Нашёл на просторах Интернета обзор игры "Брокер", которая вдохновила Александра Яковлевича Зырянова на создание "Акционера". Перевод будет чуть позже.
One of the most popular forms of financial game, particularly in the U.S., is the stock market game. The appeal of these games is obvious: they are based on the dream of taking a small sum of money and, through clever and audacious trading (and nothing resembling real work), turning it into enough cash to retire at an early age. Actually, the nineties, with its advent of the online trader and the (so far) perpetual bull market may wind up killing this type of game forever—who wants a game where you buy, sell, and track stocks, when that's what you do in real life? But, prior to the last decade, the stock market contest was yet another aspect of the Great American Dream.
My problem with just about all these games is that, no matter how detailed or elaborate they are, they're all pretty much a giant crap shoot. You can use a myriad of strategies to determine how you buy and sell, but once you've made your decision, you roll the dice or draw the card and dumb luck determines whether you gained or lost. Of course, many observers think that the actual Stock Market itself is a big crap shoot, but that doesn't mean a realistic gambling simulation translates to a good game. Player actions in these designs almost never have any effect upon stock prices and there's next to no player interaction. So despite all the trappings, these games inevitably come down to a dice rolling contest.
One of the few exceptions to this general rule is a 40 year old game from a small company called Broker. The game makes no attempt to be realistic; in fact, players have a degree of control over stock prices that, were it actually possible, would bring about the Mother of all SEC Investigations. But because of this, it succeeds where other games fail and the result is an enjoyable game that still has the feel of a stock market.
Broker can be played with two to six players. There are only four stocks in the game, which all begin at a value of $100 a share. Their prices are adjusted based on the play of cards. There are three categories of cards in the game. Each has a single instruction to raise the price of a stock and a single instruction to drop the price of a stock (or stocks). "100" cards raise a given stock's price by $100 a share, and drop the remaining three stocks by $20 a share. (For example, a typical card might read "Golden Eagle Airline up $100, Others down $20".) "Double" cards come in two varieties. One doubles the price of a given stock and lets the player halve the price of his choice of one of the three other stocks; the other halves the price of a given stock and lets the player double the price of his choice of one of the other stocks. (So one type of card might read "River Rouge Motors doubled, Choice is halved" and the other type might read "Choice is doubled, Proton Electronics halved".) The third type, "40/60" cards, also comes in two varieties. The first type drops the price of a given stock by $50 and lets the player raise the price of his choice of one of the other stocks by $40 (for example, "Choice up $40, Sapphire Cartel down $50"). The second type raises the price of a given stock by $60 and lets the player decrease the price of one of the other stocks by $30 (for example, "Proton Electronics up $60, Choice down $30"). The cards, which all have the same back designs, are divided into three piles, one for each category. The piles are shuffled separately and each player is given two 100 cards, three Double cards, and five 40/60 cards. Each player also begins with $300.
The rules for a player turn are very simple. A player can buy and/or sell any stocks he likes (no short selling—you can only sell shares you own—and players cannot go into debt, but otherwise, anything goes). He then plays a card from his hand and adjusts the stocks according to its instructions. He again has the option to buy and/or sell any stocks, but this time with one restriction. If, at the start of his turn, a player buys a particular stock and then plays a card which raises its value, he cannot then sell any shares of that stock at the end of his turn. Similarly, if he sells a stock before playing the card and then drops the price of that stock, he cannot buy any shares of that stock after playing the card. Essentially, this rule means that players can't make an instant profit off of that turn's card play. After a player has made any desired stock transactions following his play of a card, his turn is over and the player to his left takes his turn.
There are only a few other rules. If a stock rises above $250, its price is set at $250 and each player owning that stock receives cash per share owned equal to the difference between the price and $250. For example, suppose that Sapphire Cartel is at $220 and Regis plays a card that raises its price by $100. The resulting price of $320 is greater than $250, so the stock's price is placed at $250 and every player owning Sapphire Cartel receives $70 per share in cash ($320 - $250 = $70). If Alex has 10 shares of Sapphire Cartel, he gets $700 from the bank.
At the other end of the spectrum, if the price of a stock falls below $10, it is set at $10 and each shareholder is given a choice: either forfeit the stock or pay $20 per share and retain it. This decision is made for each share of stock, so players can choose to retain only a portion of their stock. For example, Golden Eagle Airline, selling at $20, drops by $50. Its price is set at $10. Kathy Lee owns 100 shares of the stock. If she wishes to retain all of it, it will cost her $2000. She can, if she wishes, keep only 40 shares, at a cost of $800 and return the other 60 shares to the bank.
That's about it. All stock transactions must be with the bank; players can never deal with another player. Similarly, no exchange of money or cards between players can be made. Players can never borrow money from the bank. Play continues until each player has played all ten of his cards. The player playing the final card may buy no stocks on his last turn, which is just an extension of the rule forbidding players from making an instant profit. Once all the cards have been played, each player sells all of his stocks at the final prices. The player with the most money wins.
Broker is one of a large number of games whose nature depends on how many players are playing. With five or six players, the fact that so many opponent's cards are played between a player's turns makes this a fairly chaotic game, with a feel almost as luck-oriented as other stock market games. The four player game gives you more control, but planning can still be difficult. The mix of randomness and skill makes this a fine family game. The two and three player game, however, gives players a great deal of control over their fate and that of their opponents. In fact, Broker for two is a challenging game of considerable skill and judgement that can usually be completed within an hour.
The planning begins after the cards are dealt. It's important to decide early on which stocks you plan to buy and when. One factor is obviously how many cards you have that raise a stock, and how powerful they are. But you will certainly buy more than one type of stock during a game. Typically, you'll use your initial $300 to buy a few shares of a stock, sell it after the price goes up, use the proceeds to buy a different stock, and so on. So you have to plan to buy two or three different stocks during the game. One common strategy is to make your big move after the fifth or sixth turn. You plan to keep in reserve cards which raise the same stock, hopefully including some 100 or double cards among them. If you can raise a decent enough sum from earlier purchases, you can dump the whole thing into your chosen stock and let your profits increase with each card you play.
Well, that's one way of doing things (a popular beginner's strategy), but far from the only one. Another thing to consider is the buying price of a stock. It's obviously better if you can buy into your stock at a lower price, since you can buy more shares initially. This works because most of the cards (the double cards are the only exception) are additive, not multiplicative, so there's a greater opportunity for profit if, say, you buy 10 shares at $50 than if you buy 5 shares at $100. So you might want to have at least one card that lowers a stock's price. Of course, you want to ensure that the price won't be so low that your opponent can plunge it beneath $10 and force you to pay the $20 per share penalty. Another consideration is defensive play. This is especially important in the two player game, where it's very dangerous to be in a position where you can't negatively affect a particular stock. If your opponent buys into it, he will likely become richer faster than you will. So planning things so that you keep cards in your hand which can adversely affect all of the stocks is often important.
Planning is important, but just as important is staying flexible once the game begins. You must be ready to switch strategies if things appear to be going against you. This may involve playing a card to lower an opponent's stock rather than to raise your own. Diversifying by buying multiple stocks (particularly the stock an opponent seems to be concentrating on) is another option and can be particularly effective when you have the lead. The longer you can keep your options open in this game, the better.
Much of the strategy in Broker revolves around what happens when stocks get very high or very low. The "over $250" rule is significant because it's a way of generating cash without selling stocks. Typically, players dump all their money into stocks, since that's the only way to increase capital. When one of your stocks clears $250, you may still want to hang on to it. Alternatively, you may have just bought the stock and raised its price, so you can't sell it. If you want to buy another stock, you now have some capital to work with without hurting your chances for future profits. This can give you quite a bit of flexibility and is definitely something to keep in mind.
However, the real action starts when stock prices approach zero. When a stock gets down to 10 or 20 dollars, you can really make some dramatic profits. Buy a huge number of shares, play a card raising the price by $100—you can do the math. This can be a devastating and often game winning gambit, so it's not surprising that there are several strategies to stop it. The most obvious is to play a card knocking the stock's price below $10. If your greedy opponent didn't leave himself a cash reserve, he'll lose all of that stock. Even if he can throw money at it, $20 a share can be a sizable penalty, given the number of shares involved. Being able to hit any stock like that is another good reason to keep a varied mix of cards in your hand. Another strategy is to raise the stakes by buying a sizable chunk of the stock yourself. This can lead to a game of chicken—will your opponent cut bait, sell his shares, and then drop the stock's price? If he does, will you be able to keep some shares and make a killing yourself with your own card play? (As these discussions show, one of the big decisions to make when a stock's price is low is how many shares to buy and how much money to keep in reserve.) Finally, the ultimate strategy may be to ensure that stock prices don't get too low in the first place. Lowering a stock's price below $50, even if no one owns it, can be dangerous, so you may want to make a play that is less advantageous to you rather than risk an opponent's big play.
Another aspect of play that affects player strategies is the share limit. There are exactly 300 shares of each stock and this limit cannot be exceeded. In the later stages of the game, this limit can come into play, particularly if the stock can be bought at a low price. When you're getting ready to make your big play, it's often important to make sure that you will have a majority of the shares, effectively squashing any attempt by an opponent to neutralize your plans by matching your investment.
So successful play requires a combination of planning, tactics, offensive and defensive play, and the ability to react quickly to a changing game situation. Keeping track of how many cards of each type your opponents have is also vital. That all adds up to a pretty high skill level. Certainly there is some luck in the game; some hands are just better than others, and it's possible that you simply don't have the type of hand needed to counteract your opponents plans. But it's still pretty accurate to say that every hand has its strengths and weaknesses, and that the players who best utilize what they have, and best react to what their opponents are doing, will win.
Considering that Broker is essentially a card game, the components are quite good. The cards are sturdy and clearly marked. The stock certificates, which come in various denominations, are also cards and this works quite well. The game board is much bigger than it needs to be—it's only real purpose is to display the stock prices—but it's nice and solid and does its job. And the markers for the stock prices are very nice jeweled half cylinders which are really quite attractive.
There's a lesson to be learned from a game like Broker. By hewing too closely to the activity represented by a game, a designer can come up with a creation that succeeds as a simulation, but fails as a game. Thinking outside the box can yield a better product. German game designers seem to know this (some would say too well), but to find an American game from the early sixties that followed this rule is pretty unexpected. Broker won't help you make your fortune playing the market, but it will let you play a reasonably short and skillful two or three player game, and that's quite a nice dividend.
One of the most popular forms of financial game, particularly in the U.S., is the stock market game. The appeal of these games is obvious: they are based on the dream of taking a small sum of money and, through clever and audacious trading (and nothing resembling real work), turning it into enough cash to retire at an early age. Actually, the nineties, with its advent of the online trader and the (so far) perpetual bull market may wind up killing this type of game forever—who wants a game where you buy, sell, and track stocks, when that's what you do in real life? But, prior to the last decade, the stock market contest was yet another aspect of the Great American Dream.
My problem with just about all these games is that, no matter how detailed or elaborate they are, they're all pretty much a giant crap shoot. You can use a myriad of strategies to determine how you buy and sell, but once you've made your decision, you roll the dice or draw the card and dumb luck determines whether you gained or lost. Of course, many observers think that the actual Stock Market itself is a big crap shoot, but that doesn't mean a realistic gambling simulation translates to a good game. Player actions in these designs almost never have any effect upon stock prices and there's next to no player interaction. So despite all the trappings, these games inevitably come down to a dice rolling contest.
One of the few exceptions to this general rule is a 40 year old game from a small company called Broker. The game makes no attempt to be realistic; in fact, players have a degree of control over stock prices that, were it actually possible, would bring about the Mother of all SEC Investigations. But because of this, it succeeds where other games fail and the result is an enjoyable game that still has the feel of a stock market.
Broker can be played with two to six players. There are only four stocks in the game, which all begin at a value of $100 a share. Their prices are adjusted based on the play of cards. There are three categories of cards in the game. Each has a single instruction to raise the price of a stock and a single instruction to drop the price of a stock (or stocks). "100" cards raise a given stock's price by $100 a share, and drop the remaining three stocks by $20 a share. (For example, a typical card might read "Golden Eagle Airline up $100, Others down $20".) "Double" cards come in two varieties. One doubles the price of a given stock and lets the player halve the price of his choice of one of the three other stocks; the other halves the price of a given stock and lets the player double the price of his choice of one of the other stocks. (So one type of card might read "River Rouge Motors doubled, Choice is halved" and the other type might read "Choice is doubled, Proton Electronics halved".) The third type, "40/60" cards, also comes in two varieties. The first type drops the price of a given stock by $50 and lets the player raise the price of his choice of one of the other stocks by $40 (for example, "Choice up $40, Sapphire Cartel down $50"). The second type raises the price of a given stock by $60 and lets the player decrease the price of one of the other stocks by $30 (for example, "Proton Electronics up $60, Choice down $30"). The cards, which all have the same back designs, are divided into three piles, one for each category. The piles are shuffled separately and each player is given two 100 cards, three Double cards, and five 40/60 cards. Each player also begins with $300.
The rules for a player turn are very simple. A player can buy and/or sell any stocks he likes (no short selling—you can only sell shares you own—and players cannot go into debt, but otherwise, anything goes). He then plays a card from his hand and adjusts the stocks according to its instructions. He again has the option to buy and/or sell any stocks, but this time with one restriction. If, at the start of his turn, a player buys a particular stock and then plays a card which raises its value, he cannot then sell any shares of that stock at the end of his turn. Similarly, if he sells a stock before playing the card and then drops the price of that stock, he cannot buy any shares of that stock after playing the card. Essentially, this rule means that players can't make an instant profit off of that turn's card play. After a player has made any desired stock transactions following his play of a card, his turn is over and the player to his left takes his turn.
There are only a few other rules. If a stock rises above $250, its price is set at $250 and each player owning that stock receives cash per share owned equal to the difference between the price and $250. For example, suppose that Sapphire Cartel is at $220 and Regis plays a card that raises its price by $100. The resulting price of $320 is greater than $250, so the stock's price is placed at $250 and every player owning Sapphire Cartel receives $70 per share in cash ($320 - $250 = $70). If Alex has 10 shares of Sapphire Cartel, he gets $700 from the bank.
At the other end of the spectrum, if the price of a stock falls below $10, it is set at $10 and each shareholder is given a choice: either forfeit the stock or pay $20 per share and retain it. This decision is made for each share of stock, so players can choose to retain only a portion of their stock. For example, Golden Eagle Airline, selling at $20, drops by $50. Its price is set at $10. Kathy Lee owns 100 shares of the stock. If she wishes to retain all of it, it will cost her $2000. She can, if she wishes, keep only 40 shares, at a cost of $800 and return the other 60 shares to the bank.
That's about it. All stock transactions must be with the bank; players can never deal with another player. Similarly, no exchange of money or cards between players can be made. Players can never borrow money from the bank. Play continues until each player has played all ten of his cards. The player playing the final card may buy no stocks on his last turn, which is just an extension of the rule forbidding players from making an instant profit. Once all the cards have been played, each player sells all of his stocks at the final prices. The player with the most money wins.
Broker is one of a large number of games whose nature depends on how many players are playing. With five or six players, the fact that so many opponent's cards are played between a player's turns makes this a fairly chaotic game, with a feel almost as luck-oriented as other stock market games. The four player game gives you more control, but planning can still be difficult. The mix of randomness and skill makes this a fine family game. The two and three player game, however, gives players a great deal of control over their fate and that of their opponents. In fact, Broker for two is a challenging game of considerable skill and judgement that can usually be completed within an hour.
The planning begins after the cards are dealt. It's important to decide early on which stocks you plan to buy and when. One factor is obviously how many cards you have that raise a stock, and how powerful they are. But you will certainly buy more than one type of stock during a game. Typically, you'll use your initial $300 to buy a few shares of a stock, sell it after the price goes up, use the proceeds to buy a different stock, and so on. So you have to plan to buy two or three different stocks during the game. One common strategy is to make your big move after the fifth or sixth turn. You plan to keep in reserve cards which raise the same stock, hopefully including some 100 or double cards among them. If you can raise a decent enough sum from earlier purchases, you can dump the whole thing into your chosen stock and let your profits increase with each card you play.
Well, that's one way of doing things (a popular beginner's strategy), but far from the only one. Another thing to consider is the buying price of a stock. It's obviously better if you can buy into your stock at a lower price, since you can buy more shares initially. This works because most of the cards (the double cards are the only exception) are additive, not multiplicative, so there's a greater opportunity for profit if, say, you buy 10 shares at $50 than if you buy 5 shares at $100. So you might want to have at least one card that lowers a stock's price. Of course, you want to ensure that the price won't be so low that your opponent can plunge it beneath $10 and force you to pay the $20 per share penalty. Another consideration is defensive play. This is especially important in the two player game, where it's very dangerous to be in a position where you can't negatively affect a particular stock. If your opponent buys into it, he will likely become richer faster than you will. So planning things so that you keep cards in your hand which can adversely affect all of the stocks is often important.
Planning is important, but just as important is staying flexible once the game begins. You must be ready to switch strategies if things appear to be going against you. This may involve playing a card to lower an opponent's stock rather than to raise your own. Diversifying by buying multiple stocks (particularly the stock an opponent seems to be concentrating on) is another option and can be particularly effective when you have the lead. The longer you can keep your options open in this game, the better.
Much of the strategy in Broker revolves around what happens when stocks get very high or very low. The "over $250" rule is significant because it's a way of generating cash without selling stocks. Typically, players dump all their money into stocks, since that's the only way to increase capital. When one of your stocks clears $250, you may still want to hang on to it. Alternatively, you may have just bought the stock and raised its price, so you can't sell it. If you want to buy another stock, you now have some capital to work with without hurting your chances for future profits. This can give you quite a bit of flexibility and is definitely something to keep in mind.
However, the real action starts when stock prices approach zero. When a stock gets down to 10 or 20 dollars, you can really make some dramatic profits. Buy a huge number of shares, play a card raising the price by $100—you can do the math. This can be a devastating and often game winning gambit, so it's not surprising that there are several strategies to stop it. The most obvious is to play a card knocking the stock's price below $10. If your greedy opponent didn't leave himself a cash reserve, he'll lose all of that stock. Even if he can throw money at it, $20 a share can be a sizable penalty, given the number of shares involved. Being able to hit any stock like that is another good reason to keep a varied mix of cards in your hand. Another strategy is to raise the stakes by buying a sizable chunk of the stock yourself. This can lead to a game of chicken—will your opponent cut bait, sell his shares, and then drop the stock's price? If he does, will you be able to keep some shares and make a killing yourself with your own card play? (As these discussions show, one of the big decisions to make when a stock's price is low is how many shares to buy and how much money to keep in reserve.) Finally, the ultimate strategy may be to ensure that stock prices don't get too low in the first place. Lowering a stock's price below $50, even if no one owns it, can be dangerous, so you may want to make a play that is less advantageous to you rather than risk an opponent's big play.
Another aspect of play that affects player strategies is the share limit. There are exactly 300 shares of each stock and this limit cannot be exceeded. In the later stages of the game, this limit can come into play, particularly if the stock can be bought at a low price. When you're getting ready to make your big play, it's often important to make sure that you will have a majority of the shares, effectively squashing any attempt by an opponent to neutralize your plans by matching your investment.
So successful play requires a combination of planning, tactics, offensive and defensive play, and the ability to react quickly to a changing game situation. Keeping track of how many cards of each type your opponents have is also vital. That all adds up to a pretty high skill level. Certainly there is some luck in the game; some hands are just better than others, and it's possible that you simply don't have the type of hand needed to counteract your opponents plans. But it's still pretty accurate to say that every hand has its strengths and weaknesses, and that the players who best utilize what they have, and best react to what their opponents are doing, will win.
Considering that Broker is essentially a card game, the components are quite good. The cards are sturdy and clearly marked. The stock certificates, which come in various denominations, are also cards and this works quite well. The game board is much bigger than it needs to be—it's only real purpose is to display the stock prices—but it's nice and solid and does its job. And the markers for the stock prices are very nice jeweled half cylinders which are really quite attractive.
There's a lesson to be learned from a game like Broker. By hewing too closely to the activity represented by a game, a designer can come up with a creation that succeeds as a simulation, but fails as a game. Thinking outside the box can yield a better product. German game designers seem to know this (some would say too well), but to find an American game from the early sixties that followed this rule is pretty unexpected. Broker won't help you make your fortune playing the market, but it will let you play a reasonably short and skillful two or three player game, and that's quite a nice dividend.