Thanks for your participation! Just for showing up, you've earned a $5 Amazon gift card.
You will now play a game where you and your team earn money based on how well you play.
You are the leader of your team.
You will be playing against the leader of an opposing team.
In the game, you will earn units that will be converted to real money at the end of the game.
Since your decisions affect how much money your team earns, you are also responsible
for your how much money your followers receive at the end of the game.
In the game, your team will be matched with an opposing team.
Your team will play against the same opposing team throughout the game.
Since you are the leader, you will play against the other team's leader.
Each team starts with a war chest that has 1000 units.
The game consists of a set of rounds.
The exact number of rounds is chosen randomly.
At the beginning of each round, 100 units will be added to your team's war chest.
The opposing team will dispute your right to keep your new units.
As the leader of your team, you and the leader of the opposing team will then enter negotiations over whether you can keep your units.
At the start of negotiations, the leader of the opposing team may demand some of your newly added units.
You may choose between two possible actions:
Action 1: You may offer some of your new units to your opponent.
(a) If your offer is less than or equal to your opponent's demand, you keep 100 units, minus your offer.
(b) If your offer is more than your opponent's demand, there is a deadlock, which we describe on the next screen.
OR
Action 2: You may start a war with your opponent.
(a) The winner of the war is determined by chance.
(b) The winning team receives all 100 units.
(c) The losing team receives no units.
(d) Both teams pay a cost of war equal to 20 units.
The leader of the opposing team may also start a war instead of making a demand.
During negotiations, if you offer fewer units than your opponent demands, there is a deadlock.
After a deadlock, one of two things might happen, each with some chance:
(1) Negotiations might continue. In this case, you may make a new offer, your opponent may make a new demand, or either of you could start a war.
(2) A war might also start with some chance. We describe war on the next page.
Regardless of how a war starts, the winner of a war is determined by chance.
The chances of winning depend on both teams' war chests.
The team with the larger war chest is more likely to win.
The chance increases based on the ratio of war chests.
For example, if team A's war chest is twice the size of team B's, A is more likely to win.
If A's war chest is three times the size of B's, A's chance of winning is even greater.
If both teams have the same size war chest, both are equally likely to win.
But each team always has a real chance of winning a war.
Negotiations continue until a round ends, which can happen in one of three ways:
(1) Successful negotiations.
You keep some of the units your team earned, but you lose the amount of units you offered to your opponent.
(2) War occurs, and you win.
You keep all the units your team earned, but you also lose the cost of war, 20 units.
(3) War occurs, and you lose
You lose all 100 units your team earned and the cost of war, for a total of 120 units.
The total units you owe are then subtracted from your war chest.
Everything we've discussed so far constitutes one round.
To summarize:
At the beginning of each round, 100 units are added to your team's war chest.
The opposing team disputes your claim to those units.
As your team's leader, you enter negotiations with the leader of the opposing team.
Negotiations end when either you offer more units than your opponent demands during a successful negotiation, one team declares war, or war begins by chance after a deadlock.
Regardless of how a round ends, your team will lose some amount: either the amount you offered during successful negotiations, or the cost of war if there was one, and possibly all 100 units if your team loses the war.
Your team plays against the same opposing team repeatedly.
The game has a random number of rounds, and your war chest continues to change throughout the game.
You already earned $5 just for showing up, and you now have a chance to earn even more.
At the end of the game, one round will be selected at random.
As your team's leader, you will get 50% of the units your team earned in that round.
Your followers will split the remaining 50%.
If your team's earnings from that round are negative, no one on your team will owe anything. But you will also not earn anything more than the amount for showing up.
Units will be converted to US Dollars at a rate of $0.20 per unit.
All amounts will be rounded to the nearest cent.
The next few pages will show you examples of what can happen during a round.
This is an example, NOT a real round.
You will NOT win or lose money in this round.
This round is a chance for you to practice and see how the game works.
Please read the instructions and play the game using the steps we give you below.
After this example, there will be a short quiz, and then the game will start.
The red text on the following screens are instructions for the example round.
The instructions in red text will not appear during actual play.
Each round starts with a decision whether to make your opponent an offer or to declare war.
In this example round, please offer 50 of your units to your example opponent.
Here is what would happen if you and your opponent reached an agreement.
This time, please offer your opponent only 20 of your units.
In this example round, you offered 20 units to your opponent, but your opponent demanded 50 units, which is more than you offered.
This page shows you what might happen after a deadlock.
Sometimes, after a deadlock, war may occur by chance.
Wars can happen by chance or when a team leader chooses to start one.
Regardless of how a war starts, the winner of a war is determined by chance.
The team with more units in their war chest is more likely to win, but each team has a chance of winning.
In this example, your team wins the war.
This page shows you what happens after a deadlock if a war does not occur by chance.
In this example, you offered 40 of your units to your opponent.
Let's suppose you and your opponent reach a deadlock and that you have a chance to renegotiate, but instead of making a new offer, you declare war.
In negotiations, you always have a chance to either make another offer or to declare war.
In this example, let's suppose you declare war.
In this example round, you declared war on your example opponent.
In this example, let's suppose you offer 40 units.
In this example round, you declared war on your example opponent.
You have now seen examples of every page you might get throughout the game.
Please go to the next page to take a short quiz about how the game works.
Each round starts with a decision whether to make your opponent an offer or to declare war.
In this example round, please offer 50 of your units to your example opponent.