**3. Selection of the game parameters**

In recent years, much debate has taken place about the classification framework for businesssimulation games designed for teaching and training purposes [34]. In fact, many teachers or tutors who are using business games as an educational tool for teaching business knowledge or skills often need to make a pre-view or assessment of the game in order to determinate whether the game will accomplish or fulfil their learning objects/goals. Since most of the educational games require constant interaction, teachers need to select the game carefully, as an appropriate training tool with properties that meet their curriculum targets.

Since the first adoption of business games, their classifications have been constantly changing due to the changeable forms and origins of business games, as well as with technology development. One of the first classifications in terms of the design characteristics was intro‐ duced by Elion [35] and Greenlaw [36] (total enterprise or functional, interacting or noninteracting, computer or non-computer) and according to their accepted use, e.g., either

Many of these early, hand-scored business games did not make the transition to the era of the desktop computer. Instead, new, computer-based, business-simulation games appeared at the start of the new digital era [37]. Important work in this area was conducted by Keys and Wolfe [26] in their attempt to classify computerised, business management simulations. They produced an overview of business games based on the Greenlaw taxonomy [36]. However, an important finding in this work was the multi-dimensional character of business games and the possibility to classify them in a number of ways. Later, many authors were trying to classify business simulation games according to their content environment and their educational goals. For example, Wolfe [38] established his classification of business simulation games using three main fields of application:

games that users are playing by themselves once they have downloaded the game and installed on their computer (often described as desktop-based), and the multi-player business simula‐ tions that players play online with others once they have downloaded the game. These business simulation games are the most intricate, well designed and engaging. To manage and to play this kind of business simulation games, the following must be done. The game has to be downloaded (with the purchased license, if the game is commercial type) to the user's computer and afterwards an installation must be done. Once the user has the game installed on his/her computer, the playing is enabled. While user's computer is connected to the game's serves online, the multi-player environment is created by other users and amazingly, there can be over 100,000 users or more playing one of these popular business simulation games at a given time, each of whom is running the game they downloaded on their computer with a

In some cases when players want to play a massive multi-player business simulation game that requires to be downloaded and installed, they are usually asked to set up a profile at the game's website first, before they download the game. When the game connects to the game's site for the first time after it was installed, the software recognises the user's computer and the game is ready to be played. However, not all business simulation games are available for download; they can also be available only in a form of CD-ROME or DVD format accompanied

The proliferation of accessible business simulation games has enabled the educators to be capable to set up and conduct business simulation exercises easily and on almost on no cost. Student access to the Internet is pervasive, which makes the administration of the business simulation games to be easy. In addition to the technical advantages offered by the Internet-based simulation games, students are in the same time accustomed to commu‐ nicate and to play on the Internet. They interact within the social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn. They play MMOG (Massive multi-player real-time online games). Among them, the well-known World of Warcraft (www.worldofwarcraft.com) is very popular. Faira has found that the students expect and prefer computerised simulations

In recent years, much debate has taken place about the classification framework for businesssimulation games designed for teaching and training purposes [34]. In fact, many teachers or tutors who are using business games as an educational tool for teaching business knowledge or skills often need to make a pre-view or assessment of the game in order to determinate whether the game will accomplish or fulfil their learning objects/goals. Since most of the educational games require constant interaction, teachers need to select the game carefully, as

Since the first adoption of business games, their classifications have been constantly changing due to the changeable forms and origins of business games, as well as with technology

an appropriate training tool with properties that meet their curriculum targets.

connection to the central game servers [33].

232 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

with an installation guide and game tutorial.

games to be administered in this fashion [15].

**3. Selection of the game parameters**

**•** Concept simulation games

This chapter uses the classification of business simulation games as described by Jerman [39], based on Keys' [26] and Biggs's [40] classification of business simulation games. The classifi‐ cation properties are presented in two major groups. The first group – **the technical classifi‐ cation** – presents the properties derived from the technical data that describe the business simulation game and the second group – **the usability classification** – presents the variety of dimensions that describes the types of the usability characteristics important in the training and education process. All properties are described in the following sections and have been used in the Table 1 [39].

#### **Technical Properties**

The technical properties are defined by the following technical dimensions:

#### **Usability Properties**

#### **3.1. Selection of business simulation games for the assessment**

The list of business simulation games that can be found on Internet is countless. Wikipedia [24] provides a list of several hundred business games ordered in alphabetical and chronological order. The problem of this list is the fact that they are considered to be more entertainmentoriented than edutainment and as a consequence, their use as a learning tool is questionable. The classification as the group of educational business simulation games requires much more. The game has to be realistic, engaging, motivating, popular and user-friendly and with clear educational objective [39].

The selection of business simulation games analysed in this contribution was based on a review of business-game-related articles that address educational problems and issues related to particular business simulation games. The selection was influenced by the results of two projects: the COSIGA project and GALA project (http://www.elios.dibe.unige.it/gala). Two other authors [32] have listed another selection of 39 serious games that address educational topics such as finance, management, product management, industry management, leadership, etc. The revision of the mentioned lists enabled the selection of games that can be considered as representatives by their popularity and by the topic addressed (considered as important in the area of management education as well as in politics). Once the selection was completed, our research team started to play them and started to improve the results of assessments. The following games have been selected.

### *3.1.1. eRepublik*

**• Label:** The name of development team.

234 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

with those made in other areas of a firm

upgrade level or summary reports.

strategic management, finance.

educational objective [39].

recommended in order to play a game.

**• Briefing systems:** The level and usability of briefing screen.

**Usability Properties**

replicated.

complexity.

participants or not.

elements.

**• Single/multi-user:** Whether the game can be played by one or many players.

**• Industry-specific or generic:** In industry-specific game, the authors attempt to replicate closely the actual industry. In generic games, only general business relationships are

**• Degree of complexity:** Game decision input variable complexity, or the computer model

**• Functional or total enterprise:** Designed to focus specifically on problems of decisionmaking as seen in one functional area or designed to give participants experience in making decisions at a top executive level and in which decisions from one functional area interact

**• Competitive or non-competitive:** Whether the decisions or participants influence the other

**• Feedback system:** Whether the results are shown by gained scores, experience points,

**• Deterministic or stochastic:** The stochastic alternative is probabilistic, including chance of

**• Learning objectives:** Types of learning skills that can be obtained, e.g., business strategy/

**• Background knowledge:** Whether a basic/advanced or none business knowledge is

**• Interactivity type:** In an interactive game, participants respond to the questions at the computer, receive an immediate response and then submit additional decisions. In a non-

The list of business simulation games that can be found on Internet is countless. Wikipedia [24] provides a list of several hundred business games ordered in alphabetical and chronological order. The problem of this list is the fact that they are considered to be more entertainmentoriented than edutainment and as a consequence, their use as a learning tool is questionable. The classification as the group of educational business simulation games requires much more. The game has to be realistic, engaging, motivating, popular and user-friendly and with clear

interactive game, decisions are submitted to the game administrator.

**3.1. Selection of business simulation games for the assessment**

**• Dimension:** Whether the game is present in 2D/3D environment.

**• The time period simulated:** For example, day/week/quarter/year.

eRepublik (www.erepublik.com) is considered as a massively multi-player online strategic game that combines social networking elements (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). It was developed by Republik Labs. Launched in October 2008, the game is currently translated into 18 lan‐ guages. The game itself is a free-to-play web-based game, which means it can be played absolutely for free via the Internet (the registration is required), and it runs in most modern Internet browsers. It was developed and programmed using PHP program language and Symphony framework. eRepublik has spawned a number of similar games due to commercial success.

The game is set up in a mirror world called the New World. The players take the role of citizens where they can participate in daily activities. As the citizens of the New World, they can choose which country they wish to join. Each country is named after an actual country in the real world, and is generally located similarly according to the real world. The player who has German nationality will probably join to Germany, and Italian to Italy, etc. After joining to their desired country, players can act as employees, where they can own a business, run a factory, start a political activity, form a political party, write newspaper articles, run for the president, become members of Congress or country presidents, where they can help formulate national economic and social policies as well as initiating wars with their neighbors (as a virtual version of real-life countries) and/or tread the path of a private citizen working, fighting and voting for their state. In the beginning of the game, each player has to seek for an employment at a company within the country he has joined that will provide him with monthly salary and daily needs. While becoming an employee, he/she is offered the opportunity to be trained as a soldier for his/her country. Training and working at a company are done on a daily basis. The game has an official eRepublik wiki (wiki.erepublik.com) and official blog (blog.erepu‐ blik.com) where players can obtain all the information that may help them to get deeply involved into the game of eRepublik.

To begin a game, each player can get the mentor (or watch video tutorial), who guides him/her through introduction of eRepublik and provides an explanation of the basics of the game. The game consists of four modules: My Land, Politics Module, War Module and News Module. In My Land, a player has a patch of land where they can construct various buildings (farms, factories, storages, etc.) that can be constructed with a local currency or gold. The effectiveness of economy buildings depends on the natural resources which nation (country) has. In Politics module, a player can join a party, when they reach a certain level. If his/her political party or party campaign become successful, he/she can take the higher role such as a congress member or a president of the nation he/she belongs to. On the fifth of every month, eRepublik holds presidential elections, on the fifteenth the congressional elections. All activities that are connected to the warfare systems are situated in the War Module. When the president or the congress of the country proposes a Natural enemy law, a war on other countries can be declared. Players are able to train as a soldier and be ranked up in the military by fighting battles or go to war when he/she signs up to army of his/her country. Wars are taking potentially essential role by increasing the economic or political power of the country. A nation that has experienced and battle hardened citizens can become a global power and grow global economy business.

The role-play of the world of eRepublik consists of combining the capabilities of the above modules to reach goals and become leader in one or more domains. Using newspapers in the News Module, they can share their political ideas and changing and shaping the directions of political system and beliefs. The congress of a country sets taxes to enforce economic policies. To wage successful wars, the economy of a country has to sustain it and citizens have to be motivated.

Regarding the graphics, the game has no advanced or attractive graphical interface. It is created with merely few visual elements and is primarily text-based in nature, yet overall the game is nicely illustrated. The game also has a sleek interface, so it is very easy to find what you are looking for.

The eRepublik is aiming to do the best to reflect the nature of 21st century business/political world and 21st century life in general. The player will not learn the all expected business "know-how" abilities and processes as the time allowed for playing is limited (the game can be played from 10 minutes (14 minutes equals one day in eRepublik world) up to 15 minutes per day). The nature of the business in the game is politically oriented.

The workflow functionality of the game is a basic simple click-to-do, but it provides a great source of income for a player. Regular "working" increases players' experience level, and the higher level you are, the more things you can do. The game requires a "long-term" regular playing where players embrace the full role of managers and politicians. The main problem that can be noticed is lack of specific situated business or business-project tasks that could be potentially involved.

On the other hand, the game of eRepublik provides some interesting psychology aspects. One nation can be in favor with the real life being either political or economic situation in the New World. Just for example, in the real world, Slovenia and Croatia are negotiating for years about Adriatic open-sea border agreement, which is causing potential political and economic tension between them. The potential players that were solving this problem can simply declare the war and take over the other country through military invasion or economical destruction of the weaker country.

Overall, eRepublik is a strong multi-player simulator from the current world, based on a website and textual elements with a search enabling easy navigation, well reflecting the real world where citizens of different countries interact.

**Figure 1.** eRepublik (A screenshot of eRepublik game, showing the current war between the Republic of Macedonia and Italy)

#### *3.1.2. Virtonomics*

(farms, factories, storages, etc.) that can be constructed with a local currency or gold. The effectiveness of economy buildings depends on the natural resources which nation (country) has. In Politics module, a player can join a party, when they reach a certain level. If his/her political party or party campaign become successful, he/she can take the higher role such as a congress member or a president of the nation he/she belongs to. On the fifth of every month, eRepublik holds presidential elections, on the fifteenth the congressional elections. All activities that are connected to the warfare systems are situated in the War Module. When the president or the congress of the country proposes a Natural enemy law, a war on other countries can be declared. Players are able to train as a soldier and be ranked up in the military by fighting battles or go to war when he/she signs up to army of his/her country. Wars are taking potentially essential role by increasing the economic or political power of the country. A nation that has experienced and battle hardened citizens can become a global power and

The role-play of the world of eRepublik consists of combining the capabilities of the above modules to reach goals and become leader in one or more domains. Using newspapers in the News Module, they can share their political ideas and changing and shaping the directions of political system and beliefs. The congress of a country sets taxes to enforce economic policies. To wage successful wars, the economy of a country has to sustain it and citizens have to be

Regarding the graphics, the game has no advanced or attractive graphical interface. It is created with merely few visual elements and is primarily text-based in nature, yet overall the game is nicely illustrated. The game also has a sleek interface, so it is very easy to find what you are

The eRepublik is aiming to do the best to reflect the nature of 21st century business/political world and 21st century life in general. The player will not learn the all expected business "know-how" abilities and processes as the time allowed for playing is limited (the game can be played from 10 minutes (14 minutes equals one day in eRepublik world) up to 15 minutes

The workflow functionality of the game is a basic simple click-to-do, but it provides a great source of income for a player. Regular "working" increases players' experience level, and the higher level you are, the more things you can do. The game requires a "long-term" regular playing where players embrace the full role of managers and politicians. The main problem that can be noticed is lack of specific situated business or business-project tasks that could be

On the other hand, the game of eRepublik provides some interesting psychology aspects. One nation can be in favor with the real life being either political or economic situation in the New World. Just for example, in the real world, Slovenia and Croatia are negotiating for years about Adriatic open-sea border agreement, which is causing potential political and economic tension between them. The potential players that were solving this problem can simply declare the war and take over the other country through military invasion or economical destruction of

per day). The nature of the business in the game is politically oriented.

grow global economy business.

236 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

motivated.

looking for.

potentially involved.

the weaker country.

Virtonomics is another business-strategy-oriented online (web browser) game, played as a MMOG game where basics of management are tested. It is an Internet game with massive players, which reflects wild range of interests. It has been developed by Russian developers, and it was launched by Virtonomics team in May 2009. For 3 years of its existence, the project managed to join more than 400.000 users in Russia, Ukraine Germany, Belorussia, Kazakhstan, Baltic States and other regions (Wikipedia, 2013). It is designed for fans of the economic and strategic games, and to study the basics of management. The game itself requires an under‐ standing of laws of real-life economy, business and finance, yet players do not need a deeper understanding of economics or any special background education for taking part in this game. The game is helpful in meeting interesting people with common interests and making useful connections (Jerman Blazic & Arh, 2013). The game can be presented as a unique business community where participants can find new business partners and potential employers. Economic experts can find Virtonomics as an inexhaustible source of useful observations and a place where they can try different business strategies. Virtonomics is versatile. It combines logical and business gaming, real economy simulation and economics strategy. This is a game where player's knowledge and efforts are the source of real income. There are a few fields of economy represented in the game, which has more than 100 different products. New countries and manufacturing sectors are being introduced as well as products and productions. The main purpose and aim is managing a company, where a player has to compete with artificial intelligence agents as well as with other players participating in the game realms from all over the world. Currently, there are 700,000 registered users (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virto‐ nomics), (Virtonomics is translated to English, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese and French and more). It is integrated with popular social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.). From all over the world, players can cooperate, compete, form a partnership and have price wars for the products which they sell, etc. It is a unique system for business training. All the possible industries of real economy are represented in the game: agriculture, mining, retail trade, scientific research and others. Each player is free to choose his own strategy: whether to build a complex holding and participate in several market competitions or to carve an individual and original way.

When starting a game, a player can choose and participate in the game realms where he/she will run his/her successful business. Currently, the game has five realms – Vera (Russia), Olga (Russia), Mary (English, France), Lien (English, Canada) and Anna (English, France, Canada, Russia). Each realm has its current characteristic: number of current companies involved the turnover value, technology level and the countries that are participating in the game realm. Dynamic movement is tested, when slowing down with the business, the chances of bank‐ ruptcy is increasing. Quick decisions are player's key to success. For those who like everything exclusive and equal game opportunities, there is a separate game world (the Anna Realm) functioning according to the principles of a subscription model (free of charge for 10 days, after that subscription starts from 8.25\$ per month). All achievements depend on the player's capability of planning, thinking and implementing. The fight for survival begins in the very first moment when the player registers his/her own company and creates the working office. For beginners, the Virtonomics offers to a player a gift: a company left from "your uncle", with all the needs to start the capital in a full-progress business world. It does not matter which strategy the player will choose (adapting the old business or start a new one), the main goal is to establish and make a profitable and successful business. The opportunity is given to a player to become a tycoon, in order to develop his/her own company, competing with thousands of real components, winning the new markets, providing financial and political power of its corporations. To do this, a player has to engage in trade, manufacturing, research, exploration of natural resources, agriculture, trade in the currency market, manage personnel, finance, marketing, logistics and other business processes. By controlling the corporation, a player must hire and train stuff, establish sales and deliver, monitor the activities of competitors, improve the quality of his/her products, enter into business alliances and more. The game runs on virtual money. Every player receives a sum at the very first registration. This fund is used for the construction of business units, the payment of expenses and investments. Money that is being earned can be used for development of the company. The game can constantly grow. New countries can be created; new industries, new products added and new type of productions can be implementing.

The Virtonomics as any other MMOG game takes place in its own game world as a mirror of the real world. Game world is built from cities, woods, fields and farms. Several cities with similar profit tax are creating a region. Several regions with similar custom duties create a biggest economic unit – a country. All the rules from a real-world business are present, such as the correlation of export and import duties expresses development priorities for each country. The game is turn-based, which means the game can be played without staying online for full time. Visiting website once per day for 30 min makes enough time to completely review the player's business status and challenge of the new tasks. The game is a sort of business simulator, where a regular player can offer to the "serious" players to obtain different specific skills in management, marketing, economic cooperation, business optimisation, finance control, etc.

intelligence agents as well as with other players participating in the game realms from all over the world. Currently, there are 700,000 registered users (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virto‐ nomics), (Virtonomics is translated to English, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese and French and more). It is integrated with popular social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.). From all over the world, players can cooperate, compete, form a partnership and have price wars for the products which they sell, etc. It is a unique system for business training. All the possible industries of real economy are represented in the game: agriculture, mining, retail trade, scientific research and others. Each player is free to choose his own strategy: whether to build a complex holding and participate in several market competitions or to carve an individual

238 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

When starting a game, a player can choose and participate in the game realms where he/she will run his/her successful business. Currently, the game has five realms – Vera (Russia), Olga (Russia), Mary (English, France), Lien (English, Canada) and Anna (English, France, Canada, Russia). Each realm has its current characteristic: number of current companies involved the turnover value, technology level and the countries that are participating in the game realm. Dynamic movement is tested, when slowing down with the business, the chances of bank‐ ruptcy is increasing. Quick decisions are player's key to success. For those who like everything exclusive and equal game opportunities, there is a separate game world (the Anna Realm) functioning according to the principles of a subscription model (free of charge for 10 days, after that subscription starts from 8.25\$ per month). All achievements depend on the player's capability of planning, thinking and implementing. The fight for survival begins in the very first moment when the player registers his/her own company and creates the working office. For beginners, the Virtonomics offers to a player a gift: a company left from "your uncle", with all the needs to start the capital in a full-progress business world. It does not matter which strategy the player will choose (adapting the old business or start a new one), the main goal is to establish and make a profitable and successful business. The opportunity is given to a player to become a tycoon, in order to develop his/her own company, competing with thousands of real components, winning the new markets, providing financial and political power of its corporations. To do this, a player has to engage in trade, manufacturing, research, exploration of natural resources, agriculture, trade in the currency market, manage personnel, finance, marketing, logistics and other business processes. By controlling the corporation, a player must hire and train stuff, establish sales and deliver, monitor the activities of competitors, improve the quality of his/her products, enter into business alliances and more. The game runs on virtual money. Every player receives a sum at the very first registration. This fund is used for the construction of business units, the payment of expenses and investments. Money that is being earned can be used for development of the company. The game can constantly grow. New countries can be created; new industries, new products added and new type of productions

The Virtonomics as any other MMOG game takes place in its own game world as a mirror of the real world. Game world is built from cities, woods, fields and farms. Several cities with similar profit tax are creating a region. Several regions with similar custom duties create a biggest economic unit – a country. All the rules from a real-world business are present, such as the correlation of export and import duties expresses development priorities for each

and original way.

can be implementing.

**Figure 2.** Virtonomics (Screenshot from the online game Virtonomics – player's equipped office).

Graphically, game is very poor. Virtonomics is a strictly text-based game with minor graphic elements. Visually, it looks like a wide complex forum community. The lack of realm maps and city maps is well noticed. The menu bar consists of seven sections: Company, My Office, Markets, Game world, Community, Help and My earnings. Each section has a sub-menu bar. The most activities deal with the first three sections. In the "My office" section, a player can read messages, change the profile, restart a business, monitor the realm, study the reports, manage the paid service, etc. In the "Market" section, a player deals with markets like: Enterprise market, State enterprise market, Franchise market or participate in Enterprise auctions, award auctions, gift shops and deposits.

Virtonomics is not just a web-based online game, it can also be considered as a training system. It might be very useful for the students of business schools and economic colleges, as well as for already graduated managers who want to know more about the economic principles in practice and try themselves in various business situations. There is a market research that needs to be done (study and review reports to begin with), managing the retail and suppliers of products and on the other side, training of staff and pricing the players' purchased goods with reference to existing market's sales (both local suppliers and competitors), qualities and brands of the goods. All this characteristics can refer to the overall review that would describe as the "not-so-user-friendly" web-based business game. Many business schools and universities recommend Virtonimics as a unique business training simulator for modeling various business strategies and tactics, solving business cases, as well as a unique business community where users can find new business partners and potential employers. Economic background knowl‐ edge is well recommended, yet is not necessarily required.

#### *3.1.3. Business Tycoon OnLine*

Business tycoon online (bto.dovogame.com) is an innovative, well-known, massively multiplayer online game that originated in Asia. The game supports thousands of players simulta‐ neously. The game has been developed and launched in 2010 by Dovogame. Playing a Business Tycoon Online (BTO) game is absolutely free of charge with no instillation required. It can be played on almost any computer with Internet connectivity and modern browser supporting Adobe Flash Player 10.0. It is designed as a business simulator where players must rise to the top of the social ladder as industrial tycoons. The players take the role of entrepreneurs who make their way by living in the Liberty City. In the tough business world, a player starts his/her own business and breaks through constant challenges to eventually end with building up a universal corporation or a powerful business empire. BTO comprehends a variety of business items that are being simulated through the game: realistic financial accounting, business interaction, trading and commerce processing, designing empire buildings, and even "shady" business deals and corporate sabotages.

In the very beginning of creating the company in the world of the Liberty city, players can open more than 100 different kinds of stores where their success or failure is in their hands. In addition to opening the stores and running them successfully, the players need to recruit employees and arrange their training. Every day, different kind of business meeting will be required to attend. The performance in the business simulation game will affect the Directors' impressions that players will make. In order to become well-connected socialites of Liberty city and expand the player's network, players are obligated to widen their social circles and interact with other entrepreneurs around them. When faced with fierce market competition, the player is making preparation for any and all challenges that will come on his/her way.

The game itself is played in the strategy-oriented nature where the business decisions and leadership are tested in the direction of the progress of the game. By recruiting smart secretaries brings you benefits where they can help you to improve working efficiency. Each secretary is presented as an attractive female drawn character model, showing what kind of impressions are they giving, and background info about their private life (hobbies, interests). On the other hand, with good leadership skills a player can increase his/her own company's revenue. The objective is creating your very own company in one of four industries (Entertainment industry, Sales industry, Catering industry, Service industry), from a single shop to a major large company with hundreds of employees. In Entertainment industry, a player deals with managing stores like Jazz clubs, arcades, Billiard Halls, while Casinos and Horse Racing courses await entertainment tycoons. The management of Sales industry can be difficult but it is bringing a big payoff. Player's engagement is dealing with open markets, bookshops, gift shops and eventually shopping malls. In Catering industry, the player meets the world of hotel and resorts business. Service industry involves a management of service-related stores such as barbershops, massage paroles and tattoo shops. Depending on which industry a player will choose, he/she will be limited to a handful of stores he/she can open and to each store special benefits are tied to it. For example, if a player chooses Sales industry, he/she will enjoy a 5% production and raw material supply rate increase from the player's factory.

The most activities deal with the first three sections. In the "My office" section, a player can read messages, change the profile, restart a business, monitor the realm, study the reports, manage the paid service, etc. In the "Market" section, a player deals with markets like: Enterprise market, State enterprise market, Franchise market or participate in Enterprise

Virtonomics is not just a web-based online game, it can also be considered as a training system. It might be very useful for the students of business schools and economic colleges, as well as for already graduated managers who want to know more about the economic principles in practice and try themselves in various business situations. There is a market research that needs to be done (study and review reports to begin with), managing the retail and suppliers of products and on the other side, training of staff and pricing the players' purchased goods with reference to existing market's sales (both local suppliers and competitors), qualities and brands of the goods. All this characteristics can refer to the overall review that would describe as the "not-so-user-friendly" web-based business game. Many business schools and universities recommend Virtonimics as a unique business training simulator for modeling various business strategies and tactics, solving business cases, as well as a unique business community where users can find new business partners and potential employers. Economic background knowl‐

Business tycoon online (bto.dovogame.com) is an innovative, well-known, massively multiplayer online game that originated in Asia. The game supports thousands of players simulta‐ neously. The game has been developed and launched in 2010 by Dovogame. Playing a Business Tycoon Online (BTO) game is absolutely free of charge with no instillation required. It can be played on almost any computer with Internet connectivity and modern browser supporting Adobe Flash Player 10.0. It is designed as a business simulator where players must rise to the top of the social ladder as industrial tycoons. The players take the role of entrepreneurs who make their way by living in the Liberty City. In the tough business world, a player starts his/her own business and breaks through constant challenges to eventually end with building up a universal corporation or a powerful business empire. BTO comprehends a variety of business items that are being simulated through the game: realistic financial accounting, business interaction, trading and commerce processing, designing empire buildings, and even

In the very beginning of creating the company in the world of the Liberty city, players can open more than 100 different kinds of stores where their success or failure is in their hands. In addition to opening the stores and running them successfully, the players need to recruit employees and arrange their training. Every day, different kind of business meeting will be required to attend. The performance in the business simulation game will affect the Directors' impressions that players will make. In order to become well-connected socialites of Liberty city and expand the player's network, players are obligated to widen their social circles and interact with other entrepreneurs around them. When faced with fierce market competition, the player is making preparation for any and all challenges that will come on his/her way.

auctions, award auctions, gift shops and deposits.

240 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

edge is well recommended, yet is not necessarily required.

"shady" business deals and corporate sabotages.

*3.1.3. Business Tycoon OnLine*

By gaining more experience and success, the player receives level points and rewards. Being a successful businessman in Liberty City will not bring the participant to play an easy task, it will certainly involve him in managing store fronts, factories, and training employees, building relationships with the media and with the local government. Media system takes also an important role to evolve the player's business strategy. Through media (newspapers, TV, radio, Internet), a player can publish comments to promote their companies or to attack the competitors.

BTO is structured to be a real business-oriented web-based game with involving a building aspect that makes it also a construction and management simulations. As in most of those games, players start with an "easy-to-use" tutorial system, which guides them to the general features and game-play mechanics the players will need to become familiar with. In the meantime, investors are also playing a big role during the game where they provide you a series of missions to walk you through step-by-step. Each mission accomplished is not just one step closer to establishing a business empire, but also a position where a player gets some good treats, such as money and gold, which plays a major part in the game.

Overall, the game does not require economic or business background knowledge, but is very well welcomed. It is easy to play where lots of "real-life" plot twists and interesting spins on traditional business simulators are presented.

Graphically, the game seems to do a good work in comparison to other web-based strategy games or simulations. Yet, the menu system has a little to many features which can make players confused at the very beginning, and the "web-design" gives the impression of "online poker portal". In order to really enjoy the game, some studying, spending money and learning "how to be patient" and "forgiving" will be required. But as a feedback, BTO gives to the player a variety of directions how to obtain some good strategy skills and management-decision processes that can be mirrored to the "real-life" world.

**Figure 3.** Business Tycoon OnLine (Screenshot of BTO users interface)

#### *3.1.4. INNOV8 2.0*

The INNOV8 is a serious game which was developed by IBM as part of their Academic Initiative programme. It is based as a role-playing game that simulates business process management in a 3D environment. The IBM SOA (self-oriented architecture) team originally created the game to help educate potential SOA clients. The initial version was only open to the academic community and has been in use at over a 1,000 universities and colleges (as far and wide as Beijing and Manchester) since its launch in 2007 [39]. The 2.0 version was released on May 2009 and has two extra scenarios – smarter supply chain and smarter traffic – in addition to the original customer service track. The original scenario of the game deals with a call centre where the players are using the call centre environment to develop more efficient ways to respond to customers. In each of these three scenarios, a player's goal is to model a new business process in order to come up with solutions that improve the efficiency. Online version of the game is also available and is open to the public.

The game employs a first-person role-playing approach where the player assumes the role of a consultant within a company that is experiencing challenges. The player is given a goal which he/she must achieve in order to successfully complete the game. The goal is to re-engineer a call centre process for the company in order to make it more efficient and effective. In order to achieve this goal, the player has to complete certain tasks which evolve as the game progresses. The game starts on the very first moment when a player takes the role of a female virtual character that has been hired by After Incorporate Company. A players' mission is to invest a critical process from the inside of organisation that deals with the customer service. The goal is clear: improve customer service and maximise profits while running a call centre. A player uses drag-and-drop graphics to advance through the game. Since main parts of the game are taking place in 3D environment, the game gives the very impressions of the "firstperson-shooter"-like game play.

While different tasks are completed, the game tries to "force" the players to make decisions as they seek more efficient ways to manage a call centre and respond to customers. When the business meeting takes place, a player has to play with different variables of business modeling and see how player's changes vary the outcome, preparing them for the day they need to make real decisions.

This game focuses on the experience that is gathered by the individuals who are starting to learn about business project management and processing of the information and decisions. There are three levels to Innov8 2.0: process discovery and process modeling, collaborationdriven simulation and iterative process improvement, and real-time business management. INNOV8 2.0 gives players also the option to collaborate to map out business processes, identify process bottlenecks and explore what-if scenarios. Some parts of the game, which even has virtual characters in a shape of heroes and villains, use "Second Life-like" graphics.

**Figure 4.** IBM innov8 (a screenshot of 3D environment of Innov8 game)

**Figure 3.** Business Tycoon OnLine (Screenshot of BTO users interface)

242 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

version of the game is also available and is open to the public.

The INNOV8 is a serious game which was developed by IBM as part of their Academic Initiative programme. It is based as a role-playing game that simulates business process management in a 3D environment. The IBM SOA (self-oriented architecture) team originally created the game to help educate potential SOA clients. The initial version was only open to the academic community and has been in use at over a 1,000 universities and colleges (as far and wide as Beijing and Manchester) since its launch in 2007 [39]. The 2.0 version was released on May 2009 and has two extra scenarios – smarter supply chain and smarter traffic – in addition to the original customer service track. The original scenario of the game deals with a call centre where the players are using the call centre environment to develop more efficient ways to respond to customers. In each of these three scenarios, a player's goal is to model a new business process in order to come up with solutions that improve the efficiency. Online

The game employs a first-person role-playing approach where the player assumes the role of a consultant within a company that is experiencing challenges. The player is given a goal which he/she must achieve in order to successfully complete the game. The goal is to re-engineer a call centre process for the company in order to make it more efficient and effective. In order to achieve this goal, the player has to complete certain tasks which evolve as the game

*3.1.4. INNOV8 2.0*

Graphically, the game is very rich. In the beginning of every scenario, there is a short movie scene provided, where the objective goal is explained. It has virtual avatars (characters) that have audio voice, when a player has a meeting discussion. The interface consists of no menu bar tools. The GUI (Graphic User Interface) is manly concentrated on point-to-click and dragand-drop issues, where a player sets the parameters to simulate the right solution for business process management problem that is being issued. The overall visualisation of a game gives the expression that the game origins from the commercial-designed game market.

Overall, INNOV8 is an interactive, 3D business simulator designed to teach the fundamentals of BPM. BPM enabled by SOA delivers continuously to provide lifecycle improvement, drives innovation in the business process and business model. Capabilities from both the software and the expertise follow a logical lifecycle approach for modeling, optimising, designing, deploying and managing business processes.

#### *3.1.5. Wall Street Survivor*

Wall Street Survivor (www.wallstreetsurvivor.com) is web-based financial (stock market) game with real market data, real stock symbols and real market tracking, all tracked and accounted for on an impressive simulated trading platform. It simulates real-time bid/ask trade fills, streaming profit and loss pages. The "virtual stock market" site offers a fantasy stocktrading platform, real-time quotes for the most realistic paper-trading experience, as well as educational articles and forums. In addition, to play the advanced version the subscription with payment is needed. Wall Street Survivor is considered as a "biggest simulated trading game on the internet with thousands of people learning the ropes of trading every day". It was launched on September 2011, where it has currently come up to 350,000 registered users and 3.5 million page views per month (www.finovate.com). Players can interact in the platform to share trading tips and make new connections as they learn how to trade and gain confidence in their decisions.

In order to play a game, the profile account needs to be created and registered. Once a user is registered at Wall Street Survivor, he/she receives an account with \$100,000.00 in simulated money to trade with. The account also includes a margin, meaning that a player can use up to 2 times the amount of money in the account for trading, in other words \$200,000.00. As a safeguard to help a user to learn, Wall Street Survivor do not allow more than 25% of users balance to be traded in any one position at a time. Players (investors and traders) can also win prizes if they land on the top gainers category. The game also has a resource section on their website which is full of articles explaining the most important trading topics, including stocks, options, futures and other important trading ideas. Wall Street Survivor also gives out \$100,000 in prizes every year to its players, which is a very nice thing for them to do. It is easy to navigate around the website, which makes Wall Street Survivor different from other stock market simulation.

Getting help at Wall Street Survivor is easy as click and send. The FAQ page is well supplied with helpful data while a user is logged in to this simulated stock market game. One of the most important lessons that one can learn in Wall Street Survivor is that he/she cannot play unless he/she meets the understanding of dynamics of the stock market. Wall Street Survivor articles, which are regularly uploaded on official page, do not guarantee you to higher gains, but it rather guides you to important skills such as choosing the best deals, comprehensive usage of best strategies, and finding hints which are hot or preferred stocks to be bought (www.wallstreetsurvivor.com).

Graphically, the game is very rich. In the beginning of every scenario, there is a short movie scene provided, where the objective goal is explained. It has virtual avatars (characters) that have audio voice, when a player has a meeting discussion. The interface consists of no menu bar tools. The GUI (Graphic User Interface) is manly concentrated on point-to-click and dragand-drop issues, where a player sets the parameters to simulate the right solution for business process management problem that is being issued. The overall visualisation of a game gives

Overall, INNOV8 is an interactive, 3D business simulator designed to teach the fundamentals of BPM. BPM enabled by SOA delivers continuously to provide lifecycle improvement, drives innovation in the business process and business model. Capabilities from both the software and the expertise follow a logical lifecycle approach for modeling, optimising, designing,

Wall Street Survivor (www.wallstreetsurvivor.com) is web-based financial (stock market) game with real market data, real stock symbols and real market tracking, all tracked and accounted for on an impressive simulated trading platform. It simulates real-time bid/ask trade fills, streaming profit and loss pages. The "virtual stock market" site offers a fantasy stocktrading platform, real-time quotes for the most realistic paper-trading experience, as well as educational articles and forums. In addition, to play the advanced version the subscription with payment is needed. Wall Street Survivor is considered as a "biggest simulated trading game on the internet with thousands of people learning the ropes of trading every day". It was launched on September 2011, where it has currently come up to 350,000 registered users and 3.5 million page views per month (www.finovate.com). Players can interact in the platform to share trading tips and make new connections as they learn how to trade and gain confidence

In order to play a game, the profile account needs to be created and registered. Once a user is registered at Wall Street Survivor, he/she receives an account with \$100,000.00 in simulated money to trade with. The account also includes a margin, meaning that a player can use up to 2 times the amount of money in the account for trading, in other words \$200,000.00. As a safeguard to help a user to learn, Wall Street Survivor do not allow more than 25% of users balance to be traded in any one position at a time. Players (investors and traders) can also win prizes if they land on the top gainers category. The game also has a resource section on their website which is full of articles explaining the most important trading topics, including stocks, options, futures and other important trading ideas. Wall Street Survivor also gives out \$100,000 in prizes every year to its players, which is a very nice thing for them to do. It is easy to navigate around the website, which makes Wall Street Survivor different from other stock market

Getting help at Wall Street Survivor is easy as click and send. The FAQ page is well supplied with helpful data while a user is logged in to this simulated stock market game. One of the most important lessons that one can learn in Wall Street Survivor is that he/she cannot play unless he/she meets the understanding of dynamics of the stock market. Wall Street Survivor

the expression that the game origins from the commercial-designed game market.

deploying and managing business processes.

244 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

*3.1.5. Wall Street Survivor*

in their decisions.

simulation.

However, in placing a trade at Wall Street Survivor, the quotes shown for a particular stock are delayed 15–20 minutes. This delay matters so much in real trading; but for the sake of learning day-trading strategies, this delay might be justified in order to make the most out of Wall Street Survivor by using different strategies or position sizing methods. This enables as well as to learn how to close out positions. At the end of each day, Wall Street Survivor would make users to realise that practice can move him/her further in the ladder of success. Perhaps being conscious that no money, and therefore no emotions, is involved, this certainly allows users to practice the game without any bad consequences (www.wallstreetsurvi‐ vor.com).Graphically, the game is strictly text-based with a view of different types of charts with various technical indicators. Wall Street Survivor is not for every user. For users that have no desire to learn about the stock market or get involved in to the real stock market world, it is highly not recommended, yet for people who want to "hone" their trading skills and simulate real trading before doing real business with real money, Wall Street Survivor is a good place to start.

**Figure 5.** Wall Street Survivor (Screenshot of online Wall Street Survivor virtual stock)

#### *3.1.6. Big Oil: Build an Oil Empire*

Big Oil: Build an Oil Empire is a business strategy game where users take a role of oil baron who is set in times of the oil industry pioneers, in order to build his own oil empire by taking control of the entire oil business process, from surveying, drilling and extracting to refining, selling and market investments. The game was released in July 2006 and developed by Try Synergy. The game can be played in a single-player mode or multi-player mode online or via a local network with up to six players [39].

Big Oil lets users to build an oil empire by drilling for oil, shipping it to refineries around the world, and eventually processing it into products that can be sold to the public. To play a game, user/player can choose from more than 15 scenarios based on historical events such as the Oil Crisis, Lenin's death, Apartheid, World Wars or the Great Depression [39]. Each scenario has unique rules and conditions for success. However, they can all be played about the same, which is to say, they all play poorly. A player can also choose a free play campaign, where he/she starts from scratch and builds oil wells and refineries, researches new technology to improve transportation and creates new products and develops cities that provide more workers. There are two difficulty modes to choose from: easy mode and advanced mode. When choosing the easy mode, the player is receiving a constant help from a virtual assistant that guides the player through so-called "getting familiar" process with the users interface and makes recommen‐ dations to user's decisions in order to automatically undertake certain menial tasks, like sending a virtual team to test a potential oil field, with user's permission. Big Oil is a com‐ mercial-strategy-game alike. With all the functionality that is provided, Big Oil gives more or less the expression of Dune 2000 (http://www.gamespot.com/dune-2000/) or series of war craft games (http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/) where the competition of your opponents is running all the time. The player's progress is showed by the money budget he/she receives in order to how his/her oil business is growing.

Big Oil starts out at the top of its difficulty curve, forcing potential players to spend a couple of hours learning the "ins" and "outs" of the game's extremely confusing user interface. This sort of complexity tends towards the "status quo" for simulations, but even for simulations like the one in Big Oil, it is hard to get the hang of.

Like any open-ended game, there are a large multitude of choices to be made that allow for a different game play experience each time. However, the high initial difficulty curve of the game, as well as the underwhelming experience of playing it after getting a handle on it, Big Oil game will probably spend more time in the desk drawer gathering dust than in CD drive. Big Oil starts with a generally unappealing premise and goes downhill from there. The game is difficult regarding the controls as they are somehow hectic and boring. At the same time, they are packaged in an uninspiring shell of semi-poor graphics.

Overall, the game itself is merely oriented to the oil business, which means if users are not so passionate about the world of oil business, they can easily be confronted with the hectic learning curve and subsequent extreme dullness that Big Oil offers; however, on the contrary for "oil-tycoon-wannabes", there is true possibility that they might find the game to be endlessly fascinating.

**Figure 6.** Big Oil: Build Oil Empire (Screenshot of GUI of Big Oil: Build Oil Empire).

#### *3.1.7. Virtual Leader*

*3.1.6. Big Oil: Build an Oil Empire*

his/her oil business is growing.

endlessly fascinating.

like the one in Big Oil, it is hard to get the hang of.

they are packaged in an uninspiring shell of semi-poor graphics.

a local network with up to six players [39].

246 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

Big Oil: Build an Oil Empire is a business strategy game where users take a role of oil baron who is set in times of the oil industry pioneers, in order to build his own oil empire by taking control of the entire oil business process, from surveying, drilling and extracting to refining, selling and market investments. The game was released in July 2006 and developed by Try Synergy. The game can be played in a single-player mode or multi-player mode online or via

Big Oil lets users to build an oil empire by drilling for oil, shipping it to refineries around the world, and eventually processing it into products that can be sold to the public. To play a game, user/player can choose from more than 15 scenarios based on historical events such as the Oil Crisis, Lenin's death, Apartheid, World Wars or the Great Depression [39]. Each scenario has unique rules and conditions for success. However, they can all be played about the same, which is to say, they all play poorly. A player can also choose a free play campaign, where he/she starts from scratch and builds oil wells and refineries, researches new technology to improve transportation and creates new products and develops cities that provide more workers. There are two difficulty modes to choose from: easy mode and advanced mode. When choosing the easy mode, the player is receiving a constant help from a virtual assistant that guides the player through so-called "getting familiar" process with the users interface and makes recommen‐ dations to user's decisions in order to automatically undertake certain menial tasks, like sending a virtual team to test a potential oil field, with user's permission. Big Oil is a com‐ mercial-strategy-game alike. With all the functionality that is provided, Big Oil gives more or less the expression of Dune 2000 (http://www.gamespot.com/dune-2000/) or series of war craft games (http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/) where the competition of your opponents is running all the time. The player's progress is showed by the money budget he/she receives in order to how

Big Oil starts out at the top of its difficulty curve, forcing potential players to spend a couple of hours learning the "ins" and "outs" of the game's extremely confusing user interface. This sort of complexity tends towards the "status quo" for simulations, but even for simulations

Like any open-ended game, there are a large multitude of choices to be made that allow for a different game play experience each time. However, the high initial difficulty curve of the game, as well as the underwhelming experience of playing it after getting a handle on it, Big Oil game will probably spend more time in the desk drawer gathering dust than in CD drive. Big Oil starts with a generally unappealing premise and goes downhill from there. The game is difficult regarding the controls as they are somehow hectic and boring. At the same time,

Overall, the game itself is merely oriented to the oil business, which means if users are not so passionate about the world of oil business, they can easily be confronted with the hectic learning curve and subsequent extreme dullness that Big Oil offers; however, on the contrary for "oil-tycoon-wannabes", there is true possibility that they might find the game to be Important area in the management education is the building of leadership. The training in that context is possible with the Virtual Leader game. The game is dedicated to acquiring leadership skills. Being a good leader is considered as a capacity to have suitable power in influencing the employers for making an effective and productive atmosphere that will enable successful accomplishment of the task and the project at the end. This can be achieved by many compo‐ nents in a form of communication and increasing awareness of verbal and non-verbal com‐ munication cues. Virtual leader as a simulator provides a user step-by-step practices, by preset communication dialogs over the course of several sessions or one long session with virtual co-workers. It uses a meeting environment to allow the users to interact with other characters. There is also a well-written guide that describes the theories behind the content.

Virtual Leader is a standalone game, which means when the game is installed to a computer it can be played. Once the game starts, users need to register and create his/her account and begin to play. In the beginning, the player can take short introductions about Leadership fundamentals and framework showing how communication affects the principles of leader‐ ships. As well as the player can choose two other options which are either to begin the learning of the principles through tutorial practices or to be engaged into the simulator through variety of leaderships scenarios. Player takes the role of the character named Corey that Nordic enterprise hired to work as a sector leader at the customer service call center. It is all about getting work done. Virtual Leader uses meeting scenarios where Corey is getting to interact to virtual characters to get the right combination of ideas completed. At each meeting sessions, the goal is to introduce ideas, support them and make them happen after finishing the meeting. By achieving the goal, a user must create the right amount of tension and using the right amount of gained power to make the virtual character accept and support the leader's ideas. All this components of maintaining the power are constantly monitored in a shape of 3-color graph that can be seen as a practice mode. When the meeting is finished, learner is given a summary of how he/she used the key tenets of leadership skills to manage the expectations of the meeting. A set of graphs and numbers are presented where players can analyse how to improve the strategy of increasing or decreasing the elements of a good leadership.

Virtual Leader does not try to simulate a real-life conversation. The learning objective mainly focuses to make the learning experience to develop intuitive skills so that people can under‐ stand the people's intent in a real-life situation without hesitation.

**Figure 7.** Virtual Leader (a screenshot of business meeting at Virtual Leader Simulation)

#### *3.1.8. Shark World – A Project Management Game*

fundamentals and framework showing how communication affects the principles of leader‐ ships. As well as the player can choose two other options which are either to begin the learning of the principles through tutorial practices or to be engaged into the simulator through variety of leaderships scenarios. Player takes the role of the character named Corey that Nordic enterprise hired to work as a sector leader at the customer service call center. It is all about getting work done. Virtual Leader uses meeting scenarios where Corey is getting to interact to virtual characters to get the right combination of ideas completed. At each meeting sessions, the goal is to introduce ideas, support them and make them happen after finishing the meeting. By achieving the goal, a user must create the right amount of tension and using the right amount of gained power to make the virtual character accept and support the leader's ideas. All this components of maintaining the power are constantly monitored in a shape of 3-color graph that can be seen as a practice mode. When the meeting is finished, learner is given a summary of how he/she used the key tenets of leadership skills to manage the expectations of the meeting. A set of graphs and numbers are presented where players can analyse how to

improve the strategy of increasing or decreasing the elements of a good leadership.

stand the people's intent in a real-life situation without hesitation.

248 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

**Figure 7.** Virtual Leader (a screenshot of business meeting at Virtual Leader Simulation)

Virtual Leader does not try to simulate a real-life conversation. The learning objective mainly focuses to make the learning experience to develop intuitive skills so that people can under‐

This game is considered as an excellent addition to the basic project management training. The main focus is in experimentation and gaining experience about key aspects of efficient project management in a highly entertaining and motivating setting. The game is played online, enabling a creation of convincing virtual environment, close to the reality in which a particular project is developed in real time. The game proceeds in an interactive way that urges the students to react when things go wrong or more preferably before they happen. The game can be played both through online and mobile channels which make the game accessible any time and in any location. Projects are developed in (accelerated) real-time (24/7) so players have to keep up with the fast pace and to act or intervene almost immediately. The game is propelled by an underlying suspense story that blurs the line between the reality and the fiction. The game offers life-like content as a test case for inspiring the trained future project managers. The screenshot of Sharkworld's GUI is presented in Figure 8.

Shark World combines simulation elements with a story and characters, to create an engaging project management experience. With the help of picture and video material, players are taken on a trip to China. Once they arrive in China, players start to manage their project. They can use conversation, chat and email, in order to take care of the interests of the boss, client and team. They also make project schedules and project budgets. The choices that players make during the game decide whether the project becomes a success or turns into a disaster (www.ranj.com).

The game play is based on the usage of various media such as emails from game characters, newspaper and TV news in order to give extra depth to the experience. When players are not behind the computer, they get text and voice messages from game characters on their mobile phones.

Once the user is registered (create our profile and enter the mobile number), the game is ready to be played. The game begins with an automated mobile call, where the virtual female assistant lets the player know that she is waiting to pick up the player on the Shanghai airport. After the game started, the introduction video begins, where the female assistant meets the player at the meeting spot (Shanghai airport) and explains the background story and the aim of the project to be processed. She describes the challenges the player should expect during the play. On a location near the city of Sha Cheng, a large-scale shark aquarium is being rebuilt and is combined with a swimming paradise named "Sharkworld". The Virtual Dutch (international) installation company with the name "Spector Install" has acquired the project. The company is experienced for building swimming pools, congress halls, hospitals and dolphin aquariums, but has never worked with sharks before. Their corporate website provides a nice overview of several installation and construction projects in both utility and industrial fields, with diversity of cases, but without any shark aquarium.

The game continues with the news that the appointed project manager on site has mysteriously disappeared and the player is a person that applies for his job, gets the job and is sent to China immediately. The player lands in the middle of an ongoing project and must bring the project to a good end. What the player does not know at the start of the game is that not everything in the game is what it seems to be. Some things, e.g. obstacles, will turn out to be setups as they are designed to test the player's project management abilities (www.sharkworldgame.com). During the game, a player is expected to achieve and display essential soft skills, by making conversations with people who are involved in the project. When a player has a dialog with the game characters, the "mood icon" of the characters appears on the upper right corner of GUI (graphical user interface presented on Figure 4). When the game character is satisfied with the player's answer, the "mood icon" shows a "happy face"; and on the contrary, when the game character does not like the answer or the undertaken step, the "mood icon" changes into an "angry face". During the game, a player must maintain the three very important type of atmosphere:

**Figure 8.** Shark World (a screenshot of Graphic User's Interface).

The levels of these attributes are shown on the status bar, with a little pointer that shows where on the scale of satisfactory presented skills the player is. For example, if the pointer is colored green, the satisfaction is high and the red color indicates low satisfaction. In order to bring the project to a successful end, all three satisfaction types have to get the highest satisfaction levels, meaning that the pointer has to be in the area of a green color on a the scale bar. The perform‐ ance of solving problems is also followed during the game. Whenever in a game a challenge comes up, the player must perform a task in order to solve the problem presented as a challenge. The player provides solution to the problem with calculation of the data information gathered during the game for an assessment of risk management. Depending on a player's decisions, the result of the challenges is shown in the project overviews. After the accomplish‐ ment of the task, the game displays the achieved performances in problem-solving being categorized as extremely poor or professionally successful.


**Author details**

Ilaria Piano\*, Francesca Corsi and Claudia Gargini Department of Pharmacy, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

\*Address all correspondence to<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
© 2022 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


**5. Conclusions**

*Dengue Fever in a One Health Perspective*

of field collected specimens.

distribution and/or with *Culex* species and strains.

(**Figure 7**).

also by *Aedes* mosquitoes, as traditionally accepted [38]. The single insect RNA extraction method facilitates the identification of arboviruses and also the blood source ingurgitated by a dipteran through molecular techniques, since each individual insect feeds on few vertebrates [35] (**Figure 8**). Furthermore, even after nucleic acid extraction, the taxonomic position of the dipteran can be reevaluated

*Flavivirus* diagnosis of 100 culicids collected in the city of Marilia, from São Paulo Brazilian State, based on NS5, revealed the occurrence of 19 positive specimens (19%) to CxFV. These viruses are part of the insect-specific flavivirus (ISF) group and have a wide geographic distribution, encompassing tropical and temperate regions, in various insect groups [39]. There is evidence that ISF infection may suppress or raise the rate of *in vitro* and/or *in vivo* replication of medical important flaviviruses [40]. A study conducted with Palm Creek virus (PCV), another ISF, originally found in Northern Australia, demonstrated that previously infected insect cells were suppressed for WNV and Murray Valley Encephalitis Virus replication, two important human arboviruses [41]. Virus replication suppression by ISF is also associated with mosquito strains [42], as demonstrated for WNV infection in two different lineages of *C. quinquefasciatus*. The mosquitoes isolated in Honduras presented increased WNV transmission rate when infected with CxFV. The ISF Nhumirim virus (NHUV), first isolated in the Pantanal region of Brazil, was evaluated in the growth and replication rates of ZIKV in insect cells [43]. They found that both in the previously inoculated cells and in cells coinoculated with NHUV, growth, and replication rates of ZIKV were significantly reduced. Also, in this work, the rates of ZIKV infection in *Ae. aegypti* infected with NHUV were significantly reduced, but the transmission rate was maintained. According to Romo (2018), ISFs can be used as models to understand the mechanisms involved in virus interference infection process, which may be used to reduce or suppress infections of important human pathogens in arthropod virus vectors. The methodology described in this work enables investigations of interactions among medical important flavivirus and ISFs at natural mosquito's population level through the use

It is believed that *Culex flaviviruses* may be specific to the culicid species and also to the region from which it is obtained [44]. In order to investigate the specificity of CxFV from Marilia, a phylogenetic reconstruction analysis was performed using homologous partial NS5 sequences of CxFV isolates from China, Africa, Argentina, and two Brazilian isolates (one in Mato Grosso and the other in São José of Rio Preto, São Paulo). The nucleotide and amino acid sequences corresponding to the *Flavivirus* partial NS5 protein varied little among then (about 0–3%). Two Neighbor-Joining-based phylogenetic trees constructed with partial NS5 nucleotide (**Figure 5**) and amino acid (**Figure 6**) homologous sequences showed the clustering of flaviviruses in two main branches, one formed by human pathogens (DENV, YFV, and ZIKV), and the other formed by the CxFV. The first branch is formed by taxa that share the same capacity to infect mammalian vertebrate cells, including humans, and present the *Ae. aegypti* as the main vector [45, 46]. The second branch is formed by organisms that differ in origin and time of collection. However, in the tree obtained with the nucleotide sequences, it is possible to observe a clade formed by all the records obtained from Marília, except for the specimen identified by number 48, which was closest to the CxFV of China. This result was different when the tree was constructed with amino acid sequences, where there was no geographical clustering of CxFV. Perhaps, the molecular marker employed in this work is not appropriate to investigate *CxFV* geographical specificity, and more studies are needed to explore the association of their genetic variability with geographical

**178**

The single dipteran RNA extraction technique described in this work permits the use of hematophagous insects as sentinels to detect arboviruses, preserving the chitinous skeleton of the insect and guaranteeing the subsequent morphological studies. The possibility to obtain RNA from a single dipteran also makes possible the investigation of infectious agent's vector capability and the identification of the ingurgitated blood meal source, enabling the description of arthropod alimentary habit and an indication of which vertebrates may be implicated in a virus life cycle. The method also opens the possibility for constant arbovirus surveillance, which can be used to prevent and control epidemics that affect millions of people each year. The presence of CxFV in *C. flavivirus* vectors may interfere with replication, transmission, and infection rates of arboviruses of medical importance, and the method described facilitates natural population studies.