Multi-agent Based Participatory Simulations on Various Scales

In this paper we present a framework called Simulacion designed to drive multi-agent based participatory simulations on various scales. Such simulations are defined as simulations where human actors and autonomous agents play similar roles. With Simulacion, each participant sits at a computer and interacts with an agent running on it. Humans and agents are paired and the agents can be considered as gates to the simulation, interacting together. Using Simulacion, we were able to conduct experiments over both local area networks and wide area networks. We were thus allowed to measure the requirements for participatory simulations led across laboratory and local area network boundaries. We also present how we started making the agents within these simulations as autonomous as possible, targeting large-scale and wide area experiments.