TFT also displayed something vital: forgiveness. By not being complex, by only remembering what the other player did most recently, TFT was able to bring out the best in almost any program that was not totally evil or utterly random. TFT was not just a cooperator and a punisher but also a teacher. It showed the other players how to play better. Axelrod says that one of the reasons the not-nice programs performed so poorly is because they could not forgive and got caught in death spirals.
