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[Abram Jones]

Over a year ago I came here searching for true economic games, and you guys helped a lot. Since then I've added a few more games I've found or are new with required features. I'm hoping that since then new games I'm unaware of meet the following strict specifications, or some of you might know some obscure games from the past! Last time I did this the community also suggested a lot of great complex strategy games that inspired me to create a new list. However, I have given up on that because it became to overwhelming, way too many games!  Below is a link to the list as well as the specifications to get on it. There are 22 listings so far, as well as 2 additional games that are queued to be added to the list once they are on Video Game Geek. When I first started this I only had about a dozen games on there.

https://videogamegeek.com/geeklist/209365/item/4651393#item4651393

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
*at least 1 non-financial sector and persistent industrial process must be manually done by player
*player side financial investment in other entities must exist (not simply loans being granted by CPU)

Seems simple, but it's a lot harder to find these types of games than you might think.

[lordcooper]

Eve.

[IWishIWereSarah]

I agree with lordcooper : EVE Online can be played (and be fun) as a pure Economy game.

You buy things, you contract people to move them, and you sell them. Or you can simply buy and Stash before selling.

There are multiple things to craft, and it can be worth it even if you don't mine (nor hunt miners) if you can find the good moments and palces to buy the ingredients and sell the products.

[Abram Jones]

Eve.

It doesn't look like EVE has implemented any form of investment yet, I found this interesting thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/22zuze/is_there_a_stock_market_in_eve/

[sambojin]

Not sure if Off-world Mining Company meets your requirements (I may have suggested it last thread). The non-financial sector is sort of covered by patents and espionage.

Anyway, you're on Mars, you mine resources and make stuff from them, and sell to a global market where you're in competition with others. Think of it as M. U. L. E, but modern, real-time, and sexy'd up.

You can invest in and buyout other competitors (that's the win condition, to own everyone), and there's a slight investment market in the sense of owning hab and rec domes that get more valuable with time.

Kind of somewhere between Monopoly, Mule and Colonization I guess. Lots of auctions, but a floating market as well, yet only privately owned companies to buy. Also semi-private markets with your own rocket launches selling direct to Earth, so bigger margins than just selling to the global market, and there's base load resources used by your mere existence. Several economic models available too (robotic, miners, science, etc) so base loads and key resources and markets can alter game to game.

[IWishIWereSarah]

It doesn't look like EVE has implemented any form of investment yet, I found this interesting thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/22zuze/is_there_a_stock_market_in_eve/

Eve doesn't need a stock market : you invest in real things (well, real in the game world) that you buy on markets, or through contracts.

There are players who make much more money than 99% of the usual players, only through trade. You can read about one of them here : https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/77hlsk/a_trading_ama_thats_not_politically_motivated/

[lordcooper]

Eve.

It doesn't look like EVE has implemented any form of investment yet, I found this interesting thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/22zuze/is_there_a_stock_market_in_eve/

There isn't a great big 'invest in x corp' button, but I have a good 450b invested in various groups and projects.  These range from solo traders paying me bi-weekly dividends for letting them invest my isk in market speculation to a smallish (~20 man) w-space industrial corp specialising in t3 and capital ship production who pay me 20% of their net profit in return for having provided their initial seed capital.  I also rent out my home system and the relevant ships to some cool lowsec guys on the fairly frequent occasions when I can't be bothered clearing the sites and regularly donate to a few newbro/public focused pvp groups to help them keep doing their thing.

That's gotta tick your 'player side financial investment in other entities' box.

[JimboM12]

hmm, this is a hard subgenre to find indeed.

i suppose the Guild series might also be looking into; side investment tho, that's only doable by politics (mayor kickbacks man) or being a scholar and opening a bank and giving out loans. the loans really don't do anything, they're a sink that generates money over time and all interest is instantly put into your wallet while the principal is added back into the sink.

i also have a liking for the patron, i like having a croft generate my materials and opening a little public house and selling the beer and porridge directly, i know it's not the most efficient but it makes me feel like a proud small restaurant owner and eventually expanding a public house into other towns makes me feel like medieval mcdonalds. 

of course, without mods the ai will drive the economy to a halt: all those goods in the markets have to be produced by somebody and the neutral town ais can't run expanded businesses so...

[QuakeIV]

EVE is not that great of an economy game.  People are way more interested in 'content' than they are in actually survivng.  I lost 200m+ shipments on three different occasions in 10k EHP haulers to suicide tornados just because people want to pad out their killboards.  It pretty much ruined me financially.

'but git gud' you say.  yes well, thats not exactly an economic strategy now is it, your whole business gets fucked over if you forget one insta-dock waypoint and then its all over.  its a fine game in general but a shit economic game.

[IWishIWereSarah]

thats not exactly an economic strategy now is it, your whole business gets fucked over if you forget one insta-dock waypoint and then its all over.

Except you are not forced to do it and still can make a profit :
simply contract people to move your stuff for you.
That way, with the Collateral being paid if the Courier doesn't make it with your items, you still get your profit

[lordcooper]

Hauling that much in something so squishy* is not a smart thing to do, even if you're rolling in isk.  Continuing to make the same mistake after being repeatedly punished for it is quite frankly mental.  Even more so if it's enough to 'ruin' you.  Your poor decision making does not say anything bad about the game.  Try running a business IRL and visibly carrying all your assets around with you in public, see how well that works out.

You can also just outsource the risk by making a courier contract with collateral exceeding the cargo (so you even make a profit if they lose it).  Red Frog will haul up to billion isk at a time for a reasonably small fee, and freelancers will often do it even cheaper.

And not that it matters, but they almost certainly made a profit by killing you, it wasn't just for the lulz.

*100 million ISK per 11k EHP is typically considered the tipping point for when it's financially worthwhile to suicide gank someone.

[QuakeIV]

It was a single stack of cargo in two cases, and was totally destroyed each time.  Third time only like five million isk worth survived.  It was in fact for the lulz.

Also, I would have bought an intermediate hauler if there was any such option, but you are pretty much stuck with shitty t1s or proper frieghter/jump freighters which I never had the money for and which were exceedingly slow anyhow.  Part of my goal was to make money faster than mission running or other PVE isk faucets (which there are a few options for).

Finally, paying someone the whole profit margin in order to outsource the risk isnt exactly particlarly profitable, and the hauling rates (including red frog) generally well exceeded the margins.

[FakerFangirl]

Transport Fever, Offworld Trading Company, Entropia Universe.

Not sure if relevant, but you may enjoy Diplomacy 3. Or any game with an auction house and a player-driven economy and crafting (if EVE Online counts then so do Albion Online and ArcheAge and the many browser-based spinoffs).

[Zasir]

Maybe Victoria 2 with the POP demand mod.

[gimlet]

Not *quite* what you've described, but I wanted to mention the not-so-well-known "Wall Street Raider" by Roninsoft.  "It's a corporate takeover and stock market game, in which players strive to build their corporate empires by fair means or foul", and it has stock market, commodities market, trading in financial instruments like bonds and swaps.  *Some* corporate actions to build and manage the companies you acquire.   Economic cycles  by industry group.  Gain control of insurance companies and banks and use their assets to fund your maneuvers (the Warren Buffet way, whee ), call in loans, issue stocks and bonds.   I haven't played it in a while, he's added a whole bunch of stuff.   

There's a shareware version to try.  http://www.roninsoft.com/wsraider.htm