Not sure it would work for me. My sense of empathy is way too strong: I mean, if I look at this animation and follow one of the balls, I kind-of instinctively feel sorry for it after particularly hard or close-together collisions!
More seriously, one time that I actually entered the mind-set that I cared about nothing but winning a zero-sum game (chess) against my opponent (who I had never met before, and I didn’t expect ever meeting afterwards), I ended up using all kinds of dark arts to make him play worse (e.g. verbally humiliating him after each blunder of his—I had the impression he was about to break down and cry); I did win the game but I felt awful—more or less the way EY described here.
[...]I ended up using all kinds of dark arts to make him play worse (e.g. verbally humiliating him after each blunder of his—I had the impression he was about to break down and cry)
This is also one of the things people actually do in those videogames, unfortunately. If someone really wants that sword, they won’t shy away from sending threatening /whispers and using all kinds of verbal abuse/trickery. In situations like the prisoner’s dilemma, I suspect a favorite of many a younger gamer (think young teen) would be “You’re too chicken to Cooperate! Go on, be the sissy and Defect!”.
Not sure it would work for me. My sense of empathy is way too strong: I mean, if I look at this animation and follow one of the balls, I kind-of instinctively feel sorry for it after particularly hard or close-together collisions!
More seriously, one time that I actually entered the mind-set that I cared about nothing but winning a zero-sum game (chess) against my opponent (who I had never met before, and I didn’t expect ever meeting afterwards), I ended up using all kinds of dark arts to make him play worse (e.g. verbally humiliating him after each blunder of his—I had the impression he was about to break down and cry); I did win the game but I felt awful—more or less the way EY described here.
This is also one of the things people actually do in those videogames, unfortunately. If someone really wants that sword, they won’t shy away from sending threatening /whispers and using all kinds of verbal abuse/trickery. In situations like the prisoner’s dilemma, I suspect a favorite of many a younger gamer (think young teen) would be “You’re too chicken to Cooperate! Go on, be the sissy and Defect!”.