If every interaction is a random opponent, defect is the best strategy because it's just like a single-round game.

This is why small villages where people know each other are safer places than downtown in large cities. This game theory is the deep fundamental reason why you should have friends, family, a community of people you know and interact with many times, and also why humans tend to distrust strangers.

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Makes sense yeah.

It also seems possible to get even cities to be fit for 'nice' strategies by being very hard on 'mean' exploiters but that seems like setting up for inevitable failure later on when meanies get reintroduced or some nicies get mean. Forcing other strategies is maybe just not durable