Serious Games by Clark C. Abt; A Primer on Simulation and Gaming by Richard F.

Barton
Review by: Charles D. Elder
The American Political Science Review, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Dec., 1971), pp. 1158-1159
Published by: American Political Science Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
Serious Games. By Clark C. Abt. (New York:
The Viking Press, Inc., 1970. Pp. 176.
$5.95, cloth; $1.95, paper.)
A Primer on Simulation and Gaming. By Rich-
ard F. Barton. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-
Hall, Inc., 1970. Pp. 239. $8.95 cloth, $4.95
paper.)
Serious Games is a book with a message and
is written with almost evangelistic zeal. While
conceding that games are not a panacea for all
the ills of modern life, Abt argues that they can
provide fast and effective relief for many of
these ills. To appreciate this remarkable pallia-
tive power, Abt invites the reader to view the
world through game-colored glasses. In a for-
mal sense, "a game is an activity among two
or more independent decision makers seeking
to achieve their objectives in some limiting con-
text" (p. 6). Since most real-life activities
may be conceived in these terms, a game be-
comes "a way of looking at something, any-
thing" (p. 5). Presumedly, this "way of look-
ing" affords one considerable analytic lever-
age and fosters a creative yet rigorous type of
problem-solving. It also allows one to contrive
activities (serious games) designed to simulate
social processes which then can be used to
communicate knowledge about these processes
and to surface new insights regarding them.
A major portion of the book is devoted to
the educational value of games. Abt contends
that games can assuage many of the problems
of contemporary education-problems relating
to student motivation, curricular relevance, in-
structional responsiveness, testing and evalua-
tion, and limited resources. While games alleg-
edly can improve education in general, Abt
suggests that they are especially beneficial for
students from disadvantaged areas. He argues
that games can provide a mode of activity fa-
miliar to these students and thus sustain their
interests and involvement. Moreover, through
such games, disadvantaged students can exhibit
important skills and talents that otherwise
might go undetected.
Moving beyond the classroom and formal
education, Abt finds serious games to be excep-
tionally valuable tools for planning and prob-
lem-solving in government and industry. This
value accrues in part through a sort of dialecti-
cal process. Games promote a sense of detach-
ment and objectivity, while at the same time
engaging the emotions of the participants and
fostering an intense involvement with the prob-
lems being gamed. Games thus offer unique ad-
1158
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vantages when used to analyze specific prob-
lems, experiment with alternative strategies,
and convey substantive information.
While arguing that participation in serious
games can be both enjoyable and highly re-
warding, Abt also points out that all of the pay-
offs are not in the playing. The designing of a
game can be a potent educational experience
and an illuminating analytic exercise.
Throughout the book, Abt documents his ar-
guments with personal anecdotes and an occa-
sional testimonial from a satisfied user. With
the exception of a single reference to Boocock
and Schild (eds.), Simulation Games in Learn-
ing, he essentially ignores the large and grow-
ing body of research and literature on simula-
tion and gaming. Sprinkled throughout are
fairly detailed descriptions of a number of gam-
ing exercises, ranging from simple card and
board games to fairly elaborate, computer-as-
sisted simulations. Many of these were de-
signed by Abt Associates, Inc., of which the
author is founder and president.
Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the
book is devoted to the "cost-effectiveness" of
games. While Abt's conclusions are never in
doubt, he does raise a number of important
questions and issues about the design and use
of games. Unfortunately, most of these are dis-
missed rather glibly. The essential message of
both the chapter and the book seems to be:
"Let gaming be pervasive, let it flourish in good
forms and ill, and the best will emerge. This is
no art of the experts, but a universal language
common to all cultures, ages and conditions"
(pp. 114-115).
While Abt's book is addressed primarily to
the question of why do it, Barton's Primer con-
centrates more on how it is done. For Barton,
"simulation is simply the dynamic execution or
manipulation of a model of an object system
[i.e., the subject matter of an investigation or
learning experience] for some purpose" (p. 6).
The burden of the book is, in part, to demon-
strate that technical expertise is a more impor-
tant asset in the construction and use of simula-
tions and games than Abt would lead one to
believe.
Barton identifies four ways of studying ob-
ject systems: (1) analysis, (2) man-model sim-
ulation, (3) man-computer simulation, and (4)
all-computer simulation. The book is organized
largely around the last three of these tech-
niques, detailed consideration being given to
each in turn. Each chapter is supplemented by
1971 Book Reviews
a number of study exercises, some relatively
simplistic, others demanding more than the
reader is likely to be prepared to do on the
basis of the text.
After introducing the reader to simple flow
diagram conventions, Barton uses a number of
relatively simple but illuminating flow charts to
illustrate and summarize his arguments. The
book develops very slowly and apparently is in-
tended to move progressively from the simple
to the more complex. However, the progression
is far from uniform and the chapters are un-
even in detail and the level of prior sophistica-
tion presumed. For example, a person with-
out some training in statistics or probability
theory is likely to find parts of the chapter on
Monte Carlo techniques exceedingly difficult,
if not impossible, to follow.
The continuity of the book also suffers from
a fairly lengthy digression on computer sys-
tems. Barton's advice on computer etiquette is
sound, but the instruction he provides on the
jargon of computer systems is of marginal rele-
vance at best and is drawn out unnecessarily.
For the uninitiated, this exercise in grammar is
likely to be largely meaningless. For the person
with some computer experience, it serves no
real purpose.
In his chapter on simulation languages, Bar-
ton offers a brief but useful comparison of
three simulation languages: GPSS, SIM-
SCRIPT, and DYNAMO. Before getting to
these comparisons, however, he leads the
reader through an excessively long discussion
(replete with examples) of internal and exter-
nal machine languages, assembly languages, and
user-oriented (source) languages and through
an annotated listing of several higher level lan-
guages, most of which are not well known nor
commonly available.
The book is generally strong on the mechan-
ics of constructing and implementing simula-
tions but is less helpful on matters relating to
structural desiderata and design criteria (per-
haps understandably, since these matters are
heavily dependent upon the purpose for which
the simulation is to be used). Barton's advice
regarding programming and computer usage is
particularly well-taken, and he offers a number
of valuable rules of thumb for constructing
simulations. The force of his insights are some-
times lost, however, amidst a plethora of irrele-
vant information and a tendency to belabor the
obvious. Although he is emphatic in asserting
that simulation should not be used when analy-
sis will do, the force of his argument is diluted
by an unfortunate choice of a simple penny-
matching game with which to illustrate the
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1159
various techniques for studying "object sys-
tems." While Barton does provide a limited bib-
liography, he, like Abt, does not attempt even a
cursory survey of the literature. His final chap-
ter "A Survey of Simulation Applications"
does not contain a single citation. This is
somewhat ironical in that Barton makes a
strong argument for the importance of docu-
mentation when constructing simulations. The
same apparently does not hold when writing
books.
While some simulation and gaming practi-
tioners may find succor in Abt's uncritical ex-
position of the faith or enjoy some of Barton's
inside dope, I suspect that most will find both
of these books disappointing introductions to
the subject. Although the authors of both books
obviously have had extensive experience with
their subject matter, more thorough attention to
the literature would have added much, not least
of which is a fuller and more useful per-
spective for their focal concerns.
CHARLES D. ELDER
University of Pennsylvania
Embattled Reason, Essays on Social Knowl-
edge. By Reinhard Bendix. (New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 1970. Pp. ix, 395.
$9.75.)
This is a collection of essays published over a
twenty-year period by a scholar of wide eru-
dition and profound sensitivity to our current
situation as well as our past. It is, in his words,
"a piece of intellectual autobiography." Three
chapters deal with the "Conditions of Knowl-
edge," three with "Theoretical Perspective,"
and the remaining six with "Studies of Modern-
ization."
The volume is so rich in important argument
and powerful propositions that it is hard to
know where to begin. There are certain major
themes, however, that bind the wide range of
subjects. The book begins with reflections upon
the precarious state of dispassionate inquiry in
the modern University, with the major em-
phasis upon social inquiry. Bendix remarks
again and again the paradox in our trust in
reason, on the one hand, and our cultural de-
spair; our belief in the inquiry of the scholar
and our distrust of the average man's prudence
which such inquiry often inspires. In "Social
Science and the Image of Man," he notes the
applicability of Zeno's paradox to the social
scientist himself, asking how Marx's thought
could be exempt from Marx's strictures on ide-
ology, or what dark complex of childhood ex-
periences lay at the roots of Freud's analysis
of unreason, and thereby "explained" it.