An Analysis of the Insertion of Virtual Players in GMABS Methodology Using the Vip-JogoMan Prototype
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
12 (3) 7
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Received: 19-Dec-2007 Accepted: 21-Jun-2009 Published: 30-Jun-2009
Figure 1. Integration levels of MABS methodology |
Figure 2. GMABS Methodology |
Normally, these two previous activities (a and b) take place simultaneously, and their duration is defined in the beginning of the game;
(a) | (b) |
Figure 3. Interface of first scenario of JogoMan. Figure 3(a) presents the cities division (3 cities, each one with a different color). Figure 3(b) presents land occupation, the numbers represent the owners of each plot and the colors represent the land use (industry, agriculture, etc.). |
Figure 4. Selected Tools to implement ViP-JogoMan |
Figure 5. Mayor's graphic interface in ViP-JogoMan (in Portuguese) |
Table 1: Behavioral Profiles of Roles | ||
Role | Behavioral Profile | Objective |
Land Owner | Economic | Must save and earn money |
Ecologic | Must improve the ecological situation of the region and be concerned about reservoir pollution | |
AguaPura Administrator | Rational | Must improve water and sanitation networks with a rational use of money |
Ecologic | Must improve water and sanitation networks | |
Migrant Representative | Economic | Must allocate families without worrying about their social conditions |
Social | Must allocate families in good places, with infrastructure and near to urban areas | |
Mayors | Social | Must improve the citizens' quality of life |
Economic | Must improve citizens' quality of life if the city has enough money | |
Ecologic | Must improve the ecological situation of the city | |
+plot(L,R): not forest(L)[source(percept)] & not settlement(L)[source(percept)] & not agriculture(L)[source(percept)] & .myName(M) & owner(M,L,P)[source(percept)] <- changelanduse(l,agriculture); !nextposition(l,r).where Land Owners with Economic behavioral profile for EACH plot (L, R) test: IF this plot is not a forest AND it is not a settlement AND it is not agriculture AND it belongs to the player, THEN change the plot's land use to agriculture AND go to the next plot.
Figure 6. Example of Land Owners with Economic behavioral profile in AgentSpeak(L) using Jason |
This kind of analysis, based on behavior profiles, is well known in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) and presents us a quantitative measuring of the virtual players' behavior.
According to Dennis and Valicich (2001), the use of questionnaires helps to identify the players and how they interact with the game. For this reason, the majority of computational games evaluation is based on questionnaires. In our evaluation, it presents a qualitative measure of virtual and real players' behavior.
According to Ross et al. (1995), this kind of evaluation helps to better understand how people interact with new technology—computers—and other people. In our evaluation, it presents a quantitative measure of virtual and real players' level of interaction.
Figure 7. ViP-JogoMan graphical output with final results used in game debriefing |
Table 2a: Summary of Negotiations Started by Real Players | ||||||||||||
Negotiations:[7] | RR | RV | ||||||||||
Games/Type | CON[8] | AV[9] | DEV[10] | TOT[11] | AV[12] | DEV[13] | CON | AV | DEV | TOT | AV | DEV |
JogoMan | 33 | 8,25 | 10,02 | *[14] | * | * | - | - | - | - | - | - |
ViPJogoMan - VP | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
ViPJogoMan - RP | 27 | 9 | 2,94 | 85 | 28,33 | 6,54 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
ViPJogoMan - MP | 10 | 3,33 | 2,12 | 20 | 6,66 | 6,01 | 22 | 7,33 | 1,63 | 39 | 13 | 6,16 |
Table 2b: Summary of Negotiations Started by Virtual Players | ||||||||||||
Negotiations: | VR | VV | ||||||||||
Games/Type | CON | AV | DEV | TOT | AV | DEV | CON | AV | DEV | TOT | AV | DEV |
JogoMan | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
ViPJogoMan - VP | - | - | - | - | - | - | 30 | 15 | 1,41 | 54 | 27 | 2,82 |
ViPJogoMan - RP | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
ViPJogoMan - MP | 4 | 1,33 | 0,94 | 17 | 5,66 | 10,03 | 7 | 2,33 | 2,16 | 22 | 7,33 | 6,37 |
Table 2c: Summary of Negotiations | ||||||
Negotiations: | TOTAL | |||||
Games/Type | CON | AV | DEV | TOT | AV | DEV |
JogoMan | 33 | 8,25 | 10,02 | * | * | * |
ViPJogoMan - VP | 30 | 15 | 1,41 | 54 | 27 | 2,82 |
ViPJogoMan - RP | 27 | 9 | 2,94 | 85 | 28,33 | 6,54 |
ViPJogoMan - MP | 43 | 3,58 | 1,71 | 98 | 8,16 | 7,14 |
Table 3: Cash box values of Land Owners in a ViP-JogoMan VP game with 4 rounds | ||||
Player | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 4 | Round 5 |
Land Owner 1 - Ecologic | 2.000,00 | -49.452,00 | -53.104,00 | -51.756,00 |
Land Owner 2 - Economic | 2.000,00 | 5.300,00 | 8.600,00 | 11.900,00 |
Land Owner 3 - Ecologic | 2.000,00 | -70.300,00 | -56.100,00 | -53.900,00 |
Land Owner 4 - Economic | 2.000,00 | 6.500,00 | 11.200,00 | 15.900,00 |
Land Owner 5 - Ecologic | 2.000,00 | -89.500,00 | -68.600,00 | -63.700,00 |
Land Owner 6 - Economic | 2.000,00 | 7.000,00 | 12.000,00 | 17.000,00 |
Land Owner 7 - Ecology | 2.000,00 | -71.500,00 | -15.700,00 | -12.900,00 |
Land Owner 8 - Economic | 2.000,00 | 5.387,00 | 8.774,00 | 12.161,00 |
Land Owner 9 - Ecologic | 2.000,00 | -82.139,00 | -52.965,00 | -50.791,00 |
Table 4: Bilateral negotiations to buy/rent plots between players in the first round of the first ViP-JogoMan RP game | |||||
Buyer | Seller | Type of Message | Plot | Value | |
1 | AguaPura | Land Owner 1 | Propose | 1 | 1.000 |
2 | AguaPura | Land Owner 1 | Propose | 20 | 1.000 |
3 | AguaPura | Land Owner 2 | Propose | 2 | 1.000 |
4 | AguaPura AguaPura AguaPura AguaPura AguaPura | Land Owner 2 Land Owner 2 Land Owner 2 Land Owner 2 Land Owner 2 | Propose Request Propose Request Propose | 22 22 22 22 22 | 1.000 40.000 2.500 30.000 2.500 |
5 | LandOwner 6 | Land Owner 4 | Propose | 43 | 1.000 |
6 | LandOwner 6 | Land Owner 5 | Propose | 42 | 1.000 |
7 | LandOwner 6 | Land Owner 5 | Propose | 49 | 1.000 |
8 | Mayor C Mayor C Mayor C | Land Owner 6 Land Owner 6 Land Owner 6 | Propose Request Accept_proposal | 59 59 59 | 1.000 1.200 1.200 |
9 | Mayor C Mayor C Mayor C | Land Owner 6 Land Owner 6 Land Owner 6 | Propose Request Propose | 52 52 52 | 1.000 3.000 1.500 |
10 | LandOwner 2 | Land Owner 8 | Rent | 46 | 500 |
Table 5: Negotiations in ViP-JogoManRP games | ||
RP | Concluded Negotiations | Total Negotiations |
Test 1 | 10 | 29 |
Test 2 | 5 | 20 |
Test 3 | 12 | 36 |
Average | 9,0 | 28,33 |
TOTAL | 27 | 85 |
Table 6: Negotiations in ViP-JogoMan MP games | ||||||||||
MP | Concluded Negotiations | Total Negotiations | ||||||||
RR | RV | VR | VV | TOT | RR | RV | VR | VV | TOT | |
Test 1 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 15 | 12 | 53 |
Test 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 20 |
Test 3 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 4 | 18 | 0 | 3 | 25 |
TOTAL | 10 | 22 | 4 | 7 | 43 | 20 | 39 | 17 | 22 | 98 |
The use of behavioral profiles based on BDI architecture to model and implement these players seems to be well suited to make their decisions believable, since most real players did not identify the virtual players during the tests.
We believe that the graphical interfaces supply the players with adequate conditions to negotiate with each other, as the number of negotiations in the ViP-JogoMan session tests has increased, when compared to the JogoMan session tests.
2See Annex B for a description of such strategies.
3 Some Negowat Project members evaluated the behavioral profiles. Most of them are experts from Biology/Agronomy and Sociology/Anthropology.
4 As a completed or concluded negotiation, we consider a negotiation that generates an action, like buying a plot.
5 In Mixed Players Games, the proportion of real players (people) was 50%. As ViP-JogoMan needs 14 players, 7 of them were real players and the others were virtual ones.
6 In our tests, we have arbitrarily decided to define the virtual players' roles.
7 We played a different number of session tests for each game type: in JogoMan 4 session tests; in VP 2 session tests; RP and MP 3 session tests.
8 Number of concluded negotiations.
9 Average of concluded negotiations.
10 Standard deviation of concluded negotiations.
11 Total number of negotiations.
12 Average of negotiations.
13 Standard deviation of negotiations.
14 In JogoMan Prototype we do not have the total number of negotiations.
1. What do you expect by participating of this game session? 2. How often do you surf on the net during a week? ( ) every day ( ) 2 or 3 times a week ( ) once a week ( ) less than once a week 3. Have you already played any game (RPG or not) by Web? ( ) Yes. Which one? ( ) No 4. In your opinion, which are the major problems of water management in peri-catchments? Could you explain? 5. In your opinion, which are the successful aspects in a natural resources negotiation?
1. What role did you play during the game? Were you satisfied with your performance? What were your goals in the game? Did you achieve these goals? How? 2. What did you think about the game? What kind of expectation did you have? Explain 3. What did you learn about water management? 4. Did you have some problems during the negotiations with other players? Could you negotiate in a deeper way? Do you think that the chat is a proper way of negotiation? 5. In your opinion, who had the bigger negotiation power? (write the name of the players) 6. What is the kind of relationship between the players? (cooperation or competition) 7. What did you learn about negotiation? 8. During the game, did you understand what was happening (the progress)? Do you think that the collective negotiations were positive? Did all players execute what was accorded during these negotiations? 9. During the game, did you use maps, table of prices or any other kind of information? 10. For you, the major problems in the game were: ( ) Negotiation by Web ( ) Understanding the rules ( ) Time in each round ( ) Making decisions ( ) Other: 11. In this game, some synthetic players could have been inserted. Do you think that some players have shown a non-human behavior? Which of them? Why?
Analyzed Variables for Behavioral Profiles | ||
Role | Behavioral Profile | Variables |
Land Owner | Economic | Cash box |
Ecologic | Reservoir Pollution | |
AguaPura Administrator | Rational | Reservoir Pollution Cash box % Families with water % Families with sanitation |
Ecologic | Reservoir Pollution % Families with water % Families with sanitation | |
Migrant Representative | Economic | Cash box % People live in slums |
Social | % People live in slums % Families with water % Families with sanitation | |
Mayors | Social | Social Development % People live in slums % Families with water % Families with sanitation % Unemployment % Public Services |
Economic | Social Development Reservoir Pollution Cash box % Families with water % Families with sanitation | |
Ecologic | Social Development Reservoir Pollution % Families with water % Families with sanitation | |
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