Jamal Awil

← The Strategy of Conflict

Game theory drops symmetry by adding unequal player moves. [definitional]

What should we add to the game to enrich it if the assumption of symmetry is dropped? There are many "moves" that are often available, but not necessarily equally available to both players, in actual game situation. "Moves" would include commitments, threats, promises; tampering with the communication system; invocation of penalties on promises, commitments, and threats; conveyance of true information, self-identification; and the injection of contextual detail that may constrain expectations, particularly when communication is incomplete.

DEFINE: Identifies a taxonomy of non-symmetric game moves: commitments, threats, promises, communication tampering, information conveyance, and contextual constraint injection.

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 635