Virtonomics
| Web address | virtonomics.com |
|---|---|
| Slogan | Business is a game! |
| Registration | Required |
| Available in |
Chinese English French German Russian Spanish Ukrainian |
| Owner | Gamerflot Trading LTD |
| Created by | Virtonomics Team |
| Launched | December 11, 2006 |
Alexa rank |
 116,982 (April 2014)[1] |
Virtonomics is a massively multiplayer, turn-based, serious game,[2][3][4] persistent, browser-based, online business simulation game[5][6] developed by Gamerflot Trading, published by UAB Marilana and launched in 2006.
Gameplay
Virtonomics resembles Trevor Chan's business simulation game Capitalism 2.[7][8] It simulates the basic principles and processes of businesses in a competitive environment.[9][10] There are no predefined victory or failure conditions, and the game does not end. Players define their own end goals for the game, and try achieve them using strategy and tactics. Typically, the main goal is to build a successful business amidst competition.
Virtonomics is a multiplayer game, and players mainly interact with other players as well as with a computer-controlled opponent. It is turn-based game, and each turn lasts a fixed length of time. Generally, turns are a day long, and for a regular player, the game required 15 to 60 minutes a day. In 2014, the developers released a "fast realm", a game server where turns were an hour long; this was designed for players in short-term business training.[11]
Currently Virtonomics has six realms: Vera, Olga, Mary, Lien, Fast and Anna.
In the game, players may engage in agriculture, exploitation of natural resources, manufacturing, retail, foreign exchange market trade, finance, personnel management, marketing, logistics, scientific research and other business processes.[4][12]
Virtonomics has a political simulation module where players can participate in election on three levels: city elections to become a mayor, government's election and president's election. Players-politicians can change taxes, custom dues, rent rates, transportation fees and regulate budget which affecting macroeconomics of the game world.
At the beginning of a game, the player is given the opportunity to start their own virtual company and to develop it, competing with the other players.[13] The player receives a starting amount of virtual currency at the beginning of a game. Virtual money is used to pay for in-game expenses and investments. Players gain money by selling final goods to vitrual customers controlled by AI, proving services or by selling final products and raw materials to other players.
History
Virtonomics is developed by GamerFlot Trading Ltd. A prototype of Virtonomics called Money Mania was released in 2004, and it ran as a non-commercial project for a few years. On 11 December 2006, Money Mania was renamed Virtonomics, and released in the Russian language. The game was named by Game World Navigator as the best economic online game of 2007.[7][8][14] The game entered the global market in 2009 with a freemium model, and was translated to several other languages. Some universities and business schools have used the game business simulation Virtonomics as a training tool.[15] In addition to the freemium model, revenue is generated by product placement; for example, in 2009, the Russian Standard Bank partnered with GamerFlot Trading to include a branded in-game item in Virtonomics that gave bonuses to players.[16] It had gained 550,000 players by 2010. In 2016, simformer - an educational platform based on Virtonomics, provides economics courses to colleges and universities (Palestine Polytechnic University,[17] UniCredit,[18] Vilnius University[19])
Versions history
| Update | Initial release date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Olga ream was added | 02.2009 | Before that game had only one realm called "Vera" |
| Training update | 04.2009 | Current employee training system was introduced |
| New country: Belarus | 05.2009 | New products: Potatoes, tomatoes, sunflowers, compound feed, etc. |
| PayPal payments | 05.2009 | Payment option via Paypal system was added |
| Group management | 06.2009 | New functions to control multiple subdivisions at a time |
| City salary update | 07.2009 | Average city salary change automatically due to marco factors |
| Ratings and achievements | 08.2009 | Major agricultural producers and best miners |
| Quests level 2 | 08.2009 | New quest were added |
| Business boosters | 08.2009 | Initial introduction of business boosters aka innovations |
| Anna realm | 09.2009 | Subscription realm was added with no paid features |
| Qualification update | 09.2009 | The basic of current top manager qualification was introduced |
| Retail mechnaic | 09.2009 | Realistic retail mechanic was added with market share, local sellers, etc. |
| F2P | 12.2009 | All realms now are free to play. VIRTs are added (in game currency). Introduction of tenders. |
| Contest of directors | 01.2010 | New competition for new players. New tenders. |
| Spanish and German | 03.2010 | Game interface for these languages was introduced |
| Virtonomics in twitter | 03.2010 | Important news and updates are published in Russian twitter. Virtonomics trying social media |
| Efficiency and output | 04.2010 | Low total efficiency now decrease production output |
| High level technologies | 05.2010 | Science updated where high technologies (26+) was added along with minor updates |
| New business boosters | 06.2010 | The majority of current business boosters was added |
| Luxury products reliase | 06.2010 | Basic luxury products made of gold and diamonds were added |
| 4 years anniversary | 12.2010 | New country - Finland |
| Armenia | 12.2010 | New country in Virtonomics |
| Uzbekistan | 02.2011 | New country in Virtonomics and new products made of Cotton |
| Baltic states introduces | 06.2011 | Lithuania, Latvia. Estonia |
| Norway and fishing industry | 10.2011 | New qualification and industry: fishing. New country - Norway and new products made of fish |
| Regatta and yachts | 10.2011 | Regular contests - race for yachts |
| Team play and corporations | 11.2011 | Players can gather in groups (clans) to play together |
| 5 years anniversary | 12.2011 | Introduction of service sector: fitness centers, laundries, haircut salons |
| Virtonomics Law | 02.2012 | Official game rules ware extended |
| Nederlands and medicine | 04.2012 | New country, new business area - commercial hospitals and new products - medical drugs |
| Politics. Part 1 | 07.2012 | Introduction of politics. Players can be elected to became mayor who controls a city |
| Car Industry update | 08.2012 | Standardization of car industry. 3 main types: sedan, sport car and a jeep |
| Restaurants in Virtonomics | 10.2012 | New industry |
| Venezuela | 12.2012 | New country and new goods: coffee, pearls, cocoa |
| Aircraft industry addition | 05.2013 | New industry |
| Politics. Part 2 | 05.2013 | Governors and regional budgets introduction. Players can change taxes, etc. |
| Bonds | 06.2013 | Players can issue bonds to borrow money |
| Greece | 07.2013 | New country and Olives |
| Energy and ecology | 11.2013 | New industry with strong connection to politics |
| Cuba | 01.2014 | New products: Cigars, cigarettes and tobacco |
| Canada | 05.2014 | New country |
| Argentina addition | 07.2014 | New country for Lien, Mary and Anna realms |
| New products | 08.2014 | LED-TV, Lamp, Jam, Socks, etc. |
| Mexico | 11.2014 | New country and new goods: corn, Cornflakes, bourbon, antiseptic, etc. Seasonal demand mechanic was introduced |
| 8 years anniversary | 12.2014 | USA in Anna realm, new game chat |
| Fuel industry | 02.2015 | Gas, petroleum, gas stations, auto repair stations, incineration power plant, etc. |
| New quests for new players | 07.2015 | Next level of quests |
| 8 years anniversary | 12.2015 | Contests of Tycoons, tea introduction |
| Beekeeping | 03.2016 | Poland addition and new industry - beekeeping. New products such as honey and wax |
| Denmark | 03.2016 | New country |
| Big corporate update | 04.2016 | New functions for corporations and team play improvements |
Community
Mostly players communicate in Virtonomics forums, chat rooms and via internal mail. In addition there are communities in the most popular social networks: Facebook,[20] Twitter,[21] LinkedIn[22] and Reddit.[23] English, Spanish and Russian speaking communities are the most active in the game.[24]
References
- ↑ "Virtonomics.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- ↑ D, Lallana (2013-10-03). "Simproduction: a multi-player online serious game to understand the basics of business administration" (PDF). D. Lallana, P. Garaizar.
analyzed key business management serious games (i.e., INNOV8, Virtonomics)
- ↑ "Business Simualtion Software – short review | ETU". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
- 1 2 Manuela, Cruz-Cunha, Maria (2012-02-29). Handbook of Research on Serious Games as Educational, Business and Research Tools. IGI Global. ISBN 9781466601505.
- ↑ Morabito, Vincenzo (2015-01-31). Big Data and Analytics: Strategic and Organizational Impacts. Springer. ISBN 9783319106656.
- ↑ Dale, Holt (2011-09-30). Professional Education Using E-Simulations: Benefits of Blended Learning Design: Benefits of Blended Learning Design. IGI Global. ISBN 9781613501900.
- 1 2 Экономическая онлайн-игра "Виртономика" названа лучшей игрой 2007 года [Economic online game "Virtonomica" named best game of 2007] (in Russian). Mail.Ru. 2008-01-29. Archived from the original on 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
- 1 2 "ВИРТОНОМИКА" – ЛУЧШАЯ БРАУЗЕРНАЯ ИГРА! ["Virtonomics" - the best browser game!]. Business Press (Alliance Media) (in Russian). Alliance Media National Business Partnership. Archived from the original on 2014-07-18. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
- ↑ "Лапша на уши" [Noodles on the Ears]. Nomobile.Ru. ZAO Publishing. 2009-04-24. Archived from the original on 2009-04-28. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
- ↑ Blažič, Andrej; Ribeiro, Claudia; Fernandes, João; Pereira, João; Arh, Tanja (2012). Analysing the required properties of business simulation games to be used in e-learning and education. Intelligent information management. p. 352.
- ↑ "Gamification stuff we love: Simformer - Gamification Nation". Gamification Nation. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
- ↑ Bellotti, F; Berta, R; De Gloria, A; Lavagnino, E; Antonaci, A; Dagnino, F; Ott, M; Romero, M; Usart, M; Mayer, I.S. (2014). "Serious games and the development of an entrepreneurial mindset in higher education engineering students". Entertainment Computing (Elsevier) 5 (4). doi:10.1016/j.entcom.2014.07.003. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
- ↑ "Serious Games Society: Virtonomics - business simulation game". marketplace.seriousgamessociety.org. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
- ↑ Chinarova, Catherine (2006). "Бизнесмен играющий" [Business Gaming] (PDF). Бизнес-журнал (in Russian) 36 (24): 91. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-01-02. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
- ↑ Reventar III, Vicente (2012-11-27). "ITM122X: Gaming and Management Games" (PDF). Ateneo de Manila University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-12-14. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
- ↑ Nikulin, Andrei (2009-12-28). "Русский стандарт внедряется в Виртономику" [Russian Standard introduced in Virtonomics]. MoneyNews. Archived from the original on 2015-04-19. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
- ↑ "الطلبة المقبولين للإشتراك في بيئة محاكاة الاعمال SimFormer | كلية العلوم الإدارية ونظم المعلومات". casi.ppu.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
- ↑ "UniCredit Bank выбрал платформу Simformer для обучения сотрудников - CNews". CNews.ru. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
- ↑ "VU Faculty of Philology - "Virtonomics": Community manager/Copywriter, SEM Manager". www.flf.vu.lt. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
- ↑ "Security Check Required". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
- ↑ "Virtonomics (@Virtonomics) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
- ↑ "Virtonomics - online business simulation game". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
- ↑ "Business simulation game • /r/Virtonomics". reddit. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
- ↑ "Virtonomics: Play to become a virtuoso entrepreneur". On Serious Games. Retrieved 2016-02-22.