An agent-based serious game for entrepreneurship

Serious games can create models of the real word, allowing students to enter lifelike environments and conditions which they would otherwise be unable to access, to gain experience of complex situations, reacting to specific and dynamic input they receive as they are playing. In this kind of environment they can assume a role, test their abilities and acquire new competences. When designing a serious game, one of the first questions to ask is: "How realistic does the model have to be?". A high level of reality is not always the best choice for learning. To reproduce complex situations may not be appropriate for a beginner, so it may be better to start with a level at which the user interacts with only a few of the components, adding others later. Besides, reality can refer to a variety of aspects: people, activities, objects, skills and places. A simplified model can be more effective for learning, if it focuses on specific content and/or skills at any one time. After the mastering of specific contents/skills by the user, the model can introduce a higher level of reality and integrate several components. For these reasons the system presented in this paper is based on a step-by-step approach which increases in complexity, with the aim of simulating an enterprise environment that allows students to learn business dynamics.