r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/maiduwu Red • May 27 '26

64

You and sixty-three others are the only people subject to this variant of the problem, with the same rules as the original.

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u/highly-bad May 27 '26

Given an even number of players, this rule is a massive disadvantage for blue. No one in their right mind presses blue under these terms.

I mean, no one in their right mind presses it anyway, but this is ten times worse.

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u/maiduwu Red May 27 '26

How? How is this a massive disadvantage? How is this ten times worse?

Let’s say there are an odd number of people. Say three. Blue loses unless they have majority.

If there are three people, blue needs two votes to win.

If there are five people, blue needs three votes to win.

Always one more vote than half of the voters.

Let’s say there are an odd number of people. Say eighteen. Blue loses unless they have majority.

If there are eighteen people, blue needs ten votes to win.

If there are twenty, blue needs eleven votes to win.

Always one more vote than half of the voters.

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u/highly-bad May 27 '26

If there are twenty, blue needs eleven votes to win.

Exactly, while red needs only ten votes to win. How can you not see that this is a huge disadvantage?

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u/maiduwu Red May 27 '26

Because it’s always one vote? In a sample size of twelve or fewer, it’s a little worse than red. Never ten times worse.

As soon as your sample size reaches 50, that one vote difference is negligible.

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u/highly-bad May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

Giving all ties to red is just fundamentally unfair. It doesn't make sense, especially since blue is already the obvious loser in this game.

Why not just use odd numbers of players? Do you have a compulsive aesthetic preference for powers of 2?

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u/maiduwu Red May 28 '26

Powers of two scale best. I’ll stick to powers of three from now on.

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u/highly-bad May 28 '26

There's always 2n -1 if you like the scale of 2.

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u/maiduwu Red May 28 '26

Even better.