Yoruichi-san

Lol...yeah, "all-powerful" looked better on Peter ;P...for the brief like 40 seconds he was acting like it... Edit: Reminds me of Ichigo and his 11 second hollow transformation (i.e. his 11 seconds of not sucking...)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just as Peter *finally* is using his powers and being awesome, they get taken away from him...grrrrrrrrrrr... Love the turtle, though...;P

Good! We're getting closer . Correct interpretation, but "life" is not the correct link. Don't forget that it links to 1 .

Time to revive the discussion with some more input: Soul Eater. Watch it. It is hilarious. ;P The main characters (Maka and Soul) aren't that interesting...but Kid and Black Star are awesome. I like Anime Enlightenment's subbing...they way they have Black Star refer to himself as "the BIG me!" is great

Please, don't take it personally, if this solution does not match your intended one. For what's it worth, I think it's a good problem and that's the reason I posted my solutions here -- not to pick on your problem statement. I consider myself voted off this ship. Thank you. And I do appreciate all your insight and I appreciate constructive criticism on how I could make the problem statement more clear and I believe your analysis of the problem you saw was very insightful and correct, and thanks for accepting my problem. And yes, everyone on the ship during a particular round votes, including the person who is the one proposed to be voted off. You are very correct about the equilibrium in the problem, that is the beauty (I think) to the actual solution. However, I have a different solution that uses less coins. Let me point out where I start to differ from your thinking:

I never changed the rules, but I realized that they were ambiguous so I clarified my intent. The members off the boat don't vote, but the Captain (of the current round) does, just like in the original Pirate's Game. I never said that the bribing involved going up to each pirate and offering a bribe, then moving on to the next one, that was your interpretation. My intent all along was to have the Captain make one bribing action a round, i.e. he has to make a commitment to who he offers the bribes to, and if they refuse he is not allowed to try again. I am sorry if that was ambiguous in the OP, but it is what I meant, and I am happy to answer questions and clarify anything. As someone who actually read the "Terms of Agreement" before I clicked the "I agree" button when I signed up, I distinctly remember there being something about respecting the intent of other ppl's OPs...

Good, that's the way to go about it...but...consider this...;P

-When every time I hit CTRL+T (opens a new tab in Firefox), my next action automatically is to type "b" into the address bar... -When it takes me five tries to get to the website I was actually trying to get to b/c of the above...

Yep, basically, although... Thank you for asking! My intention was to share an interesting puzzle that is a variation of the Pirate's Game, and I'm sorry that I failed in wording the OP to describe the puzzle in a clear and unambiguous way, but I'm happy to answer any questions to clarify it .

Thank you, that's a good way of thinking about it. Another way of thinking about it is that the bribes are part of the proposal, i.e the Captain says "Okay, this round I propose to vote off Pirate A and I offer x amount of gold to the following pirates", etc, and the bribed pirates get the gold if they vote yes. Actually, that's probably what I should have said in the OP, sorry again about the ambiguity. :/

Okay, yes your analysis is very insightful for your interpretation of the OP. However, your interpretation is not what I intended in the OP. I ask that you respect my original intent now that I've clarified it, which was that the bribe offer is made basically as part of the proposal each round, i.e. it is part of the game being played and not done covertly and the bribing action occurs once each round, i.e. the Captain cannot address each pirate individually and sequentially. This is in the spirit of the Pirate's Game. As I specifically said before, the point of this variation of the Pirate's Game is the shift that is created in the ranking positions by which pirate gets voted off the ship. The goal for the Captain is to try to utilize this to his advantage to minimize the amount of bribes that go out.

Okay, I think I see what is confusing you...the phrase: the Captain can influence his crewmen's votes by bribing any pirate(s) with an counting number of gold coins during any and every round. was meant to mean that the bribes can only be offered once per round, but can be offered to any number of pirates any round. Sorry, I should have made that more clear in the OP. Does that solve the discrepancy for you? Edit: I apologize for not reading your answer closely enough the first time and not seeing what the misunderstanding of the terms of the OP was. I'm just used to you asking questions about things that aren't totally clear. My bad .

Okay, the statement of the problem does need work, and I should link to the original Pirate's Game. However, the first mate always voting against the captain was established by the original Pirate's Game, and is due to the fact that he values becoming Captain/Pirate King beyond any amount of gold. If you have an argument against this, please direct it to the original Pirate's Game. This spin uses the original Pirates Game but puts a shift on the positions, which is what makes it different and (I think) interesting. The spin does not change the first mate's preference, that was established by the original. Now instead of arguing here, I believe finding the solution would be much more productive. And, as for your test...

The first mate may be dumb, but that's just the way his priorities are set. He wants to be Captain/Pirate King more than he wants to have money (must be all those endorsement deals ;P). And the pirates don't "collectively" do anything...there are no coalitions formed, they don't make a pact to refuse the offer unless it is above some set amount, they just look out for themselves. I understand that you're thinking that in a multi-round game coalitions usually form in social experiments, but as I said before, I admit this is a very theoretical problem, but that's the way the problem is. You should know that I respect your abilities in math and logical reasoning, and I do think your solution works well for the way you interpreted the problem. However, that is not what the OP was intended to be. The fact that I based the characters on cartoon characters hopefully suggests that this is not a real-life situation, but a theoretical one ;P. I made this puzzle to show a very interesting phenomenon, the shifting pirates game, so please respect the way I intended this puzzle to be. Thank you.

The man dividing up the gold was the Captain...and the Captain is a voter...?

No, if there are two men besides the Captain, the Pirate in first mate position will never vote yes b/c his #1 priority is to become Pirate King, no matter how much gold he is offered, like in the original Pirates Game, where the #1 preference was to be Captain. So the Captain will offer the last positioned pirate a bribe in the second to last round.

Looking at my solution again, I realized Prime was correct about the "benevolence" thing not having a place...I realized I can do it with no benevolence/malevolence specification, as long as I choose the correct pirate to vote off. And the solution actually works better without that uncertainty. I still get the same minimum bribe number . I apologize for all the confusion, forget about that part. Just go with the OP and the clarifications that were asked for if you need them .

No, the point is that the Captain doesn't flip a coin, he chooses wisely which ones to vote off. The pirate in the last position knows he will get a bribe in the second to last round as long as he stays in the last position. "Benevolence" means that he would rather vote with the Captain to remove a player from the ship than to plank the Captain each round. And the Captain knows that he doesn't have to bribe the last position pirate as long as he keeps voting off pirates in front of him, until the second to last round. And in my last post, I answered your question...there is no double-crossing as they must play by the rules in the Game.

Okay, here are the profiles I have so far. I'm going to give until around afternoon Monday for other people to PM me their character profiles. Then the choosing period will begin. Discussion (aka psychology) is always welcome ;P Jessica Lisa Holt 1) Name, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Occupation, Religion, Location. Jessica Lisa Holt, 32, Female, Hienz 57 but mostly german and native american osage tribe, Storyboard Artist, Spiritual not religious agnostic, Santa Monica, CA 2) Description of physical appearance. Med long brown wavy hair, tomboyish, curvy 38-24-36, glasses, 5'2" 3) Interests/hobbies/activities. Cooking, museums, reading, painting, exploring, surfing, learning, protesting, social activist, green eco type activities 4) Goals/dreams/ambitions. To live a happy fulfilled life 5) What you're looking for in a partner. Honesty, a job, optomistic, outgoing 6) Anything else you'd like to add. Not a veggie nor vegan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nick 1) Name, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Occupation, Religion, Location. Nick, 22, Male, White, Graphic Designer/Psychologist, Agnostic, So Cali. 2) Description of physical appearance. 6'0'', athletic build, short brown hair, blue eyes 3) Interests/hobbies/activities. Interests: Art, Music, Brain Den, Psychology, movies, laughing Hobbies.Activities: Billiards, Going to movies, going to amusement parks, making people laugh, helping others sort out their problems, trying new things, driving. 4) Goals/dreams/ambitions. To be successful as both a designer and a psychologist and to have my own practice which will eventually branch off into two separate offices, one of which will focus on art therapy for children and autistics. 5) What you're looking for in a partner. Sweet, Down to earth, low-maintainance, cute, respects herself, adventurous, likes sushi, intelligent, witty, funny. 6) Anything else you'd like to add. I'm sweet and cuddly, and on the flip side, I'm loyal and protective. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ Caroline Name-Caroline Age-24 Gender-female Ethnicity-Brazilian. i do speak English, but have an irresistible Occupation-I'm currently studying to be a nurse Religion-i'm still searching and trying to decide what i believe Location-i am currently staying a beautiful beach front property in Brazil. 2. i have straight shoulder length dark brown hair. I'm am about 5 ft, 8 inches and i have dark blue eyes. 3. in my spare time most of all i in joy going to the beach and surfing. 4.My life long dream has always been to travel and see the world and to help save people's lives through the medical field. Ialso want to have 3 kids. 5.i'm looking for a life long marriage to someone who is good looking funny and who will be a good role model for the kids. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Alexis Alexis, 23, F, Caucasian, Grad Student – achieving Masters in Marriage & Family Therapy, non-religious, Austin, Texas near the UT Austin campus. 5’4” (1.62 meters), average build, Medium-length Red hair, fair skin with freckles, green eyes Golf, watersports, ultimate frisbee, film festivals, traveling the world, and just hanging out with friends I hope to complete my masters degree and become a licensed Therapist. I enjoy helping people and look forward to joining a thriving practice where I can make a difference in the lives of others. I love children and hope to one day settle down and start a family. I would love to have stepped foot on every continent by the time I reach 40; I am looking for a companion who also loves travel and adventure. My ideal mate would have a great sense of humor and a nice smile. They would have a good relationship with their mother, enjoy children, respect authority, but are not afraid to stand up for themselves. I am looking for a partner who is educated and professional, with a wide range of interests and an innate compassion for humankind. Please, no smokers and no divorced-singles.

No, don't rip the argument to shreds...I can use it to back up so many other claims...such as how I'm actually an uber-powerful Magical Knight who pilots a giant rune-god robot and fights alien invaders...but then I have my Cleaners go back and erase any trace of the events from history and memories...it's better for humans not to know about the dire battle for the future of humanity that's going on...it would cause chaos...so you'll just have to have faith in your MK Protecters ;P

Umm...good thinking, and yes, the Pirates are bound to follow the rules of the Game (they are on National Television, after all ;P), but I guess I took it for granted that everyone attempting this problem would be familiar w/ the Pirates Game, and so I neglected to mention that all pirates are basically game theory experts, and I apologize for that. For example, in the original Pirates Game, the solution is found by working backwards, i.e. in the last round, where there are two pirates remaining and the last ranked pirate knows there is nothing he can do to get any of his preferences, so the round beforehand he will vote yes if he gets a bribe and no if he doesn't. Now he knows he will get a bribe in the second to last round as long as he is in that position in that round, so the rest of the decisions will depend on how he can remain in a position to receive the bribe. I know the original Pirate's Game has been posted here, I believe if you do a search for "pirates" and "gold" you will find it. The benevolence/malevolence is to clarify cases where there is ambiguity. For example, say Pirate A is currently in position 4, and he knows that if he is in position 3 next round he will get a bribe. However, he will be in position 3 regardless of whether he votes off the first mate or he votes to have the Captain planked, so there is ambiguity. The benevolence/malevolence clears this up: if he is benevolent, he will vote off the first mate, if he is malevolent, he will vote to have the Captain planked (unless there is another bribe). I hope that helps. I admit this is a very theoretical Game Theory problem, but I think it is an interesting one.

No, just the ones still in the Game (like a reality show ;P) Yes, the current captain is the one who makes the proposal and gives the bribes.

Working off the theory that everyone wants to be desired by many but want to have the one they desire to themselves, here is a simple social game to bide the time. Anyone who wants to play can PM me a profile of a character they create, following guidelines that I will list below. I will post these profiles and then every player must PM me the name of the one they desire (gender/sexual orientation not limited ). For every player, each person who desires their character will earn them (+1) points. Each person who desires the same person they do deducts (-1) points. The player with the highest score wins the game. Simple. That said, here are the guidelines for the profile: 1) Name, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Occupation, Religion, Location. 2) Description of physical appearance. 3) Interests/hobbies/activities. 4) Goals/dreams/ambitions. 5) What you're looking for in a partner. 6) Anything else you'd like to add. Have as much fun as you want creating the characters. This is a social game, so feel free to comment in the thread and discuss as much or as little as you want .

Yes, the pirates have a ranking from the beginning and it is known. Actually the Captain is lucky b/c he is in the best position to become the Pirate King, which is the #1 priority.