Economics Challenge Series 2024 – Challenge 2: Game Theory Game Res...

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Economics Challenge Series for 2024. For July and August, I am running an economics challenge series. The series consists of seven challenges. All the challenges will commence in July and early August. I will publish and announce the results in August.

Six of the seven challenges from last year's Challenge Series are returning. The Tax Game from 2022 is replacing the business version of the Buying and Selling Game. Below is the list of challenges.

Each challenge could reward winners with as much as 60 Hive Power. The value of the prize will depend on the level of participation. For each new participant, the prize will increase by 5 Hive Power. This will continue until 60 Hive Power 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 Power. The value of the prize will equal the sum of the number of participants across all challenges. This will continue until 80 Hive Power is reached.

For more information on the challenge series, I recommend that you read my post from last year. This year’s Challenge Series is run the same way as last year’s.

What is the Game Theory Challenge?

For the benefit of those who did not enter this challenge, here is a brief explanation of how the game works.

Participants were required to choose 5 out of 11 boxes. Each box was assigned a value. The value of the box is equally shared amongst the participants who selected it (e.g., if a box has a value of 30 and 6 participants select that box, each participant obtains a value of 5). The sum of the values of the selected boxes, after being adjusted for sharing, is the participant's score.

This challenge has several win conditions. These conditions are as follows:

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

Responses to the challenge were made in the comments section of the challenge post. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive Power. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive Power until a value of 60 Hive Power is reached. The winner will receive the full value of the prize. The winner of this challenge will also be given 30 points. The points from these challenges will be tallied at the end of the Challenge Series to determine the overall winner.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Results of the Game Theory Challenge

Table 1 contains the selections made by all the participants for this challenge, the values of each box after sharing, each participant’s score, and the winner of the challenge.

Table 1: Results of the Challenge

Note: winners in green font.
Note: participants tied for highest highlighted in purple.
Note: participants tied for lowest highlighted in red.

There is a tie for first place. The first win criterion was not met because two participants were tied for highest. They were @oskarl21 and @bereal47. The second win criterion was not because two participants were tied for lowest. They were @adese and @emeka4. Therefore, the third criterion was applied. The first two to enter split the prize and the points.

The overall prize is 50 Hive Power (5 × 10). Congratulations to @urrirru and @bereal47. You both win 25 Hive Power and 15 points each.

Overall Series Score

After two challenges, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows:

Position	Participants	Points
1	Urrirru	35
2	Emeka4	30
3	Bereal	15
4	Micheal87	10

This table will be updated in every results post.

Challenge Tips and Analysis

There are many ways of approaching this challenge. It is difficult, as we cannot control the behaviour of other participants. Entering later enables a participant to observe many of the other participant’s actions. However, it is possible that a winning strategy will not be available for a participant entering late.

In the case of this challenge, a new final participant could have made a late entry and won. This is because it is possible to obtain a lower score. The new participant (Player X) could have selected boxes 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10. See table below.

The most obvious tip is to never give the same response as another participant. This applies to all the challenges. Tiebreaker rules always favour the first to give an answer.

My New Book, Sapien Loop

I have published an ebook on Amazon; it is titled ‘Sapien Loop: End of an Era’. The book is fiction. I do not normally write fiction. However, I felt it was appropriate considering what is happening in the world today. Freedom is the most important thing we have, but we are gradually losing it. I have covered this in many of my posts.

In the story, most citizens do not understand the concept of freedom because they have never really experienced it. In essence, the story is about an alien world that might represent our not-so-distant future. There are many other elements to the story that are an abstract and exaggerated version of our reality. I believe this book to be an important read, and I believe it has the potential to change the way you think.

Brief Summary of Sapien Lopp

This story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

If you want to buy a copy of the book, below are links to the relevant Amazon websites for each country it is available in. The book is priced at approximately US$5.08.

I am also running monthly contests where participants are required to answer questions based on the book. The prize is 30 Hive Power plus upvotes for the first twelve entries. You can recover the cost of the book with just one win.

Economics Challenge Series 2024 – Challenge 2: Game Theory Game Results