A deceptivly simple game from
Douglas Hofstadter's book
"
Metamagical Themas".
The winner of a game of Mediocrity is the most "mediocre" player. In a
three player game of mediocrity each player selects a number (lets say
between 1-10). The player who selects the middlemost number is the winner!
This is known as Level 0 mediocrity.
A Level 1 game of mediocrity involves playing N games (lets say 5) of
Level 0 mediocrity. Of course the winner is the person with the middlemost
number of Level 0 wins!
The progression to higher Level (2+) games of mediocrity is quite clear.
It is often a good way to make boring multi-player games exciting, forcing
a person to come second usually keeps the game much tighter. The strategy
for higher level games of mediocrity (3+) is extremely difficult.
Example level 1 game...
Three players, Alice, Bob, and Chris. Bold indicates winner.
Game A B C
1 5 2 3
2 4 5 7
3 3 6 4
4 6 5 3
5 1 8 9
----------
T 0 3 2
Thus, Chris is the winner for the level 1 game.