Complex networks and evolutionary games

The Hawk–Dove game is a well known non-repeating evolutionary game often used as a simple model of biological or economic phenomenon. In the spatial version of this game, complex spatial and temporal dynamics emerge as a direct consequence of “agents” adopting one of two strategies in order to gain a valuable resource. In this study, the population dynamics are investigated in terms of the underlying structural properties of the network on which the game is played. Simulations using alternative network topologies — regular, small-world, random and scale-free networks — suggest that the mode of connectivity within the spatial model is the most significant factor affecting the system dynamics. To explore the robustness of the network models, results are reported for more general cases involving stochasticity, asynchronous updating and varying interaction matrices.