Editing 601: Game Theory

{{comic
| number    = 601
| date      = June 24, 2009
| title     = Game Theory
| image     = game_theory.png
| titletext = Wait, no, that one also loses. How about a nice game of chess?
}}

==Explanation==
The comic and title text is a direct reference to the movie ''{{w|WarGames}}''. 

In the movie, the {{w|artificial intelligence}} (AI) that controls the US Nuclear Weapons is asked to play ''Global Thermonuclear War'', a real time game simulating a {{w|Nuclear warfare|nuclear attack}} scenario. 

'''Spoilers''': In the movie it then takes the simulation to the real world, planning to launch a real attack on the {{w|USSR}}. In the end the AI is tricked into quickly running through several scenarios of the game, and then shuts down its planned attack as a result of what it finds out. 

After analyzing all possible strategies, the AI reports: "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?" Interpreted literally, this means that the computer has figured out that it will lose the game no matter how it plays, so it chooses to play chess instead (at the time of the movie, computers could not yet beat the best human chess players, so it would be more interesting). A more profound interpretation is that wars always end badly for all parties involved so it's better to play nicer games like chess.

In this comic Cueball loads an AI and then ask it to "analyze love" (equivalent to playing the "love game"), which initially could be expected to end happily for everyone involved, as love is the opposite of war and war ends always so badly. Surprisingly, the result from the AI is similar to the war games. Thus if you "play the love game", you'll end up badly, regardless which moves you play. 

The title text leaves love as looking actually worse than war, since in war there's at least the "winning move" of not playing, however in love even refusing to play means that the player loses the game anyway. [[Randall]] is thus stating that you have to go after love, even though you know you will lose/get hurt sometimes, because you will for sure also lose the game, even if you pretend not to play. The AI then again suggest a game of chess, as in the movie.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a computer. The text appearing is implied to be what he sees on the screen.]
<PRE>A.I. Loaded
>>> analyze love
</pre>

:[An hourglass appears over the computer.]

:[The hourglass continues to display.]

:Computer: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Board games]]
[[Category:Games]]