Customer Reviews

Games and Information: An Introduction to Game Theory Third Edition

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This textbook was required in the game theory class I took in economics graduate school. For a grad text, it's simple and easy, but that's the beauty of it. I read it cover-to-cover, enjoying each page, and coming away with a deeper understanding and wanting to continue learning and applying the concepts. I guarantee I couldn't do this with the books used in most of my other classes. It helped me do exceedingly well in class and impress my department chair.

The author explains concepts in a step-by-step approach, so I never felt overwhelmed. They always returned to examples that were as simple as possible to illustrate the concepts, then built on them as you learn more through the chapters. Applications ranged from war games to business competition to downright silly anecdotes.

I see uses for the understanding of game theory I first acquired in this book all the time. People around me become interested and ask me where to get a good primer on the subject. I always recommend this book and lend it out so much that, in honesty, I should just buy another copy.

This is a good text for game theory students. Concise and well structured, it gives sufficient details to provide a good understanding of the subject. The math is easy to follow although the choice of words may sometimes be inappropriate resulting in a logical jump, but that is well compensated by the content. There are some typo mistakes which should be corrected by the next edition. The author tries to moderate the math with logical explanantions and does it with reasonable success although some sections can still be improved. The section on bargaining, for example, is poorly explained. Overall, a good text for teaching.

Are you familiar with the PAPI model? (Players, Actions, Payoffs and Information, by the way.) Do you understand what equilibrium means to a game design?

This book is a good introduction to those who are looking for a background in game theory, as well as those interested in problem-solving domains of applied logic.