Simulation & Gaming

Serious video games for health are designed to entertain players while attempting to modify some aspect of their health behavior. Behavior is a complex process influenced by multiple factors, often making it difficult to change. Behavioral science provides insight into factors that influence specific actions that can be used to guide key game design decisions. This article reports how behavioral science guided the design of a serious video game to prevent Type 2 diabetes and obesity among youth, two health problems increasing in prevalence. It demonstrates how video game designers and behavioral scientists can combine their unique talents to create a highly focused serious video game that entertains while promoting behavior change.

This article presents an analysis of the ethical issues in debriefing simulations and games informed by a consideration of the ethical issues involved in debriefing research experiments. Ethical issues faced by debriefers and participants in postexperimental and postexperimental debriefing are discussed Guidelines for ethical participation in simulation/gaming debriefings are presented.

A simultaneous double auction market with bid and offer cards was utilized in classes on the theory and history of money and financial institutions and occasionally in classes on the theory of games. The prime purpose in using this game was to teach the students how to construct process models of economic phenomena. The second purpose was to consider the properties of the double auction market. The third purpose was to interpret the experimental results an link them to theory.

The results are presented from several experiments. They include the selection of points in the core, interpersonal comparisons of utility, and the reconsideration of Stone results on prominence in contrast with symmetry.

Two folded leaves of game materials. August 1984.

Describes the mechanisms of the Devil's Advocate game, a tool for introducing, discussing, and analyzing difficult and controversial topics. This game can be played by a group of 12–20 participants in a learning environment and takes 40–60 min. The game facilitator selects an issue for debate and develops a set of vignettes that is printed on an Opinion Statement Form (OSF). The players express their agreement or disagreement with the statements on a 4-point scale, and then the facilitator shuffles and redistributes the OSFs, assuring total anonymity of the respondents. After the discussion period, the facilitator instructs each player to check the answer to the second vignette on the OSF. This is followed by the facilitator summarizing the different positions held by different groups on the issues. A debriefing session in the end is used to probe emotions, reactions and personal views of the players. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Describes a negotiation exercise set in the context of the Middle East conflict to facilitate an understanding about how power differentials impact negotiation. The exercise involves multiparty negotiation that can evolve into coalition negotiation. Individuals are divided into teams of Israelis, Syrians, Jordanians, and Palestinians, and must negotiate to reach a peace agreement. After completing the exercise, individuals are debriefed about leadership style, group dynamics, power differentials, and negotiations. Exercise variations and recommendations for facilitators are included. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The Rules Of The Game is a game designed to generate organizational communication issues. Each player's goal is to have the issues he or she identifies as most important dealt with at the appropriate organizational level. The specific issues to be dealt with and the sequence of questions depend on the game director's goals and experience with debriefing and on the level of sophistication of the participants. Generic questions that flow from 3 types of criteria (validity, reliability, and utility) of the Rules Of The Game include what the implications of one's behavior are, how did the action unfold, and how worthwhile was the experience. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

PSYCHE-PATHS, $2.98, KMS Industries, Inc., Scientific Games Division, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1968. Available through book and game sellers. During the week from October 16 to October 23, 1970, Julia Shea's sixth-grade class at Wylie Middle School in Dexter, Michigan, played Psyche-paths. The week prior, 4 of these students had been among the 27 from Wylie who had competed in an Equations tournament in nearby Ann Arbor, and they had won. Mrs. Shea's students are sophisticated game players. All of them have access to chess, Equations, Probe, On-Sets, Eurocard, Nim, Perquacky, and Clue, as well as games they create whenever their regular assignments are finished. They play for fun and they play to learn, and we wanted their reaction to Psyche-paths. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68407/2/10.1177_003755007122009.pdf

GHETTO, designed by Dove Toll and marketed by Western Publishing Company was played several times during March and April, 1970, by students and teachers in the public elementary schools of Highland Park, Michigan. The reviewer is the Assistant Superintendant of Schools in Highland Park.

STARPOWER (Western Behavioral Sciences Institute 1150 Silverado, La Jolla, California 92037; 1969) was played by 36 people in a two-hour review session at the University of Michigan, Tuesday, July 28, 1970, and was discussed by the players, the director, and observers for another hour after the end of play. The participants ranged in age from about twelve to about fifty; roughly half of them had had some experience with social simulations. None of them had any previous knowledge of Starpower. The director, who has designed instructional games in logic and mathematics, had neither played nor directed Starpower before. The reviewer, who observed this session, is engaged in instructional gaming. He has had considerable exposure to the literature on simulations, but little firsthand experience with them; he had never played, directed, or observed Starpower before. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68725/2/10.1177_003755007014009.pdf

The negotiation leading to the historic Lausanne Peace Treaty provides a setting for exploring the impacts of different power configurations on bargaining behavior. Symmetric and asymmetric coalition structures existed on two key issues in the talks, passage through the straits and the question of civil rights for minorities. A content analysis of the transcripts showed some differences in bargaining behavior between the two power structures. These structures were simulated and compared to a third condition, bilateral negotiations between parties of equal power Opposing negotiators in the symmetric parties condition were more satisfied with the outcome, achieved faster resolutions, disagreed less, and made fewer competitive statements during the discussions than negotiators from these countries in the coalition conditions. Both similarities and differences were found in the comparison between the processes and outcomes in the actual and simulated negotiations. The results have implications for designing structures that improve negotiations and illustrate some advantages of experimental simulation.

SENATE BARON is an educational simulation in which each participant takes on the role of a U.S. Senator during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. As few as 12 and as many as 96 participants may participate in this. Players strive to gain influence by promoting legislation that they support and by blocking legislation that they oppose. The goal of the exercise is to illustrate the political climate of the 1930s, and the difficulties involved in building coalitions for and against various proposals. Facilitators may also wish to teach about the rhetorical strategies employed by the senators of the time through use of the optional Debate Phase.

Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68997/2/10.1177_104649648301400111.pdf

Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68751/2/10.1177_104687818801900217.pdf

This article reports on the 2008 ISAGA Summer School held in New Delhi (Gurgaon), India. This Summer School was hosted by the Institute for Integrated Learning in Management. Participants came from all over the world. This year’s theme was “The Art and Science of Simulation and Gaming Design and Facilitation for Business and Management.”

This article reports on the International Simulation and Gaming Association’s conference in Spokane, Washington, United States (ISAGA2010). It provides an overview of the many presentations and workshops at the conference, as well as hints of other events both planned and unplanned.

As 3D digital game–based learning (3D-DGBL) for the teaching of literature and history gradually gains acceptance, important questions will need to be asked regarding its method of design, development, and deployment. This article offers a synthesis of contemporary pedagogical, instructional design, new media, and literary-historical theories to articulate design guidelines for these types of game environments. From the synthesis emerges a discussion of critical components for the design of space, the virtual objects within it, and the needs of player-as-learner in synthetic worlds. Guidelines include preserving the otherness of the game world, supporting knowledge and social networks of learners in virtual spaces, and the importance of point of view with respect to situated contexts. This effort seeks to open a broader, multidisciplinary discussion on the design and use of 3D-DGBL in humanities curricula.

ABSEL News and Notes was formed as Simulation and Games became the official journal of ABSEL in 1982. Its purpose has been to give ABSEL members the opportunity to present news and views concerning business simulation and experimental exercise theory and practice. Therefore, member contribution is encouraged and can be sent in the form of short articles, position papers, requests for information, or letters. Material should be sent to Jerry Gosenpud, ABSEL News and Notes, Management Department, University of Wisconsin— Whitewater, Whitewater, WI 53190.

Business simulation game designers typically ignore product line interactions in the design of marketing simulation games. This article addresses the failing by modeling Rust, Zeithaml, and Lemon’s concept of the profitable-product death spiral, a product-mix interaction theory based on the concept of customer lifetime value (CLV). According to their theory, marketers often enter a cycle of decreasing demand by deleting less profitable products. When customers seek multiple products from the same company, the deletion of less profitable ones will often reduce demand for more profitable products as well, rendering them less profitable. Unchecked, the cycle continues until the company fails. This article discusses how to model the “death-spiral” effect by adapting Teach’s gravity-flow model to evaluate the product mix as a kind of “meta-product,” where desired products function as product attributes.

The didactic function of business games is often seen only in the development of sociocommunicative competences and general problem-solving strategies. An equally important aspect of business games lies in the acquirement of technical and problem-oriented knowledge, which is the focus of this article. Moreover, this knowledge dimension is further elaborated and justified based on four areas of learning objectives seen from learning-theoretical and from didactic points of view: (a) the definition of these structures of knowledge that (cognitive-psychologically seen) correspond to the respective areas of the learning objective; (b) referring to cognitive learning theories, the degree to which knowledge can be acquired, through which learning processes will be assessed; and (c) which conditions are suitable to trigger the respective learning processes. Didactic analyses based on these assumptions deal with the question of how these learning conditions can be implemented in business games.

An abstract is not available.

An abstract is not available.

The literature on climate change education recommends social, accessible action-oriented learning that is specifically designed to resonate with a target audience’s values and worldview. This article discusses GREENIFY, a real-world action game designed to teach adult learners about climate change and motivate informed action. A pilot study suggests that the game fostered the creation of peer-generated user content, motivated informed action, created positive pressure, and was perceived as a fun and engaging experience.

Based on 10 years of participatory modeling experience, the authors developed a multilevel participatory modeling process that links national policy makers, local councils, and grassroots stakeholders using a combination of games and computerized simulations. The challenge was to allow the target groups to design and evaluate collective adaptations to climate change that combine new collective rules for local, regional, and national regulations. This article details and highlights the novelty of the methodological process, which allows stakeholders to codesign frameworks for their own behaviors and rules. The experiment uses games and models with soft rules and the stakeholders themselves incorporate their own perceptions both in the board and computerized games. This was shown to be an efficient way to reach assessments and proposals that are shared between local stakeholders and policy makers, and should thus help improve the design of policies to face up to climate changes.