10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Game or CEO training module???
Date of Review: Jun 29, 2002
The Bottom Line: A fun realistic game which doubles as a CEO training module.
Capitalism II PC software game was great fun to play! It held my interest for every free hour I had, for one week. Each game session lasts an average of 2 hours.
I raised cattle, processed leather, made wallets and opened a chain of retail leather stores. The next day I was mining silver, making sterling silver necklaces and had a successful chain of Jewelry stores. I did well in one city and then opened the same business chain in another city. By the end of a week of playing, I was hiring the Chief Operating Officer and running research and development firms. To get enough start up capital I tried a little stock market investing. Great Fun!
At the beginning of the game, you set goals for your new company. If you meet those goals, you gain points. Every game, the object is to do better than the last time.
There is disappointment in this game, because your businesses usually have to file bankruptcy, even when profits are rising and things are looking up. I tried my best to pare down expenses by stopping purchasing and holding items in inventory, but I still could not stop expenses from getting out of control. As you run out of cash, your options first are to sell stock or issue stock. When these options dry up, you can borrow money from the bank. Of course those interest payments run up fast, and your next option is to demolish your businesses. The last thing that always happens is that you are forced to file bankruptcy.
There is some relief from the bankruptcy scenario. A cheat is available from the internet, and I think it is built into the game, which allows you to download extra cash into your account. If you build up your account as high as possible with $100 billion in starting capital, you can do quite well in the game, because that gives you time to do research and development and get your brand loyalty up, so that you make more money.
To me, this game seemed like good training for a CEO wanna be. It gets you used to running multiple companies at once, hiring and firing execs, trading in the stock market, and keeping an eye on the competition.
I rate this from 1 to 10 as an 8. The fun of playing is a 10, but the disappointment of always filing bankruptcy lowers it to an 8. I still like to play it, because I am the entrepreneur type, but I feel like I may be more successful running a real business.
Worth the money? YES.
