On the Nash Equilibria of a Simple Discounted Duel

We formulate and study a two-player, duel game as a nonzero-sum discounted stochastic game. Players P1, and P2 are standing in place and, in each turn, one or both may shoot at the other player. If Pn shoots at Pm (m ≠ n), either he hits and kills him (with probability pn) or he misses him and Pm is...

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Main Author: Athanasios Kehagias
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wrocław University of Science and Technology 2024-01-01
Series:Operations Research and Decisions
Online Access:https://ord.pwr.edu.pl/assets/papers_archive/ord2024vol34no2_5.pdf
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author Athanasios Kehagias
author_facet Athanasios Kehagias
author_sort Athanasios Kehagias
collection DOAJ
description We formulate and study a two-player, duel game as a nonzero-sum discounted stochastic game. Players P1, and P2 are standing in place and, in each turn, one or both may shoot at the other player. If Pn shoots at Pm (m ≠ n), either he hits and kills him (with probability pn) or he misses him and Pm is unaffected (with probability 1 - pn). The process continues until at least one player dies; if nobody ever dies, the game lasts an infinite number of turns. Each player receives a unit payoff for each turn in which he remains alive; no payoff is assigned to killing the opponent. We show that the always-shooting strategy is a NE but, in addition, the game also possesses so-called cooperative (i.e., non-shooting) Nash equilibria in both stationary and nonstationary strategies. A certain similarity to the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma is also noted and discussed. (original abstract)
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spelling doaj-art-b2da98303fd04f0f888632fb52f489e62025-08-20T02:40:21ZengWrocław University of Science and TechnologyOperations Research and Decisions2081-88582391-60602024-01-01vol. 34no. 26584171694159On the Nash Equilibria of a Simple Discounted DuelAthanasios Kehagias0Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, GreeceWe formulate and study a two-player, duel game as a nonzero-sum discounted stochastic game. Players P1, and P2 are standing in place and, in each turn, one or both may shoot at the other player. If Pn shoots at Pm (m ≠ n), either he hits and kills him (with probability pn) or he misses him and Pm is unaffected (with probability 1 - pn). The process continues until at least one player dies; if nobody ever dies, the game lasts an infinite number of turns. Each player receives a unit payoff for each turn in which he remains alive; no payoff is assigned to killing the opponent. We show that the always-shooting strategy is a NE but, in addition, the game also possesses so-called cooperative (i.e., non-shooting) Nash equilibria in both stationary and nonstationary strategies. A certain similarity to the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma is also noted and discussed. (original abstract)https://ord.pwr.edu.pl/assets/papers_archive/ord2024vol34no2_5.pdf
spellingShingle Athanasios Kehagias
On the Nash Equilibria of a Simple Discounted Duel
Operations Research and Decisions
title On the Nash Equilibria of a Simple Discounted Duel
title_full On the Nash Equilibria of a Simple Discounted Duel
title_fullStr On the Nash Equilibria of a Simple Discounted Duel
title_full_unstemmed On the Nash Equilibria of a Simple Discounted Duel
title_short On the Nash Equilibria of a Simple Discounted Duel
title_sort on the nash equilibria of a simple discounted duel
url https://ord.pwr.edu.pl/assets/papers_archive/ord2024vol34no2_5.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT athanasioskehagias onthenashequilibriaofasimplediscountedduel