[HN Gopher] Simulations and games in economics education
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       Simulations and games in economics education
        
       Author : yamrzou
       Score  : 47 points
       Date   : 2023-03-18 14:08 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
        
       | goldenpreppy8 wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | andrewmutz wrote:
       | Victoria 3 is a great game and has a rich economics system.
       | Teaches supply chains, specialization, international trade, etc
        
       | maxerickson wrote:
       | I took an experimental economics class in college where the small
       | lab fee was supposed to be paid out as prizes for doing well in
       | the games we played during class. I never got a payout, but the
       | class was pretty interesting regardless.
       | 
       | I did sort of "cheat" in one of the games, I recognized that the
       | software market game was really a software monopoly game (this
       | was circa 2000) and put the other providers out of business in
       | the first round by paying people to be my customer.
        
         | pmelendez wrote:
         | Sounds like what startups do these days :)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | jckahn wrote:
       | It's not the most realistic game, but I think my personal project
       | Farmhand would fit here as well: https://www.farmhand.life/
       | 
       | It's a GPL-licensed farming game where the value of crops and
       | seeds fluctuate every in-game day. It's inspired by the classic
       | game Drug Wars.
        
       | mattchew wrote:
       | It's pretty dated at this point (and I don't know of anything
       | recent like it), but playing M.U.L.E. is a little education in
       | microeconomics all by itself.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.U.L.E.
       | 
       | Ok, I see that Planet M.U.L.E. is a recent remake that may
       | actually be alive and kicking, good deal!
       | 
       | http://www.planetmule.com/
        
         | mysterydip wrote:
         | That was a great couch competitive game. Trying to goad a
         | player into bidding more than necessary for something they
         | needed before they turned around and stuck you with it was good
         | fun.
        
       | yamrzou wrote:
       | I posted this having in mind some simulation games by Nicky Case
       | (https://ncase.me/projects/) which combine insight and fun in a
       | brilliant way. Specifically:
       | 
       | - The Evolution of Trust
       | 
       | - The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds
       | 
       | - We Become What We Behold
       | 
       | But those games only focus on social interactions. I wonder if
       | there are similar ones that focus on economics. We learn much
       | better through play, a game is worth a hundred papers.
        
         | jezzamon wrote:
         | Check out the list here! https://explorabl.es/economics/
         | 
         | The explorabl.es website is maintained by Nicky Case and has a
         | whole bunch of explorable articles written by different people
         | in different categories. Usually if something's written
         | something interactive it'll be there!
         | 
         | Disclaimer: one of my articles is there too!
        
         | pmelendez wrote:
         | Those are great, thanks for sharing. Also, great website!
        
       | Falkon1313 wrote:
       | A couple of economics games I really liked were:
       | 
       | Capitalism Lab, which builds on the original Capitalism and
       | Capitalism II by adding several more options (some through mods).
       | 
       | Wall $treet Raider, which you can learn a lot from about various
       | big business dealings and economic trends. Different ways to use
       | subsidiaries, holding companies, greenmail, liquidation,
       | diversification, etc.
       | 
       | https://www.capitalismlab.com/
       | 
       | https://www.wallstreetraider.com/computer-simulation.html
        
       | dclowd9901 wrote:
       | Not one mention of how to incorporate socio-behavioral aspects of
       | economic theory into the simulation, despite behavioral economic
       | theory widely being recognized as the most realistic and true to
       | life theoretical basis of economics.
        
       | airza wrote:
       | I recommend Sidereal Confluence. That game has taught me more
       | about economics than anything else.
        
         | mattchew wrote:
         | This game is on my radar, but as I understand it it really
         | wants a lot of players at the table and my group is typically
         | capped at 4.
         | 
         | Glad to hear it referenced though.
        
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