In Game Theory
In game theory, a "no-win" situation is one in which no player benefits from any outcome. This may be because of any or all of the following:
- Unavoidable or unforeseeable circumstances causing the situation to change after decisions have been made. This is common in Text adventures.
- Zugzwang, as in chess, when any move a player chooses makes him worse off than before
- A situation in which the player has to accomplish two mutually dependent tasks each of which must be completed before the other or that are mutually exclusive (a Catch-22)
- Ignorance of other players' actions, meaning the best decision for all differs from that for any one player (as in the Prisoner's Dilemma).
Read more about this topic: No-win Situation
Famous quotes containing the words game and/or theory:
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—For the State of West Virginia, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“every subjective phenomenon is essentially connected with a single point of view, and it seems inevitable that an objective, physical theory will abandon that point of view.”
—Thomas Nagel (b. 1938)