekha, while devouring the latest info from the film world. Its western counterpart and predecessor -- Hollywood Stock Exchange -- is for all you English film buffs.
Then there's the Foresight Exchange place, a rather interesting concept where you trade on your foresight! The FX claims (of foresights) are sorted by various orders and fall into different categories ranging from US Finance to Arts and Entertainment to Science and technology.
Sample this: One claim in the US Finance section is that Amazon is going to crash by 2002. You can counter-claim, submit your own claims, exchange foresights and watch them come true sometimes.
Many game and contest sites use such online trading concepts as contests to lure users with the smell of money or trade-able points. Also, many such games are being used by universities and colleges for educational purposes. Management training through interactive business simulation and programs, including games, business simulations, customised strategising: all that and more are up for grabs at ParadigmLearning.
At Sim Home, you can visit Smith and Golden's online home of Business Simulation Games for students. Professional Management Trainers and professors, they have designed and published the largest library of simulations for academic education and management training in the world.
There are eight titles currently available, like Biz Sim, a general management simulation game for high school and early college students, Airline, a strategic management sim for graduate students, HR management, Corporation, Collective Bargaining, Manager, Marketer and Entrepreneur.
And then there are the pure entertainment gaming-style simulation games. Such simulators, according to experts, now seem to fall into two classes: huge, big-budget projects that are mostly the undertaking of Microsoft and the more, home-grown, single developer, labour of love titles that can do well with good reviews, loyal fan sites, and word-of-mouth advertising.
Falling into these categories and competing against each other are X-Plane, which was developed almost exclusively by one person, and Microsoft's Flight Simulator. While X-Plane does not have the flashiest of graphics or the polished game box art of major publishers, it is proving to be heavy competition for Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
X-Plane has features including multi-player capability, METAR weather formats, and better frame rates for most systems. One of the most impressive updates added a space shuttle for flight as well as the option to fly on Mars! The Flight Simulator series, of course continues to reign supreme as the top aviation simulation game, with amazing graphics, huge extensibility with hundreds of downloads around the 'net and 3rd party publishes, and the features that go with a prime flight simulation.
Meanwhile, ready your bags for an African safari and wildlife hunting. At Rteweb's site you'll find, for sale, simulation games like African Safari, The Hunting Game, The Duck Hunter, The Turkey Hunter, Shooting Gallery Mayhem, Deer Hunter, Elk Hunter, Wildlife Forever, etc.
The African Safari, for example, includes a 360-degree scrolling option on actual photographs of original 3-D animation on African animals. While hunting online, you get to see many species of dangerous game, and African plains, as you try to shoot specimens for a museum. The game has been shot on location in the wilds of Africa. And there are seven locations to hunt on your safari.
And then there is SimCoaster from Ea/Maxis and Bullfrog Software, which allows you to build, run and ride your own amusement park like a Disneyland or its desi counterpart: EsselWorld. You are in mid-management of an amusement park management company at the start of SimCoaster. The soon-to-be-retiring president anoints you heir apparent and provides an opportunity to show your talents by building a park. You not only design it from 100 rides, roller coasters, log flumes, shops, and sideshows, but can also build rides, hire or manage staff, deal with stock, set up security, and handle a multitude of challenges. A laborious job, but one that guarantees a lot of fun.
There are various other simulation games available. You have Trading Simulation, which is an offline stocks, futures, and options trading simulation game that lets you simulate an entire day's trading in a few minutes and see whether the direction you chose was correct.
Meanwhile, check Wall Street Raider, a sophisticated, financial stock market simulation that lets you engage in amazingly realistic corporate wheeling and dealing, Wall Street style. You can use the same tools and techniques as real corporate raiders, including junk-bond financed hostile takeovers, mergers, insider trading opportunities, anti-trust lawsuits against competitors, manipulating corporate earnings, tax avoidance, liquidating assets or corporations, and much more.
And then there is the fun Beer! War, an economic simulation of a beer business where you take control of a company and try to get a monopoly on production. You have to, however, deal with nine opponents sharing the same aim. Build up the biggest company and lead your enemies into bankruptcy, before they ruin you.
So if you are game for some simulation excitement, go download some at Download game, Downloads, ZDNet or Free Downloads Centre. You can also try a listing of simulation games at Game Spot or Game Demo.
Happy gaming.
Tell us what you think of this article
