Some feedback on the stock market

[blueberryboy]

Hi

As an old Capitalism veteran and a background in finance here are my few cents re stock market in capitalsim lab:

Corporate governance

1) Corporate governance is the biggest weak point in the game. Stock issues should always be accepted by shareholders, in real life there would be a shareholder meeting, where the shareholders agrees, that the company may issue shares. In the game it is the CEO who decides alone that there would be a stock issue.. in real life if the CEO would make alone such a decision he would be an ex-ceo and living in jail.

2) I think it should be the chairmans duty to decide the dividend policy (this is actually something which is in real life decided on the shareholder's meeting). A CEO cannot alone decide the dividend policy, or if he would he would again be be an ex-CEO living in jail.

3) The amount of loan lifted should also be the chairman's duty. In real life it is the board's duty to make such strategic decisions as how much extra cash the company should have and how its financed. In the game if the chairman takes a 100M loan (for instance as a cash buffer in crisis for the losses) the CEO should not pay it back immediately only to find that in few months there is no loan limit and no cash..

In other words the chairman of the board should have a lot of more power, because the board is the boss of the CEO and it is the board who can fire or recruit a new CEO.

Some other comments re the stock market

4) I don't quite understand the 1M stock limit, which is the minimum amount of shares that must be issued, it seems artificial. Why is it there? It just take some time to dillute there shares so I can fully own my company (yes, I don't like freeriders.. ). There should be an easy way to make your own company private I think.. now it seems to be impossible to start with a privately held company, even if that is how companies usually starts..

5) When buying back from the public the share price doesn't rise? On real markets it doesn't matter who the buyer is, if someone buys 5% from the market the shareprice would rise, would it be the company itself or an investor.

6) Why can't I buy back shares in companies my company controls directly? In the game this can be circumvented by buying an another company as a "holding company" and the companies the holding company holds can normally buy back shares. There is nothing illegal in buying back shares in real life either (ok, buy buying back shares the company may not impact the shareprice). What is illegal in real life is, that the company would buy back shares from a major shareholder for a higher market price without offering the same price to others. Tender offers would be a really nice feature (I.e. the player could select a price for which the company buys back shares and the max amount.. and after a time there would be a lump sum and the shares are bought back from everyone who has accepted the term offer on equal terms).

Some other notes
The UI is another the weak point, the macroeconomic simulation is very impressive and there is a lot of detailed data. The current UI is not that intuitive and it is very hard to filter the information. For instance when starting the game I see it quite hard to find the market I should start my business with. It would be easier if I could sort for instance in the products -report which products have the lowest quality in each market..

I understand that a simulation is never a full description of the real life, but there are usually some reason why the rules are as they are..
Keep up the good work, even though my criticism Capitalism is my favorite game Im really tired of all those third-person shooters and war strategy games, where the only new things are more impressive graphics.. graphics should NEVER be the key point in strategy game, but naturally a good UI and nice decorations are always nice, but too much decoration might make the game uninuitative and hard to grasp.. things are usually best kept simple and that is why i still prefer capitalism plus to capitalism 2

[Esoteric Rogue]

Hi

Hi! Yea, the CEO acts like the chairman. As long as I'm the majority shareholder I don't care what you call me, I'll do what I want.

I can't comment much on the stock regulations, because I lack experience since almost all my old Cap 2 games were with stock off because was too easy to only play the stock market. Seems much better now, stronger AI, fewer exploits.

Eh, I don't think you'll get far with only $1mil without an IPO. I think that extra 10 or 100 mil really helps especially with the land prices these days!

Where to start is the mystery behind every game, for me. But I usually minimize imports, so they don't affect my choices, and we have expertise now, so I usually just head for my indicated industry, if I can. Beyond that, for a new game, the competitive corporations are just starting out too, so we practically have our pick.

But for scenarios and challenge games -- that is, games which we join after it's begun -- it sure can be a hassle, but as I indicated, for me, that's what makes that challenge unique. Once you find the weakness of a scenario, there's not much replayability, so I rather relish the time researching.

Anyhow, more tools are always appreciated. (Like I just posted my utility so that when I start a new scenario I can punch in the available materials and decide which product or 2 will be best for me to manufacture. Saves me alot of notebook paper and flipping through the manufactures guide.)

Have fun!

EDIT

i still prefer capitalism plus to capitalism 2

I just noticed you said that! I like Cap+ much better than Cap2 lotsa improvesments with the 4.0 patch tho! I hope for more.

[azxcvbnm321]

I also have a finance background so I understand what you posted.

1) In many companies and especially companies with a majority shareholder, the CEO and Chairman positions are taken by the same person. I know the regulators and a lot of advocates want firms to separate the two positions so that one person doesn't have so much power, but right now it's not illegal and still quite common. Since you begin the game as 50% and largest shareholder, it's quite reasonable for you to be chairman of the board.

2) True the Board decides dividend policy, but there's no reason to add that layer of complexity to this game because it wouldn't add to the fun/gameplay. As majority shareholder and chairman, it's reasonable for you to decide the dividend policy and when to implement buybacks.

3) Are you talking about times when you are chairman but have given the CEO position to the AI? If so then what you say makes sense, but I would put this feature low on the priority list for the developers as it adds only a marginal benefit to playability/fun.

4) A lot of people have asked for this feature, to start the game as 100% owner or choose the level. I also try and become 100% owner or as close as possible, even borrowing money from banks to buyback shares.

5) There seems to be some sort of bug. I've noticed that sometimes the price rises and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't usually happens right at the beginning of the game with game paused.

6) I've been able to buyback shares in companies my company controls 50%.

7) Yeah, some of the UI could use improvement. For example I would like an easier way to find out how many of my retail stores are selling a particular item like Leather Bags in each city. Sometimes I have 3 stores selling one item in one city, but only 1 store selling that same item in another. Right now I have to item summary and click through cities. Some more financial detail for farms and real estate buildings would be nice too. Right now there's only a lifetime profit graph or figure, perhaps a 12 month revenue figure. Finding which products are not currently being sold by AI is also a pain as you stated.

[Esoteric Rogue]

1), 2), 3): there's no reason to add that layer of complexity to this game because it wouldn't add to the fun/gameplay.

Well said.

For example I would like an easier way to find out how many of my retail stores are selling a particular item like Leather Bags in each city. Sometimes I have 3 stores selling one item in one city, but only 1 store selling that same item in another.

Using that example, I do find it convenient to use the minimap-filters. Set "all cities", "my firms", "retail", and "leather bags", the display will update to "4", then just space, space, space, space, to cycle through all of your leather bag retails in the world. I think it's "quite" convenient, as in about as convenient as it can be... although I suppose there could be more various product data crammed in the firm display.

Maybe would be nice if the Product / Product Details windows had a complete set of filters. [Edit to delete digression.]

[azxcvbnm321]

Yeah, with enough clicks I can do/find what I need. It's easy for us to come up with ideas to improve the interface and the game, but implementing it is the big challenge. Most often, how ideas are implemented into gameplay makes the difference between a great game and an unplayable game. I'm very impressed that Capitalism has gotten so many things right even if there are things that can be improved, there is always room for improvement.

[Esoteric Rogue]

4) A lot of people have asked for this feature, to start the game as 100% owner or choose the level. I also try and become 100% owner or as close as possible, even borrowing money from banks to buyback shares.

I don't remember seeing a poll on the subject; you should make one.

[David]

7) Yeah, some of the UI could use improvement. For example I would like an easier way to find out how many of my retail stores are selling a particular item like Leather Bags in each city. Sometimes I have 3 stores selling one item in one city, but only 1 store selling that same item in another. Right now I have to item summary and click through cities. Some more financial detail for farms and real estate buildings would be nice too. Right now there's only a lifetime profit graph or figure, perhaps a 12 month revenue figure. Finding which products are not currently being sold by AI is also a pain as you stated.

Have you tried using the Product Detail Report? You can double-click on a product in the firm view (e.g. retail store/factory product images) to go to the Product detail report.