Business Games to Play

Virtual Stock Exchange

• The Virtual Stock Exchange may be the most realistic stock market game ever created. Players have the option of joining existing games, starting a game of their own, or simply creating a personal stock portfolio and playing alone. The money used in the game is imaginary, but the stocks, bonds and commodities that are traded are taken from the world's leading financial markets, and trades are completed in real time, relying on actual market fluctuations on real stocks. VSE is more than a stock-trading game; it is a wonderful test-bed to find out how well you could do with real stocks in the Wall Street environment. VSE is sponsored by MarketWatch, a premiere site for stock information and research.

Lemonade Stand

• In Lemonade Stand, players have 30 days to turn a simple sidewalk lemonade stand into a thriving business. Pick a location, check the weather forecast, and buy your supplies--then hope nothing happens to cause your hard work to go to waste. Variations of this game are available online, or may be purchased through commercial or shareware networks.

Gazillionaire

• Gazillionaire is the newest and most popular incarnation of the original space trading games written for personal computers. Players equip their own space freighter and set off across the cosmos in search of rare commodities that can be traded for high profits. In this game, success can be be severely affected by random occurrences or unexpected encounters with computer players, including shady backroom deals, underworld organizations and black-market trading.

Social Network Games

• Social networking sites such as FaceBook are an excellent source of free business management games. Farmville requires players to manage time, money and resources in order to manage a profitable farm. Other FaceBook games include the Hotel Management Game, where players try to build an empire based on hotel management, and Diner City, in which the player attempts to build a successful restaurant chain.

Sim Games

• Many simulation games are business management games in disguise. Sim City is the one that started it all, and challenges players to build a successful urban development. Other business management simulations include Railroad Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon and Real Estate Tycoon.