GAMES as problems models
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1384 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Epistemology, ontology or semantics, Methodology or model |
R.L. ACKOFF scrutinized games as models for problems in the following terms:
- “A person (or group) can be said to be in a problem situation if the following conditions exist:
1. He has one or more unsatisfied desires; that is, he wants something that he does not have, and
2. He has available alternative ways of pursuing the objective(s) and these alternatives are not equally effective: that is, he has a real choice.
… “It will be observed that in a game, as conceived in Game Theory, the first two conditions are satisfied. Utilities or valued outcomes are involved, as are unequally effective plays or strategies. To have a game, however, several additional conditions are required:
1. the possible plays can be specified in advance.
2. there is a set of well-defined end-states.
3. A specified pay-off is associated with each end- state.
…“In a game the problem is already formulated for the decision maker and hence he is deprived of the information which is required to formulate a real problem in this form. In a real problem-solving situation the decision maker is not given a game to play, he must extract it out of the situation itself. A pre-formulated problem is a contrived exercise in which the decision maker is presented with incomplete information. The procedure by which he does or should solve this exercise it not necessarily the same as what he does or should do in a real problem situation…” (1959, p.147-8).
As to the study of real situations, see J. WARFIELD's Generic Design.