Training game
Prisoner's Dilemma
The classic game about trust and negotiation, moved from paper to phones. Pairs of groups negotiate, write their moves down in secret and turn their cards over, while the console counts the points and shows every pair's score by round and in total.
What is the Prisoner's Dilemma game?
Two groups are two branches of one company that distributes Christmas lights. On each move a branch decides whether to sell at a high or a low price. Selling cheap pays off for one branch - until the other one does the same. When both cut prices, the whole company loses.
In the training room this took paper, pens and someone to count the points. In Verbalu each group writes its moves on a phone, the cards turn over by themselves once both groups confirm, and the results are on your screen, ready for the debrief.
See it in action
The cards turn over only when both groups have confirmed
Features
Key capabilities
Cards turn over at the same moment
The other group cannot see your moves until it has confirmed its own. Once both groups confirm, the moves can no longer change - like a card turned face up on the table.
One shared sheet per group
Every member of a group sees the same moves and can change them from their own phone. The group decides around one table, and the phone shows who changed something last.
Your own payoff table
By default +5/+5, +6/-3 and -6/-6, as in the classroom version. Change any number, even during the game - the new table applies from the next round.
Results by round and in total
The console shows every pair round by round with totals, and the total view adds the whole room's score, the pair and group rankings and the share of high-price moves.
Ready for the projector
Projector view leaves only the round and the results on screen. Before the cards are turned over, the screen shows the groups' progress only, never their moves.
Any number of groups and rounds
From 2 to 12 groups, 1 to 8 rounds and 1 to 6 moves per round. Participants pick their own group, or you deal them at random with one click.
Step by step
How it works
Set up the game
Choose the number of groups, rounds and moves, and check the payoff table. The defaults are the classroom version: 4 groups, 3 rounds, 4 moves.
Participants join
Show the code and the QR code. Participants join from their phones without an account and pick their group.
Rounds: negotiation and decisions
Pairs negotiate face to face, groups write their moves and confirm. The cards turn over by themselves and the points are counted from the table.
Debrief
Show each pair's results by round and in total. Compare every company's score with what it could have made if both branches had trusted each other.
Use cases
What it’s good for
- Negotiation training: building trust when the other side could gain by breaking the deal.
- A workshop on cooperation between departments that compete for the same result.
- Game theory and economics classes: the prisoner's dilemma live, with the room's real decisions.
- Team building: a conversation about what a team gains when it stops playing against itself.
- Management training on goals and bonuses that reward rivalry instead of the company's result.
White label
Your brand for participants
On the paid plans you can add your company name, logo and colors, and during every session participants will see your brand instead of Verbalu.
Training by Octigo
Want this run as a full training?
You are free to run our games and simulations on your own. But if you would like us to deliver a complete training, with a professional debrief and the concepts behind the “Prisoner's Dilemma” simulation explained in depth, get in touch. Octigo is a professional training company with 20 years of experience and many awards for its simulations.
- 20 years of experience in corporate training
- Award-winning training simulations
- A professional debrief and takeaways after the session
- A programme tailored to your goals and your team
Prefer to write to us directly? szkolenia@octigo.pl
Try “Prisoner's Dilemma” in Verbalu
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