Hot Corner 29 January 2016

Virtonomics - Lien Ledger |

Hot corner is here.  Time for this week's dirt.

I don't have anything to cover this week that's hot so to speak.  So I thought we'd try something new... A player profile!!

On the Lien realm of Virtonomics, when you think of top players, you could look at many things.  Some might look at company assets.  Top names include Jayman, agh151173 (100) and Murratt.  The player I'm thinking about is #10 in assets.  You could look at company turnover.  The top 3 names are the ones I mentioned before.  But the player I'm thinking about is #4.  If we look at players rankings, he's not number one in "level" or "knowledge".  But he is #1 in the ranking I'd rate as most important.  In my opinion the best player on the Lien realm is mitsofos.

He ranks number one in "success level".  It's calculated as qualification growth speed of all qualifications.  This is the real game within the game, and mitsofos had the pedal to the metal.

So who is this greek man of mystery?

Let's start with a look at his posh office.

I have to say, I'm a little jealous.

Here's a look at mitsofos qualifications.

141 in production.  136 in science.  132 in livestock.  That translates to power.  And mitsofos built them up "the right way" by earning the experience and running a tight ship.

Let's look where mitsofos stacks up in some of the major rankings.

#1 in restaurants.  #1 in medical centers.  #1 in Tech.

A little more color on that last one, tech.  mitsofos has researched the top tech in the realm for the following 85 types of enterprises (yeah, wow!):

Apparel manufacturing

Audio equipment production

Bakery

Bed-clothes factory

Bicycle production

Biofactory

Brewery

Butter factory

Car chemicals plant

Carpet factory

Ceramic factory

Cheesery

Chemical factory

Chocolate factory

Clothing factory

Computer factory

Cookers Plant

Copper Mill

Copper Mine

Cosmetics factory

Cotton-cleaning factory

Cowshed

Dairy-farm

Decor studio

Distillery plant

Dockyard

Domestic production

Elite interiors Factory

Engine Oil Plant

Engineering plant

Essential oils factory

Fuel equipment factory

Furniture factory

Gardening equipment plant

Gift manufacturing

Glass-works factory

GPS-navigators production

Household chemicals factory

Instant food production plant

Instrument factory

Jet Ski factory

Kettle factory

Kitchen Furniture Factory

Knitwear production

Machine-tool factory

Meat processing plant

Medical equipment Plant

Metallurgical factory

Microprocessors factory

Mill

Mobile phones production

Motorcycles production

Offset Printing

Organic synthesis plant

Perfumery factory

Pet food factory

Pharmaceutical Plant

Photo Camera production

Pig farm

Poultry farm

Public interiors Factory

Pulp and paper mill

Refinery

Refrigerator factory

Sawmill

Sheep farm

Shoe factory

Socks and stockings factory

Soft drinks production

Soy-bean factory

Spice-making plant

Sports equipment production

Sports tools production

Tailoring atelier

Tea production

Tire factory

Toy factory

Tractor factory

Umbrella factory

Underwear factory

Video equipment production

Washing machines production

Watch factory

Weaving mill

Yacht shipyard

Just like qualification, leading in all these research areas took great understanding of the game and great dedication to running a tight program.

Now let's see where mitsofos conducts his business and where he has the most political power.

Focusing on politics, mitsofos holds 7 governorships, but I think Uzbekistan is the most impressive.  The tax rate is a rock bottom 10% and that alone makes it a great place to do business.

mitsofos also has a taste for the finer things.  He's landed the triple crown on Lien realm by producing the highest quality in the realm for all three luxury products.

Lastly, I'll say he's a nice guy.  He's helped me in game and I'm sure he's helped others was well.


 

Sanitation - A 3rd World Problem

Virtonomics - Lien Ledger |

If you've ever needed to go to the bathroom and one was not available to you, just for that moment you probably stopped taking for granted the pervasive availability of modern sanitation facilities in all in 1st world countries.

I just read a very interesting article (link below) regarding attempts to improve sanitation in 3rd world countries.  Per the article one third of the world's population does not have access to safe, hygienic sanitation.  Sanitation lies at the root of many other development challenges, as poor sanitation impacts public health, education, and the environment.  The article explores the technology innovations helping to address the issue and if the private sector is better placed then the public sector to implement these solutions.


BBC Article: Toilet tech proves that where there's muck there's brass


I browse major news and business news websites when looking for real world stories to cover and tie in to Virtonomics.  I never have to look very long.  For example this topic, covering toilets and sanitation, is one you would not think a business simulation would cover due to its very real world unglamorous nature.   Virtonomics does.

At the government level, Virtonomics politicians can support sanitation, ecology and health by adding line items in the government budget or by funding special projects.

In the private sector, sanitary equipment is a product line.  It's supported by the clay and ceramic industries.  The technology level can be researched, just like real private industry is advancing technology in the BBC article.

Where to bring the good fight?  Where to bring new levels of hygiene so the masses can bleed the lizard, drop a deuce,  break the seal, drain the vein, bait the trap, piss the pot, lay a brick, squeeze the lemon, pinch a loaf, syphon the python, curl one off, shake the snake, release the kraken, water the weasel, spray paint the bowl...

In the Virtonomics Lien realm, my vote is Mexico City.  Preferably the residential district where competition is light.  Local suppliers already provide a decent product there, but it's high price makes it a luxury item.  There is plenty of room to enter the market and steal away profit with a better quality and lower price product.  In Mexico City, more than a quarter million sanitary products are sold each day and there are only seven merchants (beside local suppliers).  Come toilet bowl barons!  South of the border!



 






 

Grain Possibilities Part 1 - Steak Restaurant

Virtonomics - Lien Ledger |

Lien Ledger conducted a reader poll recently to see what articles would be of interest to our avid reader base.  One suggestion was an article analyzing grain based production chains.  One of the advantages of grain based production chains is the large number of options available and the length of the grain based chains.  The longer the production chain, the more value can be added along the way.

Based on the vast number of grain based production chain options, I've decided break the analysis into multiple articles.  In this article, part 1, we'll take a look at steak restaurants as the end of the production chain.

Below are a diagram and corresponding chart showing the full steak restaurant production chain using independent suppliers for the beginning raw materials.  As you can see, you'd need 3 different kinds of animals farms that use livestock qualification, 4 different kinds of factories that use production qualification and 1 type of restaurant that uses restaurant qualification.  Anyone including new players and play for free players can build this chain and supply their own steak restaurants.  You need to build up your livestock, production and restaurant qualifications for this to become a profit center and the only way to due that is to run animal farms, factories and restaurants for "experience points" that build your qualifications.  So if your qualifications are low, you may need to subsidize this set-up as you accumulate experience until you can raise qualification.  Also, running livestock vs. factories vs. a restaurant is each different, so you'd need to learn these parts of the game (which I consider the fun part!).

You can sell any of the items in your chain wholesale or you can retail them if you have more stock than the restaurants can handle.  You can also skip parts of the production process and buy wholesale (for example, buy glass on the market instead of having your own glass factory).

If you can get your hands on some game points for paid resources, a highly recommended purchase is an agricultural farm (I think beginning players get some points for just logging in, there are competitions for new players to win points and there are ongoing tender competitions to win point, and lastly you can use really money).  You would replace the independent grain supplier in the diagram above with your own grain supply.  It would have higher quality than the independent supplier which would result in higher quality output all throughout the chain.  You will need to build an extra qualification: agricultural farming.

Where to locate operations?  High level, I'd locate all animal farms and factories where labor costs are low, income tax costs are low and customs/transport fees are reasonable between the production location and your restaurant.  For livestock, there are governors who fund a special project to give 5% quality bonus to your output and Patagonia and Pampas has a natural 7% bonus to meat.

For restaurant location, it's tricky.  In my opinion big markets are best.  Trial and error may be needed.  That said, I'll share my analysis.  It's based on a major assumption: that if MDI (Market Development Index) is low there is room for the market volume to expand and if it's high then you'll need to steal away customers from the competition as the market will slowly expand if at all.  This assumption on my part may or may not be true as MDI is a mystery metric.

I apologize for the small type.  The chart above has lots of market information specific to restaurants in large cities in the Virtonomics Lien realm. 

The pop column is the population of the city, avg salary column is for all types of enterprises in the city not just restaurants.  MDI, Mkt Vol and # of restaurants are specific to restaurants, but they're for all restaurant types in the city not just steak.  The last three % columns are based on total $ market volume of all restaurant sales (I believe).  The steak restaurant % is hard to use because if there are very high margin restaurants (and assuming steak is low margin) in a city and the figure is 10% steak, I think that means that steak has 10% of the $ market share which means it must have a much higher % of actual number of restaurants.  In another city there may be less high margin restaurants and the % may be more representative of the % of steak restaurants.  The residential area % shows how much overall competition there is in this area of the city (you want a low #).  The other sellers is just a sign of diversity in the market, the higher the number the less a few big players are dominating the market.


Based on the data above, if I were opening a less competitive restaurant (due to the fact them I'm a new player with low qualification, tech and no access to paid resources that boost quality for example), I'd look to open my steak restaurant in the residential district of Athens.  Athens is large, average salary is nice for the folks who will end up dining in your establishment, MDI is low so I think it means the market volume can grow in total, 26 current restaurants is not a huge number and steak restaurant % is low.  Ideally the residential $ would be lower, but that could be driven by other restaurant types who knows.

If you have questions or comments, leave them and I'll respond promptly.

Stay tuned for part 2...


 

Hot Corner 22 Jan 2016

Virtonomics - Lien Ledger |

Hot corner is here.  Time for the weekly gossip.

 

Let's talk about the current Virtonomics Blog competition this week.


The blog competition rules/guidelines:

• what to write: chronicle how to start-up, how to win competitions, how to run establish company, newspaper/current events.  Whatever is written, it should teach game's rules, mechanics, principals and tricks. 
• key words should be used: Virtonomics, online game, browser game, games for learning economics/economy, economic simulation game, Tycoon game, turn-based online browser strategy, etc.
• use links to Virtonomics main page, forum and pages in the game. 
• use good language, connection to real economy and recent news, connecting between Virtonomics and real economy theories, etc.
• provide valuable and interesting information. Blog should be interesting to read. People should learn new things from blog posts and discover the game deeper. Talk about new things in game, post news, political events, goals and achievements, etc.
• Rewards are based on quality of blog and adherence to guidlelines, # of view, # of comments, links to social media

Reading between the lines, the competition and resulting blogs have an underlying purpose --> to hopefully get the word out about Virtonomics and bring in new players.

Based on reading the Virtonomics in-game forum, there is some positive and some negative vibe regarding this competition. 

On the negative side, some thoughts are:

• isn't this contest players giving free advertising/propaganda to the game
• is the compensation (virtual game points) high enough for players to write the blogs
• aren't there better set-ups and reward systems for the blog competition
• the game has some issues (one of which is playing for free is not as easy as if you buy game points) so why are we saying all nice things in the blogs
• aren't current players the only ones who will read the blogs anyway
• however the winner is picked will be unfair

I will say, some of those criticisms have merit.  Others, in my opinion, are closed minded.  The one I'm most concerned about myself is "aren't current players the only ones who will read the blogs anyway"

That's because I'm very excited and engaged on this project.  I absolutely love this game with it's flaws and all.  Additionally, I'll do anything I can to bring in new players.  I believe in the long-run that the devs are committed (and they've shown it recently!), but if we don't attract new players this game will be gone in 5 years.

So I look at the game positively and at the competition positively.  As mentioned, I agree that this game and also this competition are not perfect.  I don't view anything as us (players) vs. them (administration who does collect real money).  I view myself as a stakeholder in this game and I'll do what I can to help. 

Regrettably, unless search engines pick up this blog when four eyed number crunchers search google for a business strategy turn based game, this particular effort will not be very effective.  But as you may have already guessed, a little problem like that will not impact my enthusiasm for Virtonomics or this project.

Best,
G

P.S. Feel free to leave comments in agreement or disagreement and perhaps we can have a civil debate.


 

Market Infomation - More is better

Virtonomics - Lien Ledger |
It's common knowledge that when participating in a competitive marketplace, the more information you have the better.

Virtonomics has market information reports, but sometimes it helps to have more information.  Here's a helping hand.

 


 

No Taxation without Representation

 Virtonomics - Lien Ledger |

There are many reasons you may want to vote someone into or out of office.  Here's one of them.

What's that?  You'd like to know the track record of your Virtonomics Lien realm politicians when it comes to taxes?  Take a look below.

Looks like most politicians are either for small government or are leaving well enough alone.  We're not here to tell you how to vote.  We just provide information so you can make informed decisions.

 

Demographic/Tax Report

Virtonomics - Lien Ledger |

Taxes, population, education level, import/export controls, transport costs, wealth level, rare resources, special government projects. 

 

There are many ways to rank the different locations in Virtonomics Lien realm.  Here at Lien Ledger, we rank taxes high on the list and education level near the top as well.

 

 

Below are a few real world tax and education graphics. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Green = Highest Education Level, Bright Red = Lowest Education Level

The annual census and demographic update has just been published; below are a few Top 10 lists for Virtonomics Lien realm. 

 

 

 

Taxes are never an exciting subject, but at the end of the day are a very controllable and significant cost of doing business.  As we all work on our tax returns this spring, Lien ledger will post a tax strategy article (i.e. tax evasion) to help you minimize taxes.  For now, these charts should provide a start.

High education / Low salary locations are mainly helpful for very high tech production and very high tech research.  Also, the small talk is higher quality in those areas.

In Virtonomics, there is a nice summary of education, population and wage changes in the Analytics > Macroeconomics > Demography section.

 

Hot Corner 15 Jan 2016

 Virtonomics - Lien Ledger |

Hot corner is a new column we'll publish Friday's. 

This is the Virtonomics gossip column, let's get into the juicy stuff.

Intense Blog Competition

This blog is part of a contest for best Virtonomics blog that started in January.  The competition is fierce!  This blog has some in-depth research but is overall light in a news format and aimed at those who have not played Virtonomics yet. There are two other great blogs that provide updates on the start of a fresh Virtonomics companies by veteran players and include practical advice and tips for contests.    And then there is a blog in the form of a story - great entertainment!  So check the Virtonomics forum for links and check them all out.

Tea Time
Lien realm already had it, but tea is being improved on Lien and introduced on all the other realms.  Also new related products are added including tea leaf, green tea, pu-erh tea, kettle, and tea pot (thanks Mike1!)

Happy Birthday!
Virtonomics celebrated it's 9 year anniversary with special sales and auctions, a Tycoon contest, hard to earn rewards for players who have contributed to the Virtonomics community and game, a new car franchise option and interface improvements.  I can't wait till the big 10 year celebration next year!

Qualification growth Penalties - Transparency!!
Qualification growth penalties will somehow be visible in the future (trust me, if you play the game this is exciting).

Guess who's qualification this is ;)

New Ideas for Virtonomics
There is a nice area created on the Virtonomics forum for suggestions and a way to vote on them.  In an exciting development, some of the new functionality suggestions are being implemented by the game developers!  Get your ideas in!!

Player Interviews
Virtonomics administration interviewed 4 veteran players to find out things like game strategy secrets, thoughts on future of the game, achievements and sexual preferences.  All kidding aside, they can be found in the Virtonomics forum and are good reads.

Thank you
Lastly, I'd like to just say thank you to the developers of Virtonomics.  This article does not even list all of the improvements they've made and I know they have a lot planned.  I for one am very appreciative.  Next week, we'll get into juicier, more personal news!!!

 

R&D - Technology is the way forward

 Virtonomics - Lien Ledger

In the real world, research and development can provide competitive advantage.  And it's a point of pride.

Here's an great chart showing R&D levels around the world.

Employ the best and brightest, build world class facilities and put your country or private enterprise on top!

In the real world, the R&D process looks something like this.

In Virtonomics Lien realm, it looks something like this.

Technology level of each product in Virtonomics influences production. High technology level decreases energy consumption, improves quality and labor productivity. On the other hand, high technology level imposes higher demands on staff qualification and equipment quality.

There is also a technology market where researched technologies can be bought and sold.

Lien realm has many technology powerhouse enterprises.  Below is output from a wonderful DISkA report on Lien realm regarding known technology levels by product.  Enjoy!

 

Production and Products - Big Dreams

 Virtonomics - Lien Ledger

Are you like me, dreaming of owning a maritime propeller production empire?

Or maybe you aspire to produce and sell other products to the world.

20 cool products and even cooler ads
(check out: Don't talk while she drives)

Do you fantasize about production supply chains?

Well then Virtonomics Lien realm is where you need to be!

Here is a very high level Virtonomics supply chain diagram.

These types of enterprises and more can be found in-game.

Going back to ship screws, yup.  Virtonomics has them.

You can source the materials, produce the propellers and wholesale them.  Or you can buy the propellers wholesale and use them to construct yachts for resale.  Or you can own the entire production chain, retail distribution and control the advertising.

Virtonomics has many raw materials and products that are all used in supply chains similar to the diagrams above.  Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

A full listing of Virtonomics raw materials and products is below.

Go to www.virtonomics.com and give it a try!