Zero-sum graphs

[J Bytheway]

Does anyone know why the zero-sum graphs are called zero-sum graphs when they are in fact more sort of a fixed-but-non-zero-sum graph?

[Maquiladora]

Isnt zero-sum something like only each player can win or lose a fixed amount thats shared with all players? So in the zero-sum graph they can only own (or lose) a certain percentage of the graph and other players own the rest?

Whereas in the normal line graph you can keep going up and up on it or down and down.

[J Bytheway]

That's how it looks, yes, but that doesn't explain why it's called zero-sum. If you multiplied all the scores by some factor so that their sum was zero, then they would all be zero, and the graph would be rather dull.

I would have guessed, given no information but the name, that a zero-sum graph would be one where you added the same thing to each of the scores so that their sum was zero (you would in fact have to subtract the mean of the scores) - but that's not what is being done here.

[child of Thor]

maybe the programers could see into the future and knew that modding would really turn it into a zero-sum graph

[Martin Gühmann]

I don't know either why it is called in the English version zero-sum graph, obviously the guys who translated CTP2 into German didn't know it either so they called it Flächendiagramm, should be someting like area graph or area diagram.

-Martin