U.S. patent application number 13/354406 was filed with the patent office on 2012-07-26 for systems and methods for providing an interactive multiplayer story.
Invention is credited to Henk B. Rogers.
Application Number | 20120190456 13/354406 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 46544560 |
Filed Date | 2012-07-26 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120190456 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Rogers; Henk B. |
July 26, 2012 |
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING AN INTERACTIVE MULTIPLAYER
STORY
Abstract
An interactive multiplayer game includes multiple user
interfaces that enable multiple players to interact with the
interactive multiplayer game. The game also includes a processor,
in communication with the first user interface, that is arranged to
i) provide a virtual world, ii) enable the multiple players to
create multiple player characters in the virtual world, iii)
provide an interactive story where the interactive story includes
multiple events that define a story line of the interactive story
and where the interactive story includes multiple character roles
to be acted out during the interactive story, iv) assigns character
roles to each of the multiple events, v) identifies player
characters who are available to assume the character roles of an
event, vi) assigns a player character to each of the character
roles of the event, and vii) initiates the event once the player
characters are assigned to the character roles for the event.
Inventors: |
Rogers; Henk B.; (Honolulu,
HI) |
Family ID: |
46544560 |
Appl. No.: |
13/354406 |
Filed: |
January 20, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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61434896 |
Jan 21, 2011 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
463/42 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 10/00 20130101;
A63F 13/352 20140902; A63F 13/47 20140902; A63F 13/60 20140902 |
Class at
Publication: |
463/42 |
International
Class: |
A63F 9/24 20060101
A63F009/24 |
Claims
1. A method for providing an interactive multiplayer game or story
comprising: providing a virtual world; enabling multiple players to
create multiple player characters in the virtual world; providing
an interactive story, the interactive story including multiple
events that define a story line of the interactive story, the
interactive story including multiple character roles to be acted
out during the interactive story; assigning character roles to each
of the multiple events; identifying player characters who are
available to assume the character roles of a first event; assigning
a player character to each of the character roles of the first
event; and initiating the first event once the player characters
are assigned to the character roles for the first event.
2. The method of claim 1 comprising enabling the player characters
to perform activities in the virtual world other than events of the
story.
3. The method of claim 1 comprising assigning a player character to
each of the characters roles of a second event.
4. The method of claim 3 comprising initiating the second event
once the character roles for the second event are assigned.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the set of player characters
assigned to the first event is different than the set of player
characters assigned to the second event.
6. The method of claim 1 comprising selecting the player characters
to be assigned to the first event based on an event condition.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the event condition includes at
least one of proximity of player characters to one another in the
virtual world; whether certain player characters and/or players are
"friends", where player characters have designated each other as
part of a group, guild, affiliation, or social network, player
character demographics, player demographics, player preferences,
player character preferences, experience of players and/or player
characters in virtual world, and priority of stories that a player
wants their player character to participate in.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactive story relates to
a movie, book, story, fictional character, non-fictional character,
game, historical person, and popular person.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein each character role relates to a
character, entity, or person.
10. The method of claim 1 comprising assigning a first set of
player characters to a first instantiation of the first event.
11. The method of claim 10 comprising assigning a second set of
player characters to a second instantiation of the first event.
12. The method of claim 11 comprising initiating the first and
second instantiations of the first event such that a portion of the
first and second instantiations occur concurrently.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a player character
includes allowing a player to select a character role for the first
event.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a player character
includes automatically assigning a player character to each of the
character roles.
15. A system for providing an interactive multiplayer game
comprising: multiple user interfaces for enabling multiple players
to interact with the interactive multiplayer game; a processor, in
communication with the first user interface, and arranged for i)
providing a virtual world, ii) enabling the multiple players to
create multiple player characters in the virtual world, iii)
providing an interactive story, the interactive story including
multiple events that define a story line of the interactive story,
the interactive story including multiple character roles to be
acted out during the interactive story, iv) assigning character
roles to each of the multiple events, v) identifying player
characters who are available to assume the character roles of a
first event, vi) assigning a player character to each of the
character roles of the first event, and vii) initiating the first
event once the player characters are assigned to the character
roles for the first event.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor enables the
player characters to perform activities in the virtual world other
than events of the story.
17. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor assigns a player
character to each of the characters roles of a second event.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor initiates the
second event once the character roles for the second event are
assigned.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the set of player characters
assigned to the first event is different than the set of player
characters assigned to the second event.
20. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor selects the
player characters to be assigned to the first event based on an
event condition.
21. The system of claim 20, wherein the event condition includes at
least one of proximity of player characters to one another in the
virtual world; whether certain player characters and/or players are
"friends", where player characters have designated each other as
part of a group, guild, affiliation, or social network, player
character demographics, player demographics, player preferences,
player character preferences, experience of players and/or player
characters in virtual world, and priority of stories that a player
wants their player character to participate in.
22. The system of claim 15, wherein the interactive story relates
to a movie, book, story, fictional character, non-fictional
character, game, historical person, and popular person.
23. The system of claim 22, wherein each character role relates to
a character, entity, or person.
24. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor assigns a first
set of player characters to a first instantiation of the first
event.
25. The system of claim 24, wherein the processor assigns a second
set of player characters to a second instantiation of the first
event.
26. The system of claim 25, wherein the processor initiates the
first and second instantiations of the first event such that a
portion of the first and second instantiations occur
concurrently.
27. The system of claim 15, wherein assigning a player character
includes allowing a player to select a character role for the first
event.
28. The system of claim 15, wherein assigning a player character
includes automatically assigning a player character to each of the
character roles.
29. A method for providing an interactive multiplayer game
comprising: providing multiple user interfaces for multiple user to
control multiple avatars; providing multiple instantiations of
events of a story; providing a first avatar-specific story line
associated with an avatar of a first user; providing a second
avatar-specific story line associated with an avatar of a second
user; and linking the first avatar-specific story line with the
second avatar-specific story line during an instantiation of an
event of the story in response to the game determining that the
avatar of the first user and the avatar of the second user are
available to perform the event.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S.
Patent Application No. 61/434,896, filed on Jan. 21, 2011, the
entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The invention relates generally to systems and methods for
providing an interactive multiplayer story or game. More
particularly, in various embodiments, the invention relates to
providing multiple users with interactive adventuring and
role-playing in response to story-related trigger conditions.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Interactive movies and role-playing games have been
commercially available for numerous years. An interactive movie is
typically a video game presented using a full-motion video of
either animated or live-action footage. Early interactive movies
resulted from the introduction of laserdiscs and laserdisc players,
which were the first video game devices that enabled a single
player to select a course of action that affected the ongoing event
sequence of a movie. Depending on the player's selection, a
resulting video scene would be played. The first commercial
interactive movie and game, Dragon's Lair, was introduced in 1983
and was played on a video arcade console.
[0004] Because interactive movies have traditionally only enabled
one player to act out an event/scene, such systems are not capable
of supporting the interaction of multiple players to act out an
event/scene. Accordingly, there is a need to enable multiple
players to interact with a movie or game concurrently.
[0005] Interactive movies are typically restrictive in providing a
player character with a limited number of actions to perform, i.e.,
choose the left or right door. The limited number of action choices
is typically considered unrealistic and predictable to players,
resulting in a less enjoyable experience. Accordingly, there is a
need to provide an interactive movie or playing experience that is
less predictable and more realistic to players, and, therefore,
more enjoyable.
[0006] A role-playing game (RPG) is typically a game where a player
assumes the role of a character within a virtual world or
environment. Early RPGs, such as Dungeons & Dragons.RTM., were
played using books and the imagination of the players.
[0007] With the improvements made in computer networking and
graphics rendering, including improved 3D image rendering,
increased network data rates, and increased computing capacity of
clients and servers, role-playing games have migrated to computer
systems and networks. Unfortunately, certain existing RPGs, such as
the World of Warcraft.RTM., which is a massively multiplayer online
role-playing game (MMORPG), provide location-based adventuring
where players often travel to a pre-defined location, such as a
dungeon, to perform a particular activity. As a result, many
players are often queued at the entrance of the same dungeon or
activity and must wait for other players to perform the activity.
Such a repetitive activity by each player diminishes the purpose of
providing a realistic gaming experience. Accordingly, there is a
need to provide a more realistic adventuring experience to
players.
[0008] Location-based RPG adventuring typically requires players to
be distributed among different servers that redundantly provide a
particular adventure or story-line. For this reason, players using
different servers are restricted in their ability to interact with
each other. Therefore, there exists a need for allowing players
using different servers to meet, socialize, and play together.
[0009] In addition to providing adventuring experiences, RPGs
enable players to interact socially through these experiences.
Certain RPGs, such as Second Life.RTM., enable players to create
avatars, i.e., virtual representations of themselves or alter-egos
of themselves with desirable physical skills and characteristics.
Avatars may also be referred to as "player characters."
Unfortunately, certain players often lack the social skills or
confidence to socially interact with other players. Accordingly,
there is a need to assist less socially adapt players in their
interactions with other players.
[0010] With respect to content development, RPGs have traditionally
relied on developers to create story lines and dungeons. However,
there is no efficient forum or mechanism to enable the integration
of new story lines of various types into current RPGs. There are
also no efficient mechanisms to facilitate the integration of
merchandizing with story lines, or mechanisms that can address
intellectual property concerns. Therefore, there is a need for
creating a mechanism for enabling richer content development and
integration into an RPG, while addressing intellectual property
concerns associated with such content.
SUMMARY
[0011] The disclosure, in various embodiments, addresses
deficiencies in the prior art by providing systems, methods and
devices for providing an interactive multiplayer story or game
based on a combination of one or more of timing (time-based
adventuring), event occurrence (event-based adventuring), and
notice (opportunity-based adventuring) to provide players with a
more interactive, realistic, unpredictable, and enjoyable gaming
experience.
[0012] A system for implementing an interactive multiplayer story
may be a computer system. The computer system may include a
networked computer system that provides multiple data interfaces to
enable multiple players to interact with the system. Each player
may be remotely located from the system, but use a client computer
and/or application to access the computer system via a network such
as the Internet. The system for implementing the interactive
multiplayer story or game may include one or more computer servers
and/or databases. The system may include a story application
running on the server that provides various features of the
interactive story to the players who are interfacing with the
system and/or story application.
[0013] An interactive multiplayer role-playing game may include one
or more stories that multiple players may act out using selected
player characters. A story may include an account or recital of an
event or a series of events, either true or fictitious. In a
multiplayer environment, there may be thousands of players
interested in playing or participating in a story. To support the
play of multiple player characters concurrently, the game or story
application may provide multiple instantiations or versions of a
particular story (or portion and/or event of a story) concurrently
or simultaneously. From the perspective of the story application,
one instantiation of a story or portion of a story (one or more
events) may be acted out by a first set of players, while another
instantiation of the story may be acted out by a second set of
players. The sequence of a series of events for one instantiation
may also differ from the sequence of another instantiation of a
story. For example, an interactive multiplayer story may be based
on the movie Batman where the game application enables multiple
players to assume one or more selected player characters of the
Batman story. A first player may have a player character acting as
Batman in a first instantiation of the story while a second player
may have a different player character acting as Batman in a second
instantiation of the story.
[0014] A storyline includes the plot of a story, book, play, movie,
game, and/or a sequence of events arranged to define the plot of
the story. A plot of a story may include the main plot and/or a
subplot of the story.
[0015] An event includes anything that takes place or happens,
especially something important; a happening; an incident that is
related to a particular story, etc. Collectively, events can define
an underlining plot of a story. They may be generated and
coordinated by an application (e.g., the story application) upon
satisfaction of various conditions. Detailed examples of conditions
used by the story application to coordinate users from various
parts of a virtual world will be described later herein. For
example, if the story application runs an interactive story based
on Batman, events within the Batman interactive story may include,
and/or correspond to, scenes within the movie Batman. A player may
create a player character that can, at various points throughout
his time in a virtual world of the story application, be given the
opportunity to act out the events of the Batman story. However,
while a player is not acting out these events, a user may
participate in "activities", i.e., non-events.
[0016] Activities include actions performed by a player character
that are not events of a particular interactive multiplayer story.
A player may initiate an activity and control the outcome of the
activity. Using the Batman example, while a player may be required
to complete a series of events written for the interactive story
Batman, in between such events, a player can chat with other users'
avatars in Gotham, walk around and explore Gotham, and shop for
virtual products such as new outfits for the user's avatar and new
furniture for the avatar's home, etc.
[0017] In one aspect, an interactive multiplayer game includes
multiple user interfaces that enable multiple players to interact
with the interactive multiplayer game. The game also includes a
processor, in communication with the first user interface, that is
arranged to i) provide a virtual world, ii) enable the multiple
players to create multiple player characters in the virtual world,
iii) provide an interactive story where the interactive story
includes multiple events that define a story line of the
interactive story and where the interactive story includes multiple
character roles to be acted out during the interactive story, iv)
assigns character roles to each of the multiple events, v)
identifies player characters who are available to assume the
character roles of an event, vi) assigns a player character to each
of the character roles of the event, and vii) initiates the event
once the player characters are assigned to the character roles for
the event.
[0018] In one configuration, the game enables the player characters
to perform activities in the virtual world other than events of the
story. The game may assign a player character to each of the
characters roles of a second event. The game may initiate the
second event once the character roles for the second event are
assigned. The set of player characters assigned to the first event
may be different than the set of player characters assigned to the
second event. A set may be different in that at least one player
characters is not included in both sets. The game may select the
player character to be assigned to the first event based on an
event condition.
[0019] In one feature, an event condition may include: the
proximity of player characters to one another in the virtual world;
whether certain player characters and/or players are "friends",
where player characters have designated each other as part of a
group, guild, affiliation, or social network, player character
demographics, player demographics, player preferences, player
character preferences, experience of players and/or player
characters in virtual world, and/or priority of stories that a
player wants their player character to participate in.
[0020] The interactive story may relate to a movie, book, story,
fictional character, non-fictional character, game, historical
person, and/or popular person. Each character role may relate to a
character, entity, and/or person. The game may assign a first set
of player characters to a first instantiation of the first event.
The game may assign a second set of player characters to a second
instantiation of the first event. The game may initiate the first
and second instantiations of the first event such that a portion of
the first and a portion of the second instantiations occur
concurrently.
[0021] In another aspect, an interactive multiplayer game provides
multiple user interfaces for providing multiple instantiations of
events of a story. A first user interface provides a first
avatar-specific story line associated with an avatar of a first
user. A second user interface provides a second avatar-specific
story line associated with an avatar of a second user. The game
links the first avatar-specific story line with the second
avatar-specific story line during an instantiation of an event of
the story in response to the game determining that the avatar of
the first user and the avatar of the second user are available to
perform the event.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0022] The foregoing and other objects, features, advantages, and
illustrative embodiments of the invention will now be described
with reference to the following drawings in which like reference
designations refer to the same parts throughout the different
views. These drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis
instead being placed upon illustrating principles of the
invention.
[0023] FIG. 1 is a network diagram of an interactive multiplayer
story system according to an illustrative embodiment of the
invention.
[0024] FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a general purpose
computer system according to an illustrative embodiment of the
invention.
[0025] FIG. 3 is a functional diagram of an interactive story
showing a mapping of multiple events to multiple player characters
according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention.
[0026] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating multiple instantiations of
a story generated by a story application according to an
illustrative embodiment of the invention.
[0027] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing various events of a story
associated with a player character according to an illustrative
embodiment of the invention.
[0028] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing first and second story lines
where the first story line is associated with a first instantiation
of a story and the second story line is associated with a second
instantiation of a story according to an illustrative embodiment of
the invention.
[0029] FIG. 7 is a screen shot of a virtual environment according
to an illustrative embodiment of the invention.
[0030] FIG. 8 is diagram illustrating story line management of
multiple story lines associated with multiple player characters
using a story application according to an illustrative embodiment
of the invention.
[0031] FIG. 9A is a functional block diagram of a system for
managing story lines according to an illustrative embodiment of the
invention.
[0032] FIG. 9B is a flow diagram of a method for providing an
interactive multiplayer story according to an illustrative
embodiment of the invention.
[0033] FIG. 10 is a screen shot of a virtual environment including
an indication of upcoming events according to an illustrative
embodiment of the invention.
[0034] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a gaming application according
to an illustrative embodiment of the invention.
[0035] FIG. 12 is a screen shot of a virtual environment in which a
player is prompted to use scripting according to an illustrative
embodiment of the invention.
[0036] FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of a method for enabling player
character interactions in an interactive multiplayer story
according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention.
[0037] FIG. 14A is a diagram of a content creation platform
according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention.
[0038] FIG. 14B is a flow diagram of a method for developing story
lines for an interactive multiplayer story according to an
illustrative embodiment of the invention.
DESCRIPTION
[0039] As described above in the summary, the disclosure is
generally related to systems and methods for providing a user with
an interactive multiplayer story and/or a virtual world
application.
[0040] FIG. 1 is a network diagram of an interactive multiplayer
story system or framework 100 according to an illustrative
embodiment of the invention. The system 100 includes a network 102,
a system administrator 104, a development server 126, a game server
124A, a story application 122A, a database 128A, a game server
124B, a story application 122B, a database 128B, an author client
106A, an author client 106B, a user client 110A, a user client 110B
and a user client 110C.
[0041] The network 102 may include a data network, packet data
network, circuit switched network, wireless network, Public
Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), or any network capable of
exchange information between a sender and receiver. The system
administrator 104 may communicate with the servers 124 and the
clients 106 and 110 using the network 102. The system administrator
104 may retrieve data from or send data to the servers 124 and
clients 106 and 110. Furthermore, the system administrator 104 may
communicate with the database 128A and the database 128B through
the game servers 124A and 124B, respectively, or directly through
the network 102.
[0042] Each of the game servers 124A and 124B may include a
plurality of servers. These severs, 124A and 124B may be any
computing system, such as described with respect to FIG. 2, or
portions of a computing system, capable of delivering a service,
such as a gaming service, to a user or a plurality of users. The
development server 126 may communicate directly with other servers,
such as the game server 124A or database 128. Such communication
may be done through the network 102. In one embodiment, the game
servers 124A and 124B can host the story applications 122A and
122B, respectively. In another embodiment, the game servers 124A
and 124B are connected to the databases 128A and 128B,
respectively, to allow for electronic communication. The game
servers 124A and 124B may include a web site and have a web
application.
[0043] Web applications may include applications developed based on
.NET, Java, SAP, Siebel, Oracle, web services and/or other suitable
web-based platforms. The game server 124A or 124B may be a computer
server implementing an instance of the story application 122A or
122B, and may be operated as a web server.
[0044] In some embodiments, the story application 122A and/or 122B
is accessible by multiple users. Users may be persons that perform
various roles associated with the story applications 122A and/or
122B, such as the system administrator 104, the author 106A and the
user (or player) 110A, and developers. Each user may access and/or
interact with the story application 122A or 122B via the network
102 using a web browser implemented on a client machine 110A or
110B or via a direct interface. User interaction with the story
application 122A or 122B may include configuring and/or executing
games applications 122A or 122B, and performing related activities.
Related activities may include creating an avatar and/or player
character, purchasing access to story applications or modules,
reviewing information related to the story applications 122A and/or
122B, and/or communication with a game administrator and/or other
players.
[0045] Each of the author clients 106A, 106B, the user clients 110A
110B and 110C may include a plurality of clients. These clients can
be any computer systems and applications capable of accessing
remote information on a server, such as servers 124A and/or 124B.
In one embodiment, the author client 106A and 106B are clients used
by authors or game level designers or other content publishers for
interacting with the servers and/or the system administrator 104
through the network 102. For example, an author may develop a
virtual actor, i.e., a "vactor", an item, a dungeon, an adventure,
a story line, and then upload and/or publish this data to the game
server 124 and/or story application 122 to be used by players.
Similarly, the users clients 110A, 110B and 110C may enable players
to interact with the servers 124A and 124B, and/or with the system
administrator 104 through the network 102.
[0046] The system administrator 104 may monitor an on-going story
application 122, gaming environment, and/or an avatar's social
interactions within a virtual world. For example, if a user has
committed a certain prohibited behavior, the system administrator
may decide to expel him or freeze his account for some amount of
time. Additionally, the system administrator 104 may provide
technical support for all backend servers and frontend applications
to ensure that the infrastructure is sufficient to support an
interactive multiplayer story system. For example, when the game
server 124A goes offline, the system administrator 104 may migrate
workload from the game server 124A to the other game server 124B,
while conducting business recovery on the game server 124A.
[0047] The development server 126 may process content submitted by
the author 106A and/or the author 106B. A submission may be a story
or an excerpt of a story for a game or an adventure, or a level
created by a level designer, and/or merchandise. Additionally,
these submissions can be stored in the database 128A. In one
embodiment, the development server 126 includes, as a quality
control, application 130. The quality control application 130 may
be operated and/or used by one or more system administrators or
quality control reviewers, who review submitted gaming data (e.g.,
dungeon, adventure, story line, item, character, and so on) and
determine whether the data quality is adequate for publication
and/or use as part of gaming applications 122A and/or 122B. The
adequate and selected submissions may then be stored in the
database 128 and/or another database, such as publication database
312. One submission may also be distributed among various
databases. The selected and/or approved submissions may then be
offered for purchase and/or use by end users. Depending on the
game, adventure, book, and/or other published content selected
and/or purchased by a user, the game servers 124A and/or 124B may
retrieve data from databases, such as database 128A or 312, to
install and run story applications 122A and/or 122B to serve user
clients.
[0048] FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a general purpose
computer accessing a network according to an illustrative
embodiment of the invention. The system administrator 104, the
development server 126, the game server 124A, the story application
122A, the database 128A, the game server 124B, the story
application 122B, the database 128B, the author client 106A, the
author client 106B, the user client 110A, the user client 110B and
the user client 110C may be implemented as a general purpose
computer 200 shown in FIG. 2.
[0049] The exemplary computer system 200 includes a central
processing unit (CPU) 202, a memory 204, and an interconnect bus
206. The CPU 202 may include a single microprocessor or a plurality
of microprocessors for configuring computer system 200 as a
multi-processor system. The memory 204 illustratively includes a
main memory and a read-only memory. The computer 200 also includes
the mass storage device 208 having, for example, various disk
drives, tape drives, etc. The main memory 204 also includes dynamic
random access memory (DRAM) and high-speed cache memory. In
operation and use, the main memory 204 stores at least portions of
instructions and data for execution by the CPU 202.
[0050] The computer system 200 may also include one or more
input/output interfaces for communications, shown by way of
example, as interface 210 for data communications via the network
212. The data interface 210 may be a modem, an Ethernet card or any
other suitable data communications device. To provide the functions
of a computer 104 according to FIG. 1, the data interface 210 may
provide a relatively high-speed link to a network 212 and/or
network 102, such as an intranet, internet, or the Internet, either
directly or through an another external interface. The
communication link to the network 212 may be, for example, optical,
wired, or wireless (e.g., via satellite or 802.11 Wi-Fi or cellular
network). Alternatively, the computer system 200 may include a
mainframe or other type of host computer system capable of
web-based communications via the network 212 and or network
102.
[0051] The computer system 200 also includes suitable input/output
ports or may use the Interconnect Bus 206 for interconnection with
a local display 216 and keyboard 214 or the like serving as a local
user interface for programming and/or data entry, retrieval, or
manipulation purposes. Alternatively, server operations personnel
may interact with the computer system 200 for controlling and/or
programming the system from remote terminal devices via the Network
212.
[0052] The components contained in the computer system 200 are
those typically found in general purpose computer systems used as
servers, workstations, personal computers, network terminals,
portable devices, and the like. In fact, these components are
intended to represent a broad category of such computer components
that are well known in the art. Certain aspects of the invention
may relate to the software elements, such as the executable code
and database for the server functions of the development server
126, game server 124, administrator 104, databases 128, and/or
clients 106 and 110.
[0053] FIG. 3 is a functional diagram 300 of an interactive
multiplayer story showing a mapping of multiple events to multiple
player character roles according to an illustrative embodiment of
the invention. The diagram 300 includes a vertical axis of roles A
through F (302-312) of characters that players can choose to play
in a role playing game and/or interactive story. The horizontal
axis includes events 1-13 (314-338) that make up a story line
and/or plot of the interactive story where the events happen to
and/or are acted out by the player characters in various roles.
[0054] Player characters may assume one of the roles 302, 304, 306,
308, 310, and 312 (i.e., . . . , roles A-F). The events 1-13 in the
story that happen to or are acted out by the characters may be
controlled by various players. Such virtual actors may be referred
to as avatars or player characters (PCs). Characters controlled by
the story application 122 may be referred to as non-player
characters (NPCs). NPCs in an interactive story and/or movie may
also be referred to as virtual actors or "vactors." Events may
happen to individual or multiple avatars. The story application 122
may wait for avatar proximity or call multiple avatars to an event
to initiate the event.
[0055] One example or metaphor may be a movie. The camera jumps
from place to place and shows one or more players or viewers event
happening to the characters in the movie. A two-hour movie can
describe a series of events separated by vast amounts of time and
space. In the movie, an activity or non-event that happens between
events is left out to move the story to a conclusion in ninety
minutes. In a virtual adventure run by an interactive multiplayer
story application 122, the in world time spent by an avatar may
include many non-events or activities such as talking to friends,
going on dates, playing games, and so on. After some time has
passed, the story application 122 may look for PCs that are
destined and/or ready to interact in an event, and then initiate a
meeting to act out the event.
[0056] The difference between a PC's behavior during an event vs.
during a non-event may be that the story application controls an
avatar's actions, like a director controls an actor's action while,
during a non-event, the player controls their avatar's actions. For
example, Jason Bourne springs into Kung-fu action during an event,
and then becomes a lonely confused young man searching for his
identity.
[0057] An avatar may participate in and/or be part of many stories
at the same time. In some instances, the stories are independent.
However, in other instances some stories may be related in some
way. For example, an avatar may be in numerous stories concurrently
such as, without limitation, the following:
[0058] 1) become a great golfer
[0059] 2) get married and have a family
[0060] 3) have a wild adventure with a brunette
[0061] 4) have a wild adventure with a blond
[0062] 5) be James Bond in a spy story
[0063] 6) be Indiana Jones in an action story
[0064] 7) be a Yankees fan in a baseball story
An avatar may participate in multiple non-related stories that are
in progress at the same time and/or running concurrently.
[0065] Referring again to FIG. 3, a first avatar may assume role A
and thus particular in events 1, 6, 10, and 13 of the interactive
story. A second avatar may assume role B and participate in events
2, 6, 11 and 13. During event 1, only the first avatar may
participate in the event. However, during event 6, both the first
and second avatar participate in the event. For example, the story
may be Batman where role A is Batman and role B is the Joker. The
first avatar may become Batman during event 1. During event 6, the
first avatar, acting in the role of Batman, encounters the second
avatar, acting in the role of the Joker, where the event includes a
Bank robbery by the Joker.
[0066] Because a story may have multiple roles that a player can
choose from, a player may repeat the same story with different
roles. If a player were to repeat a story using a role different
from what previously used to play in the same story, the story
application 122 or adventure engine may generate a new
instantiation of the story. The sequence of events and/or total
number of events may be the same or different for this new role
when compared to the events experienced the previous role. For
example, in some events of the Batman story, only Batman and Joker
are needed to play an event. However, in other events, only Batman
and Rachael Dawes are needed. Because events requiring Rachael
Dawes may not require the Joker, the set of events experienced by
an avatar in these roles would be different.
[0067] The number of events the avatar participates in may also
differ as there may be more events that require the Joker role
(e.g., role B) as opposed to Rachael Dawes (e.g., role C).
Therefore, depending on the selected role, the same avatar or
another avatar of a player may experience different sets and/or
sequences of events in the same story. Accordingly, because
different avatars may assume different roles A-F in a story, two
avatars and/or players may not have the same experience in a story.
Because what an avatar may experience in a story can be different
from what another avatar may experience in the same story, the
interactive multiplayer story application 122 can provide each
player of the interactive multiplayer story system with a
personalized experience, making the experience more realistic
because events occurring to an avatar are unpredictable and
dynamically initiated. Furthermore, because the same user may
experience different sets of events and/or sequences of events
using one or more avatars in different character roles, the
interactive multiplayer system advantageously provides users of the
system with adventuring possibilities that not provided by existing
RPGs.
[0068] FIG. 4 is a functional diagram showing multiple
instantiations 404, 406, and 408 of a story 402 generated by the
story application 122 according to an illustrative embodiment of
the invention. In certain instances, the story application 122 may
provide an interactive story 402 to many players at various times.
Thus, there may be many players that want their avatar to act out,
for example, role A at the same time. One approach to ensuring that
multiple avatars are able to assume a particular role is to provide
multiple instantiations or versions 404, 406, and 408 of a story
whereby a first avatar assumes role A of a story in a first
instantiation 404, a second avatar assumes role A in a second
instantiation 406, a third avatar assume role A in a third
instantiation 408, and so on until the story application 122
provides each of the players desiring their avatar to assume role A
with the opportunity to assume role A in a particular story
402.
A player may have multiple avatars and have each avatar assume a
different role in an instantiation of a story. Avatars may assume
different roles for different events in an instantiation of a
story. Using the Batman example, the avatar who assumes the role of
Batman in one event of an instantiation may assume the role of the
Joker in another event of the same instantiation. Similarly, an
avatar may assume different roles in different instantiations. This
way, a player can experience the same story or event from multiple
perspectives as their avatar or avatars take on multiple character
roles, making the virtual world more interesting and dynamic.
[0069] To determine whether a new instantiation 404 needs to be
created, the story application 122 may assess whether one or more
trigger conditions exist, such as whether a different set of
players are needed to act out an event, whether there exists an
opportunity to bring in new players to an event, and/or whether it
is more advantageous to first allow players to complete one event
over others. Therefore, I.sub.1 404 and I.sub.2 406 may differ at
least because different sets of players were brought together to
act out one or more events of each instantiation. Instantiations
404, 406 and 408 may further differ because the series of events of
each instantiation of the story 402 may be played in a different
sequence. For example, the story Batman may have been purchased by
1000 players, some of whom wish to be Batman, while others wish to
be the Joker or Rachael Dawes. At any moment in time, the story
application 122 may bring together players who are assuming these
roles into the story 402 Batman, and allow these players to act out
an event 1-13 (See FIG. 3) of Batman. There may be numerous
instantiations 404, 406, and 408 of the story 402 because the story
application 122 may bring together numerous different sets of
players to act out events of the story 402 (e.g. the Batman story).
Also, the events of the different instantiations may occur at
different times or date depending on when a condition of bring
multiple avatars together are satisfied.
[0070] In instantiation 404 for example, a first set of avatars may
be brought together to accomplish a first event. These avatars may
include P.sub.A, Batman, P.sub.B, Joker, and P.sub.C, Rachael
Dawes. Similarly, in I.sub.2 406, a second set of players may be
brought together to accomplish the first event. These players may
be P.sub.D, Batman, P.sub.E, Joker, and P.sub.F, Rachael Dawes.
Finally, in I.sub.3 408, a third set of players may be brought
together to accomplish the first event. These players may be
P.sub.G, Batman, P.sub.H, Joker, and P.sub.I, Rachael Dawes.
[0071] The Batman story 402 may contain, for example, various
events 1-13 for avatars to participate in. The sequence of these
events in I.sub.1 404 may also be different from the sequence of
events in I.sub.2 406 and may further be different from the
sequence of events in I.sub.3 408. Although some events may only be
triggered based on the completion of others (e.g., the event in
which the Joker is put in jail has to occur before the event in
which the Joker escapes from jail), certain events may be
temporally independent from one another (e.g., Rachael Dawes may be
investigating the identity of Batman irrespective of when the Joker
is put in jail or escapes). Additionally, because some events may
not require all avatars assuming the roles of the story 402 to be
available and ready to play, the story application 122 may first
initiate an event in which only two roles are needed (e.g., event 6
of FIG. 3) since it may be more feasible to identify two players
who want to assume two roles rather than three players who want to
assume all three roles.
[0072] At least because the story application 122 of the adventure
engine dynamically identifies opportunities for players to be
brought together to act out an event, players of a story
advantageously no longer have to wait for other players to become
available to play an event or chapter or no longer have to play
events of a story in a predefined sequence. In some embodiments,
players and/or avatars may not be allowed to look ahead at the
events left to play as the story application 122 of the adventure
engine dynamically initiates a next event. Accordingly, such
unpredictability may enhance a player's virtual world experience
while playing an interactive multiplayer story.
[0073] In one embodiment, the story application 122 may create
and/or provide instantiations of an event of a story in additional
to, or as an alternative, to instantiations of a story. The story
application 122 may track the individual progress of an avatar
using an avatar-specific story line.
[0074] Additionally, to accommodate multiple players wishing to
assume the same role in a story at the same moment in time, the
application 122 can assign the avatars of these players to
different instantiations of the story to avoid conflicts. That is,
at any particular moment in time, two players may decide to have
their avatars assume the role of Batman. To avoid having both
avatars playing as Batman in the same event, the application 122
can prevent such a conflict from happening by initiating a new
instantiation so that both avatars can play as Batman
simultaneously without interfering with one another. Additionally,
if avatars are identified and brought together to act out a
particular event or scene in one instantiation, the application 122
may prevent other avatars from interrupting the event by assigning
these other avatars to different instantiations of the same
story.
[0075] For instance, avatars may simultaneously believe to have
made an eye contact with the same avatar in a virtual social
setting, such as in a virtual night club. In some instances, the
application 122 can avoid such confusion or a conflict by providing
the social interaction opportunity to the first two players,
P.sub.A and P.sub.B that make eye contact, while preventing a third
avatar P.sub.C from interfering. To prevent P.sub.C from
interfering, the application 122 can depict on a display a text or
graphical bubble above P.sub.A and P.sub.B to indicate that these
players are permitted to participate the social activity.
Alternatively, a vactor may approach P.sub.C and explain to him
that the social opportunity has been given to P.sub.A and P.sub.B.
In other embodiments, P.sub.C may be taken to participate in
alternate events or to a different part of the virtual world, or
allowed to participate in a different instantiation.
[0076] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an avatar-specific story line
500 associated with a particular avatar including multiple events
502, 504, and 506 of a story and activities 508 and 510, according
to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The avatar may have
assumed, for example, role A in a story 402. In one embodiment, the
story application 122 tracks the progress of an avatar by tracking
whether certain events are completed or not. FIG. 5 illustrates
that the avatar-specific story line 500 includes at least seven
story related events 502-506 and non-story related events, or
activities 508 and 510. The avatar may have completed event 502 and
is ready to act out event 504. Event 502 may have corresponded to
event 1 of instantiation 404 of story 402. However, instead of
performing event 2 of instantiation 404, the story application may
have avatar participate in event 2 of instantiation 406. There may
be numerous reasons why a different instantiation is used. For
example, the player for avatar may have not played the interactive
story for several days, resulting in event 2 of instantiation 404
having been already performed by another avatar. Thus, when the
player resumes play with avatar, the story application 122 provides
event 2 of instantiation 404 to avatar. Thus, event 504 of the
avatar-specific story line 500 would correspond to event 2 of
instantiation 404.
[0077] From the player's perspective, it may not be relevant which
instantiation of a story is used to act out a particular event as
long as the player or his/her avatar for his player character is
able to progress through the events 502-506 of his/her
avatar-specific story line 500. In one embodiment, the story
application 122 displays a version of the story line 500 to a
player associated with his/her avatar so that the player is able to
monitor the progress of his/her avatar through a particular story
line 500. The story line 500 may be displayed in any number of
forms including, for example, a sequence of chapters (corresponding
to each event 502-506). As a player completes an event, an
indicator such, for example, closing a chapter cover, may be
presented to indicate that a portion and/or event of a story is
completed. Other visual, graphical, and/or audio-based indicators
may be used to show completion of an event.
[0078] In some embodiments, future events or events yet to be
performed may be obscured or hidden to enhance the unpredictability
of a story line 500. The story application 122 may initiate an
event for a player dynamically, or based on the satisfactions of
one or more trigger or event conditions. The selection of avatars
and/or player characters to participate in an event or
instantiation of an event may depend on certain event conditions
such as, without limitation: proximity of avatars to one another in
a virtual world; whether certain avatar and/or players are
"friends" or have designated each other as part of a group, guild,
affiliation, or social network; avatar demographics, player
demographics (e.g., age, gender, race, ethnicity, and the like),
player preferences (e.g., game background), avatar preferences;
experience of players and/or avatars in virtual world, and priority
of stories that a player wants their avatar to participate in.
[0079] In some embodiments, the game application 122 controls when
an event, a portion of an event, and/or certain avatar actions
during a non-event is initiated based on upon the occurrence of a
trigger condition. With respect to FIG. 3, an avatar may
participate in activities (e.g., non-events) that are dynamically
facilitated by the game application 122 while the avatar is not
participating in a story-related event. For example, an avatar may
visit a virtual meeting place such as a bar to meet other avatars
and players. The game application 122 may assume control of an
avatar for certain activities and/or events to enable the avatar to
perform in an extraordinary manner and/or in a manner of a
character within a story line. For example, an avatar assuming the
role of Batman may be controlled, at least temporarily, in a manner
to enable the avatar to leap twenty feet from one building to
another. Once a particular event, activity, and/or non-event
interaction is completed, the game application 122 may restore
control of the avatar the player.
[0080] A player may determine when his/her avatar participates a
story and/or event of a story. As described in relation to FIG. 7,
a player may customize an avatar's virtual world setting. One of
such settings may allow the user to pause, cancel, and/or delay an
event and/or story line or other activity. In one configuration, a
player can decide whether or not the game application 122 can take
control of an avatar to initiate an event of a story. If the story
mode is paused, delayed, and/or turned off, the avatar may be free
to participate in non-events and activities that are not part of a
story even if the game application 122 determines that the avatar
can participate in a story-related event. This feature may
advantageously allow an avatar to perform non-events and activities
without interruption from the game application 122 which may be
continuously assigning an avatar to various events of one of more
story lines. In another configuration, the game application 122 may
allow a player to prioritize certain stories. For example, avatar
may be participating in three stories simultaneously. The player of
the avatar may designate a first of the three stories as highest
priority so that the game application 122 ensures that the avatar
performs events associated with the first story in preference to
the second and third stories. In one configuration, the game
application may pause the avatar's actions in one story in order to
perform an event in a higher priority story. Once the event of the
higher priority story is complete, the avatar may be returned to
the event of the lower priority story. It may be preferable for a
player wishing to complete a particular story as soon as possible
and, therefore, want to be interrupted by the game application 122
to initiate an event of the particular story. In another
configuration, the game application 122 may query a player for
authorization before including the player's avatar in a particular
story and/or event of a story.
[0081] In some instances, a player may purchase the right to pause,
delay, and/or turn a story on or off. The game application 122 may
enable a player to choose to pause, skip an event, skip a portion
of a story, move forward or back in a story, cancel, and/or restart
a story. In other instances, depending on the nature of the
interactive story and a player's setting for the story, the game
application 122 may override certain player selections including a
player selecting to pause, skip an event, skip a portion of story,
move forward or backward in a story, cancel, and/or restart a
story.
[0082] FIG. 6 is a diagram 600 including two instantiations 602 and
604 of a story according to an illustrative embodiment of the
invention. The first instantiation 602 includes a story line having
events 606, 608, 610, and 612 (story events 1-4). The second
instantiation 604 includes a story line having events 614, 616,
618, and 620 (story events 1-4). Each event may require that
certain character roles be acted out during that event. For
example, event 1 (e.g., event 606 and 614) requires roles R.sub.1,
R.sub.2, and R.sub.3. Event 2 (e.g., events 608 and 616) may
require character roles R.sub.1 and R.sub.2. Event 3 (e.g., events
610 and 618) may require character role R.sub.1. Event 4 (e.g.,
events 612 and 620) may require character roles R.sub.1, R.sub.2,
and R.sub.3.
[0083] The story application may assign certain avatars to certain
roles in one or both of the instantiations 602 and 604 of a story.
For instance, the avatar A.sub.2 may be assigned to event 606
(event 1 of instantiation 602) to participate in that event in the
role R.sub.2. However, the story application may then assign avatar
A.sub.5 to the role R.sub.2 for event 608 (event 2 of instantiation
602). The story application 122 may assign the same avatar A.sub.1
to act out the same role R.sub.1 for every event of an
instantiation 602. However, in some instances, the story
application 122 may assign different avatars A.sub.4 and A.sub.7 to
act out different events of an instantiation 604 of a story.
[0084] The story application 122 may continuously identify avatars
and/or players to assume character roles that are necessary to
initiate an event. The temporal sequence of events completed for
the instantiation 602 may be different from the sequence of events
completed for instantiation 604. This flexibility allows the game
application 122 to identify available players of various avatars at
any moment in time so that the system may initiate events for those
players at that moment, without requiring the players to wait for
other players and their avatars to become available to complete an
event. In fact, the story application 122 may create a new
instantiation so that a play may at least be able to play certain
events of a story immediately, without having to wait for any other
players becoming available. In one embodiment, the story
application 122 can use an NPC to assume a role in an event of a
story where an avatar is not available.
[0085] In an illustrative situation where, for example, a thousand
users have purchased the right to play the story Batman, there may
be 50 users signed onto the game server 124A and/or 124B, and the
database 128A may currently contain only seven events for the story
Batman, though more events may be added later if additional
submissions of content are received and approved for sale. More
characters may also be added, and therefore, events and/or
storylines that are designed to utilize these characters may also
be added into the database 128A. For example, new characters, such
as Harvey Dent, the new district attorney, and Alfred, Batman's
advisor, may be added to the Batman story later as new submissions
of characters and/or events are published and integrated into the
story by the story application 122.
[0086] Event 608 may correspond to a scene in the Batman story
where Batman rescues Rachael Dawes from Joker. Therefore, to
complete this event 608, the game application 122 may check
database 128A and or 128B to search for avatars currently available
for playing the event 608 and identify players who wish to be
Batman, Joker and Rachael Dawes. Once the story application 122
identifies these players, the story application 122 may
automatically bring these players together to act out the various
actions of event 608. The virtual world environment for event 608
may largely depend on or be similar to the scenes in the movie
Batman, making the story experience more realistic and familiar as
most players of the Batman story may have seen the movie.
[0087] Other animations and/or graphical designs may also be
included in addition to scenes like the movie. The game application
122 may further automatically generate certain virtual world
features for the event 608 based on each player's user profile or
settings, such that the virtual world environment is tailored to
each player, making the experience more personalized. For example,
if a player indicated in his/her user profile and/or setting that
he/she dislikes having a dark background, albeit Gotham from the
movie Batman has a dark setting, the story application 122 may
render the background color and/or any other virtual world features
associated with Gotham according to the user's preferences. For
example, the story application 122 may create a brighter background
for the Batman story (for one player) while other players may still
see a darker background for the story. That is, players of the same
event, instantiation of a story, and/or story may experience
different and personalized virtual world designs.
[0088] In response to a player whose avatar is playing the role of
Batman and wanting to finish the Batman story, and if the game
application 122 is unable to identify two other players who wish to
play the character Joker and Rachael Dawes, the game application
122 may automatically bring the player to event 610 as this is a
single player event and its occurrence may not be dependent on the
completion of other events.
[0089] Such mechanism can advantageously reduce the amount of time
a player must spend waiting on other players to become available.
Alternatively, the game application 122 may identify one other
player who wishes to play the character Joker and bring the two
players to, for example, event 608 because this event only requires
one other character. In some instances, a new instantiation, such
as instantiation 604, is created by the story application 122 to
accommodate a player who wishes to finish a story sooner. The story
application 122 may then track the completed events and determine
the remaining events for this instantiation of the Batman story. In
the future, the story application 122 may identify available
players to finish the remaining events, such as events 614, 616,
618, and 620.
[0090] In another example, a player P.sub.A may have completed most
of the events for the Batman story and is currently participating
in activities or non-events. The story application 122 may track
P.sub.A's progress through the story line of instantiation 602 of
Batman and determine that P.sub.A has event 612 left in the story.
The story application 122 may then actively search for two other
players who might be available and wish to play the remaining
characters in event 612. Once such players are identified, the
event/scene generator 902 of the story application 122 may generate
the necessary graphics and story related features of the virtual
world for event 612. The bulletin 1002 for PA, which contains the
upcoming events, may include event 612 and may start flashing on
P.sub.A's screen to indicate to P.sub.A that event 618 is ready for
him/her to play. Upon P.sub.A selecting event 618, P.sub.A may exit
out of the current activities, or non events, and the story
application 122 may automatically bring in all three players to act
out the various actions in event 618 in roles R.sub.1, R.sub.2, and
R.sub.3. After P.sub.A finishes event 618, the story line tracker
908 (See FIG. 9A) may receive the appropriate subroutine values
and/or parameters so that the story application 122 can return
P.sub.A back to an activity or another story prior to participating
in event 618.
[0091] Other conditions or parameters used for initiating a new
instantiation of a story may also include new additions of events
to a story. For example, while most instantiations of the Batman
story have seven events, at some time, a new event may be added to
the database 128A and/or 128B. For some events, a new character,
Harvey, may be needed in addition to Batman, Joker and Rachael
Dawes. The story application 122 may generate a new instantiation
or version of the Batman story that includes this new event.
Players who have either completed the Batman story or have
completed various events of the Batman story in various
instantiations of the Batman story may also be given the
opportunity to participate in this new event of the new
instantiation.
[0092] FIG. 7 is a screen shot 700 of a virtual environment
according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. Screen
shot 700 includes a male avatar 702, a female avatar 704, an event
selecting window 706, a virtual world 708 and a tool bar 710. The
screen shot 700 may be displayed on a monitor, a TV, a cell phone
display or on any other visual output devices.
[0093] In some embodiments, avatars as depicted in the screen shot
700 are controlled by new players who have just entered the virtual
world. To assist the new players in learning about the various
interactions they can control via their input devices, a link to a
tutorial may be provided on the tool bar 710. Alternatively, or
additionally, a vactor can interact with the new players and help
them navigate in the virtual world. In other embodiments, a player
character, or avatar, is alerted with the opportunity to help a new
player. In such instances, a player controlling the player
character can teach or help the new player about navigating in the
virtual world and its various features. This way, existing players
are provided with the social opportunity to interact with new
players and to create new friendships as a result. In some
instances, the tutorial is designed in a game or story format. The
new players can play such tutorial games or stories for free to
learn about the various features offered by the virtual world.
[0094] The male avatar 702 and the female avatar 704 may be
displayed using 2D or 3D graphical representations of an avatar
and/or player character. An avatar 702 may be a player-created
player character that acts out various scenarios for a player. In
one embodiment, an avatar is controlled by and/or represents the
interactive multiplayer story. Avatar movements and interactions
with other characters may be controlled by an input peripheral
device, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a speech-controlled device and
a game-specific controller, and/or a graphical user interface
(GUI). At certain instances, the male avatar 702 and/or female
avatar 704 may be temporarily controlled by the story application
122 to enhance a player's ability to interact socially with other
player characters and/or avatars.
[0095] An event selecting window 706 may be positioned in front of
the male avatar 702 and/or the female avatar 704. The window 706
may include a thumbnail window that displays an introductory view
of an event that a player can choose. The event selecting window
706 may include, without limitations, an icon, a door, a text-based
message, or any other like forms. The male avatar 702 and/or female
avatar 704 may choose to participate in an event by selection of
the event in the window 706.
[0096] The virtual world 708 may include any interactive
multiplayer story in which an avatar may play and interact with
NPCs, vactors, other player characters, and/or avatars. The designs
and imaging of the virtual world 708 may include graphical
representations of a fantasy world, real and/or fictional images of
an object, or person, or a combination of these. The virtual world
708 may then be created by the means of 2D and/or 3D rendering or
image stitching. The creators of the virtual world 708 may include
software developers. Various designs of the virtual world 708,
including objects, adventures, dungeons, characters, and the like,
may be developed and/or submitted to the content producer 1402 (See
FIG. 14A).
[0097] In one embodiment, the screen shot 700 contains a tool bar
710 to provide users with additional opportunities for social
interactions or exploration, and may be positioned anywhere on a
screen. The tool bar 710 may include buttons, prompts, sliders or
any other graphical or auditory elements. In some embodiments, the
tool bar 710 includes a messenger client, an option for changing
outfits to adapt to a social scene, a pause button for temporarily
stopping play in a game, a music player, and/or other interactive
multiplayer story tools.
[0098] FIG. 8 is a diagram 800 illustrating story line management
of multiple avatar-specific story lines 802, 804, and 806
associated with multiple player characters (P.sub.A, P.sub.B, and
P.sub.C) by the story application 122 according to an illustrative
embodiment of the invention. The story line 802 may be associated
with the player character P.sub.A and include various events 812,
816, 818, 820, 822, and 824 (e.g., P.sub.A event #1 through P.sub.A
event #6). The story line 804 may be associated with the player
character P.sub.B and include various events 826, 816, 828, 830,
822, and 832 (e.g., P.sub.B event #1 through P.sub.B event #5, and
P.sub.B event #7). The story line 806 may be associated with the
player character P.sub.C and include various events 834, 836, 828,
838, 822, and 840 (e.g., P.sub.C event #1 through P.sub.C event
#6). An event may include a scene, an adventure, a dungeon, short
story, subplot, occurrence, an interaction with another player
character or vactor, and/or any instance within a story line. Each
event within a story line may occur at a particular time (e.g., t1,
t2, t3, t4, t5, and t6). The time may be actual time, elapsed time,
time relative to a particular player and/or story line, relative
game time, and/or time associated with an event. For example,
whenever a player logs onto the story application 122 to play their
avatar, the story application 122 may use a timer or counter to
keep track of the time spent by the player character within one or
more story lines.
[0099] At certain instances, the various avatar-specific story
lines 802, 804, and 806 may intersect or be linked by the story
application 122 so that different player characters (e.g., avatars)
can interact with each other during an event. Events 816, 828, and
822 may include linking periods 808, 810, and 812 where the various
story lines 802, 804, and 806 intersect with each other. For
example, during the linking instance, window, or period 808, the
story lines of players P.sub.A and P.sub.B are joined so that both
player characters can participate in event 816 (P.sub.A and P.sub.B
the event #2). Event 816 may, for instance, be a bank robbery.
Player character P.sub.A may be a policeman while player character
P.sub.B may be a criminal. P.sub.A and P.sub.B may interact during
the bank robbery where P.sub.A attempts to apprehend P.sub.B. After
shared event 816 is completed, the story application 122 ends the
linking period 808 and returns each player P.sub.A and P.sub.B to
their respective story lines 802 and 804. As another example, the
story lines 802, 804, and 806 are linked together during linking
period 812 so that player characters P.sub.A, P.sub.B, and P.sub.C
participate in event 822 (e.g., P.sub.A, P.sub.B, and P.sub.C event
#5). The number of story lines and/or player characters that can be
linked via a linking period may be unlimited or limited only by the
available avatar positions or slots associated with a particular
event.
[0100] In one embodiment, event 816 is triggered based on the time
t2 such that, regardless of location of an avatar within a
particular dungeon or virtual world 706, the story application 122
links the avatar-specific story lines 802 and 804 to enable player
characters P.sub.A and P.sub.B to interact and/or concurrently
perform activities associated with the same event 816.
[0101] In another embodiment, event 816 is triggered based on the
completion of one or more prior events, such as event 814 (P.sub.A
event #1) or event 826 (P.sub.B event #1), within a story line 802
or 804. Thus, the story application 122 may track the sequence of
events associated with a story line, such as story line 802, and
initiate the next event in the story line 802 based on the
completion of one or more prior events in the story line sequence.
The story line 802 sequence may be linear such that events occur in
a particular order. For example, event #1 precedes event #2, which
precedes event #3, and so on.
[0102] The story line 802 sequence may include a non-linear portion
where events are not required to occur in a particular sequence,
but can occur in a variety of orders or sequences. For example, the
story application 122 may allow P.sub.A to perform event 818 (event
#4 of P.sub.A) prior to performing event 820 (event #3 of P.sub.A).
In this case, P.sub.A event #4 is not dependent on the occurrence
or completion of P.sub.A event #3. Thus, the story application 122
may have the capability to allow different player characters to
encounter the same story line and/or adventure in different
sequences, even though the same overall objective and/or outcome of
the story line is achieved by both player characters. In other
embodiments, different player characters may have story lines with
different overall objectives or goals that, nonetheless, intersect
at different times and/or for different events. As discussed above,
player character P.sub.A may be a policeman within a story line 802
with the objective to clean up crime within a virtual city. In
contrast, player character P.sub.B may be a criminal within story
line 504 with the objective to become the head of a crime syndicate
with the virtual city.
[0103] In a further embodiment, a player character, such as
P.sub.A, may be given a notice and/or indicator during play of an
opportunity to link with another player character, such as P.sub.B.
For example, after the completion of event 814 (P.sub.A event #1)
at a time tn, player character P.sub.A may be given an opportunity
to participate in the event 816 during a notice period 842 before
the start of the event 816. If the player character P.sub.A accepts
the opportunity, the story application 122 links the story line 802
with the story line 804 during the linking period 808 to enable
event 816 to occur concurrently for both P.sub.A and P.sub.B. If
the player character P.sub.A does not accept the offer to link, the
player character P.sub.A may proceed to another event. In one
embodiment, the story application 122 allows player character
P.sub.A to perform P.sub.A event #2 without linking with another
story line and within the 802 story line using vactors. In certain
embodiments, avatar P.sub.B may have purchased one half of a
ticket, while avatar P.sub.C may have purchased the other half of
the same ticket. Both avatars P.sub.B and P.sub.C may be given
notice and an opportunity to meet and match the ticket halves at,
for example, the linked event 828 during linking period 810.
[0104] In some embodiments, the story application 122 uses a
combination of one or more of timing (time-based adventuring),
event occurrence (event-based adventuring), and notice
(opportunity-based adventuring) to provide players with a more
realistic and enjoyable interactive multiplayer story experience.
In addition to time, event, and notice based adventuring, the story
application 122 may provide traditional location-based adventuring
experiences. However, as a story and/or story line unfolds, a
time-based adventure feature may allow players to dynamically
encounter different settings and unpredictable scenarios, avoiding
the need for avatars to travel to a predefined location to initiate
or trigger a particular event or adventure.
[0105] While player characters may need to complete the same events
or tasks to reach the end of a story line, the specific settings or
surroundings of the each event may differ, given that each event
may be triggered based on time, as opposed to location, resulting
in the same event occurring in different locations for different
player characters. For example, the player character P.sub.B,
acting as a criminal, may be given the opportunity to perform event
830, which requires P.sub.B to snatch a purse from a pedestrian in
the street. The story application 122 may present event 830 at any
time and/or location within a virtual world 706, to enable player
character P.sub.B to complete the purse snatching event 830. The
player character P.sub.A may perform the same purse snatching event
818 at a different time (e.g., P.sub.A event #4) and in a different
location with different surroundings.
[0106] The story application 122 may use various time-based
parameters such as time-based story line tracking that may enable
the story application 122 to return a player character back to his
previous point in a game and/or story line. While the story
application 122 may track the progression of player characters
through a story line, the story application 122 may prevent players
from looking ahead in a story line, unless otherwise specified or
requested by the players. By withholding information about future
events within a story line or story lines, the story application
122 can enhance the unpredictability of a story line, making the
gaming experience much more realistic and exciting.
[0107] In certain embodiments, multiple player characters may
follow different avatar-specific story lines that only intersect or
interact for a particular event, interact during various events,
and/or continuously and repeatedly interact as part of a
comprehensive story line involving a plurality of story lines. For
example, as discussed previously, player characters P.sub.A and
P.sub.B may be a policeman and criminal respectively, who follow
their own independent story lines, but are linked for certain
events. However, both independent story lines may be part of, or
aspects of, a comprehensive story line about the growth and
development of a virtual city.
[0108] By linking various story lines of various player characters
at select times or for select events, the story application 122 can
advantageous control the allocation of server processing resources.
For example, the processing, control, and generation of event 816
may be performed using server 124A which may allow users, even user
typically using different game servers, to interact with each other
during a particular event 816. Existing MMORPGs must distribute
subsets of players among different servers that redundantly provide
the same dungeons so that a player character using one server
cannot interact with a player character using a different server,
even though both player characters may be performing in the same
dungeon. Thus, the story application 122 may determine and/or
predict which events that certain users are likely to encounter.
Based on the determination and/or prediction, the story application
122 may assign certain players characters to a particular server
124A, while other player characters who more likely to encounter
other events are assigned to another server 124B. In one
embodiment, the story application 122 may dynamically assign and/or
transfer an avatar (or multiple avatars) from one server to another
server to perform a particular event.
[0109] FIG. 9A is a functional diagram of a system 900 for managing
story lines according to an illustrative embodiment of the
invention. The story application 122 may perform various methods
using various functions to enable time, event, and/or opportunity
based game play among multiple avatars. The system 900 may include
a scene/event generator that supports multiple players P.sub.A,
P.sub.B, and P.sub.C who experience multiple avatar-specific story
lines concurrently and/or support multiple instantiations of a
story. Thus, the story application 122 may use multiple scene event
generator routines and/or functions 902, 904, and 906 to
independently generate events and/or scene related to each of the
multiple players P.sub.A, P.sub.B, and P.sub.C and/or events
related to multiple stories and/or multiple instantiations of one
or more stories. Similarly, the story application 122 (e.g., system
100) may use a story line tracker routine and/or function 908 that
tracks the status 910, 912, and 914 of each of the multiple players
P.sub.A, P.sub.B, and P.sub.C within their independent
avatar-specific story lines concurrently or track status of one or
more instantiations of one or more stories.
[0110] The story line tracker 908 may include a system of hardware
and/or software that can store tracking data related to a player in
a database. Tracking data may be recorded and stored in databases
122A and/or 122B. The tracking data, or recorded data, may include
a player's elapsed time, completed activities, dungeons, events
and/or availability. Subsequently, the stored data may be used by
the scene/event generator P.sub.A 902 to determine the next scene
or event for P.sub.A. The story line tracker 908 may also take
P.sub.A status 910, P.sub.B status 912 and P.sub.A status 914 as
inputs to create a shared and/or linked event, such as event 822
(Event #5), to link the story lines of P.sub.A, P.sub.B, and
P.sub.C together. The system 100 and/or story application 122 may
provide one or more players with a user interface to configure
tracking data used by the story line tracker 908.
[0111] The system 100 and/or story application 122, via the
storyline tracker 908, may create, for each player, a tracked or
recorded video corresponding to the player's playing history
including actions performed by the player. The databases 128A
and/or 128B may store each player's playing history and its
associated data. Players may view, pause, sample a portion of,
rewind, replay, create copies of, share with another player, sell,
and/or modify one or more videos corresponding to their playing
history. This way, players can review and analyze their playing
history to create better adventuring tactics, for example, for
their future adventuring activities. Videos of a player's playing
history may be labeled or categorized according to various methods.
In some embodiments, each player's playing history comprises a
plurality of videos, where each video corresponds to the player's
playing history in a particular chapter of a story, book,
interactive movie, game, and/or any combination thereof. In certain
embodiments, to allow for a more granular categorization of playing
history, each video corresponds to the player's playing history in
a particular scene within a chapter or event. In some instances, a
player's playing history within one story, book, movie, or game is
stored as a single video comprising a plurality of segments, where
each segment may be similarly labeled or categorized according to
the exemplary methods described above.
[0112] Furthermore, each video and/or each segment of a video may
be indexed in the databases 128A and/128 B. This way, players can
easily search and view other players' playing history, allowing the
players to, e.g., share their adventuring tactics. The system 100
may also enable players to post online image frames corresponding
to videos or segments of a video of their playing history, in
addition to allowing players to post videos of their playing
history.
[0113] The scene/event generator P.sub.A 902, the scene/event
generator P.sub.B 904, and the scene/event generator P.sub.C 906 of
their respective story applications may render relevant virtual
world objects for a given event. The scene parameter input 916 may
include other player and/or game specific data relevant to
generating a new scene/event. Depending on whether story lines are
being shared by one or more players, the story application 122 may
generate the same or different scenes for each player character. In
one embodiment, the story application 122 and/or system 900 may
provide users with an interface so that a user select 920 input
enables a player to select a scene and/or event, generated and
listed by the scene/event generator P.sub.A 902, to be played next.
In other embodiments, users can also configure the story
application 122 and/or system 900 so that the event selector
routine and/or function 918 can choose scenes or events for a
player. A player may choose to configure the story application 122
and/or system 900 before, during, and/or after a playing a story
application 122.
[0114] Once a player chooses a new scene or event, the scene/event
generator P.sub.A 902 may choose a new scene or event based upon a
predetermined set of rules, the selected story line, selected
adventure, or a random selection process. A random scene/event
generator used in the scene/event generator 902 may be based on a
random number generator or any pseudorandom number generator such
as the Monte Carlo methods. After a scene is chosen, the gaming
application 122 may then generate the objects associated with that
scene using the scene/event generator P.sub.A 902, P.sub.B and
P.sub.C.
[0115] FIG. 9B is a flow diagram of a method 950 for providing an
interactive multiplayer story according to an illustrative
embodiment of the invention. The method may be employed by the game
servers 124A and/or 124B to advantageously provide players with
interactive multiplayer stories. First, the interactive multiplayer
story system 100 may store game data in a data store such as the
databases 128A and/or 128B. Game data may include story line data
associated with a plurality of story lines, where each story line
may include event data (Step 952). Second, the method 950 may also
allow the interactive multiplayer story system 100 to store player
character data for a plurality of users (Step 954). The method may
further enable the author clients 106A and/or 106B and user clients
110A, 110B and/or 110C to interact with the game data stored in
databases 128A and/or 128B.
[0116] Next, the scene/event generator 902 of the story
applications 122A and/or 122B may generate a first story line
including a plurality of events based on a portion of the event
data (Step 956) in response to a trigger condition. In one
embodiment, the scene/event generator 902 can create a story line
that is specific to a story and/or player by using the scene
parameter input 916. In another embodiment, the scene/event
generator 902 can create a linked story line, such as the event
816, based on the scene parameter input 916 to enable P.sub.A and
P.sub.B to participate in the event 816 together. In some
instances, the scene/event generator 902 generates one or more
events related to one or more instantiations of a story so that
various avatars are able to be joined to act out their various
character roles associated the one or more events.
[0117] Then, the story applications 122A and/or 122B may provide a
first interface arranged to enable a first user to control the
interactions of a first player character within the first story
line (Step 958). Examples of a graphical user interface may include
the screenshot 700, 1000, and/or 1200. Other examples of an
interface may include a mouse, a keyboard, a handheld controller,
microphone, speaker, haptic interface, motion sensor,
accelerometer, and/or other devices, without limitation, that
enable a user to control the interactions of his player character.
In one embodiment, an interface presented to one player can be the
same as an interface presented to another player, such as, if
P.sub.A and P.sub.B were to participate in the event 516
concurrently during a linking period. Players may also customize
interfaces based on their personal preferences. In another
embodiment, once P.sub.A and P.sub.B have completed the event 516,
the story application 122 may reconfigure players' respective
interfaces to the form presented prior to joining a linked event.
Other details about a user interface and the control of a player
character are contained in the descriptions with respect to FIGS.
700, 1000, and 1200.
[0118] Further, the scene/event generator 902 may initiate a first
event associated with the first story line in response to a first
trigger condition (Step 960). The trigger condition may be based on
time, elapsed time, the completion of at least one prior event, the
availability of at least one player character of the plurality of
users to participate in the event. In certain embodiments, the
triggers are stored as part of the scene parameter 916. A player
may also choose which of the triggers should be used by the
scene/event generator for creating a new scene.
[0119] FIG. 10 is a screen shot 1000 of a virtual environment
including an indication of one or more upcoming events according to
an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The screen shot 1000
includes a bulletin 1002, a background setting 1004 and an avatar
1006.
[0120] Depending on the configuration of a story application 122, a
player's avatar 1006 may be presented with the bulletin 1002 that
includes a user interface having, for example, a list of upcoming
events, which may be generated by the scene/event generator 906.
These events may include a scene, an adventure, a dungeon, short
story, subplot, occurrence, an interaction with another player
character or vactor, and/or any instance within a story line. In
one embodiment, the bulletin 902 contains event 828 (Event #3) of
FIG. 8 where the gaming application 122 has linked two story lines
together for the player characters of players P.sub.B and P.sub.C
to participate in the linked event 828. In a second embodiment, the
bulletin 1002 contains a list of events such as event 814, event
820, and/or event 818 to enable player P.sub.A to make a selection
to enable her player character to experience one of the events.
[0121] The bulletin 1002 may be accompanied by an indicator to
attract a user's attention, especially when events contained in the
bulletin 1002 may include a linking opportunity for two or more
players. An indicator may be a glowing graphical object, a token, a
ticket, a message, an alert, an icon, a change in display contrast,
a change in display image, a glowing portion of a display, a sound,
a counter, a glowing page in a graphical book, and a change in a
portion of an interface that is displayed to a user.
[0122] The bulletin may be positioned anywhere on the screen shot
1000 and be oriented in any direction. The events listed on the
bulletin 1002 may be also presented in a pop-up window or contained
in a tool bar. Users may further configure the design and location
of the bulletin 1002 based on their preferences.
[0123] In one embodiment, events may be listed statistically on the
bulletin 1002. In another embodiment, the list of events on the
bulletin 1002 can rotate so a user can view all the event
descriptions in the case of having a list longer than the length of
a bulletin 1002. The ordering of events on the bulletin 1002 may be
based on, without limitations, alphabet, correlation score
calculated by the quality control unit 1410, other player
characters' rating, length of time, or any other game-specific
and/or player specific ordering metrics. Users may also configure
the ordering of events on the bulletin 1002 before, during or after
a game and/or event.
[0124] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a gaming application 122
including a scripting routine and/or function 1150 according to an
illustrative embodiment of the invention. The scripting function
1150 may be triggered automatically, may be user-enabled, or
triggered automatically under certain user-selected conditions.
While a player character is performing actions within a story line
of a story application 122, the story application 122 may assume
full or partial control of a player character to perform a scripted
set of actions to assist the player in acting out a part of a story
and/or story line and, thereby, assist the player in performing
social interactions or other interactions in certain player
character situations.
[0125] FIG. 12 is a screen shot 1200 of a virtual environment in
which a player is prompted to use the scripting function 1150
according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The
screen shot 1200 includes a scripting prompt 1202, a virtual scene
1206, a male avatar 1202, and a female avatar 1204. For example, a
player may trigger the scripting function to ensure that their male
avatar 1202 says the right things when interacting with a female
avatar 1204 in a virtual bar. The female avatar's reaction may also
be prescribed and/or controlled by the story application 122 if the
scripting function 1150 is turned on by the female player 1204.
[0126] Players may customize the scripting function 1150. In one
embodiment, the scripting function 1150 is configured to
automatically provide responses under certain conditions. In a
second embodiment, the scripting function 1150 is configured to be
used minimally as a fail-safe at certain critical times, while
allowing the player to handle most communications. A player may
disable the scripting function or use the interface to enable the
scripting function manually. The story application 122 may not
reveal the use of the scripting function 1150 by one avatar to
another avatar.
[0127] The design or format of the scripting prompt 1208 feature
may come in various forms. In one embodiment, users can choose the
type of the scripting prompt 1208 at the beginning of a game under
the settings option. In a second embodiment, users can be prompted
by a pop-up window to choose whether they wish to have the feature
turned on or off. For example, the pop-up window may state "would
you like to turn scripting on?" while providing "yes" and "no"
button. In a third embodiment, the scripting prompt 1208 is
displayed on the display screen along with the virtual scene
1206.
[0128] FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of a method 1300 for enabling
player character interactions in an interactive multiplayer story
according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. First,
the story application 122 may provide a user interface to enable a
user to control a player character within the interactive
multiplayer story (Step 1302). The user interface may include a GUI
or other interface that enables a player to control the movement,
configuration, actions, and/or interactions of one or more player
characters.
[0129] The story application 122 may track the actions of the
player character within the interactive multiplayer story using,
for example, a story line tracker function 908 of FIG. 9A (Step
1304). By tracking a player character's progression within a story
line, the story application 122 can monitor the interaction events
of a player character to determine whether the story application
should take control of the player character using the scripting
function 1150.
[0130] Third, the scripting function may transfer control of the
player character from the user to the interactive multiplayer story
during an interaction event in response to an interaction condition
(Step 1306). An interaction condition may include a type of
interaction, location of interaction, time of interaction,
characteristics of the entity being interacted with, and user
acceptance of the interaction condition.
[0131] Once an interaction condition is satisfied and/or triggered,
the story application 122 may take control of a player character
using the scripting function 1150 so that the actions of the player
character follow a script and/or sequence directed by scripting
function 1150. In some embodiments, the interaction event includes
at least one of a communication, a physical interaction, a mental
interaction, a social interaction, a speaking, writing, acting out
a part of a story line, performing an action, and performing a
sequence of actions. An interaction condition may include a social
interaction with a second player and/or player character. An
example of such interaction is provided in the description for FIG.
12. Once the scripting function 1150 of the story application 122
finishes a scripted control sequence for a player character, the
scripting function 1150 may automatically, and/or in response to a
user prompt, transfer control of the player character back to the
user.
[0132] In certain embodiments, the story application 122 may
function as a training and/or educational application to enable
employees and/or student to learn and/or acquire training and/or
experience in performing certain tasks. For example, the story
application 122 may provide a virtual representation of a building
and/or facility. A security guard may use a player character to
perform security functions throughout the virtual facility. The
story application 122 may provide a variety of events and/or
scenarios based on certain story-related trigger conditions. In
this case, the story and associated story line may be related to
providing security for the virtual facility. The user interface may
provide any degree of interactivity with the user (e.g., security
guard trainee) from providing a 2D interface to a detailed 3D
interface (e.g., a virtual holodeck). The story application 122 may
provide various story lines for employees, professionals,
personnel, and/or students related to various occupational fields
including, without limitation, health care, law enforcement,
accounting, law, business, marketing, food services,
transportation, entertainment, and/or the military.
[0133] FIG. 14A is a diagram of a content creation platform 1400
according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The
platform 1400 includes a content producer 1402, a submission
database 1404, a marketer 1406, a quality control system
administrator 1408, a quality control 1410, a publication database
1412, a sale platform 1414 and a sale application 1418.
[0134] The content producer 1402 may be a developer who produces
content used in an interactive multiplayer story, such as story
applications 122. The content producer 1402 may include one or more
authors, novelists, writers of movie scripts, professional video
game designers, level designers, music producers, or any other
entities capable of producing contents used in an interactive
multiplayer story. The content producer 1402 may produce content
used in the entire story or only parts of a story. Similarly, the
content producer 1402 may produce all levels in a game or some
levels of a game. In some embodiments, the development server 126
as shown in FIG. 1 may integrate story lines created by various
content producers 1412 into one story. The content producer 302 may
also submit content from various sources, such as the author client
106A, to the submission database 1404 via the network 102.
[0135] The marketer 1406 may include a person, group, or business
that provides items and/or merchandise to players within a virtual
world, provided by, for example, the gaming application 122. The
marketer 306 may include a company with a virtual establishment in
the virtual world of the gaming application 122. The marketer 1406
may use an advertising agency and/or any other entity to sell
and/or market merchandise in a particular interactive multiplayer
story or virtual world of the gaming application 122. In one
embodiment, development server 126 can be used to create all or
portions of the merchandise for the marketers 1406. In another
embodiment, the marketer 1406 may outsource the development of
their merchandise to another entity. The scene/event generator 902,
904, 906, as described in FIG. 9A, may also tailor the merchandise
of the marketer 1406 to a story and/or a player. All merchandise
from the marketers 1406 may then be submitted into the "gaming
submission" database 1404 through the network 102. In one
embodiment, the content producer 1402 and marketer 1406 collaborate
on the development of a story line using the development server 126
so that merchandise is integrated into a story line before
submitting to the database 1404. The development server 126 may be
operated by a content producer, a marketer, and/or the game
producer. There may also be a plurality of development servers in
various locations.
[0136] The submission database 1404 may include a memory and/or
computing element that is capable of storing information
electronically. The database 1404 may include one or more
databases. The database 1404 may distribute an entire story or
segments of a story across multiple databases. In addition to
allowing the content producer 1402 and the marketer 1406 to store
content into the submission database 1404, the content producer
1402 and or marketer 1406 may also retrieve and edit their stored
data to enable a developer to make future updates. The quality
control unit 1410 may also retrieve data from the submission
database 1404. Certain communications with the submission database
1404 may be provided via the network 102.
[0137] The quality control unit 1410 may include a system or a
plurality of systems of hardware and software, used to determine
which submissions in the submission database 1404 should be
published. The quality control unit 1410 may be automatically
initiated, developer enabled, or automatically initiated under
certain pre-defined conditions. The quality control unit 1410 may
utilize a computing system, a program, and/or one or more persons
to perform quality control functions. A person, acting as an
analyst, may be someone with sufficient experience in gaming design
such as, for example, a gaming developer. The quality control
system administrator 1408 may monitor the on-going submission
process and perform maintenance diagnostics on the systems used in
the submission database 1404 and the quality control 1410.
[0138] To determine whether a submission should be published, the
quality control unit 1410 may compare a submission against a set of
acceptance rules. The acceptance rules may include quality of
graphics, quality of image content, quality of theme, quality of
actions, difficulty of story line, content rating, amount of
offensive content, audio quality, correlation to other story lines,
correlation to the interactive multiplayer story, size of the story
line, the amount of merchandise included in the content, the amount
of advertising in the content, the type of story, the genre of a
story, the type of items in a story line, the effect of the story
line on other story lines, the effect of story line on the
interactive multiplayer story, popularity of the story line, number
of votes the story line receives, and ranking of an author of the
story line. Users, e.g. an analyst or administrator, may customize
the acceptance rules by adding and/or removing additional rules
based on preferences. The quality control unit 1410 may assign a
numerical value, "correlation score," to a submission, based on the
number of acceptance rules a submission satisfies. The quality
control unit 1410 may further include a person that reviews a
submission via a user interface. Submissions may also be indexed
and ordered based on their "correlation score" so that the most
relevant submissions may be presented earlier on an interface to a
player. The quality control unit 1410 may also include a
correlation algorithm that can decide how relevant a submission is
to a story line. A correlation algorithm may include a Bayesian or
other types of learning algorithm that can adapt automatically.
[0139] In one embodiment, after being reviewed by the quality
control unit 1410, stories, level designs, merchandise, story
applications or any other content submitted to the submission
database 1404 may either be accepted and then stored in the
publication database 1412, or returned to their respective writers
or designers for revision, or refused for publication.
Subsequently, the quality control unit 1410 may review a returned
and/or revised submission. In some cases, a submission may never
enter the publication database 1412.
[0140] Certain accepted submissions from the submission database
1404 may then be stored in the publication database 1412. The
publication database 1412 may include a plurality of databases such
as the database 128A and 128B. In some embodiments, the user 110A
can enable a user to purchase various contents stored in the
publication database 1412 through the sale platform 1416.
[0141] The sale platform 1416 may be a system of hardware and
software that displays products stored in the publication database
1412 by providing users with a graphical or textual interface. The
sale platform 1416 may include game server 124 such that selling
and/or marketing of game data to users is performed during, before,
or after a user's gaming experience. Once a user has purchased
and/or selected the desired content, the sale platform 1416 may
process the request by retrieving the necessary executable computer
codes for installing and running the story application 122 on the
game server 124A. Users may also install and run part of the story
application 122 on a local machine, offloading work from the game
server 124A and/or the network 102. Alternatively, the story
application 122 may already have the software or code for the
purchased gaming data (e.g., story, or item). Thus, the story
application can be configured to enable the user to use the
purchased gaming data.
[0142] While a user is participating in an interactive multiplayer
story, the sale platform 1416 may trigger a scenario or present a
scene, adventure, and/or story line for purchase. These scenarios
or scene, adventure, and/or story line may at least be triggered by
time, player character availability and any other event generating
parameters in the scene parameter 916. For example, when a male
avatar and a female avatar are socializing in a virtual dance club,
sale platform and/or application 1416 may trigger the display of
various related items so that a male avatar may purchase an item,
such as a martini, to show affection towards a female avatar, and,
therefore, enhance the social interactions experienced by the
players.
[0143] The sale platform 1416 may include a sale application 1418
that provides a mechanism for monetizing products purchased by a
user. The sale application 1418 may provide secured communications
via a network for monetary transactions and exchanges. It may
further provide content producers with the ability to trademark,
copyright, or patent their products within a virtual world, and,
thereby, protect the rights associated with these contents.
[0144] FIG. 14B is a flow diagram of a method 1450 for developing
story lines for an interactive multiplayer story according to an
illustrative embodiment of the invention. The interactive
multiplayer story system 100 may employ the method 1450 to provide
rich interactive multiplayer story related gaming content to a
player. First, the story applications 122 or the development server
126 may interact with a content producer 1402 and/or marketer 1406
by providing an interface to enable the submission of a plurality
of story lines (Step 1452). An interface may be any graphical,
textual, audible or haptic representation that allows a user to
interact with a system.
[0145] The content creation platform 1400 may allow the author
clients 106A and 106B to store the plurality of story lines in a
data store 1404 (Step 1454). The data store may include the
submission database 1404 to which the content producer 1402, the
development server 126, and the marketer 1406 may submit their
respective content. In one embodiment, the story lines in a data
store include an event, a plurality of events and a plurality of
story lines. The story lines may include a saga, a dungeon, a
quest, a short story, an episode, a scene, an occurrence and/or an
interaction among characters. The story lines may include media
content associated with a movie, television show, book, story,
play, video game, video, and/or song.
[0146] The content creation platform 1400 may define acceptance
rules for approving a story line for use in the interactive
multiplayer story (Step 1456). The acceptance rules may include
quality of graphics, quality of image content, quality of theme,
quality of actions, difficulty of story line, content rating,
amount of offensive content, audio quality, correlation to other
story lines, correlation to the interactive multiplayer story, size
of the story line, the amount of merchandise included in the
content, the amount of advertising in the content, the type of
story, the genre of a story, the type of items in the story line,
the effect of the story line on other story lines, the effect of
the story line on the interactive multiplayer story, approval from
a reviewer, popularity of the story line, number of votes the story
line receives, and/or ranking of an author of the story line. The
quality control unit 1410 and the quality control system
administrator 1408 may follow the acceptance rules when reviewing
content stored in the submission database 1404.
[0147] Then, the content creation platform 1400 may review a first
story line to determine whether the content of the first story line
satisfies the acceptance rules (Step 1458). In some embodiments, a
story line or merchandise is reviewed by a person based on the
acceptance rules, and the content creation platform 1400 can
provide the person with a reviewer interface to enable him to
review the content. The reviewer may provide an acceptance or
denial of the content and the accepted content may be sent to the
publication database 1412. For content that satisfies the
acceptance rules, the sale platform 1416 and the sale application
1418 may prompt the user to purchase the story line via the user
interface, whereas the prompt may occur while the user is playing
an interactive multiplayer story application 122, or before or
after the user plays the role-playing story application 122.
Finally, the sale application 1418 may integrate at least one item
of merchandise into a story line and set intellectual property
rules associated with the item in the interactive multiplayer
story.
[0148] It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art
that methods involved in the present invention may be embodied in a
computer program product that includes a computer usable and/or
readable medium. For example, such a computer usable medium may
consist of a read only memory device, such as a CD ROM disk,
conventional ROM devices, or a random access memory, a hard drive
device or a computer diskette, a flash memory, a DVD, or any like
digital memory medium, having a computer readable program code
stored thereon.
[0149] Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the various
configurations described herein may be combined without departing
from the present invention. It will also be recognized that the
invention may take many forms other than those disclosed in this
specification. Accordingly, it is emphasized that the invention is
not limited to the disclosed methods, systems and apparatuses, but
is intended to include variations to and modifications thereof as
understood by those skilled in the art with respect to the
following claims.
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