Representation of mathematical games

• Main Author: Leong, James Wei Keet.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/49822
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The traditional definitions and representation of both simultaneous and sequential games have been sufficient for representing mathematical games, and have been widely accepted by game theorists. These games were used as models for real-world scenarios, and were analysed to determine the best actions that could be taken by each party involved, to result in the best outcome. In this project, the existing representation of games was investigated and problems related to it were identified. These problems included the extensive form’s inability to represent final payoffs as being dependent on the sequence of actions in sequential games. Thus, the existing representation fails to fully capture the difference between simultaneous and sequential game representation. A new mode of game representation was proposed in the form of adding weights and relationships to the existing extensive form for sequential game representation, in order to better distinguish representation of simultaneous and sequential games. The scope of game analysis was also identified to be an important factor in game representation.