Randomness Requirements and Asymmetries in Nash Equilibria

Abstract: In general, Nash equilibria in normal-form games may require players to play (probabilistically) mixed strategies. We define a measure of the complexity of finite probability distributions and study the complexity required to play Nash equilibria in finite two player $n\times n$ games with rational payoffs. Our central results show that there exist games in which there is an exponential vs. linear gap in the complexity of the mixed distributions that the two players play in the (unique) Nash equilibrium of these games. This gap induces asymmetries in the amounts of space required by the players to represent and sample from the corresponding distributions using known state-of-the-art sampling algorithms. We also establish exponential upper and lower bounds on the complexity of Nash equilibria in normal-form games. These results highlight (i) the nontriviality of the assumption that players can play any mixed strategy and (ii) the disparity in resources that players may require to play Nash equilibria in normal-form games.