1. Gaming-Simulation: a Mode for Communicating the Research Embodied in the Mesarovic-Pestel World Model to Policy-Makers.
- Author
-
Bradsher-Fredrick, Howard Roland
- Abstract
This dissertation explores the use of gaming-simulation as a communication mode. It advances the argument that gaming-simulation is particularly effective in communicating social science research aimed at underst and ing complex problems. The large-scale computer model is in widespread use today, as a mechanism for coming to underst and the nature of complex problems. However, the ability of these models to provide answers to specific questions is very limited due to the lack of available theory and data by which to characterize the operation of complex systems. In addition, the usual communication modes, such as written reports, fail to overcome the barriers in communication between the research community and policy-makers. This dissertation also delineates the impediments to communication between the scientific and policy-making communities. The Mesarovic-Pestel World Model is utilized in this dissertation as an example of a large-scale computer model designed to furnish policy-makers with a tool for studying the effects of various economic, agricultural, and energy-related policies. The computer interface to the Mesarovic Model, used to study the impact of various policies, is known as the A.P.T. (Tool for Policy Assessment). The computer model is critiqued from the st and point of its comprehensibility to policy-makers, its utility in policy-making, and its ability to introduce contemporary policy issues. This dissertation critiques the interface utilized by the Mesarovic-Pestel World Model on the basis of its ability to convey systemic research knowledge to policy-makers. Not only is that interface critiqued but an alternative gaming-simulation interface is offered, employing an appropriate methodology used in game design. This gaming-simulation uses the core of one of the programmed versions of the Mesarovic-Pestel World Model (SI6--Subregionalized, Integrated Model, Version 6) while inserting player intervention points into the model as well as incorporating completely revised input and output subroutines. Thus, the scientific research embodied in the Mesarovic Model remains intact in the computer program used as the basis of the gaming-simulation. Finally, the occurrences of a typical game run are described and an evaluation of that run by a group of specially chosen participants is presented. These participants were persons who were already familiar with the Mesarovic research. This evaluation focuses upon eliciting the opinions of the participants regarding the relative strengths and weaknesses of the gaming-simulation, the Tool for Policy Assessment, and the book written on the subject of the policy implications of the Mesarovic research entitled, Mankind at the Turning Point, (Mesarovic, 1974), in conveying the Mesarovic research in a form which is both comprehensible to, and usable by, the policy-maker. The results of this evaluation provide strong evidence in support of the hypothesis that the gaming interface is more capable of conveying this research to policy-makers than either of the two alternate communication modes. Based upon the results of this study, one must conclude that the use of gaming interfaces to large-scale computer models is a promising mechanism by which to begin to comprehend and contend with complex problems. Hence, the design and use of gaming interfaces must be investigated still further.
- Published
- 1980