JP2002066141A - Game method and system device using e-mail - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a game method and a system device using e-mail to enable a player to play a game using contents of e-mail. SOLUTION: These game method and system device are equipped with a mail document analyzing part 22 to analyze document contents of e-mail, a data production instructing part 23 to execute a prescribed process on results of analysis by the mail document analyzing part 22 to convert the results into game data, an information comparing part 24 to compare game data processed by the data production instructing part 23 to other game data to compete each other, and an information updating part 25 to be reared by changing any of contents in both game data which were objects of the comparison.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention makes it possible to easily play a variety of games using e-mails, and to develop matches or breed characters using the contents of e-mails. The present invention relates to a game method and a system device using an e-mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a method of playing a game with a remote opponent using a personal computer or a mobile phone having a communication function has been devised. There is also a method of advancing a game while communicating between a host computer and a terminal device via a communication line.

[0003] A breeding game in which a character, which is a virtual creature composed of a predetermined animal or an imaginary animal, grows or evolves in response to a predetermined operation has also been devised.

[0004]

However, in the conventional game method using a communication line, the content (text) of an e-mail, which has been increasingly used in recent years, is used.
A game for growing a predetermined character has not been conceived.

Therefore, in the conventional game method using a communication line, the effective use of an e-mail and an apparatus having an e-mail transmission / reception function that is used by a large number of people on a daily basis is insufficient. There is a problem that recreational and effective use of a personal computer or a mobile phone having a mail transmission / reception function is insufficient.

Here, the main objects to be solved by the present invention are as follows. That is, a first object of the present invention is to provide a game method and a system device using an e-mail, which enable a game to be made using the contents of the e-mail.

A second object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail-based game method and a system device which can be converted into a game using an apparatus having the contents of electronic mail and an electronic mail transmitting / receiving function. It is assumed that.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a game method and a system using an e-mail, which enable a character, which is a virtual creature, formed on the apparatus to be cultivated based on the contents of the e-mail. No device is provided.

A fourth object of the present invention is to cultivate a character, which is a virtual creature, formed on a device based on the contents of an e-mail and to play against another character via a communication line. It is an object of the present invention to provide a game method and a system device using an electronic mail that can be used.

[0010] Other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the description of the specification, the drawings, and particularly the description of each claim in the claims.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the method of the present invention has a feature of adopting a construction technique for breeding game characters in accordance with the contents of the text of an electronic mail.

The device of the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems.
A mail document analysis unit for analyzing the text content of the email,
And a game data conversion instruction unit for converting the analysis result of the mail document analysis unit into game data.

More specifically, to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention achieves the above object by adopting a novel characteristic configuration method or means ranging from the upper concept to the lower concept as listed below. It is done as follows.

That is, a first feature of the method of the present invention resides in the adoption of a configuration of a game method using an electronic mail in which the contents of the text of an electronic mail are analyzed and the characters of the game are cultivated according to the analysis result. .

According to a second feature of the method of the present invention, the character in the first feature of the method of the present invention is a virtual creature formed on a device, and Depending on the result of comparing the text content with the text content of other e-mails that are opponents,
The present invention resides in adopting a configuration of a game method using an e-mail which is one of evolution, change, and increase of belongings.

A third feature of the method of the present invention is that a receiving process for receiving an electronic mail, a mail document analyzing process for analyzing the text content of the electronic mail received in the receiving process, and an analysis of the mail document analyzing process. A game data conversion instruction process for performing a predetermined process on the result to convert the result into predetermined game data, the game data converted in the game data conversion instruction process, and an e-mail received in the reception process. An information comparison process in which the game is compared with another game data that has been compared, and the character is changed by changing the content of the other game data included in the e-mail based on the comparison result of the information comparison process. And an information updating process for fostering the game, and a configuration of a game method using an e-mail which is executed in a series by sequentially performing the steps.

According to a fourth aspect of the method of the present invention, in the third aspect of the method of the present invention, the information updating process generates data including image data corresponding to the changed game data. A result information editing process of converting data including image data and a comparison result of the information comparison process into data that can be transmitted and received as an e-mail, and a transmission process of transmitting the data converted by the result information editing process as an e-mail; , And the configuration of a game method using an e-mail which is continuously executed.

According to a fifth feature of the method of the present invention, the analysis of the text content of the electronic mail in the first, second, third or fourth feature of the method of the present invention includes the step of:
Kind of emotions and sorrows, type and number of kanji used, number of consecutive kanji, length of sentences, unread mail, hiragana / katanaka /
Usage ratio of kanji and alphanumeric characters, number of specific sentence patterns,
An object of the present invention is to adopt a configuration of a game method using an e-mail, which is quantified based on either the number of specific character patterns or the number of specific words.

A first feature of the system apparatus of the present invention is that in a game server for playing / raising characters based on the analysis result of the text content of the electronic mail, a mail document analyzing unit for analyzing the text content of the electronic mail, A game system using an electronic mail, comprising: a game data conversion instruction unit that performs predetermined processing on an analysis result of the mail document analysis unit and converts the analysis result into game data that defines information defining a game character. The configuration of the device is adopted.

A second feature of the apparatus of the present invention is that the mail document analyzing section in the first feature of the above-mentioned system of the present invention comprises:
The sentence of the e-mail, the type of emotion, the type and number of kanji used, the number of consecutive kanji, the length of the sentence, unread mail,
Analysis of the sentence content by digitizing based on any of the hiragana, katakana, kanji, and alphanumeric usage ratios, the number of specific sentence patterns, the number of specific character patterns, and the number of specific words The present invention is to adopt a configuration of a game system device using an electronic mail having a battle mail text analysis function.

A third feature of the apparatus of the present invention resides in that, in the first or second feature of the apparatus of the present invention, the game data conversion instruction unit uses a random number for the analysis result of the mail document analysis unit. To select one character from a plurality of types of characters or select one item from a plurality of types of items based on the processing result. The present invention resides in the configuration adoption of a game system device using electronic mail.

A fourth feature of the device of the present invention is the game device according to the first, second or third feature of the device of the present invention, wherein the game server transmits the game data and an electronic mail based on the game data. Are compared by the mail document analysis unit with respect to different emails and the game data converted by the game data conversion instruction unit, and are compared with each other based on the comparison result of the information comparison unit. And an information updating unit that changes the contents of any of the two game data.

A fifth feature of the present invention device is the game device according to the fourth feature of the present invention device, wherein the game server generates data including image data corresponding to the game data changed by the information updating unit. A result information editing unit that converts the data including the image data and the comparison result of the information comparison unit into data that can be transmitted and received as an e-mail; and transmits the data converted by the result information editing unit as an e-mail. And a receiving unit that receives the e-mail.

[0024]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to an example of a system device and an example of a method.

The present invention analyzes the text contents of an e-mail generally used as a substitute for a letter, telephone or facsimile, and plays or nurtures game characters according to the analysis result. In the present embodiment, the Internet is mainly described as a representative example as a communication network used for transmitting and receiving an electronic mail, but the communication network is not limited thereto.

(Example of System Apparatus) FIG. 1 is a conceptual schematic diagram of a game system apparatus using electronic mail, showing an outline of an example of the system apparatus of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a mobile phone,
2 is a personal computer terminal, 3 is an information processing terminal such as a personal word processor or an electronic organizer, 5
Is an Internet, and 10 is a game server which is a main part of the present system apparatus example.

The mobile phone 1, the personal computer terminal 2, and the information processing terminal 3 are general devices owned by the user of the present system device. Mobile phone 1,
The personal computer terminal 2 and the information processing terminal 3
It is only necessary to have a function of transmitting and receiving e-mail, and other types of devices may be used.

The game server 10 has a function of transmitting / receiving electronic mail to / from the mobile phone 1, the personal computer terminal 2, and the information processing terminal 3 via the Internet 5. Also, the game server 10 analyzes the text content of the received e-mail, and in accordance with the analysis result, a function of growing, evolving, changing, increasing possession, etc. of a character that is a virtual creature in the game, and It has the function of causing characters to fight each other.

Further, the game server 10 considers the analysis result of the text of the e-mail by adding a random number element to make it difficult for a third party (user) to predict the analysis result, thereby making the game server unusable. Increases regularity and diversity.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the game server in the present system apparatus example. The configuration of the game server 10 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The game server 10 includes a mail transmitting / receiving unit 11 for transmitting / receiving an electronic mail, a mail document various information storing unit 12 for temporarily storing the electronic mail received by the mail transmitting / receiving unit 11 or the transmitted electronic mail, and the like. A process activation unit 13 for analyzing the text content of the email and executing various processes on the game based on the analysis result;
It is organically composed of various database information units 14 which store image data of various characters and data on items belonging to each character in a database.

The processing starting unit 13 includes a mail separating unit 21,
Email document analysis unit 22 and game data conversion instruction unit 23
, An information comparing unit 24, an information updating unit 25, and a result information editing unit 26.

[0033] The mail separating unit 21 includes the mail transmitting / receiving unit 11.
Is separated from sentence information to be analyzed by the mail document analysis unit 22 and character information to be raised or played in the game. That is,
It is assumed that the e-mail received by the game server 10 includes general text information and character information to be raised or played in the game. The e-mail received by the game server 10 may include only general text information and no character information.

Here, the character information is obtained by converting text information of an e-mail into game data by a mail document analysis unit 22 and a game data conversion instruction unit 23 described below. 11 and the user's mobile phone 1 via the Internet 5
And transmitted to the mobile phone 1 or the like.

The mail document analysis unit 22 is a mail separation unit 2
In step 1, the sentence information separated from the e-mail is analyzed and digitized. Then, the mail document analysis unit 22
The sentence information of the received e-mail is divided into the type of emotion, the type and number of kanji used, the number of consecutive kanji, the length of the sentence, the unread mail, the usage ratio of hiragana, katakana, kanji and alphanumeric characters, It has a battle mail text analysis function of analyzing text information by digitizing any one of the number of specific text patterns, the number of specific character patterns, and the number of specific words.

The game data conversion instruction unit 23 performs a predetermined process on the analysis result of the mail document analysis unit 22 and converts the result into game data. Then, the game data conversion instruction unit 23 performs a process using a random number on the numerical value that is the analysis result of the mail document analysis unit 22 and, based on the process result, identifies one character from a plurality of types of characters. It has a game data conversion instruction function for selecting, selecting one item from a plurality of types of items, and the like.

As a plurality of types of characters, for example,
"Dragon" as a fantasy style, "Tank" as a mechanical style, "battle robot" as a SF mechanical style, "Lion" as a real animal style, "Yoshiokun" as a human style, etc. Is raised.

The information comparison unit 24 compares the game data converted by the game data conversion instruction unit 23 with the game data included in the character information separated from the electronic mail by the mail separation unit 21. As a result, the information comparison unit 24 causes the text content of the e-mail to compete with the characters included in the e-mail.

The information updating unit 25 changes the content of the game data of the character to be compared based on the comparison result of the information comparing unit 24. As a result, the character grows, evolves, changes, and has more belongings.

The result information editing unit 26 generates data including image data corresponding to the game data changed by the information updating unit 25 (data indicating the growth of the character, etc.). Then, the data indicating the growth of the character and the comparison result of the information comparing unit 25 are converted into data that can be transmitted and received as an electronic mail. The converted data is transmitted as an e-mail to the mobile phone 1 or the like, which is the transmission source of the e-mail targeted for the game, via the mail transmission / reception unit 11 and the Internet 5.

(Example of Method) An example of the method of the present embodiment applied to the example of the system apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an execution procedure of the example method.

First, the user of the present method sends an e-mail to the game server 10 via the Internet 5 using the mobile phone 1 or the like. The game server 10 receives the electronic mail by the mail transmitting / receiving unit 11 and determines whether or not a character (own character) of the sender (user) of the electronic mail has already been set.

When the own character is not set,
The game server 10 performs a self-character setting process of setting a character of a type corresponding to the text content of the e-mail as a self-character (ST1).

For setting of the own character, the mail document analysis unit 22 analyzes the text information of the e-mail and converts it into a numerical value, and the game data conversion instruction unit 23 performs a predetermined process on the numerical value and converts the numerical value into game data. Set based on the game data.

More specifically, the personality of the character (e.g., cheerful, short-tempered, leisurely, etc.) is set based on the number of characters indicating the emotions and emotions in the text information and the ratio of the characters indicating the emotions and emotions. .

If the usage ratio of kanji is high in the sentence information, it is determined that the sentence is a hard sentence and a "serious" character is set. If the use ratio of alphanumeric characters is high, it is determined that the sentence is an academic sentence, and a character with "high intelligence" is set. If the usage ratio of Hiragana is high, it is determined that the sentence is a casual sentence, and a “cheerful” character is set.

The game server 10 converts the set own character into image information, and sends the e-mail to the sender (user) of the e-mail via which the e-mail is transmitted and received via the e-mail 11 and the Internet 5. Send as

The user receives the electronic mail including the information of the own character on the mobile phone 1 or the like, thereby recognizing the own character as image information.

Thereafter, the game server 1 transmits an e-mail (competition mail) to which the user is an opponent and an e-mail including own character information (own character mail) to the game server 10 so that the game server 1 can play the match. A mail transmission / reception process is performed (ST2).

The battle mail may be an e-mail sent from any other party or an e-mail created by oneself.
Further, the battle mail and the character's own mail may be transmitted together as one e-mail, or may be transmitted as two e-mails without being collected.

The game server 10 executes the battle process when the mail transmission / reception section 11 receives the battle mail and the own character mail at the mail transmission / reception section 11 (ST3).

As for the content of the battle process, first, the mail separation unit 21 of the game server 10 separates the mail received by the mail transmission / reception unit 11 into the battle mail and the own character mail.

The sentence information of the separated battle mail is analyzed and digitized by the mail document analysis unit 22 (mail document analysis process). The game data conversion instruction unit 23 performs a predetermined process on the analysis result of the mail document analysis unit 22 and converts the result into game data [game data conversion instruction process].
In this predetermined process, various database information units 1
Various data of various characters stored in the database in step 4 are used.

As a specific example of the conversion, the “attack power” of the competition mail is increased in proportion to the number of characters of “attack” in the competition mail. Further, the "defense" of the battle e-mail is increased in proportion to the number of characters of "defense" in the battle e-mail. In addition, the “good luck value” of the battle mail is increased based on the random number table. In addition, the battle mail is classified into the types of emotions, and the “speed” of the battle mail is set according to the type.

After that, the information comparing section 24 compares the game data converted by the game data conversion instructing section 23 with the game data of the own character mail separated by the mail separating section 21, and the competitive mail is compared. And its own character mail are played [information comparison processing].

For example, based on the comparison result of the “quickness” of each game data, it is determined which one takes the lead.
The power of the attack is determined based on the “attack power” of each game data. Attack patterns are determined based on the type of emotions, emotions and emotions. The magnitude of the damage is determined based on the "defense" of each game data.

When the battle process is completed, the information updating unit 25 performs an update process of growing or evolving the own character by changing the content of the game data of the own character / mail based on the result of the battle process. (ST4)
[Information update processing].

For example, if the own character mail wins, the “attack power”, “defense power”, and “experience value” of the own character mail are increased to increase the physique. Moreover, you may evolve. When the own character mail is lost, the "attack power" and "defense power" of the own character mail are reduced to a certain limit.

Thereafter, the result of the battle process in ST3 and ST
The result information editing unit 26 edits the result of the update processing of No. 4 as image information [result information editing processing], and performs transmission / reception processing of the battle result transmitted to the user's mobile phone 1 or the like as an e-mail (ST5). [Sending process].

The user sees the contents of the e-mail sent from the game server 10 to check the battle situation, the battle result, the growth of the player character, and the like.

Thus, according to the present system apparatus example and this example method, it is possible to make the contents of the e-mail match each other, and to cultivate a game character according to the result of the match. It can be used to relax and relieve stress.

Although the typical system apparatus and method example of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-mentioned items. Modifications can be made as appropriate within the scope of achieving the object of the present invention and achieving the following effects. For example, the type of the game is not limited to the one-on-one battle game, but may be a group battle in which three or more e-mails are transmitted to the game server 10 and the respective e-mails compete against each other.

The present invention is not limited to the battle game, and the sentence contents of two electronic mails may be analyzed and the compatibility may be determined based on the analysis result.

Further, a place for displaying characters cultivated by each user may be provided on the Internet or the like.

[0065]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the contents of the text of the e-mail are analyzed, and the characters of the game are played or bred in accordance with the analysis result, it is possible to relax, relieve stress, etc. by using a short spare time.

In addition to using the electronic mail as an original letter, the electronic mail can be used as a winning or losing element or a cultivating element of the game, and it is possible to incorporate entertainment into the electronic mail. By implementing the present invention, it becomes possible for a provider) to increase the effect of attracting customers.

By subjecting the analysis result of the mail document to a process using random numbers, it is possible to virtually make it impossible to predict the outcome of the game or the result of breeding, and the variety and irregularity of the game. Can be increased.

Further, since it is possible to use an electronic mail communication device which is already generally used, it is possible to realize the electronic mail relatively inexpensively.

Since the game is executed by sending and receiving e-mails, the user and the game server execute the game in an off-line process instead of an online process in which the game server is kept connected, which increases the burden of communication charges. Can be suppressed.

Further, by processing the game collectively in the game server, it is possible to easily extend and change the game function in the game server.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual schematic diagram of an example of a system device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the game server according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an execution procedure of an example of a method applied to the above.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Cellular phone 2 ... Personal computer terminal 3 ... Information processing terminal 5 ... Internet 10 ... Game server 11 ... Mail transmission / reception part 12 ... Mail document various information storage part 13 ... Processing start part 14 ... Various database information parts 21 ... Mail separation part 22: mail document analysis unit 23: game data conversion instruction unit 24: information comparison unit 25: information updating unit 26: result information editing unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (72) Inventor Mitsuo Yae 1-9-1, Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo NTT Communicationware Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kanji Suzuki Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo No. 6-chome 1-4, Lokas Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yasuhiro Kawashima 1-4-4 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Incorporation Lokas Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masazumi Kawabe 6, Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo No. 1-4 F-term in Lokas Co., Ltd. (reference) 2C001 AA17 BA06 BA08 CB08

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A game method using electronic mail, comprising analyzing text content of an electronic mail, and cultivating game characters in accordance with the analysis result. 2. The character is a virtual creature formed on a device, and includes a text content of the e-mail serving as a base of the character and a text content of another e-mail serving as an opponent. The game method according to claim 1, wherein one of growth, evolution, change, and increase in belongings is performed according to the comparison result. 3. A receiving process for receiving an electronic mail, a mail document analyzing process for analyzing the text content of the electronic mail received in the receiving process, and a predetermined process for an analysis result of the mail document analyzing process. Game data conversion instruction processing for converting the game data into predetermined game data, and the game data converted in the game data conversion instruction processing, and other game data included in the e-mail received in the reception processing. An information comparison process of comparing and fighting, and an information updating process of raising a character by changing the content of other game data included in the email based on a comparison result of the information comparison process; A game method using e-mail, wherein the game method is executed in a series of steps. 4. The information updating process generates data including image data corresponding to the changed game data, and converts the data including the image data and a comparison result of the information comparison process into an electronic mail. The result information editing process of converting the data into data that can be transmitted and received, and the transmission process of transmitting the data converted by the result information editing process as an e-mail are performed successively. Game method using e-mail. 5. The analysis of the contents of the text of the electronic mail, the text of the electronic mail includes the type of emotion, the type and number of Chinese characters used, the number of consecutive Chinese characters, the length of the text, the unread mail, Digitizing based on the usage ratio of hiragana, katakana, kanji, and alphanumeric characters, the number of specific sentence patterns, the number of specific character patterns, and the number of specific words. A game method using electronic mail according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4. 6. A game server for playing / fostering characters based on the analysis result of the text content of an electronic mail, a mail document analyzing unit for analyzing the text content of the electronic mail, and A game data conversion instruction unit that performs predetermined processing to convert the data into game data that defines information defining a character of the game. 7. The e-mail document analysis unit, according to claim 1, outputs the type of e-mail, the type and number of kanji used, the number of consecutive kanji, the length of the sentence, the unread mail,
Analysis of the text content by digitizing based on any of the hiragana, katakana, kanji, and alphanumeric usage ratios, the number of specific sentence patterns, the number of specific character patterns, and the number of specific words The game system device using an electronic mail according to claim 6, further comprising a battle mail text analysis function. 8. The game data conversion instruction unit performs a process using a random number on an analysis result of the mail document analysis unit, and, based on the process result, determines one character from a plurality of types of characters. 8. The game system device using electronic mail according to claim 6, further comprising a game data generation instruction function of performing one of selection and selection of one item from a plurality of types of items. 9. 9. The game server, wherein the game data analysis section analyzes the game data and an electronic mail different from the electronic mail on which the game data is based, and converts the game data by the game data conversion instruction section. An information comparing unit that compares the data with the data, and an information updating unit that changes, based on the comparison result of the information comparing unit, one of the two game data items that are compared. A game system device using electronic mail according to claim 6, 7, or 8. 10. The game server generates data including image data corresponding to the game data changed by the information updating unit, and compares the data including the image data with a comparison result of the information comparing unit. A result information editing unit that converts the data into data that can be transmitted and received as an e-mail, a transmission unit that transmits the data converted by the result information editing unit as an e-mail, and a reception unit that receives the e-mail. A game system device using electronic mail according to claim 9.