Rock paper scissors in the context of "Condorcet winner"

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⭐ Core Definition: Rock paper scissors

Rock paper scissors (also known by several other names and word orders) is an intransitive hand game, usually played between two people, in which each player simultaneously forms one of three shapes with an outstretched hand. These shapes are "rock" (a closed fist: ✊), "paper" (a flat hand: ✋), and "scissors" (a fist with the index finger and middle finger extended, forming a V: ✌️). The earliest form of a "rock paper scissors"-style game originated in China and was subsequently imported into Japan, where it reached its modern standardized form, before being spread throughout the world in the early 20th century.

A simultaneous, zero-sum game, it has three possible outcomes: a draw, a win, or a loss. A player who decides to play rock will beat another player who chooses scissors ("rock crushes scissors" or "breaks scissors" or sometimes "blunts scissors"), but will lose to one who has played paper ("paper covers rock"); a play of paper will lose to a play of scissors ("scissors cuts paper"). If both players choose the same shape, the game is tied, but is usually replayed until there is a winner.

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👉 Rock paper scissors in the context of Condorcet winner

A Condorcet winner (French: [kɔ̃dɔʁsɛ], English: /kɒndɔːrˈseɪ/) is a candidate who would receive the support of more than half of the electorate in a one-on-one race against any one of their opponents. Voting systems where a majority winner will always win are said to satisfy the Condorcet winner criterion. The Condorcet winner criterion extends the principle of majority rule to elections with multiple candidates.

Named after Nicolas de Condorcet, it is also called a majority winner, a majority-preferred candidate, a beats-all winner, or tournament winner (by analogy with round-robin tournaments). A Condorcet winner may not necessarily always exist in a given electorate: it is possible to have a rock paper scissors-style cycle, when multiple candidates defeat each other (rock < paper < scissors < rock). This is called Condorcet's voting paradox, and is analogous to the counterintuitive intransitive dice phenomenon known in probability. However, the Smith set, a generalization of the Condorcet criteria that is the smallest set of candidates that are pairwise unbeaten by every candidate outside of it, will always exist.

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Rock paper scissors in the context of Sequential game

In game theory, a sequential game is defined as a game where one player selects their action before others, and subsequent players are informed of that choice before making their own decisions. This turn-based structure, governed by a time axis, distinguishes sequential games from simultaneous games, where players act without knowledge of others’ choices and outcomes are depicted in payoff matrices (e.g., rock-paper-scissors).

Sequential games are a type of dynamic game, a broader category where decisions occur over time (e.g., differential games), but they specifically emphasize a clear order of moves with known prior actions. Because later players know what earlier players did, the order of moves shapes strategy through information rather than timing alone. Sequential games are typically represented using decision trees, which map out all possible sequences of play, unlike the static matrices of simultaneous games. Examples include chess, infinite chess, backgammon, tic-tac-toe, and Go, with decision trees varying in complexity—from the compact tree of tic-tac-toe to the vast, unmappable tree of chess.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Condorcet winner ← Sequential game ← Condorcet criterion ← Majority-preferred candidate
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Intransitive game → Hand game → China → Japan → Simultaneous game → Zero-sum game →