Business/Economics/Monopoly based MMORPG? Please read!

This is a pretty long read, but if you have time, let me know what you think.

Do you think it would be cool to see an MMORPG real-time strategy based game in which every player starts off creating a small business and has the potential, given the game's economy, to turn their business into a huge company?



Think about it, when the player starts off in the game, just like any other MMORPG, the player would have the option of starting off with a certain class -- except in this game instead of selecting a certain class, the player would start off with a certain "industry" (ie. technology, media conglomerate, food processing, financial institutions/banks, agriculture, medical insurance, car insurance, toys, manufacturing, gas/oil, automotive etc.) The player would be presented with a LARGE list of industries in which they could decide to start their business off with (but later off in the game, the business could venture off into other industries by making acquistions, mergers, or participating in hostile takeovers)



Seriously though, don't you think, as complicated as they game may be to think up and design, this would be a really awesome idea?



The game would have so many aspects and features that would make the game unpredictable and very real-world like.. things like:



-sole-proprietorship

-dual partnership business

-incorporating your business

-publicly listing your business

-stock markets.. trading your companies stock in the stock market

-bank loans

-investors, investment bankers

-real estate/ purchasing assets such as office buildings, company buildings, retail store buildings

-business relationships among top leaders of corporations for mutual benefits

-an ingame currency (multiple) that have the possibility of either going up or down in value depending on the economy

-a realistic logistics system (that would determine the speed and rate of your revenue and incomes)

-bonds, treasuries, and even a government system

-how many employees you would decide to hire (they would be CPU NPCs)

-the ability to design and trademark your own company/corporation logo

-joint venturing/mutual funds

-you would even be forced to purchase major and minor assets - anything from logistics trucks to oil rigs, company jets, helicopters, natural resources etc.

-a geographical aspect to the game

-real (multiple) in game currencies that have the possibility of going up or down in value

-inventory warehouses and product/location distribution ratios

-world economies (people could decide to set up shop in other countries)

-realistic real-estate component -- for example building a business in an in-game city would be costly

-executive positions held by individual "characters" and even positions like board of directors

-corporation headquarters

-subsidiary companies

-market share projections

-an aging system (so "characters" couldn't run a business forever, they would be forced to retire, appoint new characters to top positions etc.)

-equity values

-salaries

-stock options

-bonuses

-liabilities

-mortgages/foreclosures

-net income, operating income, and revenue (publicly listed)

-company acquisitions

-company mergers

-trademarks

-creating different brands

-bankruptcies

-hostile takeovers

- company decisions and costs (such as a business model, advertising budgets, marketing budgets)

-shareholders

-credit/debt aspects

etc. etc. etc.. (way too many different in-game aspects to name right now)











Basically, it would be the most complex and detailed online MMORPG that involved entirely around business and economics 

The game would have an ENORMOUSLY large real estate and land aspect, but depending on where you wanted to build your business, the cost would vary. Players would rent land, and spend money on construction for company buildings, retail stores, office buildings (small and large), restaurants, garages, and a ton of different other types of building for your business (depending on what industry your business was in). For example, if you were a large bank company and you decided you wanted to purchase a skyscraper building (as an asset) in a busy city located in-game, that may be one of the biggest investments of your business career and would cost a tremendous amount of money the result would probably be increased productivity. Decisions as big as this would need approval from other top official in the company.

Player system would set is up like this:



Since no one would want to be just a simple laborer, every player would be able to have important positions in their business - the question would be HOW SUCCESSFUL their business would be (in an in-game context).



For example, when you decide to start a business (which you have to make a loan for), you would automatically start off as CEO and founder of your company, you would have the option of hiring other "characters" (either operated by you or fellow people in game) to subscribe to high executive positions such as COO, president, CCO, CFO, basically any c-suite titles



Each player would have an account that would be able to hold up to "x" amount of "characters" characters are in game people who hold significant company positions. So for example, one of my characters on my account could hold a CEO position for a small, unknown company, while another character on my account may hold a position on the board of directors for a larger firm etc.



Each "character" would also have publicly listed track records and career highlights that will either encourage or discourage other players from going into business with them -- whether that be business deals, or even hiring that character for a top position at their firm. This track record would include everything from past positions held, past companies worked at, total revenue generated while holding x position etc.



Basically, the only competition and deciding factors in the game would be entirely in the hands of the players of the game - this would give them a sense of power and control. While this may be the case, though... a majority of the game will revolve around teamwork -- that is to say that in a game like this, it would be MORE realistic to have a system where say 100 or so different players would all invest their time and resources (in-game) to the success of building a single company.. as opposed to every man for himself.



I'll give you an example.



Let's say a long-time player has managed to build his company up and it's doing very well with respect to things like profit, brand name awareness, etc. This player, theoretically, could create multiple amounts of divisions and brands for his company, hiring fellow players with lots of experience to run divisions of his branch. He could either personally invest in and create new divisions of his conglomerate OR he could purchase companies (made by other players) that he feels have good potential to increase the profits of his company -> ultimately, he acquires the company (for a substantial amount).



I'll give a real life example. In the auto industry, the company "Fiat" owns Chrysler company, who owns different divisions and brands of cars (like Ram, Chrysler, Jeep etc.) all of these divisions have CEO COO etc. Or for example Time Warner company owns different divisions of media outlets like Boomerang, CNN, Warner Bros., HBO Adult Swim, Cartoon Network  and literally hundreds others. So for example CEO/COO/CFO of CNN, of Warner Bros, of Adult swim etc. character positions would only hold important positions - so there would be no position such as "cashier" to fill - it would be implied that those kinds of jobs were done by employees (in which would cost money to hire and in some cases train).



Having a system like this in the game could ward off the feeling that there is really only one main man in a corporation who determines the success, but rather there is an even distribution of power and the entire corporation's success could be determined by any of the the corporation's divisional leaders (this is why it would be important to recruit experienced players to top positions in your firm assuming that it was already well established in the game)



There would be several HUNDREDS of companies in serious competition with each other (and that's only within an industry!) There will be hundreds of different types of industries players could have their "characters" venture off into (anything from the fast food chain industry to consumer electronic retail to wholesale food chains). Enough industries to overwhelm the player but ensure even-ness and fairness in the game (as it would take forever for a single player to even think about monopolizing all of these industries)  



Finally, as an incentive to create competition, there would be "industry rankings" which would be public listings and ranks of certain corporations or companies with respect to their industry based on factors like revenue, total assets, operating income, and net income



there would also be ranking system based on "character's net-worth" which would be a direct representation of how much money a player's character has accumulated over their business career (which would be limited because characters would be destined to an aging system ensuring that they couldn't run their business forever)





What do you think? Is there any potential in a game like this? The only downside I could see to the game is that players, for obvious reasons, would have to keep up regularly with the game's economy - which means they would have to be playing everyday or close to everyday if they wanted to maintain the success of their in game corporation. But if a player decided that he or she didn't have enough time to invest into the game, they could make the decision to take a chairman position in the company and appoint a more active company executive as CEO of the company. Also, another problem I haven't been able to solve would be the inevitable favoring and benefit that earlier players would receive for obvious reasons - older players will have had more time to have built up their companies and enterprises.. so it might present a struggle for newer players to compete with old players/bigger corporations.

The only solution I've thought of at this point would be a system in which a player could make the choice of first joining a big corporation, working their way up, earning enough personal income and then using that money to personally start up a company that could perhaps compete with already existing businesses (this would be deducted from the character's total net worth).



There are of course lots of things that I haven't mentioned or haven't thought of yet, but this is just an extremely rough sketch of what I had in mind. But what do you guys think? Would you play a game like this/invest your time into building up your own virtual corporation assuming that it was challenging but very satisfying when you're able to say that you own a majority of the market share in the "x" industry? 









Please, let me know what you guys think, suggestions, thoughts anything would be helpful