Vladxmxr (Vladimir Marcuta): Reading 6.

To continue on in my readings, I've done additional writing on the body of my paragraphs and have completed further research on my chosen topics in relation to managing complexities and avoiding dominant strategies. Some extra subtopics I've discovered are such as games using the same rules to simulate the real world, the complexity curve, why gaming strategies are important, and the differences between a dominant and a dominated strategy. Here are two further subtopics I've written on along with a couple more in a separate word document;

The complexity curve.

↱ A game’s “complexity curve” defines the amount of information and understanding that a player must have in order to make strategically practical choices during gameplay. Therefore, in a game like chess, you would need to understand the game’s objective and how the pieces can move. At that point, there is no further information you need to play the game. The complexity curve only applies to a game’s width and not its depth. Say you had all of the tools and knowledge you needed in the game, but you lost, the reasoning behind this is that you lacked the mastery of the game’s inner workings. In the “coalition games profiling” process, we categorize this as “accessibility vs intensity”. The more a player commit to learning a game, the higher the chance of being rewarded, especially player types that are more fundamentally motivated, but also keep in mind the consequences here, as complexity hurts approachability. This means overall satisfaction with your game could suffer no matter how technically sound it may be.

Dominant vs. Dominated strategies.

↱ A dominant strategy is better than any alternative strategies a player can pick, regardless of the moves their opponents make. This means that, in any given game, a player’s dominant strategy will lead to the greatest payoff for them. There are two kinds of dominant strategies, a strictly dominant strategy, and a weakly dominant strategy. Strategies that are strictly dominant refer to it always giving a better outcome, regardless of which moves other players make. Strategies that are weakly dominant refer to it always giving an outcome that is as good as or better than choosing an alternative strategy.

Whereas a dominated strategy is worse than all alternative strategies a player can pick. This means that, in any given game, a player’s dominated strategy will lead to the worst payoff for them. There are two kinds of dominated strategies, a strictly dominated strategy, and a weakly dominated strategy. Strategies that are strictly dominated refer to it always giving the worst possible outcome, regardless of what moves other players make. Strategies that are weakly dominated refer to it always giving an outcome that is as good as or worse than choosing an alternative strategy.

I've discovered both these subtopics on https://effectiviology.com/strategic-dominance/ and http://coalitiongames.com/wordpress/2016/05/17/game-theory/.