This course is an introduction to game theory and strategic thinking. Ideas such as dominance, backward induction, Nash equilibrium, evolutionary stability, commitment, credibility, asymmetric information, adverse selection, and signaling are discussed and applied to games played in class and to examples drawn from economics, politics, the movies, and elsewhere.
Game Theory
Game theory is the study of the ways in which interactingchoices of economic agents produce outcomeswith respect to the preferences (or utilities) ofthose agents, where the outcomes in question might have been intendedby none of the agents. The meaning of this statement will not be clearto the non-expert until each of the italicized words and phrases hasbeen explained and featured in some examples. Doing this will be themain business of this article. First, however, we provide somehistorical and philosophical context in order to motivate the readerfor the technical work ahead.
The Game of Oligarchy | Brewster Kahle's Blog
I just invented and played a game today with my family, and it worked great– it was fun and we learned an important lesson. Similar to the game “Monopoly” which shows that one person ends up monopolizing even though you think the rules are “fair,” the game of Oligarchy shows that the “free market” leads inexorably to one person getting all the money and everyone else going broke. And fast.
17. A Value for n-Person Games
17. A Value for n-Person Games was published in Contributions to the Theory of Games, Volume II on page 307.
The Evolution of Trust
an interactive guide to the game theory of why & how we trust each other
Strategy in Life
What is Strategy? Why is it easy to get wrong and so hard to get right? Strategy Structures in Life Concept-Space Getting from one point to another In a predefined direction Stars as Concept-space analogy By predefined actions Strategy in Life Know your surroundings Creating Strategies Using Strategies Summary Strategy...
The Math of Idle Games, Part I
Originally published October 4, 2016 I’ve given a few talks in the past about the appeal and general mechanics of idle games, but what if you actually wanted to make one? Theory and patterns are nice, but there’s some complicated math running behind it. And how on earth
Arcs in Strategy Games
It is common to hear players talk about “tactics” and “strategy” in games. In this case, the colloquial understanding of these terms happens to be pretty useful, in that it …
Finite and Infinite Games
Notes from James Carse's book 'Finite and Infinite Games'. Author unknown.
The Math of Idle Games, Part II
Originally published October 28, 2016 In Part I [https://www.sirpinski.com/the-math-of-idle-games-part-i/] of this three-part series, we looked at some of the standard math behind rapid-growth idle games, primarily at the relationships between exponential and polynomial growth and some methods of
Exploitative Game Design: Beyond the F2P Debate
The past few months have seen a torrent of articles about Free-to-Play business models, often discussed alongside issues of ethics in games (for example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). These pieces have addressed the effect on addiction-prone players or children, the possibility of corrupting artistic intent, the sheer amount of money being spent, and other advantages and dangers of F2P. While all of this is relevant, I fear that we’re focusing too much on F2P and glossing over the wider ethical issues in game design.
DIMACS :: Details
« IBM/DIMACS/DATA-INSPIRE Workshop on Bridging Game Theory and Machine Learning for Multi-party Decision Making
Strategy Letter V
When I was in college I took two intro economics courses: macroeconomics and microeconomics. Macro was full of theories like “low unemployment causes inflation” that never quite stood u…
Strategy Letter V
When I was in college I took two intro economics courses: macroeconomics and microeconomics. Macro was full of theories like “low unemployment causes inflation” that never quite stood u…