John McKown wrote:
That is a "positive sum game". A "positive sum game" is one in which you
come out of the game "ahead" of where you were before entering the game.
A "zero sum game" is one in which you neither win nor lose. You come out
no worse or better than you were before. A "negative sum game" is one in
which you lose. You come out worse off than you were before.
and he is of course free to use words as he likes. Still, the standard von
Neumann-Morgenstern definitions of these terms are very different.
A zero-sum game is one in which no utility is created during play. Anything
won by a player or players must be lost by another player or some
combination of other players.
A positive-sum game is one in which utility is or at least may be created
during play. All players may sometimes thus win in the sense that they
leave the game possessed of more utility than they entered it with.
Finally, a negative-sum game is one in which utility is or may be destroyed
during play. All players may lose utility or some may win, but the sum of
the utilities possessed by all players will be less at the end of the game
than it was at the beginning.
Poker is a zero-sum game. Many economic processes, those that create
wealth, are positive-sum games. War is a negative-sum game.
John Gilmore
Ashland, MA 01721-1817
USA
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