Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Game Theory of R3

Most instances of human social interaction, e.g. language, the market economy, Friday night at the local meat market, the R3 comments section, etc., can be thought of as games, wherein "players" compete or cooperate to earn "payoffs" such as money, romantic attention, status, "street cred," or unbridled hilarity, endless bons mots and witty good cheer. Two basic types of move a player can make in a social game are a "pass," which creates the opportunity for one or more other players to make their own moves, or a "block," which limits other players' moves, or may even end the game. Using the R3 comments section as a familiar example, open-ended comments that encourage further comments are passes. Comments that discourage other posters from commenting or attack the game itself, e.g "whatever," "meh," "stupid," or "TLDR," are blocks. "Referee" comments, like ":|" or "uh..." fall somewhere in between, and usually indicate that two or more players aren't "on the same page," i.e. playing with a mutually comprehensible or satisfactory set of rules. In a zero-sum game like hockey, blocking is part of what makes the game challenging and fun. In the non-zero-sum game of blogging, passes are good, referee comments are sometimes necessary, and full-out blocks are usually bad, except in intentionally different sub-games (like "Can you fight?"), because they tend to hurt the game itself. To conclude this post (which by now is breaking one of R3's most sacred rules, the Rule of Economy), game theory suggests that R3 is (usually) a pretty good game.

RATING: 93%

(Image of the "Serpinski Penis Game" from xkcd.com.)

21 comments:

Evan J Peterson said...

I'm disappointed that I didn't get a "payoffs" link.

Internet John said...

Now you're the "cred" in "street cred." Not bad, eh?

Internet John said...

Unless you wanted to be in "romantic attention" with Lollsie. He does have gorgeous teeth.

Anderson Chadwick said...

Lollsies, motherfucker. It's Lollsies. A mistake like that would've gotten your ass kicked by us Yalies back in the day.

Internet Robyn said...

So, if blogging is a non-zero-sum game who is winning and who is losing on R3? Who is gaining value?

I.J. said...

zero sum=win/lose. ALL gains for one player come at the expense of ther players.

non-zero-sum=win/win. Gains for a player don't necessarily come at the expense of another player.

I.J. said...

Trolls "score points" by blocking other people with very little investment or risk to themselves. The payoffs aren't high, but the strategy is effective.

"Free riders" just say, "Yeah," or "Burn!" after someone else does all the work. It's a coalition formation strategy, scoring points for members of a group, sometimes at the expense of another person or group.

"Straight men" score points for themselves and others by appealing to the rules. At its best, this strategy disambiguates the rules and ensures fair play. At worst, it enforces orthodoxy and stifles innovation in the rules. In games like R3 where most of "rules" are loose, unwritten conventions, the straight man usually refers to concepts like "good taste" or "common sense."

There are lots more strategies than this, and people rarely play a "pure" strategy. Also, strategies other than troll are almost never simply "good" or "bad"--it all depends on context, and the strategies other players are using.

Evan J Peterson said...

Thanks, John. I appreciate it. And he does have really humpable teeth.

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

i feel like i had the hi score a few weeks ago when i wasnt posting but since i been posting my stock has dropped signifigantly

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

i thikn right now chris lol is moving up in the ranking now b/c everyone waiting to see what he has to say after his exiting vacation or w/e

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

i also talked to lipstick mom the other day and she says shes just waiting for her stock to reach a peak before her triumphant come back

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

i might make a excel spreadsheet if anyone interested

I.J. said...

DO IT

Viking Andrew said...

I am totally interested. Please, please.

DCP said...

I'm the Gary Bettman of R3, except I allow Canadian expansion teams.

laurie said...

Was there a big comment fight that I missed when I was away at school and various other good deeds?

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

laruie is just ahead of glen and glen is dead last

DCP said...

What? I'm R3's Michael Jordan. A living legend. If anybody's last is Professor La Mercier.

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

prof la mercier pwns i put him just behind bryan (give or take)

I.J. said...

Addendum: Rules of the Serpinski Penis Game

1. A triangle with the apex pointing up is an international symbol for "male." You sometimes see it on bathroom doors in Eastern Europe (apex inverted = female, BTW).

2. Big triangle (PENIS!) represents the first move in the game, little triangle (haha penis) represents the next. "Haha penis" is an open-ended response to move one, a pass, which permits a potentially unlimited number of further moves. You could respond to each "haha penis" with another "ha ha penis" an infinite number of times and not violate the rules of the Serpinski Penis Game or end it.

A block would probably be something like "eew penis".

The equivalence of moves is represented by shape, the sequence by scale.

(I'm making all this up if you can't tell)

I.J. said...

You could make it a drinking game, but you'd just have to drink every time.