RollerCoaster Tycoon — Capitalist Worldview Graph

Arrivalvisitors enter

Rideschoose attraction

Wood coasterhigh novelty · high wear

Carouselgentle · durable

Ferris wheelscenic · moderate wear

Commonssocial value

Plazagathering + events

Gardenrest + ecology

Shared facilitiesfood + rest + care

Membershipsome visitors join

joindecline

Invitationlearn about membership

Declinecontinue as visitor

Onboardingorientation + welcome

Contributiondues + labor

Trainingskills + responsibility

Maintenancecapacity restored

Mechanicsride repair

Cleaningcommons care

Inspectionprevent failures

Governancerules + allocation

Proposalsideas + motions

Budgetingshared resources

Allocationaccess + priorities

Exitvisitors leave

Governance ⋮⋮

Open proposal

Build a shaded rest garden?

Decision rule: ⅔ support + quorum

Shared resources ⋮⋮

Common fund$8,420

Maintenance reserve$3,100

Volunteer hours126h

Ride credits740

Income this cycle $0 Costs this cycle $0

Visitor contribution Member dues / cycle

Collective sensing ⋮⋮

Joy

Fatigue

Queue stress

Ecology

Signals inform deliberation; they do not automatically dictate action.

Participation & contribution ⋮⋮

Mechanics circle14

Garden stewards9

Hosts & care21

Design group7

Capacity allocation ⋮⋮

Wooden coaster · next hour

Current rule: simple queue. First-arrival determines access.

Rides · durability & novelty ⋮⋮

🎢 Wood coasterhealthy · 0 rides

Durability

Novelty

🎠 Carouselhealthy · 0 rides

Durability

Novelty

🎡 Ferris wheelhealthy · 0 rides

Durability

Novelty

Surplus use ⋮⋮

This cycle: $1,260 surplus

Maintenance Access fund Ecology New projects

Allocation total: 100%

Park dynamics ⋮⋮

Visitors0

Contributors0

Wear18

Capacity82

Visitor flow Join rate

Blue circles = visitors · larger pale circles = members/contributors. Members mix leisure, commons time, contribution, governance, and eventually leave for the day.

Park state: stable

Members: leisure 0 · contributing 0 · commons 0 · exiting 0

Co-op park interface sketch. Open tools from the top dock or click a system node. Drag system nodes to rearrange the field. Expand/collapse hubs without restarting, and switch flow timing between normalized and structural.

RollerCoaster Tycoon as economic worldview

Drag nodes. Scroll to zoom. Click a node for details. Larger nodes are higher-level assumptions.

Force-directed hierarchy · D3.js

Selected node

RCT capitalist worldview

Root assumption

The park is modeled as a privately controlled productive system coordinating people primarily through property, prices, wages, investment and managerial optimization.

Deeper assumption

And there's one particularly fascinating deeper assumption:

RCT models society almost entirely through exchange rather than reciprocity.

Guests don't build rides for each other. They don't volunteer. They don't form associations. They don't collectively own the park. They don't pool resources to construct a coaster. They don't elect the park manager. Workers don't become owners. Successful attractions don't become commons. Guests don't give gifts. Neighborhoods don't spontaneously emerge. Nobody says, “We all really like the log flume, so 400 of us are going to maintain it.”

Almost every durable relationship is:

owner → asset → service → customer → payment → owner.

And yet there's an interesting wrinkle: RCT isn't actually a very pure capitalist simulator.

You're simultaneously capitalist, central planner, urban planner, central bank customer, employer, infrastructure authority and minor deity. There isn't really a competitive market of firms. Shops don't have independent owners. Mechanics don't negotiate wages. Land doesn't have a speculative market. Competitors don't build neighboring parks. Capitalists don't compete with you. Workers don't organize. Suppliers barely exist.

So in some respects, RCT's economy looks less like a competitive capitalist economy and more like an authoritarian company town governed by a benevolent optimizer.

Co-op RollerCoaster Tycoon

If you were making “Co-op RollerCoaster Tycoon,” you wouldn't merely remove money. You could systematically replace each mechanism with a different coordination mechanism:

ownership → stewardship
wages → membership / contribution
customers → participants
prices → allocation
profit → surplus
investment → collective capital formation
management → governance
analytics → collective sensing
growth → sufficiency / resilience

That would produce a genuinely different game, rather than RCT with a co-op skin.