🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm looking for the customary and usual games-theory term
for a class of games in which there is moderate payoff for
answers below some critical value but a very large negative
payoff for going "over" the critical value.  Like Blackjack
where counts <= 21 give increased probability of beating
the dealer but counts >=22 are fatal.

Or, in the words of the guy who asked me:

  These games are characterized by rewarding the player who
  gets closest to a goal, but severely penalizes a person
  for going beyond the goal.  

  The old game show The Price Is Right often had a version
  of it.  The contestants would try to guess the price of
  an item.  The winner was the person whose guess came
  closest to the actual price without going over.
  Example:

        REAL PRICE         $100
        GUESS OF PLAYER A  $75
                        B  $90
                        C  $101

  Player B wins.  Even though C's guess is closer, in absolute
  terms, to the correct answer, the fact that he went over
  means that he cannot win.

We talked about using "precipice" for a name, but we wonder
if there is already a good word for this kind of game.

-- 
Charles B. (Ben) Cranston
mailto:zben@wam.umd.edu
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~zben