The academic study of games began with the 1928 article "The Theory of Parlor Games." Game Theory has evolved into one of the fundamental academic tools used to study human behavior. Essential to playing and understanding, any game is the concept of a response function: each player has a move to undertake given their opponents actions.
Pandemic Tic Tac Toe shows a children's game, boring for adults because it is easily solvable, in a final stalemate referred to as a "Cat's Game." There can be no victory; the only winning strategy is to prevent total loss.
A different type of game, that of total chance, is shown in Snakes and Ladders: Presidential Edition. In a game of chance, there is no strategy and no response, only the excitement or agony of watching the event unfold.
Other games like Chess and Go remain unsolved. Even the most powerful computers fail to converge on an outcome. In these games, events unfold not by chance but the interaction of two rational players whose strategies weave an unpredictable ending. This simple process leading to infinite complexity is seemingly referenced in End Game and Prelude, Scherzo, Finale.
Everyday we are involved in game-type settings where our response choices include cooperation. Often we can choose to bear some cost that, if reciprocated, improves all players' outcomes. In What are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? a simple game has evolved into a complex institutional and cultural puzzle, yet the underlying game, with its strategies and consideration of opponent actions, remains.
Eric Edwards, PhD
Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics
North Carolina State University