Grand unified game theory can represent all two-player games
There is now one game to rule them all. Any two-player interaction – which means anything from international disputes to childhood stand-offs – can be analyzed using a unified theory of games. Previously, different games had to be used depending on the situation.
Thanks to game theory, one can predict the outcome when two parties interact such as countries in a trade war, children fighting in the backyard and even animals fighting for territorial control. It can also allow you to come up with strategies that will enable seamless winning.
Jin Yoshimura and his colleagues at the Shizuoka University in Japan came up with game model that can account for the variables in a two-player game. The participants have to choose between betrayal and cooperation.
The game is based on the prisoner’s dilemma situation in which each of two criminals are told they can either cooperate with the other inmate and stay silent or betray them by testifying that the other person committed a crime.
In their game, the two participants are expected to lift a heavy bag. Since there is an energy cost for lifting the bag, each of the participants either pays a fine or receives a reward based on how successful the bag is lifted.
The bag can be carried by both players or individually and by varying the number of players choosing to cooperate and the rewards or costs in the scenario, Yoshimura says their game can encompass all other two-player games.
Previous games have only factored in reward and costs rather than the number of people cooperating. According to Kevin Zollman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania the scenario “allows for a more intuitive way of moving from one game to another.”
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