To be sure, the dynamic simulation gave students a real taste for both the strategy and the strife associated with competing in the global marketplace. The governments dictate fiscal policy and enact laws while balancing economic and social issues. The journal staff reports, analyzes and investigates the world's economy. All the while a powerful computer at the University of California-San Diego plays game master, processing each week's activities and churning out reams of data onto the Internet for each team to ingest. The information overload makes a healthy division of labor a matter of survival.
Individuals negotiate their salary and manage their own financial portfolios.
Everything from company bond ratings to national exchange rates and commodities futures prices are modeled. In the end, teams are judged by their company's long-term profitability. Students are judged by their net worth. For last year's course, the Internet brought together teams from the UW's MBA Program, Evening MBA Program, Global Executive MBA Program, Jackson School of International Studies, and Graduate School of Public Affairs, as well as from Seattle University and UC-San Diego. The game may have been virtual, but the passions were real.