Dominant Strategies and Why They Ruin Games
Key terms and design fixes for spotting and removing dominant strategies in your prototype.
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Questions Covered in This Set
10 cards to master
Strict dominance
Strategy A gives a strictly higher payoff than strategy B against every possible opponent choice.
Weak dominance
Strategy A is at least as good as B in every case and strictly better in at least one case.
Dominant strategy
An option that dominates all your other options — you can pick it without even looking at what the opponent does.
In the Prisoner's Dilemma, why does Confess strictly dominate Silent?
Confess pays 5 > 3 if the other stays Silent, and 1 > 0 if the other Confesses — better in both columns.
Three ways dominance ruins a game
The decision space collapses, skill expression vanishes, and replay value dies (the game becomes solved/degenerate).
Iterated elimination of dominated strategies
Cross out dominated rows/columns, then re-check — removing options can expose new dominance and solve small games.
Quick prototype test for dead content
For each option ask: can I imagine a reasonable board state where this option beats the others? If never, it's dominated.
Why are Rock-Paper-Scissors relationships a fix?
Each option is strong against one thing and weak against another, so the best choice depends on prediction, not arithmetic.
Cost curves as a fix
Keep the powerful option but raise its price, cooldown, cast time, or opportunity cost so it is no longer always best.
How does hidden information remove dominance?
If players can't see the opponent's board, 'always X' becomes a gamble instead of a provable best move.
