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Virtual-U (SimUniversity) Now Available

Posted by chrisd on from the hope-it-can-simulate-my-last-3-credits dept.

Ben Sawyer writes "The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Virtual U project recently shipped a new version our university simulator. This software simulation game, available at www.virtual-u.org lets you play as president of a U.S. university. You choose how faculty spend time, allocate funds, and decide if you should give special admission to athletes. Version 2.0 improves the model, and adds new features. The product is supported through a grant by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The product runs on Windows 2000/XP/9X/ME. The software is being used by a number of university education programs, and is part of an overall project to improve thinking about how universities are managed." No word on if virtual-u features a "BSA attack" scenario.

4 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. To make it truly realistic... by jcsehak · · Score: 5, Funny


    ... I'm going to skip it.

    --

    c-hack.com |
  2. The criterion for determining how good a game is.. by Neologic · · Score: 5, Funny
    I always determined how good a game is by asking the question, "Would I skip class to play this?".
    Can't see that happening with this- would you skip class to play at going to class?

    From the website: Virtual U is a caricature of real academic life grounded in authentic conceptual structures and data.
    Silly me, I always thought academic life was a caricature of reality already, how could they caricaturize it further?

    --

    "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

  3. Virtual Sim - U scenarios? by Navius+Eurisko · · Score: 5, Funny

    Any good sim game has to have scenarios you can play where an impending crisis looms before you. Here are my thoughts on some possible scenarios:

    - Your campus' Athletic fraternity have lost their frat house to a natural distaster. They, in turn, kick the nerd fraternity out of their house. Do you let the Athletes stay in the house or help the nerds get on the Greek council?

    - The RIAA is threatening to sue your university over student mp3 servers running on network. Do you rebuff the RIAA or crack down on the warez sites?

    - Students have petitioned administration to switch the student computer labs over to linux, saving thousands. The Evil company providing your university with their OS, has bound you with restrictive licences. Do you ignore the students or try and find a way around the licences?

  4. Re:Don't bother by martissimo · · Score: 5, Informative

    The game would definitely benefit from either a tutorial

    hmm something like this (241 KB PDF) ,or maybe this (22 MB zip file)

    lots of info listed right below the click here to download link ;)