Editing Game (section)

===Multiplayer games{{anchor|Multiplayer}}===
{{Redirect|Multiplayer game|multiplayer video games|Multiplayer video game|section=yes}}
[[File:The Card Players by Lucas van Leyden.jpg|right|thumb|''The Card Players'' by [[Lucas van Leyden]] (1520) depicting a multiplayer card game]]
A multiplayer game is a game of several players who may be independent opponents or teams. Games with many independent players are difficult to analyze formally using [[game theory]] as the players may form and switch [[coalition]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=K.G. Binmore |url=https://archive.org/details/gametheorysocial0001binm_1994 |title=Game Theory and the Social Contract |publisher=MIT Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-262-02444-0 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The term "game" in this context may mean either a true game played for entertainment or a competitive activity describable in principle by mathematical game theory.

====Game theory====
{{main|Game theory}}
[[John Forbes Nash|John Nash]] proved that games with several players have a stable solution provided that coalitions between players are disallowed. Nash won the [[Nobel prize]] for economics for this important result which extended [[Minimax|von Neumann's theory]] of [[zero-sum]] games. Nash's stable solution is known as the [[Nash equilibrium]].<ref name="moral">{{Cite book |last1=Laszlo Mero |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kqQjX-S1idsC |title=Moral calculations: game theory, logic, and human frailty |last2=Anna C. Gosi-Greguss |last3=David Kramer |publisher=Copernicus |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-387-98419-3 |location=New York}}</ref>

If cooperation between players is allowed, then the game becomes more complex; many concepts have been developed to analyze such games. While these have had some partial success in the fields of economics, politics and [[Conflict resolution|conflict]], no good general theory has yet been developed.<ref name=moral/>

In [[quantum game theory]], it has been found that the introduction of [[quantum information]] into multiplayer games allows a new type of equilibrium strategy not found in traditional games. The [[Quantum entanglement|entanglement]] of player's choices can have the effect of a contract by preventing players from profiting from what is known as ''betrayal''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Simon C. Benjamin |last2=Patrick M. Hayden |name-list-style=amp |date=13 August 2001 |title=Multiplayer quantum games |journal=[[Physical Review A]] |volume=64 |issue=3 |page=030301 |arxiv=quant-ph/0007038 |bibcode=2001PhRvA..64c0301B |doi=10.1103/PhysRevA.64.030301 |s2cid=32056578}}</ref>