Game Theory, Played
About

Play first, then formalise

Game theory has a habit of being counterintuitive. Betrayal can be the rational move. Being predictable gets you beaten. A small preference can segregate a whole city. You believe these once you have felt them, so every lesson lets you act before it explains, then hands you the definition and the argument.

1
You commit a guess or a move first. The gap between your guess and what happens is where the learning is.
2
The concrete game comes before the notation. Symbols arrive once the idea is already in your hands.
3
Earlier ideas keep coming back in later quizzes, so they stick instead of fading.

References

  1. von Neumann, J., and Morgenstern, O. (1944). Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton University Press.
  2. Nash, J. F. (1950). Equilibrium points in n-person games. PNAS, 36(1), 48-49.
  3. Schelling, T. C. (1960). The Strategy of Conflict. Harvard University Press.
  4. Axelrod, R. (1984). The Evolution of Cooperation. Basic Books.
  5. Osborne, M. J., and Rubinstein, A. (1994). A Course in Game Theory. MIT Press.
  6. Gibbons, R. (1992). Game Theory for Applied Economists. Princeton University Press.

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The course runs to 64 lessons plus 12 real-world cases, from the Prisoner's Dilemma to mechanism design, matching, and behavioral game theory.