Olivier Barreteau, François Bousquet, Jean-Marie Attonaty (2001)
Role-playing games for opening the black box of multi-agent systems: method and lessons of its application to Senegal River Valley irrigated systems
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
vol. 4, no. 2,
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Received: 01-Nov-00 Accepted: 01-Feb-01 Published: 31-Mar-01
Both these tools have been used jointly in a fully described experiment in the Senegal river valley for issues of co-ordination among farmers. Role-playing games first enabled us to work on the validation of the MAS. Subsequently, the combination of both tools has proved to be an effective discussion support tool.
Figure 1. association of MAS, RPG and field observations in a two-cycle method |
These two cycles are designed to allow feedback to the real world and stakeholders and to promote communication. The use of simulation results is a first means, more dedicated to testing consistency of assumptions and to the identification of missing knowledge. The RPG is an additional means to communicate about the model with stakeholders. This communication may result in more than corrective modifications of the current MAS or RPG model. According to the stage and the purpose of these tools, several successive versions may exist and be used.
Figure 2. scheme representation structure (from Barreteau & Bousquet, 2000) |
Figure 3. object representation of a simulated society (from Barreteau & Bousquet, 2000) |
These cards are trilingual: pulaar, wolof, French. These are the commonest languages spoken in areas where the RPG has been played. For teaching purposes, an English version is being developed. The goal cards are shown in Figure 4 below.
Figure 4. set of goal cards among which players have to choose randomly |
Figure 5. representation of the scheme on a blackboard during a game session in Senegal |
This board represented in Figure 5 is located in a different place from where the players are mainly based, representing the villages area. The two places may be near one another but out of view. There are two distinct villages separated from one another and with relations of conflict. Players belong to one of them randomly and independently of the location of their plot in the scheme.
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