A surprisingly short and easy read for such a dense series of topics, Playing With Reality reads as a series of thematically-connected essays on game theory, neuroscience, evolution, AI, and yes, even actual games like backgammon, chess, checkers, Go, and war games.
The book overreaches a bit in trying to convey that game theory has warped our world into more of the selfishness that such models typically assume. There seems to be a bit of Eden Fallacy lurking here. But that quibble aside, I found myself turning page after fascinating page on the history and potential—light and dark—of modeling reality and mistaking the map for the territory.
Kelly's voice is also one of the rare female presences in a field dominated by men. This shows up in subtle but valuable ways. Sometimes it's by observing how the men of wartime strategy tragically transposed the zero-sum nature of global confrontation onto societal games that are positive sum by nature. Other times it comes by effortlessly weaving the contributions of the many people and cultures of all backgrounds into the human endeavor of mathematics and games. Sometimes she just pokes delightful fun at the many self-congratulatory male egos in her fields. As with her perspective on games itself, this all comes as refreshing and fun to read.
Fascinating, VERY clearly written, and mind-opening.
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From the Publisher
About the author
Highly Recommended for Wargame Developers
When you design and develop a wargame you are making a facsimile of a reality. Like storytelling, wargames engage with people and create a compelling worldview which may not necessarily accurately reflect the ground truth of the situation. Clancy delves into this with numerous examples enriching the discussion wargame developers have with their clients and sponsors.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2024
- Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2024
- Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2024
- Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2024
When you design and develop a wargame you are making a facsimile of a reality. Like storytelling, wargames engage with people and create a compelling worldview which may not necessarily accurately reflect the ground truth of the situation. Clancy delves into this with numerous examples enriching the discussion wargame developers have with their clients and sponsors.
Images in this review
- Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2024
I have a strong objection with the subtitle of this book: “How Games Have Shaped the World.” Reading this, and the description on the jacket, I was expecting an examination of the impact that games have had on the world, but the subtitle is misleading and the book is better characterized as the opposite: “How Games Are Shaped.”
Expecting examples of how games have influenced history, instead I got a wandering, unfocused tale of how various games and their solution algorithms were developed through time. Moreover, I think you can argue that these stories don’t even focus as much as they should on the parts relevant to games — see for example pgs 195-196, photos of which I attach to this review… you’ll see very little about games and instead learn about a man’s sad spiral through poor health, financial troubles, and ultimately suicide. Much of the book proceeds in a similar fashion, not really teaching me what I was excited to learn about the impact that games have had on the whole I’m living in today.
There are examples to the contrary (the chapter on the Kriegsspiel was amazing), but they are few.
I’ll close with another frustrating example from pg 254: “Chevron, for instance, commissioned an oil-refinery simulation game called SimRefinery. Chevron allegedly used the game to train office workers—who may have never entered a physical plant—to better understand the oil refinement process. Much like Kriegsspiel had helped military officers gain a bird’s-eye view of the battlefield, SimRefinery helped white collar workers gain a new perspective on their industry.”
Is that interesting to you? I was to me! And I was excited to learn more about how a game had helped this multi-billion dollar industry titan improve its operations… unfortunately, what I quoted above is all the info you’ll get from this book before we are shuttled, too quickly, to another topic. A wasted opportunity, I think, to explore an example of how a game had shaped our reality.
In my opinion, just one of many other wasted opportunities in this book.
Images in this review
- Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2024
- Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2024
