SD2 Economize

ECONOMIZE

by Tim Heverin, Nathaniel Goddard, Sean Logan, Akil Henry,Gustavo Olivares

High Concept

Navigate the risks and benefits of Wall Street. Try and survive economic downfall with smart trading. A stock game that doesn't require a whole lot of math

Features

• News articles are generated based on events to contextualize changes and help the player evaluate what choices they should make. Every once in a while a text news story will appear and it will address recent changes in the stock market. You should make your choices to invest in one company or move out of another.
• Economic Crisis can occur. Minimize your losses by diversifying. Putting all your eggs in one basket is gambling, but diversifying is investment.
• Some stocks have dividends, money that can be reinvested in the company for more shares or used elsewhere.
• Pretend DJIA/NASDAQ is the main list for traded stocks. 5-20 stocks to keep track of.
• Turn based – day by day stock management, but can skip ahead if too tedious. Skips will be interrupted if an event occurs. Play at your own pace and learn how the market moves.

Motivation

Make pretend money! But being good at a simulation doesn't mean that you are a good investor. It's at least a lesson on how unpredictable it can be.

Genre

Serious Game

Target customer

Aspiring investors, those that lost all their money, and the idly curious.

Design goal

Simple, casual, informative and interesting.

The Formula

Each stock has a set growth per year, broken down to have growth over the course of the year with events in the simulation causing the overall number to diverge. The stock is assigned a base growth stat from anywhere to 2% to 15% in a year depending on what industry or projected growth.

The explicit numbers and values are still being worked out.

Current stock value = a preassigned number at the beginning of the game. This is the most fluid value.
Base growth per year = a preassigned number that, if no other factors were involved, the stock would grow in value with.
Modifiers = given in example in the following sections. They are either cultural events, or corporate events that occur with regularity, but with unpredictable effect.

(Current stock value)*(Base growth per year) = projected value of stock
(Current stock value)*((Base growth per year)+/-(Modifiers) = New current value

Example situations

• Rapper NAS takes legal action against the NASDAQ for using his likeness without permission. The suit is currently in litigation. (Can decrease ALL values the first week while the court proceeding, and then either further decrease values when NASDAQ loses; or increase all values when the win)
• A socialite that's daughter of the head of one of your Hotel stocks is caught in a scandal. (Value lowers because the hotel must be bad if she went to another hotel)
• A flailing bank get bought up by another. Parts of the market fall as their accounts are switched (- 3 points for Gas, Grocery and Entertainment stocks)
• A company stops negotiating with another company to merge. The merger was highly publicized and was hostile when it began (1 of players stock randomly drops by 10)
• A high ranking employee leaves one of your stocks suddenly without warning. Negotiations were happening behind your back when their contract was up (1 stock randomly drops by 5)
• A founder of one of the companies you invest in has a heart attack. Is very serious and puts him in the hospital. Also happens after a news paper mistakenly published an obituary of his death. (Company stock goes down)
• Airline pilots too drunk to fly, airline stocks plummet.
• Stock market board fails due to software glitch; investors all pause momentarily.
• Auto stocks fall.Oil stocks fall because of this.
• Oil stocks fall.Alt energy stocks rise.
• Bacterial outbreak in agriculture.Pharmecutical stocks rise.
• “Company” lacks skilled workers ,stock decreases.
• Slowdown in home sales affects building supply sales.
• A major department store has been found responsible for a number of human rights violations at number of the their overseas factories. Stocks for this company fall while stocks for other chains rise.
• A low cost, high quality, pollutant free fuel has been created from algae. Produce and oil stocks fall. Alternative energy stocks rise.
• A number of overly hyped movies bomb at the box office after their summer premiers. Many stocks directly related to the motion picture industry plummet.
• George W. Bush leaves office. New feelings of hope and confidence give the market a major boost. At least for a time.
• A major news network, Faux News Network, is taken off the air for failing to report anything legitimate. Stocks for the Faux Company plummet. Other media conglomerates receive a major boost.

Growth modifiers

• Positive/Negative growth shown via Consumer Price Index (CPI)
• CPI is powered via random numbers. This represents the “Virtual Market” of the overall economy
• CPI changes accordingly to the random numbers
• All companies have different +/- growth modifiers
• Events triggered when +/- growth of companies hits a certain point
• Events modify growth modifiers universally
• Once event modifiers are present/triggered they have the potential to influence +/- growth changes in companies or the CPI
• Events simply modify the CPI overall for one two large steps. Companies (usually) will have they’re formulas not change as a result of the trigger/event.
• Each year in the simulation is started off with estimated projections for the growth of the company over the year.

Game Flow

• Starting up the application, the player of the simulation is presented with the title screen. They then have the option of starting the game, or just quitting back out.
• If the player chooses to play the game, they are given an introduction screen that gives them a quick rundown of the game and the option to start right away. There may be later implementation to choose a scenario or difficulty level on this screen.
• The player is then given their initial quantity of money and told to go right out and buy some stock!
• The stock screen (shown below) will be the primary hub of all actions within the game. They can see the current values of all of the stocks, how much they moved for the day, and any recent news events/stories that have occurred.
• Clicking on a company's stock ticker will bring up information about the company (and possibly recent news stories involving it), and possibly a graph showing the growth of the company.
• From the company information, the player may choose to do nothing, or move onto the buy/sell phase.
• Back at the main stock screen, if the player feels that they are done looking at the stocks for the day, they may choose to pass to the next day or next event.
• The next day may or may not have a news event associated with it, but skipping to the next event fast forwards the player to the next day that one occurs.
• Irregardless of how the player chooses to move onto the next day, the simulation calculates the new values of the stock for the day.
• If the player has too little capitol (cash and stock value) their game is over.The player is placed back onto the title screen.The player also has the option to just quit at any time.

Example of game screen

You click on the stock you would want to buy or sell. On the selected stock portion of the window, you can click to perform either action and insert however many you would like to move. The stocks that are affected by the news flash to let the player know what is going on.

==Stocks== for the NASDAQ group members ONLY

Please pick one from each category. If you can add more thats great.

Computer Software/Hardware Retailers
• Activision Blizzard, Inc (ATVI)
• Apple Inc. (AAPL)
• Microsoft Corperation (MSFT)
• Electronic Arts Inc (ERTS)

Media Providers
• The DIRECT TV Group, Inc (DTV)
• DISH Network Corporation (DISCA)
• Comcast Corporation (CMCSA)
• Millicom International Cellular S.A. (MICC)

Conventional Retailers
• Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFMI)
• Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST)
• Sears Holdings Corperation (SHLD)
• Staples, Inc (SPLS)
• Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY)

Pharmaceuticals

• Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc (AMLN)
• Intuitive Surgical, Inc (ISRG)
• Teva Pharmaceuticals Limited (TEVA)
• Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX)

Growth Indicators & Equations

Computer Software/Hardware Retailers	Stock Listing	Starting Value	Positive Random # Range (Y)	Percent Change (Y)	Market Value Formula
Activision Blizzard, Inc	ATVI	$9.81	10 - 60	0.2	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Apple Inc.	AAPL	$89.12	20 - 70	0.8	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Microsoft Corporation	MSFT	$19.09	20 - 40, 60 - 90	0.5	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Electronic Arts Inc	ERTS	$17.81	0 - 60	0.5	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Media Providers
The DIRECT TV Group, Inc	DTV	$19.94	20 - 80	0.6	X = (1 + Y) = Z
DISH Network Corporation	DISCA	$10.06	50- 100	0.4	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Comcast Corporation	CMCSA	$14.57	40 - 90	0.8	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Millicom International Cellular S.A	MICC	$32.31	10 - 70	0.75	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Conventional Retailers
Whole Foods Market Inc	WFMI	$8.95	40 - 90	0.35	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Costco Wholesale Corporation	COST	$46.40	20 - 40, 60 - 90	0.6	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Sears Holdings Corporation	SHLD	$29.50	15 - 65	0.5	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Staples, Inc	SPLS	$15.75	10 - 30, 50 - 80	0.4	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.	BBBY	$18.92	45 - 70	0.5	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Pharmaceuticals
Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc	AMLN	$6.39	25 - 40, 65 - 80	0.7	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Intuitive Surgical, Inc	ISRG	$124.38	20 - 40, 60 - 90	0.4	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Teva Pharmaceuticals Limited	TEVA	$42.21	45 - 70	0.6	X = (1 + Y) = Z
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	VRTX	$23.62	20 - 80	0.8	X = (1 + Y) = Z
X= Initial Market Price
Y = Growth Indicator (+/-)
Z = New Market Price