Agent-Based Modelling of spatial phenomena merges between the data on spatial infrastructure and human behaviour. High-resolution GIS layers provide rich infrastructure databases, while the data on agents' behaviour are usually lacking. Deriving agents' behavioural rules from serious immersive games is a new approach to estimating these rules. Games allow directly replicating dynamics of complex spatial systems. External observer can register all aspects of players' behaviour accounting for interaction between them and players' reaction to the changing properties of the entire modelled systems.
Game-based models (GBM) merge together ABM with serious games. Potentially, GBMs allow to recreate the full spectrum of system dynamics and, thus, to understand agents behaviours in situations that were never observed before. Unlike ABM where validation remains tricky, GBM can be properly validated when an external observer fails to distinguish between the human agent and the programmed avatar.
Technically, GBM started a decade ago with the establishment of expensive VR theatres and 3D glasses. It has got a strong boost last couple of years with the development of VR headsets, as Oculus Rift and recently others that dramatically decreased hardware costs. The habits of computer games and availability of all-purpose libraries for game development, as Unity3D make it possible to justify the behavioural component of the ABM and, by that, turn ABM modelling into an operational tool of system analysis and forecasting.
We invite presentations that regard technical aspects of the GBM and GBM applications, including
Please apply as normal, but select "Spatially-Explicit Serious Immersive Games and Game-Based Modelling" under the topics on the submission page. Although we can't guarentee all accepted submissions a place in the session of their choice, we will do our best to group papers thematically.
For further information, please contact the session chairs: Itzhak Benenson and Eran Ben-Elia.