Game Theory: An Analytical Tool for Game Developers
Game Theory: An Analytical Tool for Game Developers
You have probably played a video game at least once in your life. What makes one game stand out from the others? Is it the beautiful graphics or the breathtaking map design? Is it an engaging plot that makes you crave more content? Let's explore how game theory can be successfully applied in the creative world.
When playing a Valorant game, you might consider hiding your weapon so that you have something to rely on in the next round. Among Candy Crush fanatics, there are many who would tell you to accumulate "powerups" to survive difficult levels. Human psychology plays a huge role in transforming a game from a bunch of elements thrown together into an industry-standard game.
Game theory puts an emphasis on analyzing the human brain and simplifying the complex decisions it make when playing games. This data is crucial in how to structure your game and make it fun. The game theory emphasizes the philosophical concept of "Nash Equilibrium".
Nash Equilibrium: A paradoxical situation
It is named after one of the most well-known mathematicians in the gaming industry, John Forbes Nash Jr. Nash Equilibrium discusses a scenario in which no one can win in a non-cooperative game simply by changing their strategy.
This situation is perfectly described by "Prisoner's Dilemma", a real-life fiction in which two partners in a crime are trapped in a prison cell and have two choices. The prisoners have two choices, to confess and reduce their sentence or to keep quiet and trust that their partners will not turn them in.
Regardless of what the other decides, each prisoner receives a higher reward for betraying the other. Reasoning involves analyzing the best responses of both players:
Prisoner B will either cooperate (keep quiet) or confess his guilt. If Prisoner B cooperates, Prisoner A should also confess because it is better to be free than to serve 2 years in prison. If Prisoner B confesses, Prisoner A must also confess because it is better to serve 2 years than 3 years.
So, in both cases, Prisoner A should confess because confessing is Prisoner A's best response, regardless of B's strategy. Parallel reasoning will show that Prisoner B should confess.
Disloyalty always yields a better return for both parties than cooperation, but the ideal choice is for both A and B to cooperate, thus achieving 'Nash Equilibrium'.
But do we use the game theory that often?
You've probably heard of or seen the game of rock-paper-scissors. Have you ever wondered why one of the two people playing wins more than the other? 'Nash Equilibrium' comes into play in a discrete way in this 20th-century hand game.
According to the theory, for it to be a 'fair' game, one person must choose each option exactly one-third of the time. If one of the two players chooses one option more than the other, the other player tends to exploit this tendency.
This concept is so common in games and real life that we subconsciously face the prisoner's dilemma. Resource management, the 'coordination game' involving bank failures and currency crises, and many other theories revolve around the 'Nash Equilibrium'.
"The Walking Dead" is a well-known post-apocalyptic scenario game involving decision-making, focusing on the right choices rather than things like aiming mechanism and skill. The game revolves around survival amongst the 'living dead' and the decisions you make have both payoffs and rewards, which makes the game interesting right from the start and increases its replay value by a long way.
Identifying disadvantages
The overuse of 'Nash Equilibrium' is also a problem faced by many game developers. Nash Equilibrium is a concept based on the decisions of both players in a non-cooperative game. Although the most efficient way is to compromise on a point where both players have the most to gain, the human brain is tricky and not everyone thinks the same way.
Suppose you are a prisoner in a prisoner's dilemma scenario. What would you do? Would you really cooperate and keep quiet or would you defect to the police and escape for free?
Dominant strategy is a concept in which one person in a non-cooperative game considers personal gain regardless of whether the other person is harmed or not. Situations, where Prisoner A or Prisoner B is not sentenced to prison, are examples of dominant strategy and show the disadvantage of Nash's equilibrium in games, as it can be frustrating for the losing side to play the game.
Game theory has become an important resource not only for understanding the interactions between players in strategy games but also for game developers. This theoretical framework provides developers with valuable insights on a number of important topics such as game design, balancing, user interaction, and competitive advantage.
This in-depth analytical approach has found applicability in many fields and has become an important tool in solving many problems in social, economic, and scientific fields. Today, game theory is not just a mathematical theory, but a framework of thought that guides our understanding of interactions in various aspects of life. Will you use this newly learned tool in your next brilliant idea?
