Game Theory with Translucent Players (2024)

[Submitted on 17 Aug 2013]

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Abstract:A traditional assumption in game theory is that players are opaque to one another---if a player changes strategies, then this change in strategies does not affect the choice of other players' strategies. In many situations this is an unrealistic assumption. We develop a framework for reasoning about games where the players may be translucent to one another; in particular, a player may believe that if she were to change strategies, then the other player would also change strategies. Translucent players may achieve significantly more efficient outcomes than opaque ones.
Our main result is a characterization of strategies consistent with appropriate analogues of common belief of rationality. Common Counterfactual Belief of Rationality (CCBR) holds if (1) everyone is rational, (2) everyone counterfactually believes that everyone else is rational (i.e., all players i believe that everyone else would still be rational even if $i$ were to switch strategies), (3) everyone counterfactually believes that everyone else is rational, and counterfactually believes that everyone else is rational, and so on. CCBR characterizes the set of strategies surviving iterated removal of minimax dominated strategies, where a strategy s for player i is minimax dominated by s' if the worst-case payoff for i using s' is better than the best possible payoff using s.
Comments: Extended version of a paper that appear in the Conference on Theoretical Aspects of Rationality and Knowledge, 2013
Subjects: Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT)
Cite as: arXiv:1308.3778 [cs.GT]
(or arXiv:1308.3778v1 [cs.GT] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1308.3778

arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Submission history

From: Joseph Y. Halpern [view email]
[v1] Sat, 17 Aug 2013 12:29:53 UTC (40 KB)

Game Theory with Translucent Players (2024)

FAQs

What is the game theory with translucent players? ›

We develop a framework for reasoning about games where the players may be translucent to one another; in particular, a player may believe that if she were to change strategies, then the other player would also change strategies.

What is the best response in game theory? ›

A best response is a best strategy given what you think the other player will do. A dominant strategy is one that is a best response to all possible strategies. When players are mutually best responding, we have a Nash equilibrium.

How game theory assumes that players behave? ›

There are several assumptions that are made in game theory. The players act rationally. In other words, they act in best of their interest. There is also assumption of maximization, that is, each player act to maximize their pay off.

What is the game theory of John Nash? ›

The Nash equilibrium is a decision-making theorem within game theory that states a player can achieve the desired outcome by not deviating from their initial strategy. In the Nash equilibrium, each player's strategy is optimal when considering the decisions of other players.

What is the 3 player game theory? ›

In the three-person games, we find Nash equilibrium via movement diagrams and then break the game down into possible coalitions. This pits two players versus the third player. All possible coalitions are evaluated and their results are used to look for likely forming coalitions.

What are the three basics of game theory? ›

The three basic elements of any game are: A set of participants, or "players." The moves, or "actions," that each player may make. The scores, or "payoffs," that each player earns at the end of the game.

What is a strongly dominant strategy in game theory? ›

Summary. The dominant strategy in game theory refers to a situation where one player has a superior tactic regardless of how the other players act. The Nash Equilibrium is an optimal state of the game, where each opponent makes optimal moves while considering the other player's optimal strategies.

How do you find Nash equilibrium using best response? ›

  1. Find the firms' best response functions. To find the best response of firm 1 to any action a2 of firm 2, fix a2 and solve. maxa1a1(c + a2 a1). ...
  2. A Nash equilibrium is a pair (a1*,a2*) such that a1* = b1(a2*) and a2* = b2(a1*). Thus a Nash equilibrium is a solution of the equations a1* = (c + a2*)/2. a2* = (c + a1*)/2.

What is a never best response game theory? ›

We say that an action is a never-best response if it is not optimal against any belief about other players' actions. A never-best response action is not rationalizable by definition.

How do you solve game theory problems? ›

Methods of solving such a problem:
  1. Odds method ( 2 × 2 game without saddle point)
  2. Dominance method.
  3. Sub-games method – (for m × 2 or 2 × n matrices)
  4. Graphical method.

What is a real life example of game theory? ›

The best example of game theory is a classical hypothesis called “Prisoners Dilemma”. According to this situation, two people are supposed to be arrested for stealing a car. They have to serve 2-year imprisonment for this.

What is the best example of game theory? ›

The Prisoner's Dilemma is the most well-known example of game theory. Consider the example of two criminals arrested for a crime. Prosecutors have no hard evidence to convict them. However, to gain a confession, officials remove the prisoners from their solitary cells and question each one in separate chambers.

Who invented game theory? ›

John von Neumann, whom people called Johnny, was a brilliant mathematician and physicist who also made three fundamental contributions to economics. The first is a 1928 paper written in German that established von Neumann as the father of game theory.

What is the classic game theory? ›

Classical game theory describes socially and temporally isolated encounters while evolutionary game theory describes macro-social behavioural regularities. The actors in classical game theory are payoff maximizers whose identity remains fixed during the course of play.

What is invisible hand game in game theory? ›

The Invisible Hand Theorem identifies conditions on a game under which there are again dominant strategies, but, this time, to be sure that the play of these strategies leads to the largest overall pie.

What are the different types of players in game theory? ›

The Psychology of the Player

These categories are the Achiever, the Explorer, the Socializer, and the Killer. It's worth noting that these categories aren't rigid. Most people display some traits in more than one category. However, most people have a dominant trait which determines their overall preference.

What are the four types of games in game theory? ›

Here are the five types of games in game theory:
  • Cooperative and non-cooperative games. Cooperative games refer to games where players discuss and negotiate to decide on strategies. ...
  • Normal form and extensive form games. Normal-form games refer to matrix games. ...
  • Simultaneous move and sequential move games.
Aug 13, 2023

What is the game theory technique? ›

Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. It has applications in many fields of social science, used extensively in economics as well as in logic, systems science and computer science.

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