General Questions

1.If a firm is suffering from capital losses, will it stop participating in the simulation? Can it become bankrupt?
Answer: No, a firm cannot file for bankruptcy during the game. Heavy financial losses however, will affect its ability to acquire loans, lower its share value and affects the students' overall score in the target function.

2.What are the differences between a simulation executed by a student and a simulation executed by the teacher?
Answer: A simulation executed by students is used to estimate the quarter's results and determine which actions the firm's management must undertake. The teacher's simulation's is the final simulation of the quarter. After the teacher's simulation no further simulations can be executed.

3.What is the simulation bar and where does it appear?
Answer: The simulation bar appears at the bottom of the simulator window. The bar contains necessary information for the firm's management; current server time and date, bank balance and number of runs made during the current quarter.

4.What is the simulation status? In what modes can the simulator exist? How can one know in what stage is the simulation?
Answer: The simulation status can be found on the simulator status bar.

The simulation can be found in either a 'Ready' state, waiting for a student's simulation, or at a 'Teacher's Simulation' state, waiting for the teacher's final simulation of the quarter.

5.What is the meaning of 'Future Bank Balance' that appears in the simulation status bar?
Answer: This is the firm's projected bank balance after the last simulation for the end of the current quarter.

6.What is target time and where does it appear?
Answer: Target time is the endtime of the current quarter. The endtime for the current quarter appears in the main screen and in the 'Dates' screen.

7.What is the difference between a 'local' run and an 'on-line' run?
Answer: A 'local' run is a simulation made using other firms' decisions stored on the user's computer from previous runs. An 'on-line' run uses data reloaded from the server when running the simulation. Running an 'on-line' simulation takes more time, and uses up to date data. Make sure to run 'on-line' simulations from time to time, otherwise, this can lead to making decisions based upon no longer relevant data.

8.How can one tell if his computer is capable of running the Decision Makers Simulator?
Answer: The Decision Makers Simulator requires an Internet web browser and a Java Virtual Machine for your operating system. To download the latest version of the Java Virtual Machine, go to Decision Makers web site and visit the demo page.

9.Does the simulator support multiple users working at the same time?
Answer: The simulator supports several users simultaneously working from the same firm. However, when two users from the same firm login, the first user receives a message that he is no longer affecting the firm's decisions.

10. How can one tell what version of the simulator is he running?
Answer: The simulator's version can be found at the main login screen.

11.How can one export data from in-game tables to excel?
Answer: Screens containing management reports and graphs have a button named "Text" or "Print". This button is used for exporting the current on-screen data to a format readable by MS-Excel. For more information, please refer to the user manual under to topic 'Exporting Data'.

12.Is the simulation cost a fixed price? How much does a simulation cost?
Answer: The simulation's cost changes during the quarter. As the quarter's end draws near, simulation cost increases. Also, running more simulations costs more per simulation. The simulation's cost can be found in the 'Dates' screen. The simulation cost is controlled by the game moderator.

13.How can one check if one is running the appropriate version of Java?
Answer: While running the simulator, a small icon, the Java VM icon, appears in the lower right-hand portion of the screen. Click this icon to display the Java details screen.

14.What actions are impossible after a quarter ends?
Answer: After quarter's end decisions cannot be changed.

15.Where can one see when was the last change made to the firm's decisions.
Answer: All decision changes are available for review under the 'Decisions' screen. Previous decisions are also available for viewing in that screen, with the decision parameters available for further viewing.

16.How can one tell if a report produced by a simulation was produced from an off-line or on-line simulation?
Answer: In the header of each report, the system includes information about the source of the data that was used in order to generate the report.

17. What data sources can be used in order to produce an XY graph?
Answer: Both historical and on-line data

18.Can one run a simulation 10 minutes before the end of a quarter?
Answer: Yes, but its cost will be very high.

19.What is the In-game Advisor? Where can one see their advisories and when are they created?
Answer: The 'In-game Advisor' is a built-in feature in the Decision Makers Simulator that provides advisories to the user according to their firm's policy and management decisions. Different advisories are presented according to the state of the market state, its optimal solution for the decision variables and the efficiency of the firm's resources. Advisories can be seen when clicking the advisor button in the upper toolbar.