A simulation video game describes a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities.
SimHealth: The National Health Care Simulation is a management simulation video game, developed by Thinking Tools and published by Maxis with assistance from the Markle Foundation for MS-DOS in 1994. It is a simulation of the U.S. Healthcare system. The game was released during Congressional debates on the Clinton health care plan.
A government simulation or political simulation is a game that attempts to simulate the government and politics of all or part of a nation. These games may include geopolitical situations, the creation of domestic political policies, or the simulation of political campaigns. They differ from the genre of classical wargames due to their discouragement or abstraction of military or action elements.
Management is a business simulation board game released by Avalon Hill in 1960. Players operate their own manufacturing companies, making decisions on purchasing supplies, determining production volume, setting sale prices, and expanding factories. Turns are measured in business cycles. The winner is the player with the largest business at the end of the game. The competitive element is found in the players secretly bidding to purchase limited raw materials and then later secretly pricing their finished product for a market that normally would only purchase from the lowest priced suppliers.
Intopia is a strategic management simulation tool in the form of a business game, and is used in a variety of undergraduate and graduate university courses. It is used to teach students the concepts of strategic management of multinational businesses in a simulated world of up to four "nations". The number of participant executives or students can range from 9 to 100+, and are divided into 3−25 teams, each managing a company. The participants practice their skills over a few hours, receiving immediate feedback on their decisions.
Construction and management simulation (CMS) is a type of simulation game in which players build, expand or manage fictional communities or projects with limited resources. Strategy video games sometimes incorporate CMS aspects into their game economy, as players must manage resources while expanding their project. But pure CMS games differ from strategy games in that "the player's goal is not to defeat an enemy, but to build something within the context of an ongoing process." Games in this category are sometimes also called "management games".
Vehicle simulation games are a genre of video games which attempt to provide the player with a realistic interpretation of operating various kinds of vehicles. This includes automobiles, aircraft, watercraft, spacecraft, military vehicles, and a variety of other vehicles. The main challenge is to master driving and steering the vehicle from the perspective of the pilot or driver, with most games adding another challenge such as racing or fighting rival vehicles. Games are often divided based on realism, with some games including more realistic physics and challenges such as fuel management.
A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, and politics. Serious games are a subgenre of serious storytelling, where storytelling is applied "outside the context of entertainment, where the narration progresses as a sequence of patterns impressive in quality ... and is part of a thoughtful progress". The idea shares aspects with simulation generally, including flight simulation and medical simulation, but explicitly emphasizes the added pedagogical value of fun and competition.
The history of video games spans a period of time between the invention of the first electronic games and today, covering a long period of invention and changes. Video gaming reached mainstream popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when arcade video games, gaming consoles and home computer games were introduced to the general public. Since then, video gaming has become a popular form of entertainment and a part of modern culture in most parts of the world. The early history of video games, therefore, covers the period of time between the first interactive electronic game with an electronic display in 1947, the first true video games in the early 1950s, and the rise of early arcade video games in the 1970s. During this time there were a wide range of devices and inventions corresponding with large advances in computing technology, and the actual first video game is dependent on the definition of "video game" used.
Business game refers to simulation games that are used as an educational tool for teaching business. Business games may be carried out for various business training such as: general management, finance, organizational behaviour, human resources, etc. Often, the term "business simulation" is used with the same meaning.
The Derby Stallion (ダービースタリオン) - also known in Japan by the portmanteau abbreviation DerbyStal (ダビスタ) - video games are a series of genre-merging horse-racing and business simulation games originally created by ASCII Entertainment, and released by Nintendo. The series comprises 21 games, spans more than 10 console platforms, and is the best-selling horse racing series of all time with total sales topping more than 4 million in Japan.
Novel, Inc. is a video game studio and enterprise simulation developer, based in Kirkland, Washington, United States. Novel is known for being both a traditional video game developer and bridging the gaming and business world with enterprise simulations.
Max Design GesMBH was an Austrian video game developer based in Schladming, founded in 1991 by Wilfried Reiter and brothers Albert and Martin Lasser. The company is best known for creating the Anno series. The company was closed down in 2004.
The Legend of Sword and Fairy, also known as Chinese Paladin, is a game/media franchise created by Yao Zhuangxian and is developed by Taiwanese company Softstar. The franchise centers on a series of Chinese mythology-based role-playing video games, but also includes two live-action TV series adapted from the games. The eponymous first game in the series is published by Softstar's "Crazy Boyz" team (狂徒創作群) in 1995, and became both a commercial and critical success, and multiple sequels has been spawned due to its popularity. The video game series has since branched into other genres such as business simulation games and MMORPGs. It was regarded as one of the most iconic Chinese RPGs ever made.
Virtonomics is a series of massively multiplayer business simulation games. Virtonomics business games are used both for useful entertainment and for the development of managerial and entrepreneurial skills. "Virtonomics Entrepreneur" is positioned by the publisher as an educational online business simulation game for entrepreneurs and startups. "Virtonomics Business War" is an entertaining economic online game with elements of PvP. "Virtonomics Tycoon" is a most famous classic online business simulation game developed by Cypriot studio Gamerflot Trading, published by UAB Marilana and launched in 2006.
