Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
7
The Concept of Utility
One thing that was left unsaid in the analysis of the Prisoner's Dilemma was
the reason behind making the decision. Perhaps this is obvious, but the
underlying premise is that going to jail was something negative. It is an
undesirable end—which is the reason it is considered a “loss.� However, strange as
this may sound, it is not a rigidly defined loss condition. Different people may have
different beliefs about and weights for the negative aspects of incarceration. For
instance, if you were quite certain that your wife would leave you if you were gone
for five years but not if you were only gone for six months, it makes the six-month
option look a lot better than the joint possibilities of either no time or five years.
However, if even six months away would be horribly detrimental to your life, you
may be more willing to take a chance on getting
no time
whatsoever by betraying
your partner and hoping he doesn't do the same to you. What it comes down to is
a matter of how you, as an individual, value the various factors involved.
There are other possible considerations. It is my understanding that there is an
unwritten code among the criminal masses: You do
not
rat people out. Not only are
there ramifications on the street for doing so, but there are ramifications from the
other inmates while incarcerated as well. That adds another aspect of personal util-
ity to the equation. How important is it—from a moral standpoint (and that term
is used within the context of the criminal mind)—to
not
betray a partner simply on
principle alone? These are all factors that provide the subtle shading of the decision
process well beyond what we thought we had determined was the black and white
of mathematics.
In economics,
utility
is a measure of the relative satisfaction from or desirabil-
ity of consumption of goods. Put more simply, “How much does this mean to you?�
Whether it is money, time, the value of building a tower, or the effectiveness of a
razor blade, the problem with attempting to quantify the utility of an item is that
different things are worth different amounts to different people.
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