It should also be interesting to see whether each player can really discern when the other is “testing” his determination, “daring” him, and so forth; and it might be possible to study the process by which particular encounters become invested with symbolic importance, such that each player recognizes that he is establishing a role and reputation in the way he conducts himself at a particular point in the game.

QUESTION: Notes an empirical question about how players recognize symbolic investment in encounters — a research direction worth pursuing.

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 381