Elwyn Berlekamp introduced it in 1987, as an example for a theoretical construction in combinatorial game theory.
At the end, Left's score is the number of pairs of neighboring parcels both of which he has claimed.
Although the purpose of the game is to further the study of combinatorial game theory, Berlekamp provides an interpretation alluding to the practice of blockbusting by real estate agents: the players may be seen as rival agents buying up all the parcels on a street, where Left is a segregationist trying to place clients as neighbors of one another while Right is an integrationist trying to break up these segregated groups.
[1] The operation of overheating was later adapted by Berlekamp and David Wolfe to warming to analyze the end-game of Go.
[3] The analysis of Blockbusting may be used as the basis of a strategy for the combinatorial game of Domineering.