Welcome! (& how to use this blog)

Welcome to MATH 450: Games! This is where blog posts will live. In this post, I'll address some points about what this blog is for and how to use it.

How to post

Soon after the start of term (i.e. once I have your e-mail addresses), you will be e-mailed an invitation to be an author on this blog. The e-mail will contain a link and instructions on how to become an author. Note: you'll need a Google account. If you don't have one, the instructions will walk you through creating one. Once you're an author, you can go to blogger.com, log in with your Google account, and create a new post on this blog.

Note that if you want to use Latex code in your posts, you can, thanks to MathJax! Any code surrounded on either side by double dollar signs will be read as Latex code in math mode and compiled accordingly. For instance, here's a very mathematical table which shows the 10 worst people in Westeros ranked by how many episodes found them being the worst (may need a few seconds to load properly).

$$\begin{array}{c|c|c} \bf{\mbox{Worstness power ranking}} & \bf{\mbox{Character}} & \bf{\mbox{# episodes}} \\ \hline 1 & \mbox{Cersei} & 6 \\ 2 & \mbox{Joffrey} & 4 \\ 3 & \mbox{Ramsay} & 4 \\ 4 & \mbox{Melisandre} & 4 \\ 5 & \mbox{Theon} & 3 \\ 6 & \mbox{Tywin} & 3 \\ 7 & \mbox{Karl} & 3 \\ 8 & \mbox{Locke} & 2 \\ 9 & \mbox{Littlefinger} & 2 \\ 10 & \mbox{Stannis} & 2   \end{array}$$

When to post

Optional posts: You are free to write a post about anything game theory related that strikes your fancy as you learn things throughout the term. This can take the form of an intuitive explanation of a research paper, some original research ideas, interesting tidbits about the history of a mathematical subfield, your thoughts on an application of some game theory idea that you found on a news site, or whatever else you like. Anyone can write a post at any time, and these are greatly encouraged and will contribute positively to your participation grade (and more importantly, to everyone's learning!). 

Required posts: In addition to these optional random-bout-of-inspiration posts, you will write a post before every one of the 5-10 minute presentations you give in class. Since a goal of the post is to lay the foundation for the associated presentation, the post should go up at least 24 hours before your presentation. This will give your colleagues time to read it, learn whatever background they'll need to understand your presentation, and start to develop some discussion ideas.

What (& when) to comment

Even when you're not writing a post, you should be reading the posts your colleagues make and thinking about them. Comment on a post to further the discussion. The posts will be going up at least 24 hours before the associated presentation, so you should have time to read the post and start developing ideas right away. You can leave a comment as soon as you read the post, and comments can continue to be made after the presentation is given (e.g. if you had a thought that came to you after the in-class discussion was completed, you can still add it as a comment).

Your contribution to comments will be considered in the "participation" part of your grade at the end of the semester. You don't have to comment on every post, but if you find that it's been a while since you've come up with anything to say, try reading more on the topic elsewhere (start with Wikipedia if you're not sure of what's a good resource) so that you have something novel to contribute in a comment. Other good ideas for comments include asking insightful questions, posting an interesting link relating to the topic at hand, discussing some ideas for generalizations/variations of the topic that could be interesting for a research project, etc. Note that comments like "whoa cool, you're the best," while hopefully encouraging to your colleagues, don't count as much of a discussion. :) 

At a minimum, you should engage meaningfully with at least one post per week throughout the semester. To keep everyone up to date and to keep comment discussions relevant to what we're discussing in lecture, you will have up to 6 days after the presentation is given to write comments on a post (and have those comments count toward your participation grade); since posts must go up at least 24 hours prior to the presentation, this will give you a full week to comment on a given post.

Of course, everyone has a bad week now and then, so if you have to skip a week, you can make up for it by commenting on more than one post the following week. These are just guidelines so you have an idea what's expected of you.

What to post

Okay, now for the actual content! Your presentations are short (5-10 minutes long), so there's no time there for background info. Therefore any background that is necessary to understand the presentation needs to be in your post. The post should also contain the meat of whatever subject you were learning about. For instance, if you're talking about a specific example of a game, the outline of your post would go something like

• Game set-up (along with any necessary math background)
• Maybe a picture or two to help explain the game, if it's a topic that benefits from a visual aid
• If there's some central theorem of great importance (e.g. in Cops and Robbers, the theorem that tells us a graph is cop win if and only if it's dismantlable; in Nim, we have Bouton's theorem; in the Game of Thrones, there's the You Win Or You Die theorem, etc.), state it. An analysis of the game counts.
  

  

  Image credit: snarksquad.com
• If the proof is not too long or technical, write up the proof (in your own words).
• (This part is one of the most important) Give an intuitive explanation of the theorem(s) you're discussing---why are they important, why do they make sense, and what's the intuition behind the proof.
• Concluding remarks: your own thoughts on the topic, how this relates to something else of interest to the class, directions for possible future research in this area, or whatever you want to end with.

There are no formal constraints on the length of your post, number of pictures, number of links, etc., but remember that these posts (coupled with the presentation on the post in class) are most of where your colleagues will get their information about these things. That means that they need to have enough content to explain what topic you were researching, why that topic is interesting or beautiful or applicable, and a bit about how it works. There should always be enough to get a conversation going, both in the comments section and after the presentation in class.

The next post on this blog is an example of how these posts can look. It is by no means a template that you should stick to, and you're encouraged to get as creative as you can with these posts!

How the blog impacts your grade

As mentioned above, commenting at least once a week (on average) ensures a good participation grade. But part of your grade is determined by the blogs you write, too. Here's how that works. Out of the blog part of your overall grade, 10% is determined simply by you posting something reasonable by the assigned time (it should pass the eyeballing test---if I skim it for a few seconds and it looks good, that's that part of the grade nailed). A further 70% of the blog grade is determined by how well each of your posts meets the requirements of a "good blog post." For further detail on the rubric, please see the course syllabus on Sakai.

The final 20% is determined by how much your post contributes to discussion. That means that 20% of the blog grade is determined by the comments! There are 11 other students that can potentially comment on any one of your posts. Your goal is to have a meaningful interaction with 

• at least 1 student per two posts (on average) to guarantee a 1.0 (D)
• at least 1 student per post (on average) to guarantee a 2.0 (C)
• at least 2 different students per post (on average) to guarantee a 3.0 (B)
• at least 3 different students per post (on average) to guarantee a 4.0 (A)

(where again, that GPA grade is 20% of your blog grade). If you're having trouble getting a conversation going on your posts, try to encourage your colleagues, and make sure you provide a good opportunity for discussion to develop.