While a substantial amount of research has been conducted into the use of simulation games in business and marketing education, little of this has focused on the student experience. In this project we undertake a comparative analysis of student experiences of the use of the same marketing simulation ('The Marketing Game!') at two universities in the UK. The overall purpose of the study is to understand better how students perceive and respond to simulation games, in order to make more effective use of simulations in the curriculum. The design of the study enables us to analyse the comparative responses of different categories of students (different demographic categories, and other categories thought to be relevant including prior educational qualifications and work experience), thus providing advice to marketing educators on the likely responses to simulation games of different groups of students within a diverse student body