Jinx,

On Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:42:35 +1200, Jinx wrote:

> This is yet another variation on the "Prisoner's dilemma".

Or "The Tragedy of the Commons".

A number of years ago I was on  leadership course, and we were in two teams and up to this point we'd always been in competition.  Then one 
evening they sprung something on us, where there was to be a game of 5 x 5 "noughts & crosses".  Each team would nominate a player who would 
actually play the game on the board at the front, on instructions given to them beforehand - no communication was allowed during the game.  We 
had half an hour to work out our strategy and brief our player.

Each team had to put in a fixed amount of money, including the organisers, and the winning team would take the pot.  If the result was a draw the 
pot went to the organisers.

Now if you're careful it's always a draw in the traditional 3 x 3 game, so with 5 x 5 there's no way to lose unless you're completely stupid - you can 
always see a line building and block it, so a draw was inevitable.  I realised this fairly quickly and had to persuade my team that the only strategy 
was to agree which team would win, and share out the winnings afterwards.  When I'd done that (took about 25 minutes!) I then had to go to the 
other team and persuade them - and they were *very* sceptical!  I tried the tack that we needed to beat the organisers (I think I used the phrase 
"those bastards" :-), and the only way to come out on top was for one team to win - we just needed to agree which team would win.  As one of the 
organisers was counting down the last 30 seconds behind me, I decided I needed a trust-showing act to clinch it, so I took out a coin and threw it into 
the air and said "call to see who's going to win" and stepped back and let it fall to the floor - their side won, so that was the deal.  With a great deal 
of trepidation on both sides, the game went ahead, we let them win, and they shared out the booty afterwards - Job Done!  :-)))  It was one of my 
proudest moments of the whole course - I had some dreadfully low moments too, but that's another story...

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist