This paper presents a game theoretic formulation of a graph traversal problem, with applications to robots moving through hazardous environments in the presence of an adversary, as in military and security applications. The blue team of robots moves in an environment modeled by a time-varying graph, attempting to reach some goal with minimum cost, while the red team controls how the graph changes to maximize the cost. The problem is formulated as a stochastic game, so that Nash equilibrium strategies can be computed numerically. Bounds are provided for the game value, with a guarantee that it solves the original problem. Numerical simulations demonstrate the results and the effectiveness of this method, particularly showing the benefit of mixing actions for both players, as well as beneficial coordinated behavior, where blue robots split up and/or synchronize to traverse risky edges.

In "Create-A-Sim," "The Sims 4′s" character creation tool, players can now choose from preset pronouns -- she/her, he/him or they/them -- or input custom ones for their Sims. Given the intricacies of English grammar, that last option requires a bit of extra work. Players that create custom pronouns will have to input different forms, including subjective, objective, possessive dependent, possessive independent and reflexive. If that triggered some long-forgotten, school age conjugation lessons, don't worry: The game includes example sentences for reference. It then automatically updates to use the correct pronouns where applicable.

PARIS – MDMA, the main ingredient in ecstasy, makes humans more likely to cooperate -- but only with trustworthy people -- researchers said Monday in the first study into how the drug impacts our willingness to help others. Despite its status in Britain as a Class A drug, MDMA is widely consumed due to the heightened sense of energy, empathy and pleasure it arouses in users. It contains neurotransmitters -- chemical messengers for the brain -- that are known to be linked to behavior and mood, but scientists currently understand very little about how these affect social interactions. Researchers at King's College London studied 20 healthy adult men who were given a typical recreational dose of MDMA or a placebo pill and then asked to complete a set of tasks while images of their brain activity were taken with an MRI scanner. One of the mind exercises they were given was the Prisoner's Dilemma -- an example of so-called game theory in which an individual is asked to choose between cooperating or competing with another, unknown person.

Horizon: Zero Dawn, a massive open-world game set in a lush, post-apocalyptic jungle inhabited by robot dinosaurs, is one of the most anticipated games of 2017. Players take the role of Aloy, a young hunter in a far-flung future, well after most of human society has disappeared in a long-forgotten disaster. Nature has reclaimed the land, with overgrown city ruins giving way to lush forests and plains. But there are still roving bands of robotic dinosaurs of unknown origin to contend with. The last few years have seen a rise in female leads, such as Emily Kaldwin (Dishonored 2) and Evie Frye (Assassin's Creed: Syndicate). That doesn't mean the medium has always been a complete dudefest.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new artificially intelligent system that crowdsources plots for interactive stories, which are popular in video games and let players choose different branching story options. With potentially limitless crowdsourced plot points, the system could allow for more creative stories and an easier method for interactive narrative generation. Current AI models for games have a limited number of scenarios, no matter what a player chooses. They depend on a dataset already programmed into a model by experts. Using the Georgia Tech approach, one might imagine a Star Wars game using online fan fiction to let the AI system generate countless paths for a player to take.