Prerequisites for Learning Game Theory

[Aero51]

Hey, I am looking to teaching myself a new subject along with statistical mechanics. I am very interested in some of the implications of game theory and the notion that we can approximately quantify and predict decisions made by large groups of people. Unfortunatly, as an engineering graduate my "advanced" (to a math major) mathematics background is limited to 1 class on nonlinear systems and 1 class on probability. As the title suggest, I would like to know some of the prereq's for a self taught course in Game Theory and a reliable and CHEAP book as teaching material.

 

[Aero51]

Nobody...?

 

[Bill Simpson]

The description of the course below sounds very close to what you are looking for and might be at your level. The class started a couple of days ago but they might still let you in. You asked for CHEAP and free from a first tier university doesn't get any better than that.

https://www.coursera.org/#course/gametheory

 

[MarneMath]

Nice. Just my 2cents, a good number of game theory courses require very little mathematical knowledge. (Don't get me wrong, some can require a good bit!), but for a first course in game theory, a lot of the course is getting you familiar with the concepts you'll encounter, not so much the rigor behind it. Thus you can find such courses spread out through various departments like biology, economics, business, etc.

As for books, I can't remember the title but dover book has a nice one in their catalog that is typical and an easy to read book.

*I don't know you mathematical ability but assuming you can deal with matrices and read and work with set theory, you should be fine.