GB2444767A - Internet trivia quiz game including virtual players - Google Patents

Abstract

An on line, multiplayer gaming system comprises a game server and player client stations, and the system provides virtual or 'ghost' players when additional players are required. The ghost players may be provided within the server, and each ghost player may have an artificial intelligence or AI device. The ghost players may each have characteristics including (i) an intelligence factor, (ii) a question pass factor, (iii) a question risk factor, (iv) a question speed factor, and/or (v) a question favourite. The game may comprise multiple choice questions, and the ghost player may be activated by the first player entering the gaming system. The gaming system may include a staking system for allowing ghost players to place wagers or bets, and the staking system may provide separate ghost balances for separate categories and subjects of question. Winnings made by ghost players may be paid into the ghost balance to fund further wagering, and the ghost behaviour may maintain a financially neutral performance.

Description

METHOD FOR ENABLING INTERACTIVE ON LINE GAME PLAYING THROUGH USE

OF VIRTUAL PLAYER GENERATION

The present invention relates to interactive entertainment systems that allow players to compete with each other on line through game servers and client stations often via the internet. In particular the invention relates to entertainment systems which allow the players to select questions for testing knowledge and ensures that individuals can test their knowledge in competition with others (known as tournaments) whenever they wish to do so. The system can also allow participants to stake money on the correctness of their answer to a question and also to employ a variety of methods of staking. In addition the invention relates to systems which ensure that multiple users located anywhere in the world can simultaneously test their knowledge against the same question or series of questions whenever they wish to do so.

One difficulty with previous on line entertainment systems is that it is necessary to have a sufficient number of participants on line at the same time in order for a game to proceed. Accordingly a new participant will often be told when logging on to play the game that there are insufficient participants for the game to proceed and the game is defaulted. According to the present invention phantom participants known as ghosts are provided whereby, there can be sufficient participants to enable a game to proceed.

Where the system is used for staking upon the answers to questions the system further provides as a component of the financial system a separate staking system for the phantom players whereby phantom players can place selected stakes and will lose whatever is staked if they are incorrect and any winnings they may make are recycled to the phantom financial pot to enable further phantom staking. In this way the phantom activity can be designed to be financially neutral.

Mechanisms for providing automated players for online entertainment systems are known in the form of Robotic Players' or Bots'. However, these are implemented as external processes which interact with the game server in exactly the same way that a human player' would interact, typically on an external client machine. Whilst this simplifies game server design, it also has the impact of introducing an amount of processing overhead which at least equals and probably exceeds the processing overhead that would be incurred by an equal number of human players.

The present invention overcomes that problem by the provision of a virtual robotic player which is inherently part of the game server and operates within the game logic itself.

These automated players operate as ghosts in the machine' or just ghosts' as they do not physically exist as an entity within the game itself at all, but are merely part of the game logic. This has the following advantages; I. Server architecture is scaleable using ghosts to well beyond the normal game server capabilities were it playing with a combination of real players and external bots.

2. There is minimal/negligible processing overhead for the operation of automated players.

The ghost behaviour is further enhanced by echoing the real behaviour of human I S players of the game by basing ghost behaviour on parameters and statistics collected from tracing real anonymized human player performance. Thus when answering a question which human players have found particularly difficult or easy, a ghost would find it correspondingly difficult or easy to reflect or echo a possible real life response.

The present invention therefore provides a system for interactive on line game playing by a plurality of players comprising a game server system and player client stations wherein the system provides phantom players (known as ghosts) under the circumstances where additional players are required.

This enables ghost participants to be provided within the game server, if a game is due to start and there are insufficient participants registered on line to enable the game to commence. Alternatively, ghosts may be provided if it is desirable to increase the number of players.

A preferred embodiment in which the present invention is involved comprises a game which is a multiple choice question in which the players, including the ghosts, will be provided with several, usually four, possible answers to a question and are provided with the opportunity to attempt to select the correct answers. The players will have the opportunity to select the category of question and the nature of the game. For example he or she may choose to play a tournament or an individual game, the player may also have the opportunity to select the nature of the question from a series of categories and subjects within categories which are provided on line to the player. Examples of such categories can include sport, movies, television, etc, examples of subjects can included tennis, baseball etc. Having selected a category of question the question will then be provided on the screen. The player will then have a certain time in which to decide if he or she wished to play the question.

If the player decides to play and select an answer to the questions the player will then have a certain time in which to indicate what he or she considers to be the correct answer. As previously described in the preferred system of the present invention the question provision/game play system previously described is combined with a financial system for participants, including ghosts, staking.

The ghosts of the present invention can be created to ensure that each game or tournament not only has a sufficient number of "players" but also involves "real player experience" irrespective of whether a player is real or a ghost. Ghosts will be activated to play against real players and each ghost will be provided with an Al (Artificial Intelligence) device. Any number of ghosts may be provided and unique parameters which influence the way in which ghost players are developed so that each ghost has its own playing characteristics. The ghosts may be given gender, screen names, nationality, age and taglines in order to make them "real" players for the purpose of interacting with other players to whom the ghosts are real people.

For example the following characteristics can be provided to and varied within each of the ghosts: (i) intelligence factor -which can be randomly attributed to each ghost on a scale (ii) pass factor -which determines the likelihood of the ghost to pass a question (iii) risk factor -which determines the propensity of the ghost to gravitate towards high stakes (iv) speed factor -which determines the speed at which the ghost will respond (which can have significance in turbo games) (v) favourite category -each ghost can be provided with a favourite category or subject so that they are likely to participate in that category but not definitively on every occasion they play These unique parameters will determine whether the ghost plays or passes a question, whether the ghost gets the question right or wrong, and the speed at which the ghost answers the particular question.

The system is such that all elements of "ghost play" are random apart from the selection process at the outset of the game and tournament. If the "ghost balance" for the subject/category is low then intelligent ghosts are selected who are more likely to win, if the ghost balance for the subject/category is high, then ghosts may be selected from lower down the scale of intelligence.

In a further embodiment the entertainment system of the present invention is linked to a financial system which enables the participant to place a stake on the correctness of their answers to the questions. In a preferred embodiment the financial system provides an additional degree of flexibility for the participant in that it can be integrated with the entertainment system of the present invention to enable the participant to select a particular size and type of stake according to the game format selected and I or the question that is selected.

In the preferred game play system with staking such as that described in our co-filed application reference PACLBA528, ghosts are non-profit making and are funded from allocated "ghost balances". The ghosts may be integrated with the financial system to provide separate ghost balances for each category and subject. Ghost balances usually contain real money that has been allocated to them and when the ghost loses the ghost stake is contributed to the pot for the winner and any ghost winnings are paid into the ghost balance.

Another novel and important feature of the present invention is that the entertainment can operate in different formats simultaneously and furthermore the various formats can be available to participants around the world simultaneously. By entertainment format we mean that the game can be played by an individual testing his or her own knowledge.

Alternatively the game can be played in competition with others as a tournament. Whilst there are many examples of four preferred entertainment formats and how they may be played are as follows:-.

(i)TOURNAMENTS A tournament is a multiplayer game where each player starts by making a specific fixed commitment to join' the game this may be an initial financial outlay. Game play may vary by parameters such as whether players are allowed to pass on a question or is obliged to play and so on, but all players will start with the same fixed commitment which can conveniently be provided under the financial system by tokens provided against monies taken from the participants account during the tournament. Winners are identified according to player performance throughout the tournament and prizes/winnings are distributed at the end of the tournament.

Tournaments may operate either at specific times in the calendar as indicated to a potential participant by the calendar system or they may be spawned at regular intervals according to demand. If a tournament is only running at a specific time, as is indicated by the calendaring system it will require preregistration by the participant before the tournament commences.

(ii) PYRAMIDS A pyramid is like a tournament a multiplayer game. In a pyramid game each player starts by making a specific fixed commitment to join' the game this may be an initial financial outlay or earns a free pass' from one or more lower level games in the pyramid.

Game play may vary by parameters such as whether players are allowed to pass when asked to answer questions and so on, but all players will start with the same fixed amount of tokens and will stake within the same boundary variables. Winners are identified according to player performance throughout the tournament. Lower level pyramid games can distribute as prizes a token to play the next level' of the pyramid, so allowing players to accumulate and climb the pyramid. The final highest level of the pyramid will distribute prizes/winnings in a manner similar to standard tournaments.

Pyramids may operate either at specific times in the calendar as indicated to potential participants by the calendar system or they may be spawned at regular intervals according to demand. If a pyramid is only running at a specific time, as indicated by the calendanng system, it will require preregistration by the participant before the game commences.

(iii) OPEN GAMES An open game is another multiplayer game where each player buys' a certain number of tokens to play for as long as they like or until the players tokens are spent. Each question is run individually and players can decide whether to place stakes to play the question or to pass. Players who guess the correct answer to the question receive an equal share of tokens which are added to their own game token balance.

Players may join an open game after it has commenced and may leave at any time before the game has finished. When a player leaves an open game their token balance within the game is converted back into cash' which is credited to their wallet via the financial system.

Open games operate at specific times in the calendar as indicated to the potential participant by the calendar system. An open game may not require preregistration before the game commences as players may come and go as they please.

The present invention can be used to provide ghost players to any of these game formats.

In the accompanying drawings: -Figure 1 shows a network system useful for operation of the present invention to enable the provision of multi-faceted entertainment. Figure 1 shows how a centralised system containing the game logic is linked to game servers which are then linked through the interface to individual client stations for user/players. Also included is the financial system showing its interface with the central game logic and database system; Figure 1 also shows how ghosts from a pool of ghost players can be provided through the interface with the game logic system.

Figure 2 shows the information process flow that is required to identify if ghost participants are required and if so how many.

Figure 3 shows the information process flow that is involved in the creation of a ghost S once the need has been identified.

Figure 4 shows the information process flow to enable the ghost to be involved in the outcome of the tournament question.

Figure 5 shows the information process flow to enable the ghost to be involved in the outcome of an open question Figure 6 shows the information process flow involved in closing a ghost at the end of a tournament game.

Figure 7 shows the information process flow involved in closing a ghost at the end of an open game.

Figure 8 shows the operation of a game and the activities that may be performed by real participants (known as players) as described in our co-filed application reference PACLBA528. At certain points during player activities as depicted in Figure 8, game logic concerning ghost involvement is triggered for example as follows;

GO

Once a game is ready to commence all clients will simultaneously issue a GO request as described in our co-filed application reference PACLBA528. For each individual game, the first correctly timed GO request received by the game server will trigger the process described in Figure 2 in order to create all required ghosts for an individual game. The process described in Figure 3 are triggered multiple times within the Create Ghost' section of Figure 2 -once for each ghost being created. Thus the first player client machine to respond (usually the client with the fastest connection to the game server) will incur a small additional processing overhead to operate all ghosts leaving processing for all other players unencumbered.

ASK

Whenever the client requires a piece of a question for a game (a question fragment), this is requested within the ASK process as described in our co-filed application reference PACLBA528. For each individual question, the first correctly timed ASK request for the first fragment for each new question will trigger the process described in Figure 4 or 5 (depending on game type) in order to advance the status of all ghosts involved in that game. Thus the first player client machine to respond (usually the client with the fastest connection to the game server) will incur a small additional processing overhead to operate all ghosts leaving processing for all other players unencumbered.

CLOSE

Whenever the player leaves a game or ceases their involvement in a game, the client issues a CLOSE request. This may occur, for instance, when the game is over or the player is eliminated. For each individual game, the final player client to issue correctly timed CLOSE request received by the game server will trigger the process described in Figure 6 or 7 (depending on game type) in order to close all ghosts involved in an individual game. Thus the last player client machine to leave the game (usually the best performing player) will incur a small additional processing overhead to operate all ghosts leaving processing for all other players unencumbered.

The following symbols are used in the boxes in Figure 8 to depict certain activities:-Is an interaction with the financial system Is an activity which can affect the number of tokens in the participants wallet.

Indicates a period of time required to synchronize the delivery of a question to different game formats Figure 9 shows the sequence of activities that are performed in the hatched area shown in Figure 8.

Claims (11)

1. A system for interactive on line game playing by a plurality of players comprising a game server system and player client stations wherein the system provides phantom players (known as ghosts) when additional players are required.

2. A system according to claim 1 in which the ghosts are provided within the game server.

3. A system according to claim I or claim 2 in which the game comprises one or more multiple choice questions.

4. A system according to claim 3 in which the question selection is divided into fragments and the question selection evolves through a sequence of requests by the players for each fragment and each request may advance the status of the ghosts in relation to their involvement in the outcome of the question.

5. A system according to claim 3 or claim 4 in which ghosts are activated by the first player entering the system.

6. A system according to any of the preceding claims in which each ghost is provided with an Al (Artificial Intelligence) device.

7. A system according to claim 6 in which each ghost is provided with one or more of the following characteristics a. intelligence factor b. question pass factor c. question risk factor d. question speed factor e. question favourite

8. A system according to any of the preceding claims further provided with a financial system for ghost staking.

9. A system according to claim 8 in which the financial system provides separate ghost balances for each category and subject of the question.

10. A system according to claim 8 or claim 9 in which any ghost winnings are paid into the ghost balance for further staking.

11. A system according to any of claims 8 to 10 in which the ghost behaviour maintains a financially neutral performance. l0