Game Theory in Liar Game
I wanted to discuss one of my favorite manga, Liar Game, and how it relates to game theory. Liar Game is a psychological series about the Liar Game Tournament, where players compete in games of deception and strategy overseen by an anonymous organization with large amounts of money on the line. Winners can live a life they’d only dream of while losers face a hell of inescapable debt. The players are often desperate people who have large debts who see the game as their last way out, therefore making them defensive and unwilling to trust or cooperate with other players. Our two main characters are Nao Kanzaki, who is honest to a fault; and Shinichi Akiyama, a genius ex-conman whose hatred of scams motivates him to destroy the Liar Game from within.
The series has several rounds, each with a different game with many interesting and unique strategies. Over the course of the round, we see many different strategies being played, often flipping the understanding of the game on its head, and by the end, the reader feels as though they’ve understood every aspect of the game. What makes the series so great to me is how the characters, themes, and games tie into each other. Although the premise of the games initially imply a zero-sum game encouraging self-interested strategy, the optimal way to play the games are often in cooperation, which our main character Nao convinces other players to do with her sincere nature.
I wanted to discuss one of my favorite rounds in Liar Game, the Musical Chairs round. The premise of the game is similar to regular musical chairs— players must sit in a chair before the round is over or they are eliminated, and the number of chairs decrease after each round. However, Liar Game adds a number of twists that changes the way the game is played.
- The game takes place in a large, secluded island where the chairs are initially hidden and spread out.
- There are two kinds of players involved: active players and extras.
- The active players are the ones who must sit in the chairs, and they are also awarded a number of medals which act as real money.
- The extras roam the game space.
- At the end of each round, both active players and extras vote to elect a leader, who has the ability to choose a chair to eliminate.
- Active players cannot sit in the same chair two times in a row.
- Eliminated active players become extras.
Although musical chairs is regularly a game where players must act in self-interest to win, this game requires alliances to be made in order to play optimally. In fact, if only two active players decide to form an alliance, they would dominate the game, being able to swap chairs with each other and vote amongst themselves for a leader to remove the other players’ chairs.
In the context of the Liar Game, where betrayal is lurking around every corner, players are unlikely to cooperate unless offered security or compensation. The two primary resources in the game are the medals, which represent money, and chairs. The medals can shift one’s motive in the game from avoiding elimination to accruing a high payout. Extras can be utilized for voting, securing chairs, and impeding other active players from getting to their chairs in time. Having many extras supporting an active player is essential to controlling the game, however it limits one’s total payout as they need to spend medals to buy them over to their side. Conversely, having a large number of chairs makes it easier to motivate active players to join alliances, as they are in a more secure position.
There are many complications preventing a pure strategy to be taken. For one, although paying off extras would allow one to virtually guarantee their safety, extras have no incentive to assist players once they’ve already received medals from them. However, it is difficult to form alliances with other active players without being able to either offer medals or convince them that allying is the most secure position.
Liar Game takes this interesting premise and throws many interesting turns at the reader by introducing complications that impact player interactions, like a group of players solely motivated by supporting one other player, as well as a player whose sole interest is advancing to the next round, allowing them to pursue riskier strategies limiting their total payout. I highly recommend reading Liar Game and seeing how the game plays out.
Source: https://liarsgame.fandom.com/wiki/Round_IV