What actually is this "game theory" malarkey?

[nasher168]

It keeps coming up in various places wherever more intellectual sorts of people are involved, but I've never actually been able to get my head around what game theory is. As in, at all. All I know is that it is a mathematical idea and maybe has practical applications in predicting markets and dictating military strategy. Wikipedia's article appears to assume some kind of prior knowledge, because it's all but incomprehensible to me.

When it comes to maths, I'm probably only slightly better off than the average person in the street. I studied it as a subject up to GCSE level (just about the lowest level of UK qualification, taken at age 15 or 16) and got a 'B', then reinforced it a bit by studying Physics, Biology and Chemistry. But I'm pretty much totally uneducated when it comes to higher-level maths. I can just about see the point of using imaginary numbers, for example, but that's about the limit, and I was never actually taught about that concept.

So this is really just a matter of interest for me, satisfying my curiosity. What is game theory? In as simple terms as reasonably possible

 

[Squawk]

Game theory is partly maths based, but rests on situational awareness.

Consider a simple game of rock paper scissors. The unexploitable way to play is to choose each with 1/3 probability. Nobody can discern a pattern, nobody can do anything to predict or exploit you. Makes for a boring game if you both do it though.

Now, suppose you notice that the person you are playing against actually chooses rock with 1/4 probability, with paper and scissors both coming in at 3/8ths.

Now you can adapt your strategy, and with simply stats/probability calculations work out the optimal strategy to beat that person.

Game theory could be considered maths applied to any competetive situation. That's not a definition that would win many awards, but it might give you something to work with. Google prisoners dilemma.

 

[Gunboat Diplomat]

It keeps coming up in various places wherever more intellectual sorts of people are involved, but I've never actually been able to get my head around what game theory is. As in, at all. All I know is that it is a mathematical idea and maybe has practical applications in predicting markets and dictating military strategy. Wikipedia's article appears to assume some kind of prior knowledge, because it's all but incomprehensible to me.

I'm not sure I understand the source of your confusion. Most simply, game theory is the mathematical treatise of games...

When it comes to maths, I'm probably only slightly better off than the average person in the street. I studied it as a subject up to GCSE level (just about the lowest level of UK qualification, taken at age 15 or 16) and got a 'B', then reinforced it a bit by studying Physics, Biology and Chemistry. But I'm pretty much totally uneducated when it comes to higher-level maths. I can just about see the point of using imaginary numbers, for example, but that's about the limit, and I was never actually taught about that concept.

So this is really just a matter of interest for me, satisfying my curiosity. What is game theory? In as simple terms as reasonably possible

Perhaps a simple concrete example will help...

A very simple application of game theory would be the analysis of two player turn-based perfect knowledge games like Tic-tac-toe, Connect Four or Reversi. These games are solved using something called the minimax algorithm. Tell me if you have trouble understanding the term "maximizing the minimum gain..."

 

[CosmicJoghurt]

Tic-Tac-Toe is a pretty pointless game, though
I've never understood game theory either. I haven't seen anything special being asserted with it, so why game "theory"? A fancy name for competition-inclined maths?

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

Game theory is in essence related topics about the optimal way to atain an objective with a set of actions you can perform. It is more familiar when applyed in cases where the states of system are neither fully observable and fully controlable. Game theory is also aplyed in the development of AI even if the purpose is not to play an actual game.