Let's Play A Game

Seeing the cover of the book gave me an excited feeling. I mean, it wasn't intimidating. I was looking forward to reading it. Lo and behold, I was right. It was fun to read, actually. The vocabulary wasn't very technical which is something that I really liked. It's my first time to encounter the term 'Game theory' so I was like, " Thank God. Hindi ako mahirapan mag-intindi." Reading through the book made me realize that, "Game theory pala ang tawag dun?!"

We may not know it but game theory is around us. As the author said, "....it is about the strategies that we use every day in our interactions with other people." For the years of my life I never knew that there's actually a term for that. I mean, I've been applying game theory without actually knowing it. Speaking of application, Len Fisher used examples from his life for better comprehension of the book. The first chapter of the book started with how the Nash equilibrium gave way to the Prisoner's Dilemma. Followed by a chapter about division of resources using strategies. The third chapter tackled the 'Seven Deadly Dilemmas', namely: Prisoner's Dilemma, Tragedy of the Commons, Free Rider, Chicken, Volunteer's Dilemma, Battle of the Sexes, and Stag Hunt. As a student, it's a fact that everyone can relate to the Free Rider and the Volunteer's Dilemma. C'mon, who hasn't? The rest of the chapters tackled on how cooperation can be achieved, particularly form self-interests.

In popular culture, game theory is also applied. The best example would be in The Dark Knight and Game of Thrones. The Dark Knight opened with a group of men with creepy clown masks robbing a bank. One by one the robbers are killed until the sole person left gets all the money. Using the same principle as that of the pirate game, a game theory problem, Joker, the only man left in the group and mastermind, got all the money to himself. Game of Thrones, on the other hand, is self-explanatory. Different forms of game theory is utilized in the book-slash-show. It's very, very, very exciting to see how they outwit each other. Aside from that, game theory can also be applied to solve daily life situations, as well as local and international relations.

In conclusion, I quote Alex Dixon: "Fisher uses game theory to show how cooperative behaviors have evolved to escape the traps created by selfishness, and how cooperation persists even in the most difficult circumstances."