Chinese postman games with multi-located players

This paper analyses Chinese postman games with multi-located players, which generalize Chinese postman games by dropping the one-to-one relation between edges and players. In our model, we allow players to be located on more than one edge, but at most one player is located on each edge. The one-to-one relation between edges and players is essential for the equivalence between Chinese postman-totally balanced and Chinese postman-submodular graphs shown in the literature. We illustrate the invalidity of this result in our model. Besides, the location of the post office has a relevant role in the submodularity and totally balancedness of Chinese postman games with multi-located players. Therefore, we focus on sufficient conditions on the assignment of players to edges to ensure submodularity of Chinese postman games with multi-located players, independently of the associated travel costs. Moreover, we provide some insights on the difficulty of finding necessary conditions on assignment functions to this end

Operations Research Games: A Survey

This paper surveys the research area of cooperative games associated with several types of operations research problems in which various decision makers (players) are involved.Cooperating players not only face a joint optimisation problem in trying, e.g., to minimise total joint costs, but also face an additional allocation problem in how to distribute these joint costs back to the individual players.This interplay between optimisation and allocation is the main subject of the area of operations research games.It is surveyed on the basis of a distinction between the nature of the underlying optimisation problem: connection, routing, scheduling, production and inventory.cooperative games;operational research

On Games Arising From Multi-Depot Chinese Postman Problems

This paper introduces cooperative games arising from multi-depot Chinese postman problems and explores the properties of these games. A multi-depot Chinese postman problem (MDCP) is represented by a connected (di)graph G, a set of k depots that is a subset of the vertices of G, and a non-negative weight function on the edges of G. A solution to the MDCP is a minimum weight tour of the (di)graph that visits all edges (arcs) of the graph and that consists of a collection of subtours such that the subtours originate from dierent depots, and each subtour starts and ends at the same depot. A cooperative Chinese postman (CP) game is induced by a MDCP by associating every edge of the graph with a dierent player. This paper characterizes globally and locally k-CP balanced and submodular (di)graphs. A (di)graph G is called globally (locally) k-CP balanced (respectively submodular), if the induced CP game of the corresponding MDCP problem on G is balanced (respectively submodular) for any (some) choice of the locations of the k depots and every non-negative weight function

Cost allocation in connection and conflict problems on networks: a cooperative game theoretic approach

This thesis examines settings where multiple decision makers with conflicting interests benefit from cooperation in joint combinatorial optimisation problems. It draws on cooperative game theory, polyhedral theory and graph theory to address cost sharing in joint single-source shortest path problems and joint weighted minimum colouring problems. The primary focus of the thesis are problems where each agent corresponds to a vertex of an undirected complete graph, in which a special vertex represents the common supplier. The joint combinatorial optimisation problem consists of determining the shortest paths from the supplier to all other vertices in the graph. The optimal solution is a shortest path tree of the graph and the aim is to allocate the cost of this shortest path tree amongst the agents. The thesis defines shortest path tree problems, proposes allocation rules and analyses the properties of these allocation rules. It furthermore introduces shortest path tree games and studies the properties of these games. Various core allocations for shortest path tree games are introduced and polyhedral properties of the core are studied. Moreover, computational results on finding the core and the nucleolus of shortest path tree games for the application of cost allocation in Wireless Multihop Networks are presented. The secondary focus of the thesis are problems where each agent is interested in having access to a number of facilities but can be in conflict with other agents. If two agents are in conflict, then they should have access to disjoint sets of facilities. The aim is to allocate the cost of the minimum number of facilities required by the agents amongst them. The thesis models these cost allocation problems as a class of cooperative games called weighted minimum colouring games, and characterises total balancedness and submodularity of this class of games using the properties of the underlying graph

Hide-and-seek and other search games

In the game of hide-and-seek played between two players, a Hider picks a hiding place and a Searcher tries to find him in the least possible time. Since Isaacs had the idea of formulating this mathematically as a zero-sum game almost fifty years ago in his book, Differential Games, the theory of search games has been studied and developed extensively. In the classic model of search games on networks, first formalised by Gal in 1979, a Hider strategy is a point on the network and a Searcher strategy is a constant speed path starting from a designated point of the network. The Searcher wishes to minimise the time to find the Hider (the payoff), and the Hider wishes to maximise it. Gal solved this game for certain classes of networks: that is, he found optimal strategies and the payoff assuming best play on both sides. Here we study new formulations of search games, starting with a model proposed by Alpern where the speed of the Searcher depends on which direction he is traveling. We give a solution of this game on a class of networks called trees, generalising Gal's work. We also show how the game relates to another new model of search studied by Baston and Kikuta, where the Searcher must pay extra search costs to search the network's nodes (or vertices). We go on to study another new model of search called expanding search, which models coal mining. We solve this game on trees and also study the related problem where the Hider's strategy is known to the Searcher. We extend the expanding search game to consider what happens if there are several hidden objects and solve this game for certain classes of networks. Finally we study a game in which a squirrel hides nuts from a pilferer

Spartan Daily, October 26, 1964

Volume 52, Issue 24https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/4634/thumbnail.jp

Fantastic Realities: Solid and Virtual Resonance in MMORPGs

This dissertation is a qualitative study that examines how game worlds and positive game experiences are neither equally accessible nor equally enjoyable to many who wish to participate in them. Newer research on games argues that those who master them are fulfilled socially, are highly productive, are motivated, and are invigorated by participation in grand narratives. Using a mixed methods approach, I drew on seventy in-depth interviews with gamers coupled with observational data from my membership role in several virtual worlds. Through these data I examined the social barriers deployed to fracture game world communities and arguably disperse the positive benefits of play. Specifically, my participants and my observational data indicate that rigid social categories of gender, sexuality, and race, as well as the assumptions bound to their maintenance and reinforcement, disrupted the possibility for a more inclusive collective identity. I use an interactionist theoretical framework to understand how the rigidity of social categories and identity politics are recreated and enforced through virtual conversation and relationships. This dissertation explains how the labeling and exclusion of various \u22others\u22 in game worlds, including women, gender-bending men, non-hardcore geeks, fluid sexuality players, and cyberworkers, entrenches the stereotypes of who gamers are and who they can be. The consequences of these practices erode the possibilities for how the solid world and reality itself might benefit from becoming similar to a game

MMORPG avatars: Representations of escapism in Chinese society based on semiotics of culture

The development of Internet technology and globalization have boosted the game industry, and among which Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGs) provide a space where players could create their own avatar at will, and generate their physical and psychological involvement to participate in the virtual experience of the game context. Through cases with semiotics analysis and cultural phenomenon, the correlation between in-game avatar and escapism in Chinese context would be examined on how do in-game avatars connect with escapism in China. This highly resilient virtual social space provides a malleable field far from reality, for the transition from culture to nature, from reality to illusion, and from self to digital self. By analyzing the correlation and rooted reasons between in-game avatar in MMORPGs and escapism in Chinese social context, this project will contribute to the re-understanding of the symbolic meaning of in-game avatars and realistic meaning in Chinese society

Spartan Daily, December 9, 1997

Volume 109, Issue 68https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9215/thumbnail.jp