most recent 30 from http://mathoverflow.net 2013-05-22T19:05:57Z http://mathoverflow.net/feeds/question/18794 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://mathoverflow.net/questions/18794/how-to-start-game-theory Soheil Malekzadeh 2010-03-19T20:42:40Z 2010-03-21T03:37:37Z

<p>Hi everybody,</p> <p>I recently got interested in Game Theory but I don't know where should I start. Can anyone recommend any references and textbooks? And what are the prerequisites of Game Thoery?</p> <p>Thanks in advance.</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/18794/how-to-start-game-theory/18795#18795 Gerald Edgar 2010-03-19T20:49:40Z 2010-03-19T20:49:40Z

<p>G. Owen, GAME THEORY</p> <p>background is basic linear algebra I believe</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/18794/how-to-start-game-theory/18805#18805 Kristal Cantwell 2010-03-19T22:55:56Z 2010-03-19T22:55:56Z

<p>The Wikipedia article on Game theory is a general introduction to the field. In it I found an a link for <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/theoryofgamesand030098mbp" rel="nofollow">Theory of Games and Economic Behavior</a>. Also <a href="http://virtualperfection.com/gametheory/" rel="nofollow">here</a> are lecture notes from a graduate level course. </p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/18794/how-to-start-game-theory/18810#18810 Ian Douglas 2010-03-20T00:45:48Z 2010-03-20T00:45:48Z

<p>I asked this same question about a year ago, so I'm very slightly ahead of you. Here's what I know:</p> <p>As you probably know, there are two major branches for game theory. There's (for lack of a better term) "economics" game theory dealing with real world situations, economics, politics and the like. I know next to nothing about that. However, I do know a decent amount about combinatorial game theory, which is a little bit more ground in mathematics, and deals with two player games such as Go, Chess, Nim, or Tic-Tac-Toe.</p> <p>The best introductory text is going to be Conway's <a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1568811306" rel="nofollow">Winning Ways</a>, any of the volumes 1-4. These are the books to read to get into any other subset of combinatorial games, in my opinion.</p> <p>My personal specialization thus far is generalizations of Tic-Tac-Toe called achievement games, which you can read about (along with much more) in <a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0521461006" rel="nofollow">Tic-Tac-Toe Theory</a>.</p> <p>However, if you want to go even further in these studies, you are a little bit out of luck. What's very exciting to me about combinatorial game theory is that it's pretty much a brand new field of mathematics, and right now the best techniques we have to study it are educated guessing/brute-forcing and a little bit of discrete mathematics. Although it's disenchanting sometimes, this also means that there is potentially a world of possible links and connections to other branches of math that we don't know about, and is just out there waiting to be discovered.</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/18794/how-to-start-game-theory/18829#18829 Noam 2010-03-20T09:34:20Z 2010-03-20T09:34:20Z

<p>"<a href="http://theory.economics.utoronto.ca/books/" rel="nofollow">A course in game theory</a>" by Martin J. Osborne and Ariel Rubinstein is probably the standard more mathematical starting point. A more concise, more modern, and slightly CS-leaning text is "<a href="http://www.gtessentials.org/" rel="nofollow">Essentials of Game Theory -- A Concise, Multidisciplinary Introduction</a>" by Kevin Leyton-Brown and Yoav Shoham.</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/18794/how-to-start-game-theory/18879#18879 Jason Bandlow 2010-03-20T21:08:13Z 2010-03-20T21:08:13Z

<p>I've found <a href="http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tom/Game_Theory/Contents.html" rel="nofollow">Tom Ferguson's text</a> to be a good introduction. His <a href="http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tom/LP.pdf" rel="nofollow">Linear Programming (pdf)</a> text is a useful supplement. Both are freely available from his website.</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/18794/how-to-start-game-theory/18906#18906 Suresh Venkat 2010-03-21T03:37:37Z 2010-03-21T03:37:37Z

<p>One area that's really fascinating from a game theory angle is algorithmic game theory, and there's an excellent book out on this topic. While this focuses more on the computational aspects of game theory, it's extremely relevant to a ton of work on the internet and e-commerce, and weaves together game theory, economics and theoretical computer science in a fascinating manner. </p> <p>The book is: <a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0521872820" rel="nofollow">Algorithmic Game Theory</a></p>