Evolutionary Games in Complex Topologies

Evolutionary Games in Complex Topologies

There are many examples of cooperation in Nature: cells cooperate to form tissues, organs cooperate to form living organisms, and individuals cooperate to raise their offspring or to hunt. However, why cooperation emerges and survives in hostile environments, when defecting would be a much more profitable short-term strategy, is a question that still remains open. During the past few years, several explanations have been proposed, including kin and group selection, punishment and reputation mechanisms, or network reciprocity. This last one will be the center of the present study. The thesis explores the interface between the underlying structure of a given population and the outcome of the cooperative dynamics taking place on top of it, (namely, the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game). The first part of this work analyzes the case of a static system, where the pattern of connections is fixed, so it does not evolve over time. The second part develops two models for growing topologies, where the growth and the dynamics are entangled.

Evolutionary Games in Complex Topologies

A Game Plan for Effective Leadership

A Game Plan for Effective Leadership

The conventional wisdom is that leaders are born, not made. Author Robert Palestini argues that his experience and scholarly research indicate that leadership skills can be learned. The first chapter of this book speaks to the so-called ‘science’ of administration and leadership, while the second chapter deals with the ‘art’ of leadership. One needs to learn how to lead with both mind (science) and heart (art) to be truly effective. The effective building blocks of quality leadership are the skills of communication motivation, organizational development, management and creativity. Mastering the theory and practice in these areas of study will produce high quality leadership ability and, in turn, produce successful leaders. This book uses the case study approach in order to facilitate placing theory into effective practice. Each chapter contains an extensive study on one of ten of the most successful basketball coaches of our times including, Phil Jackson, Bobby Knight, Mike Krzyzewski, Pat Riley, Pat Summitt, and Dean Smith. The book looks to see how these coaches were able to place leadership theory into effective practice. The lessons learned will prove invaluable to leaders and aspiring leaders, whether they be a parent, teacher, school principal, athletic director, coach or CEO.

A Game Plan for Effective Leadership

Unity 3.x Game Development by Example

Unity 3.x Game Development by Example

The book takes a clear, step-by-step approach to building small, simple game projects. It focuses on short, attainable goals so that the reader can finish something, instead of trying to create a complex RPG or open-world game that never sees the light of day. This book encourages readers hungry for knowledge. It does not go into gory detail about how every little knob and dial functions – that’s what the software manual is for! Rather, this book is the fastest path from zero to finished game using the Unity game engine. If you’ve ever wanted to develop games, but have never felt ‘smart’ enough to deal with complex programming, this book is for you. It’s also a great kick-start for developers coming from other tools like Flash, Unreal Engine, and Game Maker Pro.

Unity 3.x Game Development by Example

Games, Puzzles and Computation

Games, Puzzles and Computation

The authors show that there are underlying mathematical reasons for why games and puzzles are challenging (and perhaps why they are so much fun). They also show that games and puzzles can serve as powerful models of computationquite different from the usual models of automata and circuitsoffering a new way of thinking about computation. The appendices provide a substantial survey of all known results in the field of game complexity, serving as a reference guide for readers interested in the computational complexity of particular games, or interested in open problems about such complexities.

Games, Puzzles and Computation

Zune Game Development Using XNA 3.0

Zune Game Development Using XNA 3.0

Zune Game Development Using XNA 3.0 is a comprehensive book that will guide you through the many aspects of XNA game development and their specific implementations on the Zune platform. The book addresses Zune game development concepts in detail and shows you how to apply them in practical, stepbystep examples, building complete, working XNA 3.0 examples along the way that you can download and play.

Zune Game Development Using XNA 3.0

Games Against Nature

Games Against Nature

In this book, Robert Harms makes an important advance toward recovering the history of the people of the rain forest by telling the story of the Nunu, who live in and around swampy floodplains of the middle Zaire River. Using concepts drawn from game theory, Professor Harms explores the changing relationship between nature and culture among the Nunu. Picturing Nunu society as animated by a never-ending competition among lineages and households, he traces how the competition pushed people into new environments, and how adaption to the new environment, in turn, led to new forms of competition.

Games Against Nature

What the Groom Wants

What the Groom Wants

There can only be one winner in this game of hearts

What the Groom Wants

Boys Will Be Boys

Boys Will Be Boys

They were called America’s Team. Led by Emmitt Smith, the charismatic Deion ‘Prime Time’ Sanders, Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Michael Irvinand lorded over by swashbuckling, power-hungry owner Jerry Jones and his two hard-living coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzerthe Cowboys seemed indomitable on the football field throughout the 1990s. Off the field the ‘Boys were a dysfunctional circus, fueled by ego, sex, drugs, and jaw-dropping excess. What they achieved on game day was astonishing; what they did the rest of the week was unbelievable.

Boys Will Be Boys

C++ For Dummies

C++ For Dummies

If youve thought of programmers as elite intelligentsia who possess expertise (and perhaps genes) the rest of us will never have, think again. C++ For Dummies, 5th Edition, debunks the myths, blasts the barriers, shares the secrets, and gets you started. In fact, by the end of Chapter 1, youll be able to create a C++ program. OK, it wont be newest, flashiest video game, but it might be a practical, customized inventory control or record-keeping program.

C++ For Dummies

Complete Chess Strategy 2

Complete Chess Strategy 2

Continuing his major work on strategy and tactics in modern chess, the internationally renowned Grandmaster, Ludek Pachman, now turns his attention to the play of the pawns and the achievement of control of the center squares. Though the pawns are the weakest pieces in chess, their importance in determining the character of the attack (and defense) and the development of strategic play cannot be underestimated. Pawns are essential to the protection of important squares and pieces. They are the best means of blockading enemy pawns and when correctly deployed, their advance can open vital files and diagonals, thereby creating weaknesses in the opposite position. Despite its limited power, the pawn has one special advantage over other pieces in that it can be promoted when it reaches the eighth rank; a successful pawn advance can completely change the balance of power and the outcome of a game. Pawns have aptly been described as ‘the soul of chess. Vital to chess mastery is a basic understanding of the importance of control of the center squares. The effectiveness of the pieces depend upon the strength of their position and center control creates a vital spatial superiority. The pieces gain in power as they exert influence over more spaces. Control not only allows increased maneuverability, but restricts the possibilities open to the opponent. The effective play of the pawns and center control have been touched upon in other works, but seldom with the insight and lucidity revealed in this second volume of Pachman’s masterwork.

Complete Chess Strategy 2

Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player, Third Revised Edition

Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player, Third Revised Edition

Top grandmasters demystify chessboard planning, giving you the practical, game-winning strategic techniques you could spend years gathering on your own.

Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player, Third Revised Edition

Improve Your Middlegame Play

Improve Your Middlegame Play

A thorough understanding of the middlegame is essential for any aspiring player wishing to improve their game. This book uses examples from practical play to develop tactical and positional skills and awareness to enable you to make the most of your opportunities in the middlegame. It explains the basic ideas of tactical and positional play, provides numerous exercises for readers to test themselves and has a revolutionary layout to help readers absorb the key ideas. (6 7/8 x 9 5/8, 144 pages, b&w illustrations)

Improve Your Middlegame Play

iPhone Game Blueprints

iPhone Game Blueprints

iPhone Game Blueprints is a practical, hands-on guide with step-by-step instructions leading you through a number of different projects, providing you with the essentials for creating your own iPhone games.This book is for graphic designers, developers, illustrators, and simple enthusiasts, who dream about the creation of mobile games or who have already worked in that domain, but need some additional inspiration and knowledge. This book can be considered as an illustrated handbook, worth having in your game development studio. It can work as a paper art-director for your project.

iPhone Game Blueprints

Teach Yourself VISUALLY Bridge

Teach Yourself VISUALLY Bridge

Tricks. Trumps. Auctions. Contracts. Bridge is a challenging game, but you can quickly grasp its basics with this guide that shows how it’s played. Teach Yourself VISUALLY Bridge covers everything from evaluating a hand and bidding it through playing the cards and scoring the resultsguiding you play by play and trick by trick. With this book and with practice as declarer or defender, you’ll quickly be playing your bridge cards right. Maybe you’ll even make a slamdoubled, redoubled, and vulnerable!

Teach Yourself VISUALLY Bridge

Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1

Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1

Tournament poker is a tough game to play but the rewards for success can be huge. Even regular online tournaments offer substantial prizes running to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1

Playing the Player

Playing the Player

Ask any poker player with a little bit of experience, and they’ll tell you poker is a game of people, not of cards.

Playing the Player

Phil Gordons Little Green Book

Phil Gordons Little Green Book

Phil Gordon plays poker with the best players in the world. He has won — and lost — in tournaments and cash games around the globe, all the while studying the game and learning from every hand dealt. As the resident expert and cohost of Celebrity Poker Showdown, Phil has quickly become one of the most sought-after teachers of No Limit Texas Hold’em. It’s a tough game. But anyone can become a winning player with the right amount of courage, patience, aggression, observation, and, perhaps most important, dedication to becoming a better player.

Phil Gordons Little Green Book

The Poker Blueprint

The Poker Blueprint

From the man who literally CREATED the poker ebook market and its poster child, ‘Let There Be Range’ (‘a two-thousand dollar poker manual for high-stakes poker professionals’), ‘The Poker Blueprint’ provides the infrastructure for micro- and small-stakes players to build their game on. It also offer advanced strategies that are vital to crushing today’s online short-handed games up to 100NL.

The Poker Blueprint

Swaynes Advanced Degree in Hold em

Swaynes Advanced Degree in Hold em

Featuring new mathematical strategies and an in-depth analysis of the psychological aspects of Texas Hold’em, this poker textbook focuses on advanced skills for experienced and professional-level players. The result of years of study, this new method of step-by-step poker techniques and strategies helps players consistently beat the odds and play winning games. Every aspect of the game is analyzed and reported on in never-before-published approaches that are designed for all forms of Hold’emonline, electronic, and conventional table games.

Swaynes Advanced Degree in Hold em

Winning Low-Limit Hold Em

Winning Low-Limit Hold Em

Since its first publication in 1994, Winning Low-Limit Hold’em, by Lee Jones, has become the major reference on playing Texas Hold’em at the lower limits. However, poker has changed over the several years and Lee has continued to study the game. The result is this revised and expanded second edition.

Winning Low-Limit Hold Em