Gazillionare

While researching simulation games, I found the game Gazillionaire. It is a "fantasy business simulation game" that takes place in space. Gazillionaire is a fun, complex game that allows players to apply economic concepts they have learned.

Game: Gazillionare

Publisher: Lavasoft

Game Summary:  In Gazillionaire players play as the owner of an intergallactic trading company. Your mission is to be the first to earn $5,000,000.  Players can earn money by buying and selling goods on different planets, taking passengers, by investing in the stock market and more. On the flip side, they also have expenses such as perchasing a ship, fuel, and paying crew members. You even have to pay taxes! There are 6 different levels starting from tutorial to master and you can play alone or with up to 6 players. You start out the game by naming your company and purchasing your ship. Mr. Zinn lends you the money you need. All players start off  with a negative networth. Each week counts as a turn. The week changes when you move from one planet to the next.

Educational Value: I think this game would be good for middle school or high school students and beyond. Even though it takes place in a fantasy world, the economic concepts presented are applicable to real life. While I am an elementary school teacher, I could see using this as an exploration activity within a social studies (or economics) classroom. I would definitely have a discussion about how these concepts are used within the real world and have students do a follow-up describing their strategies and why to show what they've learned.

Opinion:  This game is addicting and surprisingly intricate. The creators went as far to even create histories for each planet.  There are several strategies players can use to make money, which invokes creativity and problem solving. The tutorial is fabulous! It takes you step by step, adding features to the game one by one at your pace. The only downfall is that you only get 20 turns free. You can then purchase the game for $2.00/mo., $9.99/6 mo. or 14.99/year. For classroom purposes, I think the 20 turns is enough- students get to experience all of the features. Even if the entire game was free, there probably would not be enough classroom time to finish the whole game.

Overall, both my husband and I enjoyed playing this game. In fact we paid the $2.99 for the opportunity to play the whole game!