the tactec trilogy - building a new and powerful workshop by concatening three existing games /...
DESCRIPTION
The Tactec trilogy - building a new and powerful workshop by concatening three existing games / exercises; paper presentation at the 43rd Annual Conference of ISAGA, the International Simulation and Gaming Association (Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2-6 July 2012), Pieter van der Hijden (Sofos Consultancy). Abstract An existing board game, a virtual learning environment with collaboration tools and a game engine for online role playing games were combined into a powerful workshop consisting of three stages. The Tactec trilogy is a workshop contains three subsequent modules: 1 ) Developing a global implementation plan (for a given case, change operation) which consists of identification of the seven most relevant stakeholders and the required actions by them in subsequent stages. 2) Elaborating the global plan in a pre-structured wiki. 3) Experiencing the planned change via an online role playing game. The first module implies a session of the Tactec board game (1-4 hours). The second module is a collaborative session with the Moodle Virtual Learning Environment and a pre-structured wiki. The third module implies a Cyberdam online role playing game. The presentation describes the three modules and their interfaces. It illustrates the potential of concatenating them as stages in a workshop and it reflects on building up complex workshops from modules in general.TRANSCRIPT
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THE TACTEC TRILOGY - BUILDING A NEW AND POWERFUL WORKSHOP
BY CONCATENING THREE EXISTING GAMES / EXERCISES
Pieter van der Hijden MScSofos Consultancy, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsMember of the ISAGA Advisory CouncilEx-chairperson of the ISAGA Board
ISAGA - International Simulation and Gaming Association
43rd International Conference – 2-6 July 2012
Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Pieter van der Hijden (Sofos Consultancy) 2012 - Except where otherwise noted, content of this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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AGENDA
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INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION – ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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INTRODUCTION – ABOUT THE THEME
Elaborate the plan
Simulate the plan
Case description
Develop global
implementation plan
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INTRODUCTION – ABOUT THE THEME
Case description
Elaborate the plan
Simulate the plan
Develop global implementation plan
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THREE SEPARATE GAMES
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THREE SEPARATE GAMES
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THREE SEPARATE GAMES1. TACTEC FRAME GAME
Content: case description (½ page = 1 h. work)
Participants >= 7 Duration 1 – 4 hours Steps-of-play
1. Determine and assign 7 roles
2. Describe per role actual situation and required situation (after 3 yr)
3. Describe per role 3-5 steps between actual and required
4. Cross-check all results via plan board
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THREE SEPARATE GAMES2. MOODLE WIKI
Moodle = Virtual Learning Environment (free, open source, 80 languages)
Wiki = module in Moodle To create collection of
interlinked web pages Collaboratively Via simple WYSIWYG-
editor Automatic version
management Set-up time: 5 minutes
Stake-holder
Current
situation
Step-A ... Required
situation
Role-1 CS1 A1 ... RS1
Role-2 CS2 A2 ... RS2
... ... ... ... ...
Example of the frontpage of a wiki. In this example the frontpage serves as a table of contents. Participants click in a cell and jump to an empty page to fill in.
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THREE SEPARATE GAMES3. CYBERDAM
Cyberdam = Game engine for online role playing games (free, open source, EN & NL)
Game model consists of Roles Steps-of-play Actions per role per step
Send message to other role Upload a file Provide input (decisions) into
system Inspect outputs from system
Scripts, variables, calculations Roles may be related to objects
on a city map Set-up time: 5 minutes
Simple version: roles onlyExample of a hand-made city map that may be used in Cyberdam games
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TRILOGY WORKSHOP
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TRILOGY WORKSHOPInput Process Output
Case description Tactec frame game
• Global implementation plan
• Implicit knowledge about the plan
• Global implementation plan
• Implicit knowledge about the plan
Moodle wiki plus set-up (prestructured frontpage)
• Elaborated implementation plan with stakeholders, phases and described actions
• Elaborated implementation plan with stakeholders, phases and described actions
Cyberdam plus set-up (game model with roles only)
• Simulated implementation of the plan
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TRILOGY WORKSHOP
Case description
Elaborate the plan
Simulate the plan
Develop global
implementation plan
Trilogy WorkshopConcatenation of three separate games / exercises
(separate games become game modules in a larger system)
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REFLECTION
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REFLECTION
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REFLECTION - FLOWS
Sequential processes Concatenation Selection Repetition Parallelism
Sub-process Event-triggered Embedded ...
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REFLECTION - INTERFACES
Which information flows between the games?Examples: Case description Global implementation plan Implicit knowledge about
the plan Elaborated implementation
plan with stakeholders, phases and described actions
Simulated implementation of the plan
Observations It depends on the game
which types of input it can “consume” and which types of output it “produces”.
“Connections” between two games only are possible when the type of output of the first game is accepted as type of input by the second game.
To make games connectable, explicit modelling of inputs and outputs is needed.
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EXPLORATION
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EXPLORATION
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EXPLORATION – BOTTOM-UP
Which games could be used as alternative for Tactec, Moodle Wiki and/or Cyberdam?
Which games could become candidates for future arrangements of game modules?
Which input types and output types can be found in larger collections of games? (e.g. Gray et al., 2010 and Thiagi Group)
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EXPLORATION – TOP-DOWN
When planning a workshop, which modules do we consider?
When should we use game modules, when other activities?
What types of input and output do we need in these game modules?
Where are we going to find such game (modules) / how are we going to create these game (modules)?
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CONCLUSION
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CONCLUSION
Added value - With little effort three separate games / exercises with their own merits can be concatenated to form a powerful workshop.
Bottom-up - Searching / creating separate games that can be connected this way opens a range of new possibilities.
Top-down - Workshop design can be improved by focusing on the input and output of the separate components.
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REFERENCES
Cyberdam – The Cyberdam game engine; Stichting RechtenOnline, The Netherlands; see www.cyberdam.nl
Gray, 2010 – Game Storming; a playbook for innovators, rule brakers and changemakers; Dave Gray et al.; O’Reilly, Sebastopol (CA), USA, 2010.
Moodle – The Moodle Virtual Learning Environment; Moodle Trust, Australia 2002 onward; see www.moodle.org
Peters, 2002 - Gaming Simulations for Large Groups of Participants, Vincent Peters, Pieter van der Hijden, Marleen van de Westelaken; in: Proceedings of the ISAGA 2002 Conference; International Simulation and Gaming Association, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2002.
The Thiagi Group; improving performance playfully; see www.thiagi.com. Van der Hijden, 2001 - The TacTec Game; The Tactics of Electronic Commerce;
Pieter van der Hijden; in: Proceedings of the ISAGA 2000 Conference; International Simulation and Gaming Association, Tartu, Estonia, 2001.
Warmelink et al. - Learning in a Virtual World. Reflections on the Cyberdam research and development project; Harald Warmelink & Igor Mayer (eds.), Wolf Legal Publishers, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 2009.
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SOFOS CONSULTANCY
Thank you for your attention!
Pieter van der Hijden [email protected]
Pieter van der Hijden (Sofos Consultancy) 2012 - Except where otherwise noted, content of this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.