Game Approach Research Articles

Communication strategies to contrast anti-vax action: a differential game approach

Communication strategies to contrast anti-vax action: a differential game approach

An evolutionary game and system dynamics approach for the production and consumption of carbon-labeled products-based on a media monitoring perspective

Carbon label is acknowledged as an effective way to combat the problem of global warming. As a powerful way to encourage individuals to adjust their consumption patterns and to promote the development of green consumption, carbon-labeled products are widely developed in China. To reveal the production and consumption process of carbon-labeled products, the present study constructs a tripartite game model consisting of the government, carbon-labeled products manufacturers and consumers based on a media monitoring perspective. The evolutionary stability strategy (ESS) is firstly determined by solving the replication dynamic equations and stability analysis of the equilibrium point, followed by the strategy analysis and sensitivity analysis through numerical simulation. The results show that media supervision can effectively complement and constrain government supervision. In addition, it can promote enterprises to standardize production and enhance consumers' trust and willingness to buy carbon-labeled products. The introduction of media supervision can well realize the ideal equilibrium of "effective government supervision, enterprise compliance and consumer support for purchase".

EquiCity game: a mathematical serious game for participatory design of spatial configurations

We propose a mathematical framework for developing social-choice games that are designed to mediate decision-making processes for city planning, urban area redevelopment, and architectural configuration of urban housing complexes. The proposed framework features a digital serious gaming approach for participatory design to support transparency and inclusion in the process of decision-making and ensure an equitable balance of sustainable development goals in spatial design outcomes. The mathematical process consists of a Markovian design machine for balancing the design decisions of actors, a massing configurator equipped with fuzzy logic and multi-criteria decision analysis, algebraic graph-theoretical accessibility evaluators, and automated solar-climatic evaluators using geospatial computational geometry. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework by implementing a multi-player online game that facilitates a participatory decision-making workshop for forming multi-functional building complexes by providing a generative configurator equipped with automated appraisal/scoring mechanisms for revealing the aggregate impact of alternatives. The EquiCity game empowers a group of decision-makers to reach a fair consensual spatial design by mathematically simulating many rounds of reasonable trade-offs between their decisions, with different levels of interest or control over various types of investments. The novelty of the framework is in its capability to encompass decision-making about the most idiosyncratic aspects of a site related to its heritage status and cultural significance to the most generic aspects such as balancing access to sunlight for the site while respecting ‘the right to sunlight’ of the neighbours of the site, ensuring coherence of the entire configuration with regards to a network of desired closeness ratings, the satisfaction of a programme of requirements, and intricately balancing individual development goals in conjunction with communal goals and environmental design codes.

Choose Your Own Adventure! An empirical study on gamification of postgraduate learning on research project design

It is difficult to teach complex topics such as academic research to student cohorts who are widely heterogeneous in prior knowledge, learning goals, and learning preferences. Exploratory, quest-like approaches show promise for increasing engagement, personalization, and autonomy, however, there is a lack of empirical data on which, if any, aspects of gamification can benefit learning. This paper presents analytics and qualitative responses to a Choose Your Own Adventure for postgraduate design of research projects. It focusses on non-linear navigation for self-directed personalization, digital badges, and the role of narrative within a gamified learning tool. Results highlight high user attrition, effective personalization of learning, high acceptance of gamification approaches, and much lower interest in some gamification elements, contributing value to the pedagogy of learning and teaching research skills.

A mean field game approach to relative investment–consumption games with habit formation

A mean field game approach to relative investment–consumption games with habit formation

Virtual dynamic interaction games reveal impaired multisensory integration in women with migraine.

In this cross-sectional observational study, we aimed to investigate sensory profiles and multisensory integration processes in women with migraine using virtual dynamic interaction systems. Compared to studies on unimodal sensory processing, fewer studies show that multisensory integration differs in patients with migraine. Multisensory integration of visual, auditory, verbal, and haptic modalities has not been evaluated in migraine. A 12-min virtual dynamic interaction game consisting of four parts was played by the participants. During the game, the participants were exposed to either visual stimuli only or multisensory stimuli in which auditory, verbal, and haptic stimuli were added to the visual stimuli. A total of 78 women participants (28 with migraine without aura and 50 healthy controls) were enrolled in this prospective exploratory study. Patients with migraine and healthy participants who met the inclusion criteria were randomized separately into visual and multisensory groups: Migraine multisensory (14 adults), migraine visual (14 adults), healthy multisensory (25 adults), and healthy visual (25 adults). The Sensory Profile Questionnaire was utilized to assess the participants' sensory profiles. The game scores and survey results were analyzed. In visual stimulus, the gaming performance scores of patients with migraine without aura were similar to the healthy controls, at a median (interquartile range [IQR]) of 81.8 (79.5-85.8) and 80.9 (77.1-84.2) (p = 0.149). Error rate of visual stimulus in patients with migraine without aura were comparable to healthy controls, at a median (IQR) of 0.11 (0.08-0.13) and 0.12 (0.10-0.14), respectively (p = 0,166). In multisensory stimulation, average gaming score was lower in patients with migraine without aura compared to healthy individuals (median [IQR] 82.2 [78.8-86.3] vs. 78.6 [74.0-82.4], p = 0.028). In women with migraine, exposure to new sensory modality upon visual stimuli in the fourth, seventh, and tenth rounds (median [IQR] 78.1 [74.1-82.0], 79.7 [77.2-82.5], 76.5 [70.2-82.1]) exhibited lower game scores compared to visual stimuli only (median [IQR] 82.3 [77.9-87.8], 84.2 [79.7-85.6], 80.8 [79.0-85.7], p = 0.044, p = 0.049, p = 0.016). According to the Sensory Profile Questionnaire results, sensory sensitivity, and sensory avoidance scores of patients with migraine (median [IQR] score 45.5 [41.0-54.7] and 47.0 [41.5-51.7]) were significantly higher than healthy participants (median [IQR] score 39.0 [34.0-44.2] and 40.0 [34.0-48.0], p < 0.001, p = 0.001). The virtual dynamic game approach showed for the first time that the gaming performance of patients with migraine without aura was negatively affected by the addition of auditory, verbal, and haptic stimuli onto visual stimuli. Multisensory integration of sensory modalities including haptic stimuli is disturbed even in the interictal period in women with migraine. Virtual games can be employed to assess the impact of sensory problems in the course of the disease. Also, sensory training could be a potential therapy target to improve multisensory processing in migraine.

Cooperative Merging Strategy Considering Stochastic Driving Style at on-Ramps: A Bayesian Game Approach

Cooperative Merging Strategy Considering Stochastic Driving Style at on-Ramps: A Bayesian Game Approach

Diffusion model of multi-agent collaborative behavior in public crisis governance network based on complex network evolutionary game

In order to explore the phenomenon of diffusion of group decision making formed by the emergence of decision-making behaviors of governance agents in public crisis governance systems, this research uses a complex network evolutionary game approach, considers BA scale-free networks as network vectors of public crisis governance systems, and develops a diffusion model of collaborative governance decision making behaviors. Simulation experiments are also conducted to show the macro-level impact of micro-subjects' decision-making behavior on group “Emergence-Diffusion”. The results of this study show that the cost of collaborative governance has the most significant effect on the depth and breadth of the spread of collaborative behavior in governance networks. The size of the network determines the speed of network diffusion. The smaller the network size, the more sensitive it is to the spillover benefits of collaborative governance, and the larger the network size, the more sensitive it is to the penalties of non-compliance. The findings of the study have implications for the collaborative behavior of multiple agents in public crisis governance. The main findings are that (1) in order to ensure the stability of the collaborative governance system, decision making options should be selected according to the size of the network. (2) A reasonable penalty mechanism for breach of contract should be set up to avoid the phenomenon of "free-riding" in collaborative governance. (3) Reasonable allocation of collaboration benefits and maintenance of cooperative relationships between nodes in the neighborhood. (4) External regulators should ensure that information in the network is disseminated without barriers and reduce the phenomenon of information asymmetry.

Resource Allocation and Pricing in Energy Harvesting Serverless Computing Internet of Things Networks

This paper considers a resource allocation problem involving servers and mobile users (MUs) operating in a serverless edge computing (SEC)-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) network. Each MU has a fixed budget, and each server is powered by the grid and has energy harvesting (EH) capability. Our objective is to maximize the revenue of the operator that operates the said servers and the number of resources purchased by the MUs. We propose a Stackelberg game approach, where servers and MUs act as leaders and followers, respectively. We prove the existence of a Stackelberg game equilibrium and develop an iterative algorithm to determine the final game equilibrium price. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is efficient in terms of the SEC’s profit and MU’s demand. Moreover, both MUs and SECs gain benefits from renewable energy.

The application of innovative ecosystems to build resilient communities in response to major public health events.

In recent years, major public health events have had a significant and far-reaching impact on communities. As a response, there has been an increasing interest in enhancing community resilience through innovative ecosystems that involve diverse stakeholders with varying needs and demands. This study investigates the application of innovative ecosystems to improve community resilience in the face of major public health events by utilizing a sequential game approach to balance the interests of government, community, and residents. Subsequently, a comprehensive questionnaire survey was conducted among key stakeholders to ascertain their objectives, requirements and concerns for the innovation ecosystem based on the analysis results of the game model. The reliability and effectiveness of the proposed research method were verified through the analysis and verification of the sequence game model and questionnaire survey results. Finally, according to our analysis results, we propose countermeasures for promoting innovative ecosystems to improve community resilience. The research results indicate that the successful implementation of innovative ecosystems requires consideration of the different needs of stakeholders such as government officials, community members, and residents. Combining these perspectives can effectively promote such systems while enhancing the community's resilience to major public health events.

Analysis of Digital Security Governance under the Objectives of Digital Ecology: A Three-Party Evolutionary Game Approach

With the rapid development of the digital economy, there has been an explosion in the amount of data generated. Data have become a vital resource for nations, just as tangible assets and human capital are crucial factors of production. Consequently, protecting digital security has become paramount. However, the increasing frequency of various data security incidents in recent years has exposed issues such as inadequate platform governance, lack of government regulation, and incomplete digital security governance (DSG) mechanisms. This study aims to create a healthy and open digital ecosystem and proposes a new digital security governance framework. It subdivides traditional government departments into local governments and the central government. Together with third-party platforms, they are analyzed as participants in an evolutionary game. The study examines the evolutionary stability of strategy choices made by each party and explores the relationship between key factors such as negative externalities, data security incident probabilities, and their impacts on strategy selection using numerical simulations. The research findings indicate the following. (1) Key parameters such as implicit benefits, government subsidies, and negative externalities play a significantly positive role in the development of the digital ecosystem. (2) The central government consistently tends towards emergency response, considering the overall societal perspective, as long as it is capable of bearing the costs. (3) Local governments may exhibit free-riding behavior during the governance process. To address this, it is important to increase the willingness of third-party platforms to govern and oversee the participation of local governments, which is an effective way to prevent data crises. The study also identifies different governance models in various environments: (1) a digital security governance model in a stable market environment, involving increased central government intervention and supervision of local governments’ participation; and (2) a digital security governance model in the event of a data crisis, where the central government establishes subsidies that exceed the governance costs of local governments to enhance the willingness of third-party platforms to govern. Finally, recommendations and strategies are presented to enhance the level of digital security governance.

Cybersecurity Knowledge Deterioration and the role of Gamification Intervention

Cybersecurity is becoming an overly critical issue in contemporary times. Cyberspace safety is declining, and this covers all categories of persons, businesses, institutions, and even the government. Deterioration in cybersecurity knowledge and awareness has led people to become easy prey/victims of cybercrime. The more novel security systems are being developed, the higher the cyberattacks as hackers, scammers, and cybercriminals are innovative in their techniques to attack cyber-users. It is therefore paramount to investigate the stance of cybersecurity knowledge among the general IT (Information Technology) users, especially in the 21st century. This paper designed a cybersecurity quiz based on adaptations from literature and past cybersecurity quizzes and conducted investigations to test the knowledge of random cyber-users via the cybersecurity quiz. Results from investigations are quite surprising and instructive, thus serving as a propelling motivation to develop a cybersecurity game. Among the 10-questionnaire cybersecurity quiz, it was discovered that most cyber-users lack knowledge about network security. Also, the question on social engineering was not well performed by the respondents. Thus, it is important for upcoming innovations to take into consideration the aspects of network security, social engineering when designing cybersecurity gamification approaches. Gamification has been used as teaching aids for diverse learning fields, however the use of games in cybersecurity is still understudied. Thus, the result of this quiz is intended to be used to further boost the development of a cybersecurity game, which can be age centric, thus developing cybersecurity games that will be suitable for specific user groups. Interestingly, though females were not regular game players, however they were highly interested in playing a cybersecurity game, as majority of cyber-users (males inclusive), believed that a cybersecurity knowledge gamification approach can help enhance their cybersecurity knowledge and awareness. Conclusively, it is obvious that both the young and old still lack basic cybersecurity knowledge, thereby making them easy prey for cyberattacks. Gamification if applied properly into cybersecurity, could be an interactive learning platform that is both enjoyable, produces a high spirit of learning as well as help serve as a strong awareness tool that can boost cybersecurity user’s knowledge.

Encouraging Positive Bystander Responses to Bias-Based Bullying in Primary Schools Through a Serious Game Approach: A Non-Randomized Controlled Evaluation of the ‘GATE-BULL’ Program

AbstractBias-based bullying is a serious public health issue, negatively impacting on the well-being of children with socially devalued identities or attributes. The aim of the GATE-BULL project was to develop and evaluate a serious game supplemented by a series of classroom-based lesson plans to encourage positive bystander responses in weight-, ethnicity-, and religion-based bullying situations. The program was a 4-week school-based intervention targeted at 9–13-year-olds and tested using a quasi-experimental design. In total, 578 children from the Netherlands, Scotland and Greece were included in the analyses. The evaluation suggested that the GATE-BULL program improved the intention to intervene in weight-based bullying situations in Scotland and marginally contributes to a reduction in intergroup anxiety among majority group children with respect to Muslim children in the Netherlands. No positive effects were found in Greece. While the program showed limited evidence of effectiveness, several important lessons have been learned for future development of interventions targeting bias-based bullying.

On Adjusting Data Throughput in IoT Networks: A Deep-Reinforcement-Learning-Based Game Approach

On Adjusting Data Throughput in IoT Networks: A Deep-Reinforcement-Learning-Based Game Approach

THE ROLE OF GAME TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING SPEECH CULTURE IN THE PHILOLOGICAL FIELD

This article explores the role of game techniques in the process of teaching speech culture in the philological field. It highlights the relevance of using game approaches in educational practice in order to effectively develop students' communication skills. The author analyzes the basic principles and methods of game learning, revealing their applicability and effectiveness in the context of the formation of speech culture. The pedagogical aspects of the introduction of game techniques into the educational process of philological specialties, including the selection and adaptation of game tasks, evaluation and monitoring of results, are also considered. The results of the study emphasize the importance of game techniques as a means of stimulating active communication, increasing students' motivation to study speech culture and developing their skills of language adaptation and etiquette. Possible obstacles and ways to overcome them when introducing game approaches into the educational process are also analyzed. In general, the article represents an important contribution to the pedagogical practice of teaching speech culture in the philological field, justifying the need and prospects for using game techniques to achieve educational goals.

A robust optimisation approach for a two-player force-design game

We present a new approach to force design that relies on robust decision making with a min–max objecive, rather than assumptions about the goals and strategy of an opponent. This idea is explored mathematically in the framework of a round-based two-player Stackelberg game representing an arms race, which features the acquisition of assets by both players and an evaluation of the defensive capability against attack from an opponent using a portfolio of possible tactics. Mathematical analysis has been carried out to determine the structure of optimal strategies for this type of game. This allows the strategy of the first player to be represented as a decision tree with possible moves by the second player consisting of convex combinations of extreme points. Using this insight into the structure of solutions, the optimal strategy for the game can be computed using a large linear program. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated using numerical examples.

Carbon tax-driven technological innovation may accelerate the directional recovery of waste cooking oil into bio-jet fuel: An evolutionary game approach

Biofuel production from waste cooking oil (WCO) offers an alternative to fossil fuels, especially for high-value bio-jet fuel. However, this industry is hindered by informal recyclers who covertly divert large amounts of WCO to illegal gutter oil production. Investigating the dynamic evolution of stakeholder behavior will help explore solutions. Thus, this study presents a tripartite evolutionary game model that includes the government, formal recyclers, and informal recyclers, aims to redesign the government intervention strategy to promote the directional flow of WCO from restaurant trash cans to bio-jet fuel production. We find that the evolutionary game model exists eight possible evolutionary stability strategies (ESSs), and the choice of each ESS depends mainly on the trade-off between costs and revenues for each stakeholder. The numerical study results reveal that formal recyclers are driven to carry out technological innovation by government support, profiting from bio-aviation kerosene products, and income from carbon emission reduction. These factors also have an indirect impact on the transformation of informal recyclers. Therefore, the government should provide adequate support for technological innovation to formal recyclers and increase their profitability of products to enable them to actively implement innovative strategies. This can be achieved by expanding the sales channels of bio-aviation kerosene products, implementing patent protection measures, improving the carbon reduction trading mechanism. Furthermore, the government's high tax rate on formal recyclers and the significant profits earned by informal recyclers through gutter oil production may dissuade them from transitioning their businesses. Above findings are in line with the actual issues of WCO recycling and provide a new dynamic decision-making method for enterprises and government managers.

Generation of security system defense strategies based on evolutionary game theory

The physical protection systems of Nuclear Power Plant are utilized to safeguard targets against intrude by attacker. As the methods employed by attackers to intrude Nuclear Power Plant become increasingly complex and diverse, there is an urgent need to identify optimal defense strategies to interrupt adversary intrusions. This paper focuses on studying the defense of security personnel against adversary intrusions and utilizes an evolutionary game approach to select the optimal defense decisions for physical protection systems. Under the assumption of bounded rationality for both the attacker and defender, the paper constructs replication dynamic equations for attack and defense strategies, investigating the process of strategy selection and the stability of evolution. Finally, a minimal model is proposed to validate the feasibility of utilizing the evolutionary game model for defense strategy selection.

A non-cooperative game approach on isolated water-energy microgrids

The integration of renewable energies into water systems emerges as a crucial challenge and an opportunity within the water-energy nexus, particularly in isolated communities, emphasizing the importance of developing sustainable and self-sufficient isolated water-energy microgrids (IWEMGs). This study addresses a significant gap in existing research by proposing a comprehensive model that simultaneously considers operation and dispatch in IWEMGs. Our work introduces a framework based on game theory to model and optimize resource management in IWEMGs, where actors, including consumers, producers, or prosumers, engage in a non-cooperative game (Cournot competition), enabling an effective resource allocation mechanism for water and energy that considers strategic interactions among participants. The application of this model to a case study in a rural community, known as Ranchería, in La Guajira, Colombia, demonstrates the practicality and effectiveness of IWEMGs in meeting the water and energy demands of users. The model is implemented and solved using the GAMS software. Our quantitative results show optimal performance in resource management, highlighting the model’s ability to facilitate informed decision-making. Through a detailed analysis of water and energy transactions and the net benefits achieved, the study illustrates the potential of game theory to enhance the operational performance of IWEMGs. Furthermore, this research contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable resource management, offering insights that could guide the development of policies and strategies for implementing IWEMGs in similar contexts globally.

Cache Update and Delivery of Dynamic Contents: A Stochastic Game Approach

In this paper, we propose a cache update policy for wireless networks considering dynamic popularity for file requests. Our network scenario is a wireless network comprised of some cache-equipped access points (APs) which are deployed densely in an area and have connections with core network servers. We model the dynamics of file requests as Markov-modulated Poisson processes. Considering the congestion-dependent delay of APs' services and their overlapping coverage areas, we model the cache service for the cache-missed requests, as a stochastic game in which a Vickrey–Clarke–Groves (VCG) mechanism is exploited at each stage of the game as our proposed file routing policy, and the APs decide independently how to update their caches regarding the routed files. To this end, the APs' utilities are defined based on long-term average file delivery delay including the queueing delay in APs. By finding the Nash equilibrium of the game, we propose policies for both delivery and cache update of dynamic contents. Finally, by comparing numerical results of our proposed scheme with some conventional caching schemes, we show significant improvements in network performance in terms of file delivery delay in different conditions.