Game-Theoretic Analysis

When multiple agents interact and each agent's outcome depends on others' choices, you have a game. Map players, strategies, payoffs, and equilibria — the only reliable way to predict behavior and design rules where rational self-interest produces good outcomes.

When to Use

• Multiple agents (people, teams, companies, AI agents) whose choices affect each other's outcomes
• Suspected incentive misalignment — system should work but doesn't because participants optimize locally
• Designing rules, protocols, scoring systems, allocation mechanisms
• Cooperation needed but not happening (or fragile)
• Negotiation strategy
• Multi-agent AI systems being designed, debugged, evaluated
• Tragedy-of-the-commons pattern (shared resources degrading)
• "Why would they do X?" where X seems irrational — usually rational given their payoffs