Regulation crash-test: applying serious games to policy design

Figures & data

Table 1. Key concepts used in game design.

Concept	Description	Application in a game
Action arenas	Environment in which actors function and make decisions. There might be a number of different, overlaying arenas, each containing additional space for decision-making or resource management.	Geographical area based on Moniecki sub-region (northeast part of Poland) that included a network of towns, villages, schools and roads.
		Public tenders as parallel, formal action arena.
Actors and their characteristics	List of stakeholders substantially involved or affected by an intervention. They are characterized by three dimensions: Motives—goals, priorities and preferences that drive actors behaviors Means—individual attributes of an actor such as its type, strength, and resources at its disposal. Behaviors—decisions, choices and actions undertaken by actor	(1) Self-government—municipal level (gminas) Three separate municipalities, each managed by 1—2 players. Motives: Provide transportation services for children, who need to reach schools Eliminate “white spots” (places with no or limited access to public transportation) Maximize political support Means: Budget (different amount of money each round and municipality) Political support represented by a number of received votes Network of towns and villages and connections between them. Behaviors: Initialize tenders’ procedures on transport services for school children, and for citizens. That include setting the parameters of the tenders. Request bus companies to provide transportation services to citizens of specific towns/ villages. Acquire political support by serving communities and assuring that citizens have access to affordable transportation system. (2) Self-government—sub-regional level (powiats)Motives: The same as municipal-level, but for the whole sub-region. Means: The same as municipal-level, with the exception that it’s political support is fully depended on municipalities’ political support (it is counted not as a separate number but as a total sum of the political support from all the three municipalities). Behaviors: Coordinates of municipalities and looks for optimal solutions for the whole sub-region Supports for each municipality with some additional budget (3) Bus companies Three types of bus companies (big, medium, small, each with different numbers of buses and operational costs), each managed by 1—2 players. Motives: Deliver services to local government Compete for commercial customers (passengers) Balance operating costs and maximize profits. Means: Specific number of available vehicles (two types of buses: standard and premium) Specific amount of money that can be used to cover all the costs and make additional investments. Behaviors: Take part in tenders and make offers to each municipality Send buses to specific locations Set prices for each connection on the map Rent additional buses Pay for the fuel and other operational costs (4) Passengers There are 48 types of passengers each managed by the game system.Motives: Getting from point A to point B. Means: Each passenger has some amount of money that he/she is willing to pay to get to their destination. A passenger can pay less than that, but never more. Behaviors: Can take a bus if there is available space in the vehicle and the price of a ticket does not exceed his/her available resources. Can give or withdraw political support to self-government of specific municipality
Rules	Physical and social laws and principles that determine actors interactions Rules and responsibilities introduced by tested regulation.	Rules of public tender procedures Logic behind passengers’ choices (selecting specific bus) Rules of financial in/stability of bus companies (e.g. leasing costs, fixed costs) Ways of gaining political support related to public transportation on municipality and sub-region levels.
Action situations	The specific points in time when actors are bound to make decisions. Some of them can have substantial procedural value and may trigger other kinds of actions.	Game consists of two rounds (40–75 minutes each). Each round starts with the initiation of public tender procedures. Self-government representatives decide on how to define the tender’s requirements in terms of area of operation, number and type of buses, mode of school transportation (whether it can be used only by children or other passengers as well), selection criteria, and other elements recognized as important Bus companies analyze tenders and make decisions regarding offers Self-governments choose winners for each tender according to criteria defined earlier Bus companies sign contracts, place their buses in on the areas and receive payment Once the public tender phase is complete, bus companies decide where they will send their remaining buses and what prices they should set Every round ends with a summary of results for each involved party
Mechanisms	Interdependencies and causal connections between elements of the systems—especially actors’ behaviors and rules.	Self-governments: By setting tenders’ parameters they influence behaviors and eventually means of bus companies (e.g. companies might be forced to compete, cooperate, rent new buses, set lower or higher tickets’ prices) By deciding to create or suspend some of the connections between municipalities they influence level of political support of their own and other self-governments By lending money to other municipalities (especially in case of sub-region self-government) they influence their capability to provide transport services for schools Bus companies: By taking part in tenders they ensure that self-governments provide transportation services to schools By setting prices for tenders and for regular tickets they influence financial situation of other bus companies By sending vehicles to particular areas and setting prices they influence how many passengers can use their services. If the passengers have no access or cannot afford to buy tickets they will withdraw their political support to local self-government Passengers: The amount of money they can spend for tickets shapes local prices and influence financial situation of bus companies They increase or decrease level of political support for local self-governments
Feedback	The way in which actors learn about the progress on achieving their objectives. Scoring system is required to indicate to what extent players’ strategies are successful.	Self-governments receive feedback in the form of points representing political support at the end of each round, just after all passengers have been taken from the board. Each passenger who could not use public transport (either because he/she could not afford the ticket or there was no bus in his/her area) decrease political support of local self-government by 1 point. Moreover some specific groups of passengers can increase or decrease political support in more profound way (e.g. −10, −5 or +5 + 10). Bus companies receive feedback in the form of money tokens at the end of tender procedure and throughout the remaining phases of the game by collecting payments from passengers and then paying fixed costs and costs of buses’ operation. At the end of the round they sum up they total amount of money, which is treated as their score.

Source: own development based on (Ostrom 2005; Michie, Atkins, and West 2014).

Figure 1. The process of game design. Source: adapted from (Kumar 2012).

Table 2. Ways of strengthening validity of game.

	Validity issue
Ways of addressing validity	Structural validity	Psychological validity	Process validity
(1) Involving thematic experts into the entire game design and application process	+		+
(2) Taking into consideration comments made by game testers—especially real participants of the policy in question	+	+
(3) Running the experimental session with real representatives of the actors of the system under research	+	+	+
(4) Comparing the results of the game rounds devoted to current regulation with reality (the extent to which game behaviors mirrored current status quo)	+		+
(5) Comparing the degree of consistency of dynamics and results of a few different game sessions with practitioners	+	+	+

Table 3. Rural Transportation Game in a nutshell.

Players handle the transportation system in a sub-region consisting of four local communities. There are three types of roles in a game and seven players: representatives of local self-government (three municipalities), representative of sub-regional self-government (one powiat), and bus operators (three different companies). Passengers’ decisions are simulated since they are predictable based on literature and available predictive modeling.

Representatives of self-governments help children to reach schools, eliminate “white spots” (places with no or limited access to public transport), and maximize political support. Bus companies deliver services to local government, compete for commercial customers (passengers), balance operating costs and maximize profits. Passengers need to reach their desired destinations. Each player can influence the decisions of other players and the whole transportation system.

Each game session consists of two rounds (40–75 minutes each). Each round has three phases. In phase one, self-governments prepare tenders. They decide how to define requirements in terms of area of operation, number and type of buses, mode of school transportation (whether it can be used only by children or other passengers as well), selection criteria, and other elements established as important. These decisions can influence the level of political support that self-government will receive from citizens. Tender are put on a special board that is visible for all other players.

In phase two, bus companies analyze each tender and make their offers. Once offers are made or time for this phase expires, self-governments choose winners for each tender according to criteria defined earlier. Bus companies sign contracts, place their buses in the correct areas and receive payment. It is possible for bus companies to create more complex models of cooperation and, for example, lease additional buses or ask other players to be their subcontractors.

In phase three, bus companies decide where they will send their remaining buses and what prices they should set for each area. Each bus company is competing with other firms, and they need to efficiently attract passengers and also keep costs low. Bus companies need to constantly make decisions whether it is profitable to send a bus to particular location or just hold it in a bus depot.

The round ends with a summary of results for the whole system as well as for all involved parties. On the map players see which connections have services and where are the white spots with no transport. Self-governments check the balances of their budgets and current political support. Bus companies analyze their income, costs and profit/loss (losses can block a company from further operation and decrease the number of buses that can be used in following rounds).

Ostrom, E. 2005. Understanding Institutional Diversity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

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Michie, S., L. Atkins, and R. West. 2014. The Behaviour Change Wheel. A Guide to Designing Interventions. London: Silverback Publishing.

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Kumar, V. 2012. 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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