Talk:Mathematical game

Disentangled
I've just disentangled this topic from recreational mathematics. Although they are clearly related, these two are not the same thing. In the most simple terms "recreational mathematics" is a field of activity; a "mathematical game" may be one the elements within that field of study.---User:Eclecticology


 * I'm baffled. The two pages are quai-identical. Is it your intention that they gradually grow apart? --Tarquin

This page seems to have little encyclopedic content apart from its relatives. I think it might be better as a disambiguation page between I'm a newbie, though, and not bold enough to dike out whatever User:Eclecticology was trying to do. --Dan Hoey 04:09, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Gardner's Scientific American column and its successors
 * The general subject of recreational mathematics as celebrated and popularized by Gardner
 * Other recreational pursuits of mathematicians such as juggling, unicycling, change-ringing, music, ... some of which may have mathematical content and some of it just attractive to the mathematical mind, if anyone really knows what that is. But that sounds like mathematical recreations to me, which might find a home on recreational mathematics.
 * Classical Game theory and extensions, e.g. by Nash
 * Combinatorial game theory which includes Sprague, Grundy, C. L Bouton, and other predecessors to Berlekamp, Conway and Guy and successors.

Topo
Removed "Topo" from the list of mathematical games -- the article at topo is about climbing, and I found little evidence on Google to suggest that Topo is a particularly notable mathematical game. Apparently it appears in The Joy of Mathematics by Theoni Pappas, in case someone wants to write about the game, and there is a website with a brief description of it here. Mindspillage 01:34, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)

External link cleanup
Most of these links do not meet WP:EL guidelines - broken, excessive advertisements, personal websites, etc. I went ahead and cleared this section. If there are links that do conform to WP and you feel that I have removed them erroneously, please leave a note here and discuss. Thanks! Calltech 14:52, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Definition
The article needs a better definition of a mathematical game, with a citation. While looking into this I found that Bernard J Oldfield defines a mathematical game as
 * 1. It is an activity involving
 * EITHER a challenge against a task or one or more opponents
 * OR a common task to be tackled either individually or (more normally) in conjunction with others.
 * 2. The activity is governed by a set of rules, and has a clear underlying structure to it.
 * 3. The activity normally has a distinct finishing point.
 * 4. The activity has specific mathematical cognitive objectives.

("Games in the Learning of Mathematics: 1: A Classification", Bernard J. Oldfield, Mathematics in School, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Jan., 1991), pp. 41-43) However this would exclude chess, nim, etc, (unless played by mathematicians) and I don't think this is a correct definition, so I wouldn't include it without another source disputing it. If anyone can find an alternative definition, that would be good. --Colapeninsula (talk) 12:57, 24 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Are zero-player games usually considered to be mathematical games? This article defines mathematical games as multiplayer games, without any mention of zero-player games. Jarble (talk) 22:26, 19 January 2013 (UTC)