Words Worth Knowing: Tycoon Game
Words Worth Knowing was a vertical I wrote weekly explaining key pieces of gaming jargon to parents, guardians and teachers, as part of the larger overall GameHub outreach effort. The column ran for nearly two years and resulted in around 60 WWK articles. GameHubHQ.com closed in late 2017. This piece originally appeared on April 04, 2016.
What It Is: Tycoon = Business Strategy Simulation.
What It Means: A tycoon game is strategy game where the player builds a business of some kind, balancing finances whilst trying to achieve growth.
Why You Care: Tycoon games are a well-beloved sub-genre of strategy games. The player takes control of an enterprise and tries to grow it, turn a profit and keep customers and investors happy. Titles you may be familiar with include Roller-Coaster Tycoon, Airport Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, Game Dev Tycoon and Hotel Tycoon. Very popular in the '90s and '00s, the genre seems to have waned a little in recent years, for reasons that are unclear.
