A Representation for Many Player Generalized Divide the Dollar Games

Divide the dollar is a simplified version of a two player bargaining problem game devised by John Nash. The generalized divide the dollar game has <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Garrison W. Greenwood, Daniel Ashlock
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-02-01
Series:Games
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/14/2/19
Description
Summary:Divide the dollar is a simplified version of a two player bargaining problem game devised by John Nash. The generalized divide the dollar game has <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>n</mi><mo>></mo><mn>2</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> players. Evolutionary algorithms can be used to evolve individual players for this generalized game but representation—i.e., a genome plus a move or search operator(s)—must be carefully chosen since it affects the search process. This paper proposes an entirely new representation called a demand matrix. Each individual in the evolving population now represents a collection of <i>n</i> players rather than just an individual player. Players use previous outcomes to decide their choices (bids) in the current round. The representation scales linearly with the number of players and the move operator is a variant of an evolution strategy. The results indicate that this proposed representation for the generalized divide the dollar game permits the efficient evolution of large player populations with high payoffs and fair demand sets.
ISSN:2073-4336