I would add that in poker, money management is also very critical. One can
lose most of the games, and often must, to end up with the largest pot
I notice the responses so far seem to divide this list among the games that
attempt to model a portion of reality, such as Diplomacy, Risk and so forth,
and then those that seem to model specific economic behaviors such as risk
avoidance and resource management and are more traditional and abstract,
such as poker.
There is a whole class of jigsaw puzzle games used by corporate trainers to
specifically model economic behavior in industrial decision making as a
teaching device. One may argue the famed Monopoly is such a game for the
wider public, as are city-building games such as began with "Gilgamesh" and
continue with Sim-City and Empire. Do they model "Crusoe economics" by using
entire sets of economic behavior?
And--what about co-operative games where the point is to help everyone win,
such as Korean circle ball ( after which hackey-sack is modeled) or the
focus is on personal action, such as certain "girls games," acculturation
games used by therapists and in many communes or social settings, or games
played by toddlers?
Best Regards,
MG
From: Fred Foldvary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: The Economics of Chess conventions
> > Question: Any other games use economic insights to make playing
> > and spectating more fun?
> > -fabio
>
> Poker uses two insights:
>
> 1. Rent. There are higher and lower valued cards, so a hand (set of
> cards) acquires a rent, paid by betting.
>
> 2. Entrepreneurship. One can win not just by having a highest-valued hand
> but also by bluffing, making others believe that one has it. The
> card-player as enterpreneur is successful if he knows the market, i.e. the
> playing styles of the others and the likely supplies (hands) and demands
> (likely bets).
>
> Fred Foldvary
>
