************ Environment Management Gaming (ver 0.98A) **************
by: Hiroshi Deguchi (deguchi@econ.kyoto-u.ac.jp)
========================= Player's Guide ============================
1. The purpose of the gaming
Environment Management Gaming is a group gaming aimed at simulating a
group of players who graze sheep in a common pastureland.
A gaming facilitator centralizes and coordinates all the transactions
in the gaming. The players can perform a series of transactions with
the facilitator: buy, sell, or rent sheep, and buy food or other
goods. There is a currency used in the transactions which is called
MOU (= MOney Unit). The goal of the player is to get a wealthy life by
increasing the sheep he possesses. The gaming is divided into
terms. At the end of each term the number of sheep owned by each
player is multiplied by a reproduction rate. This rate depends on the
total number of sheep in the pastureland. A player get wealthier if he
increases his sheep, but the higher the total number of sheep in the
pastureland the lesser the reproduction rate. The players are posed a
social dilemma.
2. How to play
EnvMG is played by 5 to 15 players and a gaming facilitator (game
master).
2.1. Preparation
The following items are needed in the gaming.
i) Tips that represent sheep.
ii) Tips that represent the unit of money (MOU).
iii) Tips that represent consumer goods (food, clothes, cars,
houses, jewelries, etc.). An alternative to using tips is to write
the number of goods in a card and put it in front of the player.
The players must consume 2 MOUs of food every gaming
term. Cards and tips are used for other consumer goods.
The number of the term is written in the card and put in
front of the player so that other players can see the card
at any time.
iv) Bookkeeping form to keep track of the rents. When a player rents
some sheep from the facilitator, he must return in double after two
gaming terms (i.e., at the term next to the next). The
facilitator must keep track of all the rents and obligations
of the players.
4. Initial status
At the beginning of the gaming, each player starts with three sheep
and no cash.
5. Players' actions
During the game, the player sells some sheep to consume food and
other goods. He can also rent or buy sheep from the facilitator
paying him some money. Each sheep costs 2 MOUs. This price is constant
throughout the gaming.
At the end of each term the facilitator calculates the reproduction
rate and tells each player the resulting amount of sheep to start the
next term. The reproduction rate varies from 1.0 to 2.0 but the
players cannot know about the exact way this rate is calculated. At
the end of each term the player is informed by the facilitator about
the total number of sheep and the reproduction rate. When the
reproduction rate is 1, the number of sheep keeps the same, which
means that the parent sheep do not die.
If the player rents some sheep, he must return in double at the
beginning of the next to the next term. The player must pay the sheep
he buys in cash. The only way to get cash is by selling sheep. The
number or sheep to be sold or bought in a single term is limited to
seven.
The player become bankrupt when he cannot return the rented sheep or
cannot buy food. The players are allowed to sell rented sheep to pay
for the food , but he cannot rent sheep before returning all the sheep
previously rented (if any). A player that went bankrupt can return to
the gaming with the initial three sheep.
Price of goods
sheep ............ 2 MOU
food ............. 2 MOU
clothes .......... 2 MOU
radio ............ 2 MOU
TV ............... 4 MOU
washing machine .. 4 MOU
jewel ............ 2 MOU
house ............ 20 MOU
car .............. 14 MOU
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== Player's Record Sheet (simple version)==
Term ( ) Player's name( ) Date( )
Resources at the beginning of term:
Number of sheep: ( )
Cash : ( ) MOU
Assets: ( )MOU
Consumed food: ( 2 )MOU
Sheep sold: ( ) Sheep bought: ( )
Sheep returned: ( ) .... 2 x number of sheep rent 2 terms back.
Goods bought: ( )MOU
Details: ____________________
Sheep rented (this term): ( )
Total number of sheep: ( )
= Number of sheep - sheep sold +
sheep bought + sheep rented - sheep returned
Sheep paid as tax: ( )
Sheep subsidies: ( )
... earned as tax subsidy
Sheep before reproduction: ( )
= Total number of sheep - sheep paid as tax + sheep subsidies
Pastureland reproduction rate: ( )
... calculated by the facilitator and informed to all players
Sheep after reproduction: ( )
Cash at end of term: ( )MOU
Total asset at end of term: ( )MOU
= Goods asset + cash + sheep (converted in MOUs)
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========================= Facilitator's Guide ============================
** Notice: The players should not have access the contents of this guide.
1. This gaming, although played with simple rules, may raise unpredictable
complex situations. We can get many good insights in economics,
administration, and sociology through simple experiments based on
this gaming.
2. In the gaming it is assumed that the increase in the total number
of sheep in the pastureland worsens the environment conditions, resulting
in a decrease in the sheep's reproduction rate. The players cannot
exactly know how this rate changes.
3. Preparation:
i) Tips that represent sheep. Poker tips, color papers
and coins can be used.
ii) Tips that represent the unit of money (MOU).
iii) Tips that represent consumer goods (food, clothes, cars,
houses, jewelries, etc.). An alternative to using tips is to write
the number of goods in a card and put it in front of the player.
The players must consume 2 MOUs of food every term.
Cards and tips are used for other consumer goods.
The number of the term is written in the card and put in
front of the player so that the other players can see the card
at any time.
iv) Bookkeeping form to keep track of the rents. When a player rents some
sheep from the facilitator, he must return in double after
two terms (i.e., at the term next to the next). The
facilitator must keep track of all the rents and obligations
of the players.
The gaming can be played with a minimum of facilities: some tips, a
white board and a calculator.
4. Reproduction rate.
The reproduction rate cannot be shown to the players. At every
term the facilitator must inform all the players about the total
number of sheep and the corresponding reproduction rate.
Given n players, the reproduction rate is calculated according to the
number of sheep as follows;
Number of sheep Reproduction rate
1 -- 3n 2.0
3n + 1 -- 3 x 2n 1.8
3 x 2n + 1 -- 3 x 3n 1.6
3 x 3n + 1 -- 3 x 4n 1.4
3 x 4n + 1 -- 3 x 5n 1.2
3 x 5n + 1 -- 3 x 6n 1.0
Example: Number of players = 5.
Number of sheep Reproduction rate
1 -- 15 2.0
16 -- 30 1.8
31 -- 45 1.6
46 -- 60 1.4
61 -- 75 1.2
76 -- 90 1.0
Suppose the player has 3 sheep in a total of 30 in the pastureland.
At the end of the term he will have 3 x 1.8 = 5.4. This number is
round off to 5, and the player is given 2 sheep (2 tips) from the
facilitator.
Notice:
* There are a lot of calculations to be done about rents, cash and
goods. About 10 to 20% of the players fall into miss calculations
during the gaming. Using tips in the transactions facilitates the
calculations, diminishing the errors.
* The use of bookkeeping form can also facilitate keeping track of
the data. Even if the player has no knowledge about how to keep
accounts, it is easy to explain how to read the data. The left hand of
the form represents the actual assets and the right hand represents
the details. The player should also be explained that his reserve does
not consist on the cash he possesses.
* The simple version of the bookkeeping form may facilitate the
conduction of the game, but is more error prone. The alternative use
of the form in the appendix requires more time to filling out, which
results in a term of approximately 30 minutes. A gaming with 10 terms
would take 5 hours to complete. A total of approximately 6 hours is
expected if we include the initial explanation and the debriefing. The
institutional version of the gaming (with tax and subsidy) takes a
total of approximately 12 hours to complete. The use of the simple
form for bookkeeping and the tips for sheep and cash speeds up the
play and each term can be played in 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Gaming termination
* The players should not be informed about when the gaming is to
terminate. This is so to avoid that the players take final strategies
during the gaming. Normally it takes 7 to 8 terms for the gaming to
get into a stable situation (oligopolistic market with several players
going bankrupt). Therefore a total of approximately 12 terms is
recommended for the gaming. The institutional version (with tax and
subsidy) of the gaming also requires about 12 terms because it takes
some time for the players to learn about the rules and complex
combinations of strategies arise.
6. Institutional version
* Tax: The player must pay tax if he has more than 7 sheep. The tax is
paid in sheep. The number of sheep owned by the player is multiplied
by the tax rate, the result is then round off to integer number, the
the corresponding number of sheep must be paid for the facilitator at
the end of each term.
= Simple taxation: tax sheep = ( Number of sheep - 6 ) x tax rate. (Decimal
numbers are rounded off to integers.)
= Progressive taxation: The tax rate varies according to the number of
sheep.
Example:
Number of sheep Tax rate (%)
0 -- 6 0
7 -- 10 10
10 -- 15 20
16 ----- 30
* Subsidy: The collected tax is distributed to the players who has
less than five sheep. ただし頭割りに税金羊が不足したときは、
次期以降のために徴収された羊はプールされる。
* One can play different gamings with combined rules: with taxation
only, with taxation and subsidy, with simple taxation of 10%, with
simple taxation with 20%, and with progressive taxation.
* Another interesting variation for the gaming is to introduce polls
to decide on increasing the tax rate or change the taxation rules.
7. Debriefing
* Discuss about the impoverishment of the society when there is a
social dilemma and no institutional measures. Discuss about the process
where monopolistic situations arise.
* Confirm that subtle differences in strategies can lead to big
differences in the results, and then discuss on the results relating
them to the initial strategies.
* Debate about the ways to improve the society. Play a variant of the
gaming introducing the argued institutional rules.
* In the institutional version we can often observe strategies that
try lessen the tax to pay and the tax low being confronted with
strategies that are in conform with tax paying to be
wealthier. Discuss how this confrontation changes as a consequence of
taxation rules and subsidies.
境マネージメントゲーム記入フォーム 名前( )
プレイ場所( ) 日付( ) 第( )期
期首 借方 貸方
現金 ( )MOU 資本金 ( )MOU
羊 ( )MOU ( )頭 借入羊前期 ( )MOU ( )頭
物資産 ( )MOU 借入羊前々期 ( )MOU ( )頭
内部留保 ( )MOU
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
小計 ( )MOU ( )MOU
期中意思決定(フロー)借方 貸方
*現金(資産増) ( )MOU 羊(売却) ( )MOU:羊売却 ( )頭
*羊(資産増) ( )MOU 現金(資産減) ( )MOU:羊購入支出( )頭
*食料(資産増) ( 2 )MOU 現金(資産減) ( 2 )MOU:食料購入支出
*消費(費用) ( 2 )MOU 食料(資産減) ( 2 )MOU:食料消費
*物資産(資産増)( )MOU 現金(資産減) ( )MOU:物資産購入支出
*羊(資産増) ( )MOU 借入負債(羊) ( )MOU:羊借入 ( )頭
*借入負債(費用)( )MOU 羊(資産減) ( )MOU:羊返却 ( )頭
*利子費用(費用)( )MOU 羊(資産減) ( )MOU:羊利子支出( )頭
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
小計 ( )MOU ( )MOU
課税前羊数=期首羊( )頭+羊購入( )頭+羊借入( )頭ー羊売却( )頭
ー羊返済分( )頭ー羊利子支出分( )頭 =課税前羊数( )頭
*税金(羊費用)( )MOU 羊(資産減) ( )MOU:羊税支出 ( )頭
*羊(資産増) ( )MOU 補助(羊利益) ( )MOU:補助羊 ( )頭
*増殖前羊数=課税前羊数( )頭ー羊税支出( )頭+補助羊( )頭 =増殖前羊数( )頭
倍率 ( )倍 :増殖前羊数×倍率を四捨五入したものが増殖後羊数
*増殖分羊数=増殖後羊数( )頭ー増殖前羊数( )頭 =増殖分羊数( )頭
ここで増えた羊が付加価値の発生による羊の増加として記入される。
*羊(資産増) ( )MOU 付加価値( )MOU :増殖分羊数 ( )頭
*期末内部留保=期首内部留保( )MOU +附加価値( )MOU +補助(羊)( )MOU
-利子費用(羊)( )MOU-税金(羊)( )MOU-食料消費( 2 )MOU=期末内部留保( )MOU
*期末現金=期首現金( )MOU +羊売却:現金( )MOUー羊購入:現金( )MOU
-食料購入:現金( )MOUー物資産購入:現金( )MOU
*期末羊=期首羊( )MOU+羊購入( )MOU+羊借入( )MOU+増殖分羊数( )MOU
+補助羊( )MOU ー羊売却( )MOUー羊借入分返却( )MOUー羊利子( )MOU
-税羊( )MOU =期末羊( )MOU
*期末物資産=期首物資産( )MOU+物資産購入( )MOU =期末物資産( )MOU
期末貸借対照表 借方 貸方
現金 ( )MOU 資本金 ( )MOU
羊 ( )MOU ( )頭 借入羊今期 ( )MOU ( )頭
物資産 ( )MOU 借入羊前期 ( )MOU ( )頭
内部留保 ( )MOU
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
小計 ( )MOU ( )MOU
期末総資産=期末物資産+期末現金+期末羊=( )MOU
期末内部留保=( )MOU
今期の意思決定を行った理由: