If you’ve hadn’t had enough of work when you get home at the end of the day — or you just want to dabble with entrepreneurship and running your own business — you can just head over to Facebook next time the urge hits.
A new game has been getting quite a bit of press over the last week (although they still only have 400 monthly users) and it’s based entirely on running your own yoga retreat. The Yoga Retreat Facebook game lets you do everything from telling your retreat goers what poses to take, to assessing the appropriate architecture for the grounds, to replacing ratty yoga mats. The game’s animated cartoon yoga cat also teaches players how to do each pose, so the game integrates wellness with business.
But Yoga Retreat isn’t the first Facebook game to let you run your own business.
“Business Tycoon Online (BTO) is an online, browser-based business simulation game,” bto.dovogame.com explains. “Players start from scratch and take the role of an entrepreneur that is just breaking through into the tough business world of Liberty City. Through hard work and dedication, players can expand their business and raise their social status as they try to become one of the socialites of Liberty City.”
The game integrates with Facebook as well, and lets users learn about different aspects of entrepreneurship, from the challenges of retail to the benefits of socializing.
“As a business tycoon you have the ability to open more than 100 different kinds of stores, their success or failure is in your hands,” the website explains. “In addition to opening your stores, you will also need to recruit employees and arrange their training. Every day, different kinds of meetings are waiting for you to attend. Your performance will affect board directors’ impressions on you. In order to become a well-connected socialite of Liberty City and expand your network, you will need to widen your social circles and interact with the other entrepreneurs around you.”
The Big Business Facebook game, created by Game Insight, operates under a similar idea, and it’s built up a following of over 450,000 players. Its premise is a bit more complex, and is a bit of a hybrid of Sim City and Business Tycoon.
“Build different businesses from the ground up by purchasing farms, factories to manufacture your goods, and sell them to commercial industries,” Gamezebo describes. “Manage your city by including entertainment establishments, keeping it environmental friendly and increase its population. These are just a few of the things you can do to get started playing Big Business by referring to this quick start guide.”
And in addition to measuring success by profit and environmental health, Big Business also consider happiness as a key factor of making it big, particularly when it comes to increasing the population size.
What do you think about games that simulate different career paths? Do you think you can get an authentic glimpse into an industry, or a career-defining lifestyle like entrepreneurship?