GAMING simulations (games) have been closely relatedwith systems, and particularly with systems characterised as being complex. There is a long history on the evolution of systems from simply technical and social, to socio-technical (STS) and all the way to complex (adaptive) systems (CAS). Within this ever-increasing complexity, an important question that can be raised is: What is the role of games? Or in other words, what do games have to offer, that other tools do not, that can help us understand and further explore these complex systems? @en

Background. The abstraction of complex systems, which is required by default when modelling gaming simulations, is a convoluted and time-consuming process. For gaming simulations to be efficient and effective, the problem of the real system they imitate needs to be narrowed down and simplified as much as possible. Additionally, even after abstraction of the real system, multiple design decisions need to be made and these may differ depending on the gaming simulation. Aim. This article proposes a framework for formalizing, and consequently standardizing, expediting and simplifying, the modelling of gaming simulations. Method. The proposed framework applies game concepts pertaining to game theory in the abstraction of the real system and the game design decisions. Results. Application of the framework in three case studies reveals several advantages of incorporating game theory into game design, such as formally defining the game design elements and identifying the worst-case scenarios in the real-systems, to name but two. Conclusions. Given the framework’s advantages in general, and the game design recommendations it offers in particular, it is safe to conclude that, for the cases presented in this article, the framework make positive contributions towards the development of gaming simulations.@en

Simulations are the core of every railway system. Changes in the timetable and the infrastructure, or even in the internal processes of a railway company should be, and usually are, first tested through simulations. Given their significance and potential impact, simulations should be primarily validated; validation ensures-at least to some extent-that the returned results are credible and can be used for the intended purpose. This study is a detailed report on two case studies from the railway sector. The aim of this paper is to identify critical factors that can advance or hinder the validity and the effective usage of simulation models.@en

Debriefing is considered, by many scholars, to be a fundamental part of learning through games and simulations. Despite its significance, there is a lack of research in the area of debriefing, which results in unaddressed factors that inhibit debriefing. Research in the field is complicated by many influencing factors varying from context to game, the purpose of the game, conditions and player specifics, facilitators etc. Insight in the role of these influencing factors can aid in understanding how debriefing can be optimized. In doing this research so far two viewpoints are relevant, the first is the design of debriefing and the second one is the actual execution of the debriefing. The aim of this study is to identify, on the basis of literature, the influence of factors and their interrelation, and subsequently, to categorize them based on expert opinions, so as to determine which pitfalls have the highest influence on inefficiency and ineffectiveness of debriefing. Based on 12 pitfalls identified in literature, and through the use of an online questionnaire, facilitation experts evaluated the extent to which these pitfalls occur due to the design or the execution of the debriefing, and the extent to which they are influenced by the rules of games and simulations. All 12 pitfalls seem to occur in practice, to some extent, due to both the design and the execution of the debriefing. Nevertheless, some pitfalls appear to be more influenced either by design or by execution. Moreover, the results on the extent to which the pitfalls are influenced by the rules of games and simulations are inconclusive, due to the contradiction between the answers on the pre-defined questions and the comments of the experts. A method for further extending the list of pitfalls and verifying the results, hence minimizing the threat to the internal validity of the study, is proposed, which includes a more extensive literature review, interviews, and case studies.@en

Gaming simulations (games) are increasingly becoming the tool of choice for modeling and understanding the complexity of today's systems. This increased popularity has consequently revealed the weaknesses of games in several areas. These limitations range from inconsistencies on the game design to the unexploited explicit and tacit knowledge that games invoke. This paper focuses on games that do not aim at generalizing the produced knowledge but, instead, at understanding how a system works within a specific context. The first step of the analysis is identifying these limitations based on an extensive literature review. Based on this, different directions that could mitigate or even fully address these limitations are proposed. The paper concludes with a focused research agenda.@en

Gaming simulations (games) for policy and decision making have been the neglected “sibling” of educational and training games. The latter have experienced a widespread usage by practitioners and researchers, while the former have had limited, yet slowly increasing, adoption by organisations. As a result, various issues developing and using these games remain unaddressed. This includes the design of games, their validation, the actual game sessions, and applying the resulting knowledge from games in organisations. In this paper, solutions for issues identified in these four areas of gaming simulations are proposed. Solutions vary from purely analytical to purely social, stressing the interdisciplinary approach required to tackle the issues associated with them. The result consists of several theoretical and practical contributions as well as philosophical considerations regarding games for policy and decision making.@en

Thirty years of research on validation and verification have returned a plethora of methods and statistical techniques through methodological and case studies. It is, however, this abundance of methods and techniques that poses a major challenge. Due to time and budget constraints, it is impossible to apply all the available methods and techniques in a single study, and as such a careful selection has to be made. This paper builds on two assumptions: a) simulations, real-world systems, methods, and techniques can be defined on the basis of different characteristics and b) certain methods and techniques are more suitable than others for different kinds of simulation studies. The present study aims at identifying the specific characteristics that make certain methods and techniques more effective and more efficient than others, when juxtaposing these with the simulations' and systems' different characteristics. The conclusion will advance a methodology for choosing the most appropriate methods and techniques for validating and/or verifying a simulation.@en

Games for decision making have developed into a powerful tool for corporations. Irrespective of their size, corporations have been increasingly using these games in order to evaluate and ascertain impact-ful business decisions and strategies. Despite their proven added value to the decision making process, there is still lack of research on whether, and if so how, these games can be used by researchers and practitioners to build evidents on systems' behavior, as part of a larger scheme. To this effect, this paper proposes a framework to determine the different artifacts of games that should be logged and stored for future use.@en

The complexity of modern systems has made the use of simulations paramount, in order to test different scenarios in an affordable, ethical, and risk-free way. As such, simulations need to be validated, ensuring that the obtained results are meaningful. But validation apart from the computational difficulties, bears several other problems. The constant need for validation due to updates on the simulation software, the dependence on the validation experts to be always available for the new iterations and for presenting any new insights are just some of these problems. This paper proposes a framework, and applies it to two case studies, which is based on Web 3.0 technologies and the R statistical language as a mean to mitigate such problems.@en

While the topic of validating simulation models is rich in literature, validating the environments in which models run has been poorly researched. Despite the fact that such environments have high face validity, in most of the cases there are no formal methods developed for validating them. In this project, we first distinguish between the different forms of validity, such as data, model, and environment validity and then we propose an automated procedure for validating simulation environments, similar to what unit testing is for verification.@en

Educational games are a class of serious games whose main purpose is to teach some subject to their players. Despite the many existing design frameworks, these games are too often created in an adhoc manner, and typically without the use of a game design document (GDD). We argue that a reason for this phenomenon is that current ways to structure, create and update GDDs do not increase the value of the artifact in the design and development process. As a solution, we propose a model-driven, web-based knowledge management environment that supports game designers in the creation of a GDD that accounts for and relates educational and entertainment game elements. The foundation of our approach is our devised conceptual model for educational games, which also defines the structure of the design environment. We present promising results from an evaluation of our environment with eight experts in serious games.@en

Educational games are a class of serious games whose main purpose is to teach some subject to their players. Despite the many existing design frameworks, these games are too often created in an adhoc manner, and typically without the use of a game design document (GDD). We argue that a reason for this phenomenon is that current ways to structure, create and update GDDs do not increase the value of the artifact in the design and development process. As a solution, we propose a model-driven, web-based knowledge management environment that supports game designers in the creation of a GDD that accounts for and relates educational and entertainment game elements. The foundation of our approach is our devised conceptual model for educational games, which also defines the structure of the design environment. We present promising results from an evaluation of our environment with eight experts in serious games.@en