Role-playing game in negotiation on irrigated systems : between play and reality. Proposal of a methodology

Experiments, which associate MAS and role-playing games, have shown synergies to tackle the complexity and the dynamic social systems sharing common resources. A role-playing game was invented to open the black box of a multi-agent model to farmers interviewed in irrigated systems of the Senegal river valley. A role-playing game is composed with four features: the game, the animator, the observers and the players. This paper is focused on players and their relationships developed during the RPG. In an irrigated system, what could be the links between real process of negotiation in relation to a common problem and those appearing during a role-playing game? To tackle this issue a methodology is proposed. This paper aims at presenting the methodology made ex ante, the hypotheses done, the results expected to confront them to field results. It begins with a presentation of the context of the research and a description of the RPG. The second part describes the methodology used to characterize negotiations. Different methods are used to register and analyze relevant data in negotiation processes in the game and in the reality. Three aspects of the negotiations are investigated : interactions of actors, the topics developed in the discussion, and the non-verbal aspect. The last part puts the methodology back in the context.