Capitalism (video game)

Gameplay

Capitalism is a simulation game which can be played in two different ways. The player may start their own business or play a scenario with a pre-made business with a set goal. In a new game, the player begins with a maximum of $200,000,000 initial capital. Each store can be stocked with up to four different items. As a real world model it is necessary to take into account land cost, overhead, demand for the products, and competition. The player can build several types of firms including department stores, factories, research and development centers, farms, mines, oil wells, and logging camps.

The most common business model to pursue in Capitalism is retail by running a chain of department stores. However, the player can venture into any market segment they want including manufacturing, which includes another set of considerations such as suppliers and raw material shortages. Manufacturing begins with building a factory and planning the internal operation layout of the structure. Purchasing, manufacturing, sales and advertising can all be used in factories.

The player can also choose to run research and development (R&D) operations as either their sole business or alongside running other operations such as department stores and factories. R&D ultimately improves the player's product quality by increasing technology gain. R&D for any product can last from 6 months to 10 years in the game, with the technology gain being higher when the R&D duration is increased. New products can also be produced using R&D.

Scenarios

Capitalism includes seventeen scenarios with pre-made situations and businesses and a certain goal. The scenarios are generally more difficult to succeed in that competitors often have the starting advantage. Each scenario has a different goal and different environment and competitor situation. For example, the Alternative Challenge scenario restricts the market to two cities while in "D" for Diversification the player must manage a profitable broad-based corporation and manage a large number of firms at the same time.

Some of the scenarios require the player to dominate a particular market in terms of market share. For example, Food Dominance sets a goal of dominating the food industry within 50 years while earning an annual operating profit of no less than $20 million. In Fortress of the Beverage King, the player must dethrone the Beverage King 'James Zandman' as the dominator of the beverage industry within 50 years.

Most scenario games disable the stock market option in an attempt to make the player focus on completing the scenario goals. The initial capital given in each scenario depends on the difficulty of the goals set. Each time a player successfully completes a scenario within the time limit set and with all goals reached, they will receive a bonus score and be added to the 'Hall of Fame' list.

Other features

Capitalism includes many different features designed to reduce effort and save time in basic gameplay. From the main menu, players can use 'Quick Start' to choose from eight instructional games to learn about retailing, market analysis, farming, manufacturing, branding and advertising, research and development, raw material production and the stock market. These lessons are included in the game to introduce a new player to the concepts and basic gameplay.

Another feature of Capitalism is the layout plan library, which can store layout plans for all types of buildings available in the game. It enables the player to save previously used layout plans into a library as a record and then apply them to buildings to save time rather than creating new layout plans. Layout plans can be replaced, added, deleted or sorted.

Capitalism Plus

A more advanced version of the original Capitalism was developed and released as Capitalism Plus on Jan 1, 1996 and published by Brøderbund for Windows 95 only. It added world maps, more products and enhanced management capabilities to the game in addition to improved SVGA graphics, more markets to dominate and random events including riots, disease and technology breakthroughs. With Capitalism Plus, a map and scenario editor program was also added enabling players to configure products, industries, goals and other items. Capitalism Plus is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Response

Shortly after the release of Capitalism in 1995, a review in Next Generation commented, "The game is complex, but don't let the novel-sized manual fool you. It may be daunting at first, but this is one of those sims that you'll play for hours without even noticing." The reviewer scored it four out of five stars. Capitalism also made appearances on The Discovery Channel and CNBC-TV Cable.

In 1996, Harvard University and Stanford University began using Capitalism for educational purposes. Professor Tom Kosnik said, "Capitalism is a world-class, hands-on learning experience I've used at Stanford School of Engineering and Harvard Business School. Gamers not only learn the subtleties of growing an entrepreneurial business but also learn about leadership and team building necessary in any business situation."

On October 21, 1996, BusinessWeek reviewed Capitalism, saying:

In 2000, Computer Gaming World named Capitalism among the fifteen most difficult games ever, saying: "[Capitalism is] so complicated it should come with a free MBA in every box." The magazine has also praised the game as highly enjoyable and addictive.