Summary of Simulation History

For centuries simulations have been used for educational and training purposes. As a training technique it allows you to get as close to the real encounter as possible without actually facing a real life situation. It prepares trainees for the experience they might have the controlled environment outside. There is a number of reasons why simulation and games are used in education. Firstly, it is often less expensive and much easier to recreate and build that real event. Secondly, they are controlled and may eliminate danger in some situations. Training can be stopped at any moment of time to give additional time for evaluation to participants; however, the real life cannot be stopped (“Educational simulations,” 2011).

One of the popular training games in modern education is Business Strategy Simulation developed in 1990 by Art Thompson and Greg Stappenbeck. Business world is very unpredictable field to play on; not only do you have to make wise decisions on your behalf, but also to predict decisions of other people in this game. Over the years, the game was update to follow all the innovations and cutting edge technology in business field and finally it went online in 2004 (“History of the business simulation game,” 2012). In this business strategy game, those students in class are divided into teams and given a task of running athletic footwear company. They manage to make their companies compete with not only the teams of their classmates, but also student teams all over the world. In addition, team progress is compared to the real-world athletic footwear market, which brings the simulation to the whole new level (“What is business,” 2012).

Students make all the decisions that executives are facing on everyday basis dealing with stocks and shares, finance, marketing, target market definition, as well as product development. They have priceless opportunity of making mistakes with expense of their grade, but not millions of dollars.