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Rational Game Theory in Philosophy
and Serious Video Games
Numbers, numbers!
Lori Shyba Digital Media Lab University of Calgary
Serious Games Research Roundup FuturePlay What
will the next generation think of? London,
Ontario October 11, 2006
review and comments.
Illustrations Public domain or original art
unless otherwise indicated
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Glauconian Justice External
Solution to PD
A romp through historical views of Morality
Morality is a contractual transaction between
scoundrels. Do wrong and avoid being found out.
Civil society has a moral obligation to cooperate
authoritarian sovereigns impose policing to
enforce justice. The leg-breaker approach to
morality.
Glaucon the Cynic Platos Republic 360 B.C.
Thomas Hobbes Leviathon 1651A.D.
review and comments.
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The Prisoners Dilemma Mixed Motive Game.
Cooperate Keep the faith
Defect RAT
Red circle Unique equilibrium is that rational
choice leads players to defect. The corpus of
human politics is to move from the red circle to
the green circle. This can be done with external
or internal intervention.
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Cooperate Keep the faith
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Defect RAT
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Prisoners Dilemma Outcome Matrix
review and comments.
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John von Neumann Dr. Strangelove
Honoured Celebrities of Rational Game Theory
Applied game theory to model Cold War interaction
between the US and USSR as players in zero-sum
game.
Peter Sellers in Stanley Kubricks Dr.
Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb.
Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour 1957 (with
Oskar Morgenstern)
Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove
Illustration Colombia Pictures
review and comments.
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Nash Equilibrium A Beautiful Mind
Honoured Celebrities of Rational Game Theory
The Whats in it for me? factor. NE Sub-games
of positioning, coalition, and looting
interactions.
Introduced the notion that coalition and
positioning strategies works to get girls.
John Nash 1957
Russell Crowe in a Beautiful Mind, 2001
review and comments.
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Darfur is Dying Case Study 1
An example of Game Theory as an analytical tool?
Downloadable from www.mtvU.com/on_mtv/activism
Sponsored by Reebock Human Rights
FoundationDevelopers InterFUEL
review and comments.
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Meet the Aggressor Hypothetical Game, Case
Study 2
In the wrong hands
Illustrations Virtual Battlefield
www.virtualbattlefield.comDevelopers Bohemia
Interactive, under licence by the United States
Marine Corp.
Startling revelations occurs when playing the
same game from oppressors point of view.
review and comments.
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The Pipeline Pinball Energy Thrill Ride Game
Game Theory in Economics and Turbo Capitalism.
Provincial Dilemma (PD) For a mere 120 billion
investment (and rising)1.6 TRILLION BARRELS of
Bitumen could be recovered from the
Oilsands. Wheres the dilemma?
review and comments.
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The Pipeline Pinball Energy Thrill Ride
Gameboards
Game is an allegory for 1. Paradox of oil
prices. 2. Jockeying for power in the
oilsands. 3. Accountability to shareholders. 4.
Our inescapable moral imperative to reduce
greenhouse gasses.
review and comments.
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review and comments.
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From DVD Production still 1
The actors against 4 projected images of the
PPETRG
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Summary of ideas about Game Theory

1. Assuming the Prisoners Dilemma is the
   cornerstone of game theoretic thinking, much of
   the corpus of human politics is the move from the
   defect/defect quadrant of PD to the
   cooperate/cooperate quadrant.
2. Civil society has a moral obligation to
   cooperate. Can be through external enforcement
   (leg-breaking) or internal enforcement (virtual
   meta-ethics).
3. Many serious games can be analysed within a NE
   subgame reduction of coalition, positioning, and
   looting stategies. Illuminates context, subtext,
   pretext and intertext of political, military,
   economic scenarios
4. Likewise, they can be analysed within an internal
   enforced system of meta-ethics where when in
   doubt, follow the logic of the math.

review and comments.
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Bonus ideas about Serious Games

1. Computer simulations can enable us to observe and
   record rational decision-making and examine their
   determinants in a way that is easier than staging
   investigations in the real world.
2. Playing games like Darfur and Pipeline Pinball
   can bring an understanding of what the future
   will hold in Africa or Alberta and how
   priorities might have to be established or
   changed.
3. Video Games can provide opportunities for
   reflection by providing experimental platforms to
   bring us face to face with our mistakes.
4. Cognitive psychologists, drama therapists, and
   creative artists agree that Make believe has
   always been an important way to prepare ourselves
   for the real thing. But what happens when it
   falls into the wrong hands?

review and comments.
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Thank you!

• The Alberta Foundation for the Arts
• The University of Lethbridge
• The University of Calgary, Interdisciplinary
  Graduate Program
• Queen Elizabeth II, Province of Alberta Grant
• The University of Calgary, Special Project Grant
  Committee
• The University of Calgary, CCIT iCentre
• The Alberta Petroleum History Society
• EMMEDIA Production Society

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