Game Theory 101: Chicken

When we hear Game, we usually think of computer games, board games and the like. But what actually is a game? It’s quite simple!

The things that we nowadays consider games are mostly fluff and hulls, interactive movies and media, wrapped around a little bit of a game at the core. But what actually is the game? The game is the thing where we make informed proactive decisions in order to achieve an end goal. There is a field called game theory, which is a subfield of mathematics and economy. Game theory is not so much about games as in video games, but games in the mathematical sense. In gametheory, every decision we make is part of a game. I disagree with this, but there is some truth to it. Many decisions are, in the mathematical sense games. But what does this have to do with the initial question? Well, the games, at their core, are effectively mathematical games as defined in gametheory. A common example is the chicken game. It’s quite simple: a strong and a weak opponent run into each other. Two boats, two birds, two cats, whatever. They go directly at each other. They can chose to keep going or to dodge away. If both keep going, both might suffer severe losses. If one dodges, who dodges suffers milder losses, and who wins gains something. He wins the game.

Level 2: Inequal Players

But what if the players are not equal? A small cat and a big cat, a dove and a hawk, a small boat and a yacht, a car and a motorbike. This is where depth is added to the game, and where it starts becoming more realistic.

Now it’s time to introduce the key element to any game: background information. This is everything from what each player knows about each other, what their situation is, etc. With the right background information, a small player can win against a big player. How?

Imagine you have a Yacht, and there are 200 people on it. You are up against someone in a Jetski. He has no chance, right? But if you’re in the open see, he has nothing to lose, or is not mentally stable, this might not deter him. Perhaps he has a history of never dodging. When you are up against him, you can be sure that you dodge or you crash. So depending on what the stakes are, dodging might be a minor loss compared to the risk of him hitting you, scratching your ship, and potentially sinking it, and all the people on board with it.

Now, this is a very extreme example. But it shows some new angles in this whole thing. It teaches a few things: Strength matters, but it’s not the only factor. Potential win and loss matter too. and knowledge about the other player matter.

How can you apply this? When you are getting in a fight, it doesn’t matter if you are strong, as long as you are convincing that you do no care what happens to you, this alone makes you a terrifying opponent. I think we all know such situations. When weak seeming entities still seem untouchable. An aggressive cat, a hyperactive child from our childhood days, etc. “Players”with whom you don’t wanna mess despite their inferiority. They have less to lose, and in fact, this very attitude is what wins them the games. It in fact might be their only way to win these games.

Another concept here would be something I’ll borrow from biology. Phenotype and Genotype. Genotype is effectively what you have, and Phenotype is what it seems like you have. There are animals which look like other animals, in an attempt to “borrow” their reputation, in order to scare attackers. The word here is Mimicry, and in this particular case, batesian Mimicry. Flies that look like Bees,

A Moth immitating a Hornet

A Moth immitating a Hornet