Xbl Cod Champ presents some very well written advice on how Traders can maximise their profits while managing a sector with others…

The Prisoner’s Dilemma

This is a classic game theory example that I think applies pretty well to some of the issues our traders have mentioned to me. Some of it has nothing to do with our alliance – but occasionally it does and I would just like to mention it for reference.

In the prisoner’s dilemma you have two people both accused of a crime in which they were accomplices (two traders working the same area). There is not enough proof to convict them without a confession from one or both. If the first one gives up information on the other guy, and the second keeps his mouth shut the first one gets to go free while completely screwing his friend (if you trade mass amounts of high ends to a planet – you get a really nice temporary gain while screwing over everyone else). If both of the prisoners offer information on the other they get to split the total jail time (marginal profits for both people – basically breaking even). But if both prisoners keep quiet the police cannot give them more than a minor sentence and they both get out in no time at all (if you only stock the planet with exactly what it uses each tick – and no more everyone wins).

For pardus the total profit we get to make from the planets and NPC starbases we are around is much higher if we only give it exactly what it wants and nothing more of the high ends. It means at that exact moment you do not get the most profit possible – but it is not that much less really and means you do not screw over your fellow traders.

Let’s be the kind of traders (prisoners) who work together and ensure everyone wins. This is surely a better practice than being known as a group of people looking only for the maximum benefit to themselves. It admittedly makes it easier for outsiders to come in and screw up our profits – and this will happen occasionally. But that does not mean we should do the same and ensure the others in our alliance besides the offender get consistently screwed out on profits from selling to the planet.

Thanks for reading through this and I hope it makes sense what I am attempting to say!

Xbl Cod Champ