Tori Hatch
Written Assignment 1
Games People Play
SOS-360-OL009

1.
In the movie Princess Bride we are witnessing game theory in action. Game theory is defined as the study of strategic interaction among rational players. There are four elements to games. These elements are players, strategies, payoffs, and common knowledge. These elements, and how they relate to the poison scene in Princess Bride will be discussed below.

The first element of a game is the players. There must be at least two players. These players are also assumed to be rational. By rational, we mean that the player will make decisions based on strategies that will give them the most positive outcomes.
The second element of a game is strategies. Strategy in this sense represents the decisions that must be made by every player based on his desired payoff.
The third element is payoff. Payoff refers to that outcome that is viewed as beneficial to the player. One player’s payoff may not be the same as the other player’s payoff.

The fourth and final element is common knowledge. Common knowledge refers to the fact that all the players know the rules of the game. In lecture 1, Mr. Stephens further said common knowledge refers to the fact that everybody knows that everybody knows the rules of the game.
In the “Battle of Wits” movie scene, we clearly have two players, the outlaw Vizzini and Wesley. The strategy is to choose the goblet that seemingly does not contain the poison. However, he has no way of knowing which goblet contains the poison so he tries to strategize all the possible choices of locating the poison. The positive payoff is to stay alive by choosing the poison-free goblet. The alternative is death. The common knowledge is that the poison will kill you. But that is where common knowledge ends because Wesley has put poison in both cups and he has built up an