4709: Non-Zero-Sum Game

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Non-Zero-Sum Game
4709.png
Made by: Wibi


Explanation[edit | edit source]

The author writes:[edit | edit source]

A non-zero-sum game is a game where the amount of gains and losses accumulated by all players do not sum to zero. This comic represents an interaction wherein neither parties of a two-player game experience net gains: the first player, unable to reverse-engineer the arcane magicks invoked by the second player, must now live the rest of eternity as an unmoving teddy bear, with no mouth through which to scream or eyelids to blink for help, whose only refuge is his moments of being cuddled until he finds himself cuddled with less and less, eventually being abandoned by his owners after a few decades, and outliving them as he slowly decomposes with no-one left to watch after him, with his last moments of life when everything keeping him discernable as a teddy bear becomes naught but dust resembling not ultimate despair so much as a final moment of relief, but the second player loses 20 points. The prisoner's dilemma is a particularly well-known non-zero-sum game, illustrating a situation where the ideal strategy that results in gains for both players, and the highest overall gain, is actually the least preferable option from an individual player's perspective in an isolated game.

Original strip: 2021-09-14.

Transcript[edit | edit source]

{A mouse is walking with a grim expression}
Mouse: I'm feeling depressed
{The mouse is now standing in front of Pooky}
{The mouse is replaced with a grey Pooky; Pooky is replaced with a brown mouse}
{The brown mouse is walking with a grim expression}
Brown mouse: I'm feeling depressed