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U.S. Patent No. 9,566,503 Massively single-playing online game
Issued February 14, 2017, to Nintendo Co. Ltd.


Summary:
A huge draw to online games, especially MMORPGs, is the impact one person can have on another person’s game. Games like World of Warcraft, Second Life, or Minecraft are built around the concept of people interacting in an online digital world. Minecraft allows players to interact with features built by other players. To affect the world in these multi-player games, all the players inhabit the same world. Interacting with all the players can both be a positive and a negative experience.

What if a player wants to play a single-player game but still have other people affect the game world? U.S. Patent No. 9,566,503 (the ‘503 Patent) describes a method for a massively single-player online game. According to the patent, the game will be a traditional single-player game, but every player occupies the same digital world. Players will not be able to see or interact directly with other players, but the actions of a player can affect others by changing the game world. For example, a player could build a house in this digital world. A second player would be able to see and interact with the house, but could not see or communicate with the person who built the house.

The ‘503 Patent sounds similar to the kind of multiplayer experience found in the Dark Souls games. Dark Souls is primarily a single-player game but has a few multiplayer features. Players in Dark Souls can invade another player’s game, leave “helpful” notes in the world, or summon a friend to defeat a demanding boss. Demon Souls, the predecessor to Dark Souls, would alter gameplay depending upon world and individual character tendencies. The ‘503 Patent describes a game where foreign players affect the game world more directly than what happened in Demon Souls, but also more isolated than that of Dark Souls.

Abstract:
A method and apparatus that allows a player to play a massively single-player online game without directly interacting with other players, while affecting and being affected by other players playing the online game.


Illustrative Claim:
1. A method for playing a massively multiplayer online game that provides a massively multiplayer-affected shared game experience without requiring interaction between human-controlled player characters, comprising: simulating a virtual game environment using an online server processor; establishing connections between human players and the online server processor to establish respective game sessions which include player characters that interact with the simulated virtual game environment under direct control received from said human players over said established connections; storing, with the server processor, updated parameters related to the game sessions being played by the human players, said updated parameters related to changes to the simulated virtual game environment caused by massively multiplayer-controlled player characters interacting with the simulated virtual game environment; in response to the updated parameters, using the processor to simulate changing game conditions within the simulated virtual game environment, the changing game conditions dynamically changing over time based on interactions of massively multiplayer-controlled player characters with the simulated virtual game environment to thereby reflect said massively multiplayer-controlled player character interactions with the simulated virtual game environment; establishing a connection between an additional human player and the server processor to establish a further game session which includes a further player character directly controlled by said additional human player; and using the server processor, displaying, in the further game session played by the additional human player, game images according to the simulated virtual game environment and changing game conditions simulated in accordance with the updated parameters thereby exposing the additional human player's controlled player character to the effect of changing game conditions reflecting said massively multiplayer-controlled player character interactions within the simulated virtual game environment, said additional human player's controlled player character being at the same position in the simulated virtual game environment and at the same time with the simultaneously-online human players'-controlled player characters, without allowing said additional human player's controlled player character to see or interact with the other simultaneously-online human players'-controlled player characters.




Researched By: Andrew F. Thomas
U.S. Patent No. 9,616,345: Systems and methods for crowd-sourced game strategy
Issued April 11, 2017, to Electronic Arts Inc.
Priority Date July 1, 2014

Summary:
Playing EA’s Madden can be daunting because of the number of systems and strategies concurrently happening, especially for a person who does not understand American Football. The playcall selection menu can very be confusing to a novice who may not understand the differences between a running play and a passing play. To help the player, Madden will provide suggested playcalls based on the situation, but early incarnations of the suggestion system were all based on pre-programmed suggestions. The game had no way of learning a players habits or adjusting the suggestion based on the opponent. U.S. Patent No.9,616,345 addresses this problem by creating a system and method to collect game play strategy data from online matches and use the data to adjust suggestions accordingly. Now, Madden will provide you suggestions not only based off your previous calls but also what you did in your previous matches as well as how other players handled similar situations. The game will even show you the number of times you have called a play and your success rate. The patent also suggests that this data could be used to alter AI player strategy, but the primary focus of the patent is on playcall suggestions.
Abstract:
Various embodiments provide systems and methods that collect data regarding game strategy decisions by human players during video game, and utilize the collected data to either adjust or replace behaviors of computer players and/or suggest game strategies to human players during video game sessions. The game strategy decisions may be harvested from human-vs-human and human-vs-computer video game sessions. The data may be harvested from online-connected video game sessions, which may be hosted over an online video game network. Depending on the embodiment, the harvested data can include information regarding game strategies used by players during the video game sessions, the game contexts in which the game strategies were respectively used, and the results achieved by the respective use of the game strategies. Systems and methods described herein may facilitate a computer player having behavior that is (at least partially) "crowd-sourced" based on game strategies used by online-connected video game sessions.


Illustrative Claim:
1. A method comprising: as implemented by a processor configured with computer-executable instructions, receiving first data from a first client device, the first data regarding a first game strategy used, by a first game player, in a first game context of a first video game session between the first game player and at least a second game player, the first video game session executing within a video game, the first game strategy being a playcall; updating a game strategy dataset based on the first data, the first data at least including an identity of the first game strategy and an association between the first game context and the first game strategy, the game strategy dataset including a set of one or more previous playcalls used in a set of one or more previous game contexts; receiving gameplay data from a second client device during a second gameplay session, the gameplay data identifying a second game context of the second video game session, the second video game session being between a third player and a fourth player; identifying in the game strategy dataset a set of one or more relevant game strategies based, at least in part, on the second game context during the second video game session, wherein individual game strategies are playcalls available for use within the second video game session; and transmitting to the second client device second data regarding the set of one or more relevant game strategies, the second client device being configured to use the second data to identify at least one suggested game strategy of the set of one or more relevant game strategies for use in the second game context of the second video game session, and generate instructions to output the at least one suggested game strategy within a video game user interface during the second video game session.

Researched By: Andrew F. Thomas
U.S. Patent No. 9,704,350: Musical Combat Game
Issued July 11, 2017, to Haramonix Music Systems, Inc.
Priority Date March 14, 2013

H



Summary: 
Call of Duty: Rock Band. U.S. Patent No. 9,704,350 (the ‘350 Patent) describes a technique for creating a first person shooter game but with the game mechanics of rock band. The ‘350 Patent describes a game like Halo or Call of Duty, but the player has to hit the buttons in time with the music to move around. The patent describes a concept similar to the 2D roguelike rhythm game Crypt of the Necro Dancer. In Crypt, a player moves and attacks in time with the music, but the game is a 2D sprite game reminiscent of the 16-bit era. 

Abstract:
A computerized technique for use with a game console, the technique including providing, using the game console, a combat video game that includes a weapon, providing, using the game console, and an audiovisual system, music as a player plays the video game, analyzing, using the game console, at least one of i) the music, and ii) metadata relating to the music, to determine a property, and controlling the operation of weapon, using the game console, as a function of the property.
Illustrative Claim:
1. A non-transitory computer readable medium including computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: provide a shooter combat video game having an on-screen character with a weapon situated in a virtual world, in which a player controls when the on-screen character triggers the weapon; provide music as the player plays the video game; analyze at least one of i) the music, and ii) metadata relating to the music, to determine a timing parameter related to the music; and cause the on-screen character to fire projectiles from the weapon, wherein firing the projectiles comprises varying a parameter of the projectiles fired from the weapon as a function of the timing parameter.


Researched By: Andrew F. Thomas

U.S. Patent No. 9,707,476: Method for creating a mini-game
Issued July 18, 2017, to Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
Priority Date September 28, 2012






Summary:

Classic console games are known for being challenging and lengthy. Developers designed the games for children who could only buy a limited number of games but had all summer to play. Playing a classic game as an adult can be challenging due to time limitations. U.S. Patent No. 9,707,476 (the ‘476 Patent) answers this problem by transforming the classic game into a mini-game that can cover all the classic moments from a game. First, the ‘476 Patent will choose a starting location from the classic or legacy game for which a snapshot is generated. Then an event from the legacy game is chosen and tied to a trigger. Finally, a mini-game script is generated based on the snapshot and chosen event which is sent to the emulator, ready to be played. The patent describes a method for multiple events to be selected with multiple triggers. It is only upon a player hitting a game-ending trigger that the script will send game-ending instructions to the emulator. Potentially, the ‘476 Patent describes a method that would allow a person to play through Final Fantasy 7 in an hour without missing any crucial events in the game.


Abstract:
A starting location for the mini-game is chosen in the legacy game state. A snapshot is generated of that location. Once the snapshot is taken, trigger events are identified. Triggers corresponding to the trigger events are identified. A mini-game script is generated using the snapshot and triggers.


Illustrative Claim:

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing executable instructions and data for a mini-game configured to be implemented on an emulator operating on a network, the instructions and data comprising: a) a snapshot of a starting location for the mini-game within a legacy game execution state, wherein the snapshot includes saved data corresponding to the legacy game execution state of every device being emulated by the emulator at a designated time during emulation of a legacy game that the emulator can use to start the mini-game; b) data representing one or more identified triggers that correspond to one or more events within the legacy game; and c) a script for the mini-game generated from the snapshot and triggers.


Researched By: Andrew F. Thomas


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