{"id":3562,"date":"2005-08-06T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-06T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2005\/08\/06\/dividends\/"},"modified":"2005-08-06T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-06T10:00:00","slug":"dividends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2005\/08\/06\/dividends\/","title":{"rendered":"Dividends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dividends<\/a><\/h2>\n

reviewed by Moritz Eggert<\/i><\/p>\n

During my visit to Singapore last year I had the pleasure to meet Nikki Lim and Evelyn
\nBrunner, a game designing couple then on the verge of starting their own company. While
\nthere I had the chance to test their prototype of Giza, a tile laying game, with promises
\nof “more games to come”. Now their first published game, “Dividends”,
\nhas arrived by post, and I had the opportunity to try it out several times during the
\nlast weeks.<\/p>\n

“Dividends” is a pure-breed stock market games, probably closest to games
\nlike “Long Short” or the German “Boersenspiel”. Unusually it can be
\nplayed by up to 12 players, although playing with 12 might produce a lot of downtime (but
\nI haven’t tried it yet). But it is certainly nice to have a game that can also be
\nplayed with 7 players, a situation that often arises…<\/p>\n

The production quality of the game is nothing short of amazing. Although the board
\n(which is basically a turn track only) is rather small, there is a plastic rack holding
\nthe stocks, playing money, metal (!) pegs to indicate dividends, a lot of cards and
\ncounters. All the playing material comes fully “punched”, even to the point
\nthat the counters have already been put into Ziploc bags. The game can literally be
\nplayed “out of the box”, simply read the rules and start. Singapore is close to
\nChina, and of course this is where the game has been produced, but Evelyn (the graphic
\ndesigner) has told me that it’s not really cheaper for Singaporeans to produce there.
\nStill, this is certainly an amazingly high quality effort rare for a starting game
\ncompany (and their other game, “Giza”, also looks amazing).<\/p>\n

Game play is deceivingly simple: Each player gets a certain amount of money (depending
\non the number of players) and tries to multiply it through trades at the stock
\nexchange.<\/p>\n

\"stock<\/p>\n

There are 5 generic “companies” in 5 colours, with an equal number of shares
\n(10). At the beginning of the game (and also later) the dividends are randomly determined
\nthrough the roll of dice. The system is simple: the dividends can either be in the high
\n(white), medium (grey) or low (black) range. If they are high they can only fall by 1-3
\nslots, if they are low they can only rise by 1-3 slots, if they are medium they can rise
\nor fall (50% chance). If only the real stock market was that simple :-)<\/p>\n

The price of the stocks is determined by the number of sold certificates. The first
\none always costs 1000$, the next one 1200$, then 1400$ etc. Players start buying the
\ncertificates from the bottom up, and if they sell them they are put in the next free slot
\nfrom the top. This means that what happened with the company in between sells\/buys
\ndetermines your net gain – If many certificates have been sold after you bought your own
\nyou might win a hefty gain when selling it back now, but you might also lose a lot if
\nafter your turn other players have sold their certificates. The problem is that sometimes
\nyou are even forced to sell under such conditions, but more about that later.<\/p>\n

This is of course why turn order in the game is all important, and not very
\nsurprisingly the order of play is auctioned in free auctioning system at the beginning of
\neach round After that each player has the possibility (in turn order) to buy\/sell stock
\n(optional), play influence cards and discard unused influence cards. Influence cards are
\ngained if you hold the majority in a company only – they come in all colours (there are
\nalso jokers) and shift the dividends (payout) of the company they are played on by 1 (up
\nor down is indicated on the card). It is possibly to play several cards on the same
\ncompany in one go, but you can also decline to play cards by simply discarding them
\n(usually the ones bad for the stock you own).<\/p>\n

After all players have completed their action phase there is a payout phase, where
\ndividends as they are now are paid. The dividends go up in 50$ steps, from zero to 450$,
\nusually you will always have the feeling you don’t get enough! This is why
\nselling\/buying stock wisely will win the game for you, because there the profit can be
\nmuch higher…<\/p>\n

\"board\"\/<\/p>\n

Then influence cards are distributed, one for each share of a company in which you
\nhave the majority.<\/p>\n

After that one of four events is drawn:<\/p>\n