# Rational coordination with no communication or conventions

## TL;DR

This paper explores how rational players can coordinate in games without communication or conventions by identifying principles guiding their reasoning and analyzing which games can be solved purely rationally.

## Contribution

It introduces a framework of purely rational principles for solving coordination games and examines the boundary between rational reasoning and conventions.

## Key findings

- Purely rational principles can solve certain classes of coordination games.
- It is complex to distinguish rational reasoning from conventions in solving these games.
- The paper characterizes conditions under which rational players can coordinate without communication.

## Abstract

We study pure coordination games where in every outcome, all players have identical payoffs, 'win' or 'lose'. We identify and discuss a range of 'purely rational principles' guiding the reasoning of rational players in such games and analyze which classes of coordination games can be solved by such players with no preplay communication or conventions. We observe that it is highly nontrivial to delineate a boundary between purely rational principles and other decision methods, such as conventions, for solving such coordination games.