Hello everyone and a happy Valentine's Day for everyone in love!
So here is my first blog entry that does not deal with my own project "How to become a good demon-daddy". But a topic was found quickly. I want to focus a little bit on school, education and other interesting links to games.
And today, on the day of love par excellence, it should be about nothing more than trust (in games). Suitable or?
Most of you probably know the somewhat older film "The Dark Knight" with our good friend and psychopath: The Joker (played by the late Heath Ledger). There are so many blog entries about the famous ship scene with the criminals and civilians who had the life of the other ship in their hands. I could now pounce on exactly the same thing that so many others have already done and say a few words about it.
I don't.
A few scenes earlier are enough for me. Batman races towards the Joker with his admittedly stylish bike, he goes full throttle. The joker doesn't really care. He just stands and waits. Until the last moment. Then Batman evades. Luck to our beloved villain. But does that have anything to do with trust? But of course! Throughout the entire film, the Joker plays games to prove that the whole city is spoiled to the core.
Batman is one of these residents (Major Spoiler: Bruce Wayne is Batman). And trust is exactly what the Joker builds or wants to destroy. Again and again he shows Batman that he doesn't stop. Just a few scenes earlier, he raced through the city in a truck and showed that he doesn't stop or evade his opponent. So our hero more or less knew or at least suspected that the joker would not move and the dark knight would drive him dead.
Incidentally, the whole scenario is a slightly averted variant of the well-known "Chicken Game". Two drivers approach each other at full speed. n the short term, they have to make a decision. Evade or not? If nobody evades, there is a major accident. If only one evades, the other is the winner. If both evade, then nobody wins. For every driver, it is usually about a lot of money, but also about their vehicles and even their lives. And still they have to decide in a panic situation.
The same also applies to the so-called bottle neck principle: there is a coin on a small string in a bottle. Unfortunately, only one fits through the bottle neck at a time. Now imagine 10 people, each with a string and the following task: Pull out the string with the coin as quickly as possible. You have ONE minute. Next to it a ranking, because for the fastest there is prize money of 100 EUR, for the second 80 EUR, the third 60 EUR etc. There was a study that showed that very often nobody wins in this game because everyone wanted to be the fastest. I find a quote from Pixar's "The Incredibles" very appropriate: "And if everyone is a hero (in our case the fastest), it is nobody anymore."
Today would not be Valentine's Day without not losing anything about love. Hence the romantic battle of the sexes (read more in: "Spieltheorie: Einführung für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftler" vom Springer-Verlag, 2013). Let's fight! A man and a woman (at this point it should be mentioned that these can of course also be other constellations) want to cross each other in their free time. Imagine the romantic love of young people. They don't know what the other is doing and still want to spend time together. Completely independently of one another, they are now faced with the decision of where to go: The man would like to go to a soccer game (please take something else that suits you as a man), the woman would like to go to the cinema for a romantic film (after all, it's Valentine's Day). If they don't meet at all, both find this the worst-case-scenario. However, neither of them really likes the other's leisure activity.
The scenario described is a so-called coordination game. There is no psychologically correct decision. If both really love each other, should they go to the activity they don't like but may see their loved one? If both think so, the woman ends up sitting alone in the stadium and the man alone in the cinema. They don't see each other and are still on the thing that doesn't interest them. Congratulation! That's true love! You notice that you can't get on without good communication. It really depends on the player's choice (who you are playing this game with) and how well you trust him or her.
These examples belong to the category of social dilemmas. Such problems are also very important at school because they are important for the value creation of young people. These little games can be used in elementary school. One could e.g. put a problem in the room for discussion. Here's an example:
Maik has a birthday and brings sweets to school. He even gives his best friend Janine double the amount. During the break, however, she sees Maik simply throwing all the plastic waste collected into the organic bin. They learned in class how important it is to separate waste. What should Janine do? Tell your friend who has been so generous to her?
It can already be seen here that this is a dilemma and that it is not always a question of doing the right thing in order to create the right value. What would be the right thing? His friend who's birthday today say that? How will he react? Will he be offended? Or would you rather not say anything? But the environment! There are many factors that influence our values ​​and that's a good thing.
For the somewhat older pupils, overfishing should be considered as an important ecological dilemma:
There is a fixed but unknown number of fish in a lake. There are 4 fishermen who make a living from fishing. There is 10 euros per fish. Each year you have four options: No fishing, little fishing (symbolically 1 fish), moderate fishing (2) or fishing a lot (3). Every year the fish population recovers somewhat at a fixed rate. Then fishing continues. Whoever makes the most profit is the winner. After a few years, fishermen learn about the fish population from researchers and realize that the fish population is on the verge of extinction. However, you do not know how your fellow fishermen decide, so: What to do? Fish nothing, a little, moderately or a lot? Who will win the most in the end? (The problem: If everyone always fishes a lot, the fish population will be exhausted after a few years and nobody can catch anything anymore.)
Social dilemmas are exciting. Very often they are used to show a decision making that is actually clear, but less lucrative is another. One speaks here of the so-called Nash equilibrium. At this point, however, this should be enough as an introduction to the world of game theory.
How did you like the first non-DevBlog entry? Do you have a clear opinion and a reasonable decision on all of the examples shown? How important is trust in a relationship to you and what do you mean by that? Stay true to yourself and above all, be in a good mood!
Your
GameMaking-X-Factor-loving Dizzy