Cooperate or not? The Game Theory in Battle Royal Game

Background

“Game theory”, while it sounds like it has a direct connection to games, is counter-intuitive in that it has no direct connection to video games as we know them. In a formal interpretation, game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that provides tools for analyzing situations in which parties make interdependent decisions. However in most games now, especially in PVP (Player vs Player) games, game theory can be perfectly applied to many scenarios. It is also one of the fun of the game to formulate strategies and get the optimal solution with opponent players in the game. However, this article will not discuss the application of game theory in games in the traditional sense but will focus on the application of game theory in the illegal formation of players from different teams in battle royale games.

Introduction

The term “Battle Royale” originated from a novel by a Japanese writer, and it is also a recently emerging game genre. The main gameplay of the game is derived from this novel. To put it simply, the main gameplay of this game is to put a large number of players without any equipment on a large map. Players need to survive on the map and obtain equipment. The safe area of ​​the map will continue to shrink, forcing players to encounter and fight with other players, and the last player who survives will win the game. Although the gameplay sounds a bit violent, due to the great satisfaction brought by victory and other reasons, this gameplay has attracted many players to play and has gradually become one of the most popular gameplays recently. The most well-known battle royale games include PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Apex Legends, Fortnite, and other games. In the game, players are usually divided into teams of three or two to fight against other teams. However, there is bad behavior in the game called illegal team formation, which is also officially prohibited. Refers to two or more different teams teaming up against other players. This kind of gameplay will cause other players to lose the game experience and also lose the fairness of the game. But in fact, the game does not have a rigid game mechanism or detection mechanism to detect the phenomenon of malicious team formation. Officials want to supervise this behavior only through players’ reports. Another fact is that this kind of malicious team formation is not common under such loose supervision, and we can apply game theory to explain this phenomenon.

Analysis

Let’s start by explaining the implications of various decisions that a squad makes when it comes to trusting other teams and teaming up maliciously. Assuming that team A meets team B in the game now, they have the same game level and equipment strength (i.e if they choose to fight each other, the winning rate is 50-50), and they are all considering whether to form a malicious team with the other party, the following is possible several situations:

1. A and B decide to trust each other and form a team at the same time. They have a higher probability of beating other teams and getting a higher ranking. In the best case, A or B will win first place, and the other team will get second place. name.
2. Both A and B do not trust each other and fight each other. In the end, A or B will win the battle and get the equipment of the other party. The winning rate is 50%.
3. One of the teams believed the opponent (assuming it was A), but the other team (B) decided not to believe it. Team B chose to sneak attack and obtain their equipment when team A was not paying attention after team A believed them. The winning percentage is 100%.

Based on these scenarios, ideally, we would have a decision table like this

Based on what we have learned, it is obvious that the Nash equilibrium occurs in the upper left corner, that is, the teams do not trust each other. Therefore, players generally tend not to choose to cooperate with other players.

Conclusion

In fact, this decision table is very similar to the classic prisoner’s dilemma. If players trust each other, they will get the most Payoff overall. But it is precise because of the distrust between players, just like the distrust between prisoners, that more players will choose not to trust each other. Therefore, in the battle royale game, malicious team formation can be avoided by preventing the two teams from communicating with each other. It is difficult for players of the two teams to choose to trust each other when they cannot communicate.