Q&A With STRATUP: A Multi Player Role Playing Business Simulation Game

The folks at STRATUP reached out recently to discuss their multi-player business simulation application. I had some questions and they answered them. Join me for this dialogue with Sandeep Rambhatla, Founder of Process Bee Technologies as we explore STRATUP.

I'd be particularly interest in is what is unique about the business simulation software you are developing (or your other simulation apps)?

STRATUP is a Multi Player Role Playing Business Simulation Game. The game is designed based on well researched pedagogical and design approaches. We have incorporated Evidence Centered Design methods to capture and measure participants decisions in the game to create a profile non intrusively. The following are factors which differentiate STRATUP with other products available in the market.

Gammersive: STRATUP combines the best of Business Simulation, Game Dynamics & Mechanics, Research and Analytics. STRATUP, enables affective learning, by providing a game environment which the students can relate to easily.

Eliminates Free Riding: While other business simulations can be played in groups, it requires students to collectively arrive at decisions to feed them into the application. While at STRATUP, each students would have to assume a role and would be accountable for their decisions, thereby enabling us to capture individuals students decisions and that of the team. This design philosophy, eliminates free riding and helps professors to identify an individuals contribution in a group assignment.

Strategic and Tactical Decisions: While most business simulations focus largely on strategic decisions, In STRATUP, students need to take both strategic and tactical decisions in a risk free environment.

Heterogeneity:  The design simulates a real world corporate setup with its nuances, by allocating different departments such as Marketing, Operations, HR, Finance, IT, International Business to individual students. Students would need to align themselves and negotiate for resources to meet their individual objectives before they start focusing on competitors. While most business simulation available in the market, by their design assume, that the team is a homogeneous unit and needs to compete only with competitors.

Organizational Politics: The game simulates organizational dynamics in terms of various scenarios and players decisions impact key parameters within the game.

How have you incorporated educators requirements and objectives into your developent process? 

Yes, we have benchmarked our game to meet International accreditation standards set by organizations such as AACSB, ACBSB, AMBA. The course and module learning objectives are aligned with the learning goals of universities and the non-intrusive assessment module measures an individual students performance along the rubrics designed.

Have you worked to leverage learning science as you developed the app? 

Yes, we have worked on interdisciplinary fields to engage the learner, from a design perspective we have used Evidence Centered Design and have consulted educational psychologist to define the level of complexity within the game. We have looked into various game mechanics and design element to build an applied game, not compromising the key aspects of business simulations. We have used existing research scales and have also created an Epistemic Frame to perform an Epistemic Network analysis, largely borrowing from Social Network Analysis and Graph theory from computer science.

Of course, feedback directly from educators and students is a big plus.

Please find below the feedback from a professor and students.

“I am intrigued by the concept of the game STRATUP, I have seen the game in action and it has been my sense and I have seen other games in the market. This is a game that is far ahead of its times in terms of what has been planned in the game, way it has been implemented and the deep thinking that has gone behind the game.”

– Dr Deepak Gupta, PhD UC Berkely, IIM Calcutta, IIT Delhi

Feedback from Students

“It was a great experience playing the game. It gave us some experience on how to run a company. It was a great idea developing this game. Processbee has created something
great.”

“It was a learning experience that I would have obtained if I had run a company of my own. I felt at some point like it is my own company.”

If you're looking for a fun way to explore business in your course, STRATUP could be what you're looking for.