Gaming the Game
Gaming the game is a discrete but realistic approach to game theory to ensure the best possible outcome while minimizing the cost/effort attributed to decision-making, “cheating” to sum, efficient problem solving for others. I have heard the phrase “gaming the game” used and thrown about during my seven years of service. Still, I feel as if I never attempted to understand the meaning until I attended a field maintenance course held by AM General with my fellow junior Marines. Towards the end of the period, there was a culminating group event in which the instructor would induce an unknown fault on a vehicle that would render it inoperable. The assigned group would go through the basic troubleshooting protocol to determine the source. A payoff matrix could be drawn between instructor and student with every possible malady; or, understanding that the instructional vehicle does not change between groups, nor is there enough time to induce a catastrophic fault. Knowing this information and to the slight annoyance of the instructor, I instructed my Marines to only inspect for potential defects on specific components that could be easily altered without potentially harming the instructional vehicle; low and behold, the culprit was the infamous “32A” wire, which was slightly out of position, and unable energize the fuel shutoff solenoid leading to the vehicle’s inability to start. The more explicit the rules within the “universe” are, the easier it is to take advantage of the situation and “play” by odds infinitely more favorable to the individual.
Michael Kingston’s “Dominated Strategies: Dominance, Domination, and Iterative Deletion” interesting never explicitly tackles the possibility of a player “metagaming”; however, his description of an iterative-based problem-solving method comes incredibly close to this alternative form of strategy as it is an exciting method to deduce the best possible choice on paper slowly. Kingston adds a caveat towards the end in regard to dominant strategy stating, “expect other players to anticipate you’ll never play [a dominated strategy] and choose their actions accordingly” I felt as if the human element of preemptively accounting for the opponents’ decision was missing from many of the examples throughout the class leading to some counterintuitive strategies at times. The teaching of counterplay is understandably, but tragically left out; however, it was exciting to see these theories on counterplay being proposed and even encouraged to a degree.
https://towardsdatascience.com/dominated-strategies-58504fe12106#:~:text=A%20strictly%20dominated%20strategy%20is,outcome%20than%20an%20alternative%20strategy.