Axelrod Tournament
Demonstration Software


Site Created and Maintained by: Chris Cook
Last updated: 29 December 2011

Table of Contents

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Quick Download: InstWinIPD_1_2_1.zip (662KB)

Axelrod Tournament Screen Shot
 


 
Axelrod's Tournament: Introduction [top]
The Prisoners' Dilemma (PD) game gets its name from the scenario where two people are arrested for some crime and are questioned separately. Each is given the opportunity to either cooperate with his/her accomplice and not give any information to the police, or defect against his/her partner by ratting to the police in exchange for some kind of immunity.

A game is constructed to mimic this situation by providing payoffs to the players based on how they both respond. A typical payoff is to give 3 points to each if they both cooperate (police have no case against the criminals and can only get them for a very light crime). If one cooperates, and the other defects, the defector gets 5 points, while his suckered partner receives none. If both players defect, they each only receive 1 point (police get them for a moderate crime, but not as severe as if only one person had taken the blame.)

The total payoff to both players is greatest for mutual cooperation (6 pts), while a cooperate-defect play results in 5 pts, and mutual defection only hands out 2 pts. So, clearly, it is best for the collective system if all players cooperate, but here is the interesting paradox. Each player individually is better off by defecting in any given situation. If your partner cooperates, you can get 3 points by cooperating back, but you can get 5 by defecting. Similarly, if your partner defects, you get nothing if you cooperate, but you can still salvage 1 point by defecting back.

The extension of the PD game to permit repeated PD game play between players is known as the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) game. In 1979 Robert Axelrod (University of Michigan) hosted a tournament to see what kinds of strategies would perform best over the long haul in the IPD game. Various game theorists were solicited for IPD strategies in the form of computer algorithms, and the submitted strategies were then pitted against each other in repeated round-robin PD game play. The strategy that received the highest total payoff from this repeated PD game play was declared the winner of the tournament.



Software Description [top]
This demonstration software ("demo") features a library of commonly used types of agents (strategies) for playing the IPD game as well as a wide variety of other iterated two-person games. The demo allows a user to host his or her own tournament by selecting the number and types of agents present in the tournament player pool, the payoffs that the agents receive as a result of their game play moves, and the total number of iterations in the tournament. The demo then runs the tournament and presents the user with detailed results from the tournament.

Available Features:
  • User-Friendly Interface. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) allows the user to configure the tournament in a point-and-click environment. Current configuration settings can be saved (as a binary file) by clicking on either the "Save Configuration" or the "Save Configuration As" options in the File menu. The saved configuration settings can then be uploaded and used at a later time by clicking on the "Load Configuration" File menu option.
  • Library of 16 Agent Types. The user specifies the population of agents to be entered into the tournament by clicking on the menu tab marked "Agent." This brings up, on the left, a library of 16 available agent types. These agent types possess a wide range of "traits" to let the user create a tournament with a very unique personality. The library includes various agent types that are responsive to the play of rivals and others (such as "Always Cooperate" and "Random") that are not. The agent types also differ along various other dimensions: e.g., nice (initial cooperation) or mean (initial defection), forgiving or vengeful, and so forth. When the user clicks on one of the 16 listed agent types, a screen on the right is activated. This screen provides a verbal description of the strategy for this agent type. It also contains a "Count" box within which the user can set the integer number of agents of this type to be entered into the tournament. In addition, it allows the user to associate with this agent type either the default payoff matrix or a user-customized payoff matrix (see below).
  • Customizable Payoff Matrix. The user can specify and save a variety of customized payoff matrices by clicking on the main screen button marked "Payoffs." This action opens a payoff matrix screen in which the user can adjust the payoffs corresponding to each of the four possible combinations of actions in any particular game play: CC, CD, DC, DD. For example, increasing the payoff for temptation DC (defecting against a cooperative rival) or sucker CD (cooperating against a defecting rival) could lead to higher rewards for agents that fall into alternative cooperate-defect cycles than for agents that attain mutual cooperation. Also, changing the payoffs allows the user to experiment with other forms of two-player games such as Chicken or Stag Hunt.
  • Type-Specific Payoff Matrix. As noted above, as part of the process of agent specification the user can assign a specific user-customized payoff matrix to a specific type of agent. For example, the user can test an environment in which one type of agent is more highly rewarded for cooperation than other types of agents.
  • Variable Number of Iterations. The user can specify the integer number (between 1 and 100) of iterated game plays between matched agent pairings by clicking on the main screen button marked "Options." This action opens an options screen that includes an entry box marked "Tournament Iterations."
  • Pseudo-Random Number Seed Setting and Capture. The user can specify the seed value for the pseudo-random number generator by clicking on the main screen button marked "Options." This action opens an options screen that permits the user to set the seed value. If no random seed is specified, the system default is to use the system clock. The seed value used for each tournament run can be saved in a binary file (together with all other configuration settings) by clicking on either the "Save Configuration" or the "Save Configuration As" File menu option.
  • Variable Speed. The user can control the speed of execution and output display for each tournament by clicking on the main screen button marked "Options." This action opens an options screen providing a slide control. Using the slider control to set a faster (slower) game speed results in more (less) work being performed between each pause for display so that the user sees fewer (more) intermediate results and the tournament takes less (more) time to run.
  • Tournament Rules. Let the total number of agents that the user has entered into the tournament be denoted by N, and let the number of iterations the user has specified for the tournament be denoted by I. When the user then hits the "Start" button, the following tournament effectively takes place:
    1. In the first iteration i, a round-robin is conducted in which each distinct agent pairing is matched for one play of the game. Since there are N[N-1]/2 distinct agent pairings, this means there are N[N-1]/2 matches in the first iteration and each individual agent engages in [N-1] game plays.
    2. This round-robin is repeated for I successive iterations. The end of the Ith iteration marks the end of the tournament.
    3. At the conclusion of the tournament, the total number of matches TM (i.e., the total number of games that have been played between distinct agent pairings) is I x N[N-1]/2. From the perspective of each of the N individual agents, I x [N-1] is the total number of games that this agent has participated in. Since two agents participate in each match, adding up all the game plays from the viewpoint of individual agents gives N x I x [N-1] = 2 x TM.
    4. As the demo is running, the "matches" reported in run-time mode in the lower left of the main demo screen is a counter keeping track of the number of matches completed so far.
  • Graphed Output. During the execution of the tournament, the user can view the results of the tournament by clicking on the menu tab labeled "Graph." This brings up a run-time graph that plots the current cumulated payoff attained by each agent and each type of agent in each successive iteration. This lets the user see easily that certain agent types are performing better than others in the tournament. The user can choose to make certain agent types invisible by clicking "none" under the agent type's identifier. The user can also choose to graphically depict either the average performance of an agent type (by clicking "Show") or the performance of all agents of this type (by clicking "Expand").
  • Agent Statistics. After a tournament is completed, the user can view the final results of the tournament by clicking on the menu tab labeled "Agent Stats." These results include: Agent type; Agent count; Games played, i.e. the total number of game plays (TG) engaged in by all agents of a specified type; Result frequency, i.e. the frequency of play-pairs (CC,CD,DC,DD) for all agents of a specified type; Total payoff (TP) attained by all agents of a specified type; Average payoff (AP) attained by agents of a specified type, calculated as AP = TP/TG.
  • Game Records Table. Clicking on the button marked "Game Log" on the main demo screen at the conclusion of a tournament gives the user access to a complete game-by-game record of the tournament. This Game Log can be saved to a CVS file that can be opened by either a text editor or most spreadsheet applications (such as Excel) without need to copy/paste or import data. The top of the saved Game Log includes a listing of the number of iterations, the random seed, and the roster of agent types included in the tournament (including a record of the payoff matrix associated with each agent type). The Game Log is the only saved file that is user readable.
If you have tried the software and have suggestions about features that you think would be nice, or if you want to report a bug, please email me: chrisdcook@gmail.com.


Software Downloads [top]

Demo Installation Package InstWinIPD_1_2_1.zip Includes the setup files necessary to install this demo on your computer.
.Net Framework Redistributable Microsoft.com The .Net framework must be installed on your computer to run this demo. It can be acquired via Windows Update on your computer or at this website. For installation directions or to see if you already have it, see the installation notes.
Installation Notes WinIPD Install Notes.html Provides information for installing the demo, determining if you have the .Net Framework, and installing it if you do not.



Source Code and Implementation Info [top]
IMPLEMENTATION: I wrote this demo as a windows application in C# using Microsoft's Visual Studio .Net.

If you want the source code, the following installer will copy all the necessary files to your machine: WinIPD_source_1_2.zip.

ALGORITHM AND INNER WORKINGS: The application is divided into two projects, a library file that contains the data for the agent types and payoff matrices, and a windows application that runs the tournament and interacts with the user.

Each specific agent type in the tournament derives from a base agent class that contains basic attributes and methods common to all agents, such as payoff matrix, accumulated payoffs, etc. Each specific agent type augments the base-class attributes and methods with type-specific attributes and method implementations, such as history and strategy algorithms. The Windows application contains code that drives the tournament. After the user starts the tournament, an array of agents is created as well as a schedule that lists every matchup that needs to take place in the tournament. A timer is enabled and, on each tick, a number of matchups are randomly selected from the schedule and executed. The matched agents are informed regarding whom they are playing. They then make their moves, the resulting payoffs are recorded and cumulated, the stats are updated, and the players add the results to their own personal histories. When all the matchups listed in the schedule are complete, the timer is disabled and the final agent stats are displayed.



Copyright Information [top]
This demo is licensed as open source freeware under the GNU Public License, Copyright Chris Cook, 2006. Anybody who is interested is allowed to view, modify, and/or improve upon the code used to produce this demo, but any software generated using all or part of this code must be released as open source freeware as well. To view the software license in its entirety, go here.



Feedback [top]
You may contact me at chrisdcook@gmail.com. I would greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions.