Simulation & Gaming

Good educators constantly seek curricula materials and learning experiences which have clearly delineated attributes and proven effectiveness. This article provides an evaluation of the processes involved in the simulation/game CRISIS. Despite its age, this simulation/game remains an excellent, topical, short, relatively simple, interdisciplinary, noncomputer experiential activity for conveying a realistic "gestalt" and providing a basic understanding of the complexity of international political relations. This is evidenced by the results of multivariate analysis of the responses of 146 participants from five major discipline areas to a highly reliable 12-scale Simulation Evaluation Instrument, and by content-analysis of their open-ended responses concerning the game's strengths and weaknesses. The author discusses the management implications of the latter and provides game follow-up suggestions for enhancing learning.

Recent computerized simulation games have come with administration support systems and decision support systems for the participants. These support systems have been developed in the data file environment where a specific simulation game is built. Details about the data regarding where, how, and what are only coded in the simulation model. As such, retrieval of data for more flexible manipulation by the game administrator and the participants is difficult. Also, changes in the data representation as a result of any changes in the underlying simulation model cannot be readily reflected. Furthermore, most game data repeat in periods for the participants as they make decisions from period to period. It also repeats in the game zones for the game administrator when multiple games are run simultaneously. A database organization with a data dictionary taking these considerations into account should be useful. This article proposes an integrated framework called SG to coordinate all activities surrounding a simulation game to the game and organization databases through a game data dictionary. It enables the game administration system and the decision support system for the participants to be built and maintained more easily.

The theory for validating computerized business simulators proposed in this article is based on several premises derived from the research literature. Unique to the theory is the use of a hypothesis test and a methodology to describe the behavior of a simulator from the perspective of the student. THE EXECUTIVE GAME is validated to demonstrate the methodology of the theory. THE EXECUTIVE GAME is shown to be unstable, but it is suitable for the development of forecasting skills using exponential smoothing models. It is also shown that the proposed validation methodology reveals much more about the behavior of a simulator than existing validation methods. The theory should help simulation users choose simulators that closely match the learning goals of the courses in which computerized business simulators are used.

From the perspective that business simulations are tools that aid teaching, this model comprises four functions: concave exponential, convex exponential, logistic, and cusp catastrophe. The functions determine the effects of recruitment cost, benefits cost, training cost, and wage cost on the productivity of new hires, as well as rate of attrition, productivity of trained employees, and size of the labor pool. A simulation (CEO) allowing participants to change both the variables and the parameters of these functions has been developed. Tactical decisions involve variables; strategic decisions involve parameters. These functions allow a clear distinction to be made between the two types of decisions.

The article by Thavikulwat places great emphasis on the creation of valid algorithmic portrayals of the functions being simulated. The reader is cautioned, however, that a simulation 's algorithms are only one part of the experiential learning environment created by the adopter of a game. Learning in these situations comes from not only the game s algorithms but also from the interplay between students, interplay with the instructor through coaching and debriefing skills, and self analysis in reaction to the gestalt of the process.

Algorithmic adequacy is vital in computer-based games because designers control algorithms, because users cannot safely change algorithms, because elegant algorithms reduce programming errors, and because intrinsically valid algorithms increase a game's flexibility. Although algorithmic errors can remain unnoticed, this is generally more true of errors deliberately introduced by a researcher than of errors inadvertently made by a programmer. Besides being valid, good algorithms are comprehensible and clearly structured. When comprehensible algorithms are accompanied by configurable parameters, instructors can readily adapt the game, and create strategic decision-making situations, thereby opening new possibilities for learning and research.

The article presents a brief overview of CLUG and discusses a few runs of it in the graduate planning program of the Instituto de Ingeneria y Arquitectura of the University of Juarez, Mexrico. As such it suggests ways that CLUG might be improved when operated in a developing country.

This article is an assessment of a simulation designed and reported by Sadow, Jordan, and Sanchez-Navarro (1989) and which is used to teach the art of diplomacy. Three courses using it have been conducted, and through them common problems and decisions have surfaced. This article looks at ways to product a simulation of the highest possible quality, given the goal of modeling correctly the political behavior it is designed to teach —the course Conflict and Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century. The material provides instruction for international political interaction of a highly unstructured nature, which should be the guiding philosophy behind simulations to model it.