Managerial abilities refer to the capabilities an employee has in performing managerial works in an organization or in work environment. Managerial abilities also show how an employee is able to cooperate and communicate with people while actively performing self-evaluation on working manner and emotional management. There are 5 skills that are required for managing, which are: technical skills, conceptual skill, interpersonal & communication skill, decision making skill, and diagnostic & analytical skill.

 

There are so many ways to improve managerial abilities by honing those 5 required skills. You can improve it in a hard way, or in a more fun way, one of the fun ways is through video games. Some video games, especially RPG (role-playing game), were designed to force the player to think on how to get the best outcome for their game, this way it is not enough for the player to just rely on their reflects on mashing button but also on their ability in conceptual skill, interpersonal & communication skill, decision making skill, and diagnostic & analytical skill.

 

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is one example of role-playing game that can improve managerial abilities through its gameplay. Although Harvest Moon: Back to Nature was released more than 20 years ago, it offers a gameplay that require good managerial abilities in order win or to get a good ending. Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is a farm simulation game that tells a story about a young man that inherited a ramshackle farm in a small town. The game begins when mayor and other villagers decide that he would be allowed to stay as the rightful owner if he restored the farm to its original state within three years. Otherwise, he would have to leave.

 

Sounds simple, right? But it is easier to said than done. Over the course of the game the player must build a thriving farm, and become a friend of the citizens of Mineral Town. Throughout the game the player must balance between attending to the farm and interacting with other characters to maintain friendships. There are also side quests that the player must complete in order to continue the story and other activities outside farming and socializing.

 

In the beginning of the game, the player only has a small amount of money and the citizens of Mineral Town are just strangers. Will you just focus in building your farm from the beginning by earning a lot of money but sacrificing your time socializing, or will you waste your time befriending the citizens of Mineral Town and make them help you in building your farm? Will you focusing in selling crops, or just try to expand your business in selling dairy products? All of those questions just lead you to more question. Which method that will give you more advantages? Which method is the quickest to bring back your farm to its former glory? Which method is the easiest yet give you more good time?

 

To make it clear on how a good managerial ability can help you in playing this game, let us see how you can "optimize" your game on in-game daily basis. Player will have 24 hour of in-game time (about 10 minutes of real time) a day to spent, the way the player spent his day will decide the outcome of the game in long term. So, in 10 minutes player has to choose between watering his crops, taking care of the livestock, clearing the field from weed and other junk, socializing with the citizens of Mineral town, trying to get a girlfriend, looking for event to acquire quest item, looking for quest by visiting point of interest inside the game, mining mineral to earn more money, going fishing, shopping, exploring the town, cutting down the trees for lumber, and so on. Yes, a lot to do for just ten minutes, so from the moment the player start a new day in the game, the player should have planned how they want to spent the day.

 

If the player decides to taking care the crops and the livestock, socializing, mining, and flirt some girl to get a girlfriend, then the player will have to sacrifice his exploring time. Missing exploring time might cause the player to miss some event and failed to get quest item, which means the player just lost his change on that day to get something important. Or the player can try to spend his day socializing, flirt some girl, shopping, and exploring the town, which means the player will have to let go his time in taking care his farm and mining which means not earning money that day.

           

Player with good managerial ability will now which to prioritize by assessing the situation inside the game. For example, on rainy day the player could focus on socializing, shopping, and exploring the town because no need to water the crops on rainy day and the livestock will be staying inside the barn so taking care of them will be easier. On weekend the player could focus on taking care of the crops and livestock, mining for minerals, and fishing since most shops and places are closed on weekend, so no need to explore the town. Those are just a few examples how to spend a day in the game properly, there are still many ways to optimize your gameplay.

 

Even in building the farm, the player will be challenged on managing the farm properly and as optimized as possible. For example, choosing what crops to plant also need good conceptual and analytical skills, let's say the player will be faced by several choices of crops:

- Corn which has high price to sell and can be harvested multiple times, but has long harvest time and quite expensive seed.

- Potato which has low price to sell and only can be harvested one time, but has short harvest time and quite cheap seed.

- Tomato which has medium price to sell and can be harvested multiple times, but has short harvest time and quite expensive seed.

 

From the choices above the player will need to analyze which crops that should be planted more and which crops should be planted less, moreover the farm has limited space for planting crops which means the player also has to manage the number of the crops.

 

In conclusion, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is not a type of "just for fun" game. In order to get the best experience in playing the game, a good managerial ability is needed. Even a player without a good managerial ability will be forced to learn while finishing the game. Harvest Moon: Back to Nature also has an interesting story line, quests, and activities so the player will find the game quite interesting while improving managerial ability without realizing it.

 

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is available on Playsation One, but it also can be played with a Playstation emulator on PC, Mac, iPhone and Android. Metacritic.com, one of the trusted website that give scores to video games, gives 9 out of 10 for Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, which shows the quality of this retro video games.