Customer Reviews

Games of Strategy, Second Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fantastic introduction to game theory. I'm in a graduate-level game theory course with a much more confusing textbook, and this one has enabled me to learn the concepts more clearly. Once I study the text and examples in Dixit & Skeath, I'm comfortable moving on to the harder problems in my other text. I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in learning game theory -- you'll even get a few good laughs out of some of the examples and the authors' jokes.

This textbook is a good nontechnical introduction. To understand the intended audience, you need to read the preface of this book. the authors intended this book to be a textbook for freshmen and sophomore who are not in a particular discipline yet. Therefore, (1) the book is intended for that level, and (2) it takes a non-disciplinary approach, in the sense that it is not written for economics, or political science or business majors per se. Instead it is written for all of them, but in a more general way. Also, the authors say the book sort of replaced 'thinking strategically' by Dixit and Nalebuff, since the latter was more of a trade book, not a textbook. Therefore, owning both books could be a bit redundant, but it could also offer a nice pairing and complement each other.
If you are looking for a mathematical approach, this is probably not the book for you. If you know nothing about game theory and just want to read up on it, go with 'thinking strategically' instead of this because this is a textbook. If you want a relatively non-technical introduction as part of a course or for self-study, or if you have another textbook that you find too technical, this would be a good book for you.

Usually, attending class is required to find out what the professor is going to focus on in the book. Using this book, attending class was required because the book is so shallow, the lecture actually goes into more depth then the book.

This is a very introductory text book, and at times can be frustrating trying to go the next step that is needed for comprehension of a concept. If you are looking for an introduction to Game Theory concepts and examples of the introductory games, this is a good book. But once to try to go the next step and start analyzing the boundary cases or a more complicated game, this book will not have the answers.

Pros:

* Well written
* Plenty of Examples
* Exercises are generally well worded and defind

Cons:

* Explanations can get a bit lengthy (2+ pages)

I used this as a reasonable accompaniment of the Teaching Companies (Dr. Scott Stevens) class of `Games People play'. The approach is not deeply mathematical, but it does take some effort to work through the examples and exercises. There are many practical examples such as online auctions, or economics. As someone who lived in Florida at the time of the hanging chad, the most exciting chapter was on voting systems, There are also fun cultural references, such as the 5 page discussion of the first season of Survivor on TV, or the movie The Princes Bride. I would have appreciated more biological examples in the chapter on evolutionary games. Readers of this would also enjoy Prisoner's Dilemma - by William Poundstone about John Von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb,

This is a good game theory text book. It focuses on the analytical portion of GT, and presents a good explanation of how the concepts work without requiring an in-depth knowledge of math. This was the assigned textbook for my political theory class, for which the math requirement was HS algebra.
If you're looking for an in-depth, math intensive game theory text, this is not your book, but if you're looking for an analytical overview, this book is well written and helpful.