Executive Suite (video game)
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Cover art
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| Developer(s) | Armonk Corporation |
| Publisher(s) | Armonk Corporation |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
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| Genre(s) | Life simulation involving managerial skills |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Executive Suite is a text-based business social simulation game developed in 1982 for the IBM Personal Computer running DOS. It was developed by Armonk Corporation, a small software development company based in Newport Beach, California, and was published under their "Gray Flannel Fun" label. The game is a prototypically self-aware humor-driven (yet with serious aspects) 1980's "executive simulator" similar to the 1989 NES game Wall Street Kid. Unlike most other business simulations, it does not involve making actual economic decisions or managing stores of resources. Rather, the player must manage the trajectory of their character's career at a single fictional corporation, MMC (Mighty Microcomputer Corporation) by making a series of on-the-job and managerial decisions while navigating office politics, evading blame for bad outcomes, and gaining support in different roles throughout the company.
The game presents the player with situations and problems which must be solved by choosing from multiple choices. After a series of questions the game evaluates the player's performance resulting in either a career advancement option or getting fired from the company. During the course of the game, the economy can change from a boom into a recession and even into a depression. The goal of the simulation is to rise to the position of President, thus coming to occupy the titular and coveted "Executive suite", before hitting the firm's mandatory retirement age of seventy-five.
The game begins with an interview portion, where the applicant arrives at the office of MMC's Personnel Manager. The player is asked a series of probing demographic questions about where they went to school, what they studied, how well they did in their studies, what their personality and level of ambition is like, their favorite sport and years of work experience, as well as their age, gender, and marital status. Some of this information is used to determine the list of entry-level jobs available to the player—the high school graduate is stuck with an initial position in the mailroom or as a maintenance person while someone with an Engineering education and good grades will be able to enter at a higher position. Amusingly, background and consistency has little to no bearing beyond this point – until very senior levels, the player is encouraged to take jobs in many departments to build their ranks of named friends across the organization.
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