Introduction to PABLUM: A Public Administration Game

Abstract

Local curriculum requirements created a need for a generalized public administration decision-making computer game analogous to general purpose business games currently in use.1 A search of the then current gaming bibliographies uncovered urban, environmental and project development computer games as well as board games and role playing exercises in the same areas. The noticeable absence from the bibliographies of a computer game which focused on the operation and interaction of governmental agencies in a manner which would be conceptually generalizable to actual agencies at all levels of government led to this writer’s decision to attempt to conceive and develop PABLUM (Public Administrative Bureaucratic Laboratory for Upper Management).