Thread: What's the term for a rock, paper, scissors system?

My question pertains to a 'rock, paper, scissors' system as it's called within gaming, but do not know the correct term. It's when a games balance is just like rock, paper, scissors with nothing being superior and everything having a weakness and strength.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/s...sors.html?_r=0

You can play it, here.

The updated version should contain the additional options of "Lizard" and "Spock."

Originally Posted by PhDemon

Game theory isn't really my bag (as in I know nothing about it) but I remember it being described as a "zero sum" game. I looked this up and found:

Rock Paper Scissors - Game Theory .net

The info you need may be here...

Thank you, you definately pointed me in the right direction. I'm now thinking of just getting a book on Game Theory to cover everything.

Rock-paper-scissors appears to be the canonical example so they seem to be known as rock-paper-scissors-like (or janken-like) games.

It is quite surprising that the game has spread round the world from Japan in a few years.

Originally Posted by Strange

Rock-paper-scissors appears to be the canonical example so they seem to be known as rock-paper-scissors-like (or janken-like) games.

It is quite surprising that the game has spread round the world from Japan in a few years.

The game is popular because you can perform it with your hands and it requires no skills.

Hi there, First post. Was just wandering by and the phrase "nontransitive" popped into my head. Is that what you mean?

A relation is transitive if a < b and b < c imply a < c. For example the usual < relation on the real numbers is transitive.

The rock-paper-scissors game is nontransitive. That's what I thought you were asking. But the game theory aspect is interesting too.

Rock, Paper, Scissors,. Particularly simple so it appeals to many and for no other reason than already stated..

Simplicity. Very fair and with minimal language requirement.. The history of this game might stretch back centuries.

The only other game like it was a thing called 'Stones' which was like knuckles without knuckles...

Um, part of the reason I asked this is because I recently got back into Pokemon (make fun of me all you want) and was wondering the basic game theory behind grass beats water beats fire beats grass, etc. However, if anyone is accustomed to the type charts in Pokemon, there is a question I have... What would Pokemons strategy system be called based on the type charts? It isn't exactly zero-sum and was wondering how it would be described.

Originally Posted by AndrewRyan

because I recently got back into Pokemon (make fun of me all you want)

Why do you think people would pikachu just because you got back into the game?

You gotta have balls to catch pokemon.

What is the 'strategy' called... I would call it limited options gaming..

~ but I do not know how to answer your question other than that... Mark.