SELLOUT is a real-time game for two players. It is designed around the concept and dynamics of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Whether the players will cooperate with each other or sell the other one out is the core mechanic behind each round.

In an iterated fashion the game is played multiple rounds, allowing participants to speculate on how their competitor is thinking. It intends to bring out strategies surrounding decision making in non-cooperative, non-zero- sum games.

Taking Robert Axelrod and his Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma tournaments from the 1980s as a reference, the installation aims to provoke questions on how self interest, human cooperation and trust are intertwined.

real-time game
iterated prisoner’s dilemma
human cooperation
non-zero-sum game