War of Attrition
- Inventor of Game: John Maynard Smith
War of Attrition in the world of game theories can be somewhat connected to the regular term. In this game, you’ll be given dynamic timing where the players will choose a time to stop and then trade around the strategic gains from outlasting the other players. This will involve the real costs expended with the passage of time overall. This is a lot like the evolutionary game theory but is strategically comparable to the mixed evolutionarily stable strategy. In this game, players can bid any number they’d like in this all-pay, sealed-bid, second-price auction. One’s bid is even permitted to exceed the value of what you’re bidding for.
It might seem crazy to bid over the item’s value, as one would usually not want to exceed the assumed value of any item. That’s just wasting money. Yet you should keep in mind that each player only pays a “low” bid. This is why it would likely be best to bid the maximum possible amount rather than one equal to or less than the value. However, if both players involved bid above the value, then the highest bidder does not win as much as they just “lose less.” Whereas those who bid less than the value will still lose, but they’d lose less than those who might have bid higher than the value who also lost. In the end, there is no beneficial bid in all cases, making this game very difficult as there is literally no dominant strategy to employ.