Zero-sum game: one player's gain equals another's loss
Image: Collision Conf, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Zero-sum game
Zero-sum game: one player's gain equals another's loss
A zero-sum game is a situation where the total gains and losses among participants sum to zero. This means that any advantage gained by one player results in an equivalent loss for another player. Zero-sum games are common in competitive scenarios like poker, chess, sports, and financial instruments like futures contracts and options.
Example
In poker, if one player wins a hand, the total amount of money won by that player is equal to the total amount lost by the other players combined.
Understanding zero-sum games is crucial for analyzing competitive situations where resources are limited and one player's gain directly impacts another's loss.
Related concepts
the minimax theorem says: in zero-sum games, there's a saddle point strategy
In zero-sum games, minimax theorem guarantees a saddle point strategy
Nash equilibrium
Nash equilibrium: no unilateral gain
a dominant strategy is: optimal regardless of what other players do
A dominant strategy maximizes payoff irrespective of opponents' actions
Lebesgue measure
Lebesgue measure assigns zero to countable sets
Prisoner's dilemma
Prisoner's dilemma illustrates how individual rationality can lead to collectively worse outcomes
KL divergence is always ≥ 0 and equals 0 only when P = Q exactly
KL divergence measures the difference between two distributions P and Q; it is always non-negative and zero if and only if P equals Q exactly
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