Game Theory: An Introduction
Derek Hao HU
HKUST COMP221, Fall 2007
Is this game theory?
• We’ve learnt minimax (adversarial search)
– Perfect play for deterministic games
– Idea: Choose move to a position with highest minimax
value.
– Goal: Find optimal moves
11/28/2007
HKUST COMP221, Fall 2007
2
What is game theory?
• We focus on games where:
There are at least two rational players
Each player has more than one choices (moves, strategies)
The outcome depends on the strategies chosen by all players;
there is strategic interaction
• Example: Six people go to a restaurant.
Each person pays his/her own meal – a simple decision problem
Before the meal, every person agrees to split the bill evenly
among them – a game
11/28/2007
HKUST COMP221, Fall 2007
3
What is game theory?
• Game theory is a formal way to analyze
strategic interaction among a group of rational
players (or agents) who behave strategically
• Game theory has applications
Economics
Politics
Biology
Computer Science
Etc…
11/28/2007
HKUST COMP221, Fall 2007
4
Nobel Prizes
• 1994, John Harsanyi, John Forbes Nash and Reinhard Selten,
WON NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES, “for their
pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non‐
cooperative games”.
• 2005, Robert Aumann, Thomas Schelling, WON NOBEL PRIZE
IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES, “for having enhanced our
understanding of conflict and cooperation through game
theory analysis”.
• 2007, Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson, WON
NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES, “for having laid the
foundations of mechanism design theory”.
11/28/2007
HKUST COMP221, Fall 2007
5
Game Theory vs. Combinatorial Game
Theory
• They DIFFER in nature!
– In this lecture, we focus on game theory.
– Combinatorial Game Theory only studies two‐player games which
have a position in which the player take turns changing in defined ...