"All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns. " - Bruce Lee1
Game theory has been defined in countless ways and been applied to many different things. Some of the definitions include, "A mathematical method of making decisions in which a competitive situation is analyzed to determine the optimal course of action for an interested party.2" and "a mathematical theory that deals with strategies for maximizing gains and minimizing losses within prescribed constraints, as the rules of a card game: widely applied in the solution of various decision-making problems, as those of military strategy and business policy. "3. It is this last definition that I will be focusing on because it has been applied to military strategy and the martial arts are, by nature, forms of military combat.
The Martial Arts are not like a traditional game that is usually analyzed by game theorists. Rather, it is actually a game that has certain elements of game theory installed within different styles so that depending upon which traditions you practice, you are actually taught to play a different game. In this paper, the focus will be to the different rules for game theory taught within different styles, and some interprations about what that means for the players of these games and further how we can extrapolate from these ideas something useful to Game Theory itself.
Before we can talk about what kind of game the players within the Martial Arts play, we must first look at different types of game strategies and learn a bit about why they are useful for the players involved. Because Game Theory is so extensive, we will look at a few common ones and compare them. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
