On 19 Sep 2000, at 19:12, John Perich wrote:
> _Diplomacy_ is one of the most intriguing games I've ever come across
> (I'm engaged in a game by e-mail currently). I think some interesting
> economic speculations can be derived from it.
That's putting it lightly. On the most popular Diplomacy ezine
("The Diplomatic Pouch"), it's rare to see an issue without at least
one article on Diplomacy and game theory. Dip attracts a lot of
mathematicians and economists. There was even a fascinating
"study" done wherein article readers saw different web pages (but
didn't know that) and while they thought they were being asked
opinions on a particular map position, the web pages showed the
same positions subtly differently (the pieces were in different
*places* in their spaces) to see if that influenced perception of the
situation. (It did.)
On the question of other boardgames -- many, many, many
boardgames involve substantial economic reasoning, but they are
rarely "common" games in this country. Instead, serious boardgame
hobbyists play European imports, which are usually much more
well designed. One game that took the hobby world by storm about
five years ago is called "The Settlers of Catan." The board is a
randomly generated assortment of resources and ports, and players
must build their settlements and roads to produce as efficiently as
they can. It is difficult to win without trading shrewdly with your
opponents. In fact, trade is central to the game. Each resource (there
are 5) is uniquely difficult to produce each game, so you are never
sure what will be scarce and what won't.
Other "German games" or "Eurogames" involve other economic
mechanisms -- some of the first ones I played were fascinating
auction games, where the idea was to make the most money. In
"Modern Art", you have a hand of paintings (cards), and each player
plays one in turn. When a player plays a card, the card specifies the
type of auction... free-for-all, reserve price, one bid in turn, etc. At
the end of each round, all paintings "won" by each player are cashed,
depending on *how many* of those paintings were put up for sale.
So ideally you want your own paintings to go for the most money,
but for that to happen other people have to play them, not just you.
However, if only you own a particular artist's work, then no one else
will have an incentive to auction off more of his work... which leads
to a lot of interesting auction strategy. And, of course, you can try to
win just by collecting the cash from selling your cards, rather than
accumulating a collection of paintings each round.
I could go on (and on, and on) -- but my point is that there are a ton
of games out there for which economic reasoning is central.
Boardgaming is a great hobby for economists, if you know where to
look for the good games.
Ananda Gupta
Some folks are dissatisfied with the free market if it doesn't work perfectly, and
satisfied with government if it works at all
.
-- Daniel B. Klein
