Games with finite resources (Q1423664)

Games with finite resources are two-person zero-sum games defined in 1957 by \textit{D. Gale}, ''Informaton in games with finite resources''. Ann. Math. Stud., 39, 141-145 (1957; Zbl 0078.32901)]. The resource set for each player is the set \(A=B=\{1,2,\ldots,N\}\) for some positive integer \(N\). The game is played in \(N\) stages. At stage 1, Player I uses an element \(a_1\) of \(A\) and Player II an element \(b_1\) of \(B\). At stage \(k>1\), Player I uses an element \(a_k\) of \(A\backslash\{a_1,\ldots, a_{k-1}\}\) and Player II an element \(b_k\) of \(B\backslash\{b_1,\ldots,b_{k-1}\}\). There is an \(N\times N\) payoff matrix \(M=(M(i,j))\), and at stage \(k\) there is an immediate (partial) payoff of \(M(a_k,b_k)\). Thus the total payoff for the game is \(\sum_1^nM(a_i,b_i)\). Various forms of Goofspiel are special cases. Gale showed that the game value is \((1/N)\sum_{i-1}^N\sum_{j=1}^NM(i,j)\) and that an optimal strategy is to play randomly. The authors show an application to a certain inspection game, and extend Gale's result in several directions, one of which incorporates a 1971 result of S. M. Ross (Goofspiel--The game of pure strategy. J. of Appl. Prob. 8:621--625). There is also an application to a game theoretic version of the Generalized House Selling Problem.