So there’s a game from the 90s called Railroad Tycoon 2, and one of the most rediculous features that has forever cemented itself in my memory and I keep coming back to hoping I can better work it is the game contains a full simulation of the stock market, complete with purchasing stocks on margin, margin calls, and of course whatever actions you take as a wealthy person in the stock market can impact yours and your opponent’s companies and their individual wealth. How you operate your railroad company directly impacts your stock value as well.

Spend a crapton of money building a bunch of track? Investors get excited for a couple of years and your railroad’s stock value balloons except if it fails to increase profits noticably within a couple of years your company’s stock value starts crashing and investors start threatening to oust you as CEO. Build a profitable railroad but don’t invest enough into growth? Investors start grumbling until you jack up the dividends

In that game, I’ve purposely crashed the stock value of a competing railroad company using my own wealth in order to buy out said company at a discount, I’ve bankrupted opponents by carefully crashing my own railroad’s stock value. I’ve also bought too much stock on margin just to have an economic downswing lower the stock value significantly bringing all of my assets into negative value, forcing a margin call thereby forcing the sale of all 80% of my stake in my railroad, thereby cratering the railroad’s value in the stock market because literally 80% of it is sold off to investors in one fell swoop, and then getting my ousted as CEO for it