In Crude: The Oil Game (a.k.a. McMulti), each player is the CEO of an international energy corporation and can risk drilling for oil, pump crude where they have struck oil, refine the crude oil into gasoline, and sell refined gasoline to the high-demand consumer market. The players also have the option to seek their fortunes by speculating in the oil and gasoline markets, both domestically and internationally.

In addition to allocating areas that they own for drilling, pumping, refining and selling to consumers, random economic events may occur, sending the economy into Recession or Rapid Growth (or even better or worse than that), which shifts the prices of all commodities and equipment up or down based on these economic conditions. News events also affect players by either rewarding or penalizing them for holding too many barrels of their commodities or taxing their facilities.