Spatial Games
A special issue of Games (ISSN 2073-4336).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 33
Special Issue Editor
Interests: mathematical epidemiology; evolutionary game theory
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Spatial structure shapes strategic interaction, whether it is modeling the spread of cooperation across a lattice, price competition in geographically dispersed markets, or cultural transmission on social networks, the explicit inclusion of space reveals patterns—clusters, waves, and coexistence that well-mixed models cannot capture. Over the past three decades, spatial games have matured into an interdisciplinary field drawing on evolutionary game theory, statistical physics, ecology, economics, and computer science. Recent advances in computational power, network science, and experimental methods now allow researchers to probe ever-richer spatial environments, ranging from adaptive networks and multilayer graphs to agent mobility on continuous landscapes.
Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue, entitled "Spatial Games", is to gather contributions that deepen our theoretical understanding, introduce novel modeling frameworks, or provide empirical evidence on how spatial heterogeneity and local interaction shape strategic behavioral and evolutionary outcomes. While the main emphasis will be on innovative applications, rigorous studies regarding foundations of spatial game theory are equally welcome.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Pedro Henrique Triguis Schimit
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Games is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- evolutionary games on lattices, graphs, and hypergraphs
- public goods, common pool, or anti-coordination games in spatial settings
- co-evolution of strategy and network topology
- mobility, metapopulation structure, and dispersal in game–theoretic models
- spatial competition and location games in economics and ecology
- stochastic and statistical–physics approaches to spatial dilemmas
- PDE and reaction–diffusion formulations of spatial games
- multilayer, temporal, and adaptive networks in strategic interaction
- experimental or empirical studies of spatially structured games
- methodological advances: agent-based simulations, high-performance computing, and data-driven calibration of spatial game models
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