gamesmanship

You lose, I lose

I wondered why people don't do this. In Soviet Russia, the lifeline uses you!

Better gaming theories were on penalty kicks for soccer. People should, if the goal is to score, kick the ball straight down the middle because that's more or less the best move-move strategy is to expect the goalie to dive one way or the other and thus politely get out of the way as you score. They don't do this. Because the goal is not to score but not to look like a chump and kicking it straight at the goalie in the rare event he decides to stand there instead of do a calculated guess dive in hopes of making a spectacular play, well it looks pretty bad. Other incentives do need to be properly factored into the game in order to understand it.