@inproceedings { baptista13, abstract = {We present an agent-based business simulation game where the marketplace is simulated as an evolving system of autonomous interacting deliberative agents acting as utility maximizers. Consumers are explicitly modelled as deliberative agents with concrete beliefs, intentions and desires who act to accomplish their purchase plans. Simple codification rules at the level of the utility functions of the agents allow the emergence of complex behaviour which illustrate fundamental concepts from economics such as the law of demand, diminishing returns, effects of price and income changes and substitution and complementary effects. The game was tested experimentally, with our results proving to be encouraging, with the majority of the participants considering they were able to understand the results of the simulation. The high levels of agreement on this subject were closely related to the high degree of information provided by the agent-based model of consumer behaviour which allowed the disclosure of information, both at the micro and macro levels of complexity, without however, hindering the strategic value of the game.}, booktitle = {Games and Alliance Conference}, keywords = {Intelligent Virtual Agents;Computer Games;}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {A Business Simulation Game with an Agent-Based Deliberative Model of Consumer Behaviour}, year = {2013}, author = {Márcia Baptista and Carlos Martinho and Francisco Lima and Pedro Santos and Helmut Prendinger} }

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