Re: Economy simulation

[Micah Yoder <LYoder@cyberis.net>]

Douglas Loss wrote:

> I finally came up with my simulation, Alterra.  In it, teams play the roles
> of countries or international agents (international corporations,
> non-governmental organizations, the press, etc.).  The system is intended to
> be a simplified input/output model of a global economy, with agriculture,
> manufacturing, resource extraction, trade, war, taxation, unemployment, and a
>  host of other details for the teams to think about.  Each team gets to
> decide privately what end they wish to try to optimize their play towards,
> and may switch to a different goal during the simulation if they want.  The
> simulation doesn't end at a predetermined turn so as to prevent players from
> adopting an "end-game" strategy.

That would be a very useful program!

It would probably be a good idea to have different difficulty levels for
different grades.  Economics is somewhat complex, and it would be good
to have the program grow with the student.

Individual business simulators are also fun and educational, which is
why I'm working on an airline simulator.  We used a non-computer
business simulator in Economics class, but I can't remember much about
it.