Economics 7 Week Challenge Series – Challenge 4: Game Theory (Most ...

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Economics 7 Week Challenge Series for 2022. Over 7 weeks, in the months of August and September, I will be running an economics challenge series. This series will consist of 7 challenges. Five of these challenges will be returning from last year’s Challenge Series and two of them are completely new. Below are the list of challenges.

Challenge 1: Auction
Challenge 2: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)
Challenge 3: Tax Game (New)
Challenge 4: Game Theory
Challenge 5: Make Me Happy
Challenge 6: Buying and Selling Game (Original Version)
Challenge 7: Pick-a-door (New)

Each challenge could reward winners with as much as 60 Hive. The value of the prize will depend on the level of participation. For each new participant, the prize will increase by 5 Hive. This will continue until 60 Hive is reached (12 participants). The first 12 participants will also receive a 50% upvote from this account. In addition to the prize money, the top few participants will be given points. These points will be used to determine the overall challenge series winner. This winner may receive as much as 80 Hive. The value of the prize will equal the sum of the number of participants across all challenges. This will continue until 80 Hive is reached.

For more information on the challenge series and the upcoming challenges, I recommend that you read my post Spectrumecons Seven-Week Challenge 2022 (Coming Soon) and watch my video.

Welcome to Challenge 4 – Game Theory (Most or Least)

How to play?

The Game Theory (Most or Least) challenge requires participants to select 5 of 9 boxes. Each box has a monetary value; these values will be revealed later in this question. The value represented by each box will be shared equally across all participants who have selected that box. For example, if a box has a value of 50 and 5 participants have selected that box, each participant will be awarded a value of 10 (50/5).

All the information you need to know to play the game is provided in the question.

All entries must be made in the comments section of this post.

Each account is only permitted one entry.

Objectives of the game

This game has several different win conditions. These win conditions depend on values obtained by participants.

The participant who obtains the highest value wins the challenge if no other players’ obtain that same value.
If more than one participant shares the highest value, the participant with the lowest value wins if no other players’ obtain that same value.
If more than one participant shares the highest value and if more than one participant shares the lowest value, the first and second participant to enter the challenge will be joint winners of the challenge and will share the prize evenly. This will occur regardless of the value they obtained from the boxes.

Below is an example of a game where participants choose 3 of 5 boxes. The Gif demonstrates how the game changes as more participants enter. In the example, Participant 2 is the winner. However, at different points in the game, there are different participants winning. For example, after Participant 3 entered, Participant 3 was winning. Watch the Gif to see how the game changes as more players enter.

Example of Game Theory Challenge

Participants’ value is calculated as follows:

Logic of the objectives

The challenge tests participants’ ability to outmanoeuvre one another. The challenge contains both strategy and tactics. Entering early (first or second) provides the advantage of entering under a potential win condition. Entering later provides the advantage of being able to observe other participants decisions; therefore, potentially creating opportunities to achieve the highest or lowest value. However, if another participant enters, some of this advantage is lost.

Contest Prizes

The winning account may receive up to 60 Hive. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive until a value of 60 Hive is reached. The first 12 entries will be given upvotes. The winner of this challenge will be given 40 points (split equally if there are two winners). These points will contribute to determining the overall winner of the series.

Let the challenge begin

Participants are required to select 5 of 9 boxes. Each box has been allocated a value. The value of the nine boxes are as follows:

Box 1: 32, Box 2: 12, Box 3: 26, Box 4: 20, Box 5: 36, Box 6: 42, Box 7: 16, Box 8: 24, and Box 9: 18

Entry format

For this challenge, I expect to see entries made in the following format:

Boxes: …, …, …, and …

Example of entry

Boxes: 2, 4, 5, 6 and 9

The closing date and time for this contest is 6PM coordinated universal time (UTC) 28/08/2022. Responses after this time will not be accepted. The results of the challenge will be announced in a separate post.

I hope everyone has fun and enjoys this fourth challenge. I look forward to your participation in the fifth challenge. The next post will be the results of Challenge 1.

If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.