Poster Information
| Title | Toward a Framework for Gamifying Agent-Based Simulations |
| Presenter(s) | Lori Scarlatos |
| Session | Conference Reception, Game Exhibition, and Poster Session |
| Time | Thursday, October 16, 7:00p-10:00p |
| Location | Ballroom |
| Format | Poster Presentation |
| Description | Agent-based simulations can provide important insights to complex systems where autonomous entities operate in a common environment. The agent-based models used in these simulations are particularly well suited for representing socio-scientific systems - such as human impacts on the environment, or the field of medicine - where scientific, technical, and sociological factors all come into play. Yet a good simulation does not necessarily make a good game, as past experience has demonstrated. Scientists and researchers who develop these models would greatly benefit from some systematic way of turning their realistic simulations into engaging games for learners. This poster presents a framework that we are developing for this very purpose: gamifying agent-based simulations. For our initial test case, we have been working with an agent-based simulation called Energy Choices, which had previously been turned into a multi-player game by giving players control over individual entities and awarding points for achieving goals . Although using this early version of the game in undergraduate classes helped with learning, students who played it did not find it to be engaging. |