Miniconomy

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Miniconomy
Developer(s) Trade Games International BV.
Platform(s) Any computer connected to the internet
Release date January 1st, 2002
Genre(s) MMOG
Mode(s) Multi player
Media Website
System requirements HTML-compatible web browser, Macromedia Flash Player

Miniconomy (also called MC by players) is an online, browser based, economic and trade simulation game developed in the Netherlands. The game has over 60,000 registered players from 121 different countries [1] that can play the game in the languages English and Dutch. Miniconomy is in its 52nd round, which started on the 3rd of May, 2008.

Miniconomy is free to play, but a premium membership is available. This membership allows for the creation of Corporations with which harbors, banks, and garages can be built, enables the player to start a political party, and gives the player personal smiley’s and colors on the forums. Miniconomy is still developing certain aspects further, and a guild function of which it is expected that it is being introduced within the next few months.

Contents

[edit] General Information

Everyone can start an account in Miniconomy. The player starts with 1000 I-Shell (monetary unit in Miniconomy) and 100 liters of gasoline with which he or she can build a company that specializes in the production and sale of products. Miniconomy has round which last 3 weeks, with 1 week breaks in between them allowing for new political positions to be chosen and for the implementation of new features.

[edit] Registration

When players register, they fill in their information and choose in which city they want to trade in. The differences between cities are in trade activity, competitiveness, and the amount of resources available. Players are allowed to have multiple accounts, but benefitting one account using another account is prohibited and strictly enforced. Trading with two accounts in one city is also prohibited

[edit] Trading

The main part of Miniconomy is about trading. Players can choose to trade in 29 products and can get their turnover from intercity trade, intracity trade, international trade, and exports. Players can build shop in their hometown, buy shops in other cities or countries, and can dress these up with (animated) banners, increase the marketing so that their shop is more prominent on one of the streets, and add discounts for certain customers. At the end of the round the trade rankings, based on the net worth of players, are used to appoint a winner.

[edit] Politics

After 5 rounds players made their wishes for a political system known. In negotiations with the designers they came up with a system in which players run the political system with parties, elections, a parliamentary system, and Ministers who each fulfill tasks in their area of responsibility. Each of the three countries has a different political system, but all three of these are run by the players themselves.

[edit] Game Structure

[edit] Products

There are 29 products in Miniconomy, which can be classified into five categories, which are resources, basic products, secondary products, illegal goods, and tools. The products that fall into these categories are:

Resources: clay, iron ore, trees, gold, oil, diamond Basic products: bricks, iron, wood, engine, pump, shovel, saw, gasoline, chips, glass, plastic Secondary products: bulletproof vest, camera, alarm system, telephone, computer Tools: machine, oven, screwdriver, diamond drill Illegal goods: guns, bombs, gunpowder

All products next to resources cost a certain amount of money to produce and all products can be sold in shops to tourists or other players, or can be exported (limited amount per day).

[edit] Functions

There are over 25 functions and statuses that players can reach. There are statuses to show the level of trading that the player has achieved, and there are functions which allow players to post in Parliamentary buildings, allow players to buy and sell houses and shops, and some which just show past experience. On the right is an image showing most of the functions and statuses which can be achieved.

[edit] History

The idea for Miniconomy came in October of 2001 when then computer science student Wouter Leenards started thinking about making a realistic trading simulation game. Together with his brother, Mark Leenards, he further developed the plan, and eventually created Miniconomy.

Supported by Mark and some friends, he developed the idea further. Mark, being a business administration student, focused on the economic aspects of the game, whereas Wouter did the programming. The result is a unique online game for everybody who is interested in trading, economics and games. The advantage of Miniconomy is that it can be played on your browser, so with any internet connection; at home, in the office, at school or at a friend's house. The first public round of Miniconomy started on January 1st 2002.

The original idea, a game where economy is simulated, sprung from a combination of imagination and the strengths of other well known game concepts. In most games, however, trading and all its characteristics is not the key. In Miniconomy the trading is the key, and therefore has realistic situations. Monopolies, price fixing, shortage, threats, robbery and abuse of power occur. Nowadays there is even a political and social structure developed by the players that keeps the players together.

The first rounds were beta testing where bugs were found and loopholes were used to create imbalance in the game. However during this time, the game grew exponentially, reaching 2000 active players and 5000 activated accounts within the first 4 months. The fact that the game grew so quickly and that server costs were rising to facilitate the bandwidth for this increase in players, something needed to be thought of to make sure that the game wasn’t making big losses. To do this, a Premium Member system was developed. The benefits of this were at this time: a daily salary, entry to the Casino, the ability to post smiley’s and use color codes on the forums, the ability to start political parties, and the ability to start companies that could build harbors and banks.

At this time the brothers were frequently approached to think of a way to apply the game in the school system, and so the brothers applied for different grants that existed for funding the creation of education systems. It wasn’t until they got the Digitale Pioneers grant, a temporary action program that is meant for innovative grass-root Internet initiatives. This fund gives financial and organizational support to small-scale grass root content communities that realize innovative projects in the public domain on the Internet[2], that they were able to make the Educational Manager, which allowed teachers to monitor the actions of students and give them the tools needed to accurately grade them.

In November of 2005, Miniconomy decided to start actively targeting the international markets. To do this an international country was made inside the game where the official language was English and a complete translation of the game was made into English by a volunteer. The country has been growing, with besides a large number of Dutch players, also reaching 150 active players from the United States at the end of round 49 in January of 2008.[3]

[edit] Community

Miniconomy has a very strong and tight community. Although not all players are socially active, some activities do promote activity between players. The easiest way to sell products for example is through the buildup of network of frequent clients. Although most communication informal communication takes place through the chat and through MSN, there are some other in-game forms of communication.

[edit] Clubs

Clubs are the forums in Miniconomy. Different sub forums are available after someone builds a club and the players joins it. All club owners are automatically administrator of the club, and have the ability to appoint three moderators. Politics and game announcements also take place through clubs, and it is the preferred way of communication in Miniconomy. The possibility of private clubs, protected by a password, also allow for political parties, newspaper publishers, and volunteers to chat within the game without having to resort to outside communication tools.

[edit] Newspapers

Miniconomy has one official newspaper, the Miniconomist which publishes every Wednesday or Thursday in Dutch and English. Besides this newspaper, which has a rotation editor-in-chief system, there are also other newspapers, created by players themselves. All the newspapers can be found by going to the kiosk in Miniconomy.[4]

[edit] Parliament Forum

In the week between rounds, this is the official place to hang around and chat. This is however also the place that people apply for positions for the Cyberian political system. The appointment of the President and Vice-President usually takes place here, and a good indication is made of which candidates have the best chance of getting elected as Ministers.

[edit] Meetings

Once every 3 months or so there is a Miniconomy Meeting. At the moment only Dutch and Belgian players organize these kinds of meetings, of which there have been about 15 now, where the last one took place in Tilburg in April of 2008, Turnout usually ranges from 10 to 20 players who come from all over the two countries, and in cases have to travel 5 hours to get there.

[edit] Administrative Staff and Volunteers

There are five different administrative and volunteer functions, these are:

Federals and Wouter – These are the game masters and the development team of Miniconomy. Central Bureau of Investigation agent (CBI) – This is the anti-cheat team of Miniconomy. They check all financial transactions to make sure no one breaks the game rules. Assistant – These are the administrators of the in-game chat. They also help new players with the game since they are easily recognizable on the chat. Recruiter – Recruiters are part of a group of volunteers who look into recruiting new players and how to make their arrival as easy as possible. Expert – These volunteers each have an area of specialty for which players can request more information about. Veteran – A group of experienced players that work as an advisory team for the Federals and Wouter.

[edit] Geographic distribution

Due to the launch of the game in the Netherlands, and that the game has only been introduced in English 2 years ago, leads to the fact that there is a large number of European players compared to those on other continents. The Netherlands and Belgium are the nations with the highest number of players, but in recent times, player totals in North America and Oceania have doubled.

[edit] Miniconomy in the classroom

[edit] Educational Manager

In 2005 the Educational Manager was created, which allows teachers to follow every step of their students’ progress within the game. 18 schools have participated since then [5], with positive feedback. At the moment is only possible for Dutch schools to use this feature, but the English translations of the Educational Manager are in full progress and the possibility for the use of Miniconomy in the classroom using the English language are expected to be ready after the summer of 2008. The age groups where Miniconomy matches the curriculum are between 12 and 20, due to the general developments that students get in the field of language, economics, communication, and politics. For more information check the Miniconomy homepage.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ List of registered players in Miniconomy
  2. ^ Program Digitale Pioneers
  3. ^ History of Miniconomy
  4. ^ Newspapers, websites, forums and articles about Miniconomy
  5. ^ School participation in Miniconomy

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Languages