Third-party punishers do not compete to be chosen as partners in an experimental game

Third-party punishment is thought to act as an honest signal of cooperative intent and such signals might escalate when competing to be chosen as a partner. Here, we investigate whether partner choice competition prompts escalating investment in third-party punishment. We also consider the case of signalling via helpful acts to provide a direct test of the relative strength of the two types of signals. Individuals invested more in third-party helping than third-party punishment and invested more in both signals when observed compared to when investments would be unseen. We found no clear effect of partner choice (over and above mere observation) on investments in either punishment or helping. Third-parties who invested more than a partner were preferentially chosen for a subsequent Trust Game although the preference to interact with the higher investor was more pronounced in the help than in the punishment condition. Third-parties who invested more were entrusted with more money and investments in third-party punishment or helping reliably signalled trustworthiness. Individuals who did not invest in third-party helping were more likely to be untrustworthy than those who did not invest in third-party punishment. This supports the conception of punishment as a more ambiguous signal of cooperative intent compared to help.

An Experimental Study on the Effects of Communication, Credibility, and Clustering in Network Games

We examine how pre-play communication and clustering affect play in a challenging hybrid experimental game on networks. Free-form chat is impressively effective in achieving the non-equilibrium efficient outcome, but restricted communication has little effect. We support this result with a model about the credibility of cheap-talk messages. We also offer a model of message diffusion that correctly predicts more rapid diffusion without clustering. We show an interaction effect of network structure and communication technologies. A remarkable result is that restricted communication is quite effective in a network Stag Hunt, but not in our extended game.

GED – TOOLKIT: OPEN GEOSPATIAL DATA AND TOOLS TO SUPPORT GENERATIVE ECONOMY PROCESSES IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES

How can FOSS GIS support generative economy processes in small settled communities? The paper answers this question by proposing a toolbox made up of specific open geospatial data that can be processed through FOSS GIS. These data consist of specific maps, accompanied by numerical values.The information collected is intended to lay the foundations for an open-access manual of procedures to support the creation of an open database. This manual, currently under development, is created within a research funded by the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of the Politecnico di Milano and is an integral part of an experimental game aimed at supporting students in the development of local self-sustainability scenarios.The manual is called the GED Toolkit. The acronym GED stands for Generative Environmental Design, with this term we refer to an approach to the design of the anthropized environment oriented towards the development of generative economies.The paper presents good practices, measuring their consistency with Generative Economy Principles through resource and impacts mapping. These are useful in the first place to understand the systemic features of the practice itself and the relationship with the territory that hosts it, and secondly to verify the possible transferability to other contexts.

Book Reviews

Sanjit Dhami of Department of Economics, Accounting, and Finance, University of Leicester reviews “Handbook of Experimental Game Theory” edited by C. M. Capra, Rachel T. A. Croson, Mary L. Rigdon, and Tanya S. Rosenblat. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Sixteen papers explore the study of game-theoretic propositions from a scientific approach, covering methodological innovations in the measurement of strategic behavior and static and dynamic games of both complete and incomplete information.”

Entrepreneurship education at universities: challenges and future perspectives on online game implementation

The study explored the challenges and potential of online gamification to develop actionable recommendations for entrepreneurship pedagogy in the phase of ‘new normal’. This study applied an experimental game which the authors developed, and a mixed method was applied to the data sets collected from the students: an open-ended survey of 91 students and in-depth interviews with 23 students. It has been found that the students perceiving activities with gamifications are good learning stimuli in entrepreneurial classrooms as a first step; then, they found it effective to learn and deepen their understanding of theories and models as a second step after the gaming activities, which is a reverse approach from a traditional business education approach. Gamification enables students to think critically on game scenarios via participation in gamifications, which can be strengthened and embedded in their mind by theoretical learning which follows the gaming activities. The findings of the study provide a practical guidance for entrepreneurship pedagogists with ‘activities first’ which will be followed by theoretical learning.

Signal and Video Processing: Developing the Noise Music Trend in Digital Edugaming

In digital educational gaming, there are presently no games devoted to the trends of contemporary music. Also, there are no studies of noise-related sound in contemporary gaming discourse, yet noise is presently one of the most current trends in the arthouse world. The author of this study is carrying out a post-doctoral research into contemporary audio-visual art and digital game theory. Next to the other trends of modern gaming, the study incorporates analysis of noise-related artefacts that are of particular interest to the author taking into account her musicological education. The author intends to transfer knowledge gathered in the research process to the general public with an aim to facilitate the comprehension of noise music. Noise-related sound does not belong to the traditional system of musical expression thereof it requires an explanation and justification in order to be well apprehended. It has been explained in the literature of musicology, but serious gaming would help to disseminate these results and thus support intellectual education. The new experimental game Art Space explores the noise effect in order to deepen the understanding of this fuzzy area of contemporary culture. The game incorporates the historical background of noise music and its contemporary examples in the academic and alternative genres. The methods used in this study are literature analysis (theory of gaming and musicology), analyses of game sound scores and music examples. The mission of the research project and the innovative game Art Space is to pave the way to a new type of edugame that supports the documentation and analysis of aesthetical trends today.

Validation of the content of a children’s game to promote the nursing profession

ABSTRACT Objective: To validate content for an experimental game named Quantos Queres, using an origami, about the Nursing profession, for children from 7 to 12 years old. Method: Methodological study that included two groups of experts: A (n=7), B (n=40). Non-probabilistic sampling approach was used. We used a self-completion form, available by email and social networks, in Portugal, between February and April 2020. Acceptance decision established for 75% agreement. Results: The groups were mostly composed by nurses. Group A identified the themes: professional profile, training, ethical principles, historical and symbolic elements and conceived the content of the statements in the form of questions and answers. In group B, agreement was higher than 75% in the areas and contents of the statements. Conclusion: The selection of content to integrate the game is essential. The agreement obtained shows the importance of the chosen themes and the adequacy to the purpose that will be tested later.

INFLUENZA: A Board Game Design Experiment on Vaccination

Introduction. Experts on vaccine hesitancy recommend tailoring interventions to local contexts, which presents an opportunity for game-based interventions to reflect local demographics and make them central to the experience of the game. Experimental game design is a research method that has already been used in educational games. Board games are relevant to the topic of vaccination, and present possibilities for game design of openness and flexibility. INFLUENZA was an experimental game design with the objectives of designing a vaccination-themed educational board game where: an aspect of local context was highly-relevant but also easily modifiable, means of emotional engagement were explored, and openness and flexibility in board game design were explored. Methods. The experimental game design study consisted of finding design solutions for achieving the study objectives in a single game, by analyzing comparable games and using iteration and two stages of live testing with players. Results. The game reflects national census data in a highly-relevant but also easily modifiable aspect of play (first objective). The game features aspects of personification to foster emotional engagement (second objective). The game is well-suited to changing the number of players, or allowing mediated play (third objective). Discussion. INFLUENZA has achieved each of its study objectives from an experimental game design perspective. Relevant features of educational games are theme, mechanics, and their integration, and the design experimentation in INFLUENZA follows this trend. Future work is running comparative trials of features of INFLUENZA, as well as measuring the impact of different local adaptations of INFLUENZA.

Film Adaptation as Experimental Game Design

Film adaptation is a popular approach to game design, but it prioritizes blockbuster films and conventional “game-like” qualities of those films, such as shooting, racing, or spatial exploration. This leads to adaptations that tend to use the aesthetics and narratives of films, but which miss out on potential design explorations of more complex cinematic qualities. In this article, I propose an experimental game design method that prioritizes an unconventional selection of films alongside strict game design constraints to explore tensions and affinities between cinema and videogames. By applying this design method and documenting the process and results, I am able both to present an experimental set of videogame film adaptations, along with potentially generative design and development themes. In the end, the project serves as an illustration of the nature of adaptation itself: a series of pointed compromises between the source and the new work.