Investment & Return on Investment

About this model

This diagram models the economic aspects of investment and return on investment (ROI) within a gaming context, specifically comparing the outcomes for investing and non-investing players. Two sources generate earnings for investing and non-investing players, feeding into respective pools of gold. A crucial part of this system involves a decision node where the investing player can choose to upgrade (represented by a converter node), which initially costs a set amount of gold, thereby depleting the investing player's gold pool but subsequently increasing their earnings by modifying the rate at which gold is generated. This adjustment is facilitated through a state connection from the "Investments Made" pool to the earnings source of the investing player, indicating an increase in earnings as investments are made.

The model features a dynamic element where the ROI for the investing player is explicitly tracked and compared against the non-investing player's earnings, showcasing the eventual benefit of investing despite initial costs. This comparison is made possible through a register node that calculates the current ROI by comparing the accumulated gold of both players. The system embodies fundamental economic principles such as cost, investment, and the time value of money, illustrating how players' investment decisions impact their financial outcomes over time. The interactions between the nodes, combined with the formulas used for resource connections and state changes, encapsulate the varying financial trajectories of players based on their investment choices.

“Investment & Return on Investment” is a diagram in the Machinations Community by Harry Ashton.

You can open the original diagram in the Machinations app, press Play to watch how resources move through it, and change its values to see how the system responds. Machinations is a visual tool for designing, simulating and balancing game economies and other systems, where resources flow through sources, pools, drains, converters and gates. In a diagram, a source creates resources, a pool stores them, a drain removes them, a converter changes one resource into another and a gate decides where they go next.