Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 7

Author Topic: Let's Play Wall Street Raider  (Read 28059 times)

Goron

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« on: December 14, 2009, 11:48:18 pm »

Wall Street Raider v5.30
http://www.roninsoft.com/wsraider.htm


WALL STREET RAIDER (for Windows) is the ultimate in sophisticated financial simulations, a corporate takeover and stock market game and simulation, in which you strive to build your corporate empire by fair means or foul, all the while trying to stay one step ahead of the SEC, IRS, Justice Department, EPA, Congress, powerful unions and no end of ruthless competitors -- not to mention various manmade and natural economic and other disasters.

In this highly realistic simulation, 1 to 5 players (including the computer) compete to amass fortunes, investing in, or taking over and managing, any of up to 1590 companies in 70 industry groups.  Once in control of a company, you'll use all the tricks of the trade of real Wall Street corporate raiders to expand your empire and net worth:

  • startups/IPOs
  • tender offers
  • greenmail
  • stock-for-stock mergers
  • LBO's
  • "white knight defenses"
  • antitrust suits and other litigation
  • restucturings
  • excessive CEO salaries and lavish stock options
  • firing management
  • asset restructuring
  • mass layoffs
  • tax avoidance
  • asset-stripping liquidations
  • industry domination
... and much more, in the quest for the Almighty Dollar. The individual player can also engage in risky (but sometimes lucrative) activities for his or her own account, such as short selling of stocks, or buying and shorting put and call options.

Ok... first off, does anyone have this game?
If yes, we could do some play by email. (Option A)
If no, I can play against the computer with audience input. (Option B)

Spoiler: Option A (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Option B (click to show/hide)


So I'll first wait to see if anyone has the game.
But I'll also see if anyone would even be interested in giving input for a community game like I describe in Option B.
If no one is interested in either, then I won't bother running the game.

now that I think of it, there is an Option C, too:
Spoiler: Option C (click to show/hide)

Spartan 117

  • Bay Watcher
  • Never think twice. Or at all.
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2009, 04:06:00 pm »

Do B please.

So, is this game like a fun, non-retarded version of Wall Street Kid?
Logged
Well, you know how if you take your thumb and forefinger and hold them up to your eye, you can make it look like you're squishing someone's head? It's like that, only for real.
"Sometimes being a dwarf has it's advantages, KNEE-CAPPING TIME!"

Goron

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2009, 04:41:43 pm »

So, is this game like a fun, non-retarded version of Wall Street Kid?
Lulz.
I remember looking up Wall Street Kid on Wikipedia some time ago when looking for other games like WSR. Needless to say, I was not impressed.
Having never actually played WSK, based on my best guesstimates I'd say "Wall Street Raider is nothing like Wall Street Kid."

WSR is a financial/stock/business/economics strategy/simulation game. NOT a tycoon game or an rpg. You don't control your 'character' at all. The only thing your character has associated to is credit rating, portfolio, and wealth. That's it.

I guess with at least one vote for Option B I'll go ahead and start a game tonight. If the idea goes badly I won't hesitate to quit:-)

To start, I'll try and post as much information about each industry and the economy as possible. Then you can decide what industries/other stuff you want more info on and I'll go get that.
From there you can probably start giving me instructions.
I figure the start will be the hardest part- since I'll need to give a whole boatload of info before we can even decide what path to take. But once we get started I figure things should go smoothly... maybe.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2009, 04:45:57 pm by Goron »
Logged

Spartan 117

  • Bay Watcher
  • Never think twice. Or at all.
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2009, 05:41:30 pm »

Okay.
Logged
Well, you know how if you take your thumb and forefinger and hold them up to your eye, you can make it look like you're squishing someone's head? It's like that, only for real.
"Sometimes being a dwarf has it's advantages, KNEE-CAPPING TIME!"

Goron

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2009, 08:11:26 pm »

Let's give this a whirl:

Spoiler: Starting the game (click to show/hide)

Before we do anything, we get a notification about the Fed:

Annnnd we're off!
Things get started quickly since I had the ticker speed set to 100 (max). By the time I manage to pause, 8 days fly by. You can see some of the events that have happened in the news section.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There are like ~9 sections to the main interface. Each is pretty self explanatory... I won't bother going into too many details about them unless you ask.

So, just to give an idea of whats going on...
We are Urist Dorf. A 500.00 millionaire. Right now we are completely fluid, all our money is in cash. We have no portfolio, no job, no investments... Just a bank account with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (MBK)
Just for fun:
Spoiler: Some info on our bank (click to show/hide)


Time for some initial research.
Spoiler: Economic Data (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Current Interest Rates (click to show/hide)

Ok... Thats pretty much all I can show without going into details of specific industries.

I know I said I wouldn't, but I am now going to go into detail about the main interface...


Ok ummmm.... thats it!
It is currently January 13, 2010 (even paused, little bits of time passes with each menus you open).
We are Urist Dorf. We have 500 million dollars (and 500m in credit).

Now what?

zchris13

  • Bay Watcher
  • YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND~
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2009, 08:26:23 pm »

Donate to charity.
Logged
this sigtext was furiously out-of-date and has been jettisoned

Goron

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2009, 09:18:07 pm »

Spartan 117

  • Bay Watcher
  • Never think twice. Or at all.
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2009, 11:02:35 am »

Buy an up-and-coming Automobile manufacturor.
Logged
Well, you know how if you take your thumb and forefinger and hold them up to your eye, you can make it look like you're squishing someone's head? It's like that, only for real.
"Sometimes being a dwarf has it's advantages, KNEE-CAPPING TIME!"

Goron

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2009, 11:59:24 am »

Buy an up-and-coming Automobile manufacturor.
I'll research the industry and post pics during my lunch.
Then you can pick which one.
Expect them in... ~2 hours.

Goron

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2009, 12:53:40 pm »



Looking at the auto industries:


Spoiler: Auto-Asia (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Auto-Europe (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Auto-North America (click to show/hide)

Remember, we have 500m cash, but with credit we can essentially spend 1 billion. BUT, the second our investment goes down even a cent in value, we will have creditors knocking at our door demanding money- that will cause a 'tantrum spiral' resulting in major losses.

One way to protect Urist Dorf is to open a holding company with our 500m cash.
Then, the holding company will have ~ 475m in cash (after startup fees) and a credit line of about the same.
But again, should the holding company spend too much credit, we risk losing big monies.

There are other ways to get more investment capital- for example we can call for white knight investors (essentially sell ~12% of the company to a 3rd party).

EDIT: Also, we could found a new auto company- if that is not obvious.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2009, 01:27:48 pm by Goron »
Logged

Spartan 117

  • Bay Watcher
  • Never think twice. Or at all.
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #10 on: December 16, 2009, 02:21:52 pm »

Any way we can get a slice of the action with Toyota?
Logged
Well, you know how if you take your thumb and forefinger and hold them up to your eye, you can make it look like you're squishing someone's head? It's like that, only for real.
"Sometimes being a dwarf has it's advantages, KNEE-CAPPING TIME!"

Goron

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #11 on: December 16, 2009, 02:48:38 pm »

Any way we can get a slice of the action with Toyota?
Sure.
Toyota stock is currently undervalued which will make it easy to buy into. The company itself seems to be doing ok with an AA credit rating. The 0.9 dividend is (while not !great!) on the higher end of the industry.

It seems the current management is trying to establish a new, lean and mean market force.
They have -3% growth but a moderately high R&D budget (6%).

The negative growth means that they are actually shrinking their business operations. They are  decreasing their sales capacity by 3% even though the industry calls for short and long term growth floating around 4-5%.

The R&D means they spend 6% of their sales on attempting to improve their products/services. It is a gamble, but usually bumping up your R&D will increase your returns. Your returns are essentially always like so:
Code: [Select]
Return = Potential Returns - R&DSo if a company's return is 6% with a 0 R&D, if they bump the R&D to 3%, the return will drop to 3%. BUT, over time the return will (hopefully) increase because of the R&D budget. So after a quarter the return may jump to 4%, then after another quarter to 5%. Then, the company could drop the r&D to 0 again and the returns would be 8%. Or the company could keep the R&D costs up, and hope for more increases- But, R&D is not a win-all. It is a cost and it is not assured to bring your returns up...


But, based on the info, it seems Toyota is trying to increase their returns, while cutting out fat. So... if we buy in now, its possible that after some time, the company can turn back around and bump up growth while maintaining a strong return.

My immediate guess is that this will bump the stock price in the short term as well as make the company more strong. Buying in now will be good for short term ownership as well as long term- I think.

Heres the only hitch:
Toyota is controlled by another company right now. That means some other company owns >15% of the stock. BUT, there is at least some available to buy.
At the moment I do not know how much is publicly owned (aka how much we can buy), but, if the amount we can buy is greater than the amount the controlling company has, we can take control of Toyota.

Also, to top things off, I have no clue how big the Toyota market cap is. As such I don't know how much we could buy in the first place.

I will figure this stuff out in a couple hours and post more info on Toyota.

mainiac

  • Bay Watcher
  • Na vazeal kwah-kai
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #12 on: December 16, 2009, 03:52:13 pm »

Set up or buy a bank to serve as your holding company then invest in poorly capitalized consumer goods manufacturing company and switch it's banking over to your bank.
Logged
Ancient Babylonian god of RAEG
--------------
[CAN_INTERNET]
[PREFSTRING:google]
"Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I will tell you what you value"
« Last Edit: February 10, 1988, 03:27:23 pm by UR MOM »
mainiac is always a little sarcastic, at least.

Goron

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #13 on: December 16, 2009, 03:58:52 pm »

Set up or buy a bank to serve as your holding company then invest in poorly capitalized consumer goods manufacturing company and switch it's banking over to your bank.
I like this idea- it is risky and fun.
but a bank will cost a minimum of 1billion to found (any other company can be done with 100m, but banks, and maybe insurance, cost a billion) and any existing bank will have a very high market cap.

Its possible we could get control of a small bank, but we'd likely just have 'control'... meaning barely over 15% ownership. And that would not leave a lot of money for us to buy up a consumer goods company.

But as I say, I like the idea- so I'd like to keep it on the 'to do' list for once we have some more capital, k? I just don't think its feasible with our current situation.

Goron

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Let's Play Wall Street Raider
« Reply #14 on: December 16, 2009, 03:59:57 pm »

(accidental double post)
Also, I'll try and look into the banking industry tonight as well... even if we don't immediately act on it.
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 7