VAG: A game of agribusiness supply chain strategy

VAG is a prototype animated, interactive, three-dimensional virtual environment model of a supply chain in the agribusiness sector and has been developed as a CD-based game of strategy. Users (players) have to both create their supply chain by choosing the components that make it up, and then play the game in the role of the Manager of one of the components in it: the goal being to maximise the success of that component. Evaluation of the player’s business acumen and the ‘health’ of the particular component in the supply chain are calculated based on the information use and decision making that transpires. Animation and activated 3D graphics of decision making are trialled as a way of providing an immersive learning experience (the “Know How” rather than simply the “Know What”). VAG has been designed and developed both as a proof of concept in the use of 3D virtual reality modelling for education and research projects in rural based enterprises and their associated supply chains, and to provide the basic infrastructure and concept for further technological, scientific and educational development with additional funding.