SMSGameServer

Software for holding real-time in-class tournaments. Students are presented with a simple game such as a prisoner's dilemma, ultimatum, or centipede game (view screenshot). They participate in the tournament by sending SMS text messages from their mobile phones (strategies can also be submitted from the web console, view screenshot). Results of the tournament are presented by player and strategy in a web browser in a manner suitable for presentation through a data projector (view screenshot). The initial distribution of strategies can then be "evolved" using standard evolutionary game theory techniques allowing students to see the evolutionary fitness of their chosen strategies (view screenshots: (1) early in the evolution, (2) after more iterations. (3) in the long run). The software is extensible allowing for easy programming of additional games. Requires a Nokia cell phone and a USB cable for receiving the SMS messages (cheaply available on Ebay) (Version 0.1, Python source available soon).