Deciding your objectives
You can choose between two broad objectives when playing DNJ Dilemma.
The first is simply to get more points than the other player, without
worrying about how many points you actually score. This is called the zero
sum game approach, because it's just the winning or losing that matters,
and these balance each other out regardless of how many points were
involved. It's the way most sports are organised, especially knockout
competitions such as football cup ties, where a 1-0 win is as good as a 10-0
one.
The alternative objective is to get a high points score for yourself,
without worrying about whether you've got more than the other player. This
is called a non zero-sum game approach, because it's the number of
points accumulated that matter, not just a simple win/lose balance, and in
those circumstances both players can come out 'winners'.
The non zero-sum objective is more representative of real life. For
example, most people would prefer to win £100,000 while a rival won
£150,000, than to win £100 while their rival won £80. It's also better
for two companies to do well than for one to end up in near-bankruptcy
having driven the other out of business.
You can take the non zero-sum approach a stage further, and consider your
ultimate objective to be the good of the community as a whole, i.e. not just
how many points you score, but how many points you and the other player
accumulate between you, and thus add to the communal wealth.
This is the purpose of the third (right-hand) score display in the game,
which shows you the combined totals of both players (all three score columns
include average as well as total scores, so you can compare games with
differing numbers of rounds). If you're really community-minded, watch
the effect on the combined average of someone playing a Defect card - it
goes below the optimum (all-cooperation) level, and can never recover!
In the DNJ Dilemma Tournament Challenge, we'll be awarding prizes for the
most successful strategies in zero sum and non-zero sum categories.
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