Skip to Main Content
Mississippi State University

Library update: Recent database changes

Learn more

Video Games in Research

This guide is designed to help researchers who have questions about adding video games to their research.

What is Game Theory?

Simply put Game Theory studies decision-making, where the outcome of each "player" depends on the actions of other "players".

The dictionary describes game theory as "The branch of mathematics concerned with the analysis of strategies for dealing with competitive situations where the outcome of a participant's choice of action depends critically on the actions of other participants.

 

Despite focusing on mathematics, Game Theory has been used in various fields such as social sciences, business and biology.

While Game Theory is a useful tool to analyze and solve problems, it does have problems.

  • Game Theory relies on simplified models and on a simplified structure.
  • Game Theory  has a key assumption that players will react rationally and have complete and accurate information.

For more information  see "The Limitations of Game Theory".

Examples of Game Theory

Game Theory  is how and why people make decisions, and has applications in many different fields. Below are some examples of Game Theory:

  • Prisoner's Dilemma
  • Volunteer's Dilemma
  • War of Attrition
  • Rock Paper Scissors

Video games rarely incorporate Game Theory.  However, studies have been done on how to incorporate game theory into computer games and how it could be used in game design.

 

Here are some articles and sites about game theory and video games:

“Game Theory in Video Games Explained (Essential Tips for New Designers),” October 25, 2017. https://www.gamedesigning.org/learn/game-theory/

 

Taylor, Mark, Mike Baskett, Denis Reilly, and Somasundaram Ravindran. “Game Theory for Computer Games Design.” Games and Culture 14, no. 7–8 (November 2019): 843–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412017740497.

 

Yin, Haoran, Jiaxiang Sun, and Wei Cai. “Honest or Dishonest? Promoting Integrity in Loot Box Games Through Evolutionary Game Theory.” IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, 2024, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2024.3376718.