intopia has begun.. well sort of

so intopia has kind of started. we're making test decisions right now to get used to the forms, system, and creating relationships before the actual weekend of insanity.

groups can choose what they want to become: manufacturer, wholesaler, bank, research & development, or insurance. my group decided to become an insurance company because it seemed the most interesting.

this term the market is the hockey stick supply industry. there are two components: the blade and the shaft. only two pieces can be produced by manufacturers, which are x (the blade) and y (the hockey stick). you cannot produce y unless you have x in your inventory. manufacturers can decide to produce x, y, or both. manufacturers can go through wholesalers to sell their product to the end consumer or set up sales offices themselves to sell to the end consumer.

there are three areas (western canada, central canada, eastern canada) plus the head office in st. john's. even though st. john's is in eastern canada, it is not considered the same area in this game. all the money is located in st. john's at the start of the game, so if you plan on building a plant in an area at the start, you have to transfer the money to that area to do so.

that's the basics of it. to understand the game in its entirety requires reading the manual. anyway, we put a shit load of work in this compared to other groups because we had to have stuff prepared as much as possible early on so that we could sell insurance to other groups (rates, hand outs, purchase agreement).

one group emailed the game administrator (who's at the university of nipissing) regarding the possibility of being a bank. he replied saying that it was not the best idea to be either a bank or insurance company during the game this term because the environment will not be as favourable. uh.. what? we told him last week that we were an insurance company (because we had some questions regarding that specific type of business). he answered them but didn't say a word about choosing something else. ugh. we're sticking with it anyway. we not solely concentrating on insurance though. our plan is to build plants in different areas and sell them to other teams who want to expand or have lost a plant (due to a 'fire' or something).

it should be an interesting game overall! that is.. if other teams stop acting like complete idiots. there was one team i tried to talk to. i asked what they were, and they just sat there .. "uh.." they said they didn't want to tell me because it would ruin their strategy. right. afterwards, they came out and said they were a manufacturer. seriously, to be able to do well in this game you have to make yourself known and create a network. if you don't let people know what you are and what you have to offer, how in the world can you make money? the magic intopia fairy might come and give the team money.. right. it's quite possible they chose to become an insurance company and didn't want to tell me (people know that my group is insurance - we've been spamming everyone). meh, usually word gets around; i'll find out what they really are.