Wikipedia defines utility as:
“utility is a measure of satisfaction, referring to the total satisfaction received by a consumer from consuming a good or service” (REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility)
(Kuhn 1953) further explains that for each player, there is a linear utility function over all the possible outcomes of a given game. So if a game is depicted using a tree, and the end leaf node is one of the possible outcomes of that game, there exists a utility function that defines these outcomes. It is important to metion here that the utility function defines and explains all the possible outcomes not just one.
This will be very useful to our research as we aim to maximize a utility function – which itself is a function of currnet state of the system (functional analysis).