The 6 Types Of Games In Game Theory

Tips for becoming a master strategist

In this story, I want to explore containment strategies and the essentials of applied game theory.

A containment strategy is the action or policy of keeping a medical emergency, or a country’s area of control power within acceptable limits or boundaries.

This strategy was used by the USA concerning Covid 19, and also with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Some people fail to see an opportunity until it no longer avails itself. By utilizing containment strategies, you afford the other negotiator a glimpse of the positive outcome they could achieve, if they alter their demeanor to go, from a power strategy to one at is more cooperative.

AI can often tell us what the best strategy is likely to be in a specific situation.

Using Containment Strategies In Your Negotiations

By using containment strategies in a negotiation, you’ll enhance the probability of achieving your goals, while controlling the flow of the negotiation.

Used correctly, containment strategies will save your mental state of mind.

It can be overwhelming for any student of strategic thinking to organize their thoughts so that they can determine which strategy will work best in which competitive or problem-solving scenario. Though there is no one best way to accomplish this, I usually organize problems and their potential solutions into six key categories.

The Six Master Games Templates

Ultimately if one looks at the most “long-game” scenarios in game theory, and game-based thinking, especially the ones we must deal with in our daily lives, there seem to be an innumerable number of patterns, and yet there are only six patterns, and categories that appear consistently in our interactions with others. This can be applied in a containment strategy

These game theory patterns are…

1. Win-lose.

2. Win-Win

3. Sequential moves.

4. Simultaneous moves.

5. Games where all players have access to the same information.

6. Games where some players have access to information that other players don’t.

Let’s explore each of these six categories and what makes them different.

1. A Win-Win Game: This is generally called a non-zero-sum game. This describes a situation in which the interacting players accumulate gains and losses and these can be less than or more than zero. Non-zero-sum games can be either competitive or non-competitive.
2. A Win-Lose Game: This is generally called a Zero Sum Game and is a situation in which one participant’s gains result only from another participant’s equivalent losses. The net change in total wealth among participants is zero; the wealth is just shifted from one to another. In basic terms, it means that if one person wins then everyone else has to lose. Track and field competitions tend to be win-lose games.
3. A Sequential Move Game: This is a game where there are two players and the players take turns sequentially, in ways or moves to achieve a defined winning process. Chess, Checkers, and Ping Pong are the familiar examples.
4. A Simultaneous Move Game: This is a game where each player chooses their action and makes their move without knowledge of actions chosen by other players. Rock-Paper-Scissors, a widely played hand game, is a real-life example of a simultaneous game.
5. A Perfect Information Game: This is a game where all players have access to the same information. A game has perfect information if it is a sequential game in which a player is theorized to have all relevant information to make a decision. Chess is an example of a game with perfect information. Each player can see all of the pieces on the board at all times. Other examples of perfect games include Tic-tac-toe, and the classic Chinese game of strategy “Go”. Some, though not all Perfect information games involve chance (luck). Backgammon is an example of such a game. Here both players are completely aware of the state of the game at all times and can use this to inform their decisions. Still, the progress of the game will depend on random dice rolls.
6. Imperfect Information Games. These are games where some players have access to information that others don’t. These are also known as “incomplete information games”. Poker and the buying of medical insurance are among the best examples of an Imperfect Information Game.

We may not know it but many of us are playing an imperfect information life game when we are buying health or medical insurance. In the health insurance market, buyers know more about their health problems than do any insurance providers. With this better information, buyers have an incentive to conceal their health problems in an attempt to get a lower insurance premium.

If insurance providers knew that a person had a history of heart problems, these providers could charge them a higher rate. This informational disparity in imperfect information games is referred to as “asymmetric information”.

It is important to keep in mind that In both perfect and imperfect information games players are unaware of the actions chosen by other players. However, they may know who the other players are; what their possible strategies or actions are or might be; and the likely preferences of these other players. Information about other players may be almost complete and yet it is still incomplete and imperfect.

Reading about these six categories of games might seem overwhelming in the beginning, but ultimately combinations of the six elements I have just described appear in all games, from the most basic to the most sophisticated and complex including containment strategies.

This story is an excerpt from my course “Strategic Thinking”

©Lewis Harrison, all rights reserved.

Here are a few stories in a similar vein

@LewisCoaches

@randalllsnyder

@sanghitapal

Before you go…

I am Lewis Harrison, a successful entrepreneur, and advisor to philanthropists. I am also the award-winning author of over twenty books on business, leadership, personal growth, and strategic thinking. I teach seminars and speak on personal development, and life strategies throughout the world. Reach out to me at AskLewis.com…

✍ — Published by Warren Brown, at Dancing Elephant Press. Click here for submission guidelines.