Issues in Porting a LAN-Based Total Enterprise Simulation Game to a Web-Based Environment

Authors

  • Sharma Pillutla

Abstract

Business Simulation games have been used in capstone courses and other business courses for more than four decades. During this time games have morphed from paper and pencil based approaches to a web-based approach. The most recent incarnation of simulation games was a client-server based approach where a client program is installed on the user’s computer (players program on the student’s computer) and a server program (game administrator’s program on the faculty/instructor’s computer). The data exchange between these programs was done using either disks/flash drives or using a Local Area Network (LAN). Since the advent of the World Wide Web many games are moving from a LAN-based environment to a web-based environment. In this paper, we examine the issues involved in making such a move. The paper first lays out the different types of simulation games and narrows down the scope to the type of simulation game considered in this paper. We then explain the functioning of the game on a LAN-based environment. It then explicates how the game would be configured on the Web. We then list issues that need to be addressed in such a structure. We use the Microsoft.NET framework in explaining how these issues can be addressed. We conclude the paper with summary and future directions.

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Published

2014-01-10