Soft reservation system and method for multiplayer video games

• US 10,286,326 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2015
• Issued: 05/14/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Marr, Michael D., Kaplan, Keith S., Lewis, Nathan T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yen, Jason T
• Application Number:
  US14/712,541
• Publication Number:
  US 20160001182A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,461 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/60 Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/847 Cooperative playing, e.g. requiring coordinated actions from several players to achieve a common goal
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5566 by matching opponents or finding partners to build a team, e.g. by skill level, geographical area, background, play style
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/575 for trading virtual items
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3227 Configuring a gaming machine, e.g. downloading personal settings, selecting working parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3269 Timing aspects of game play, e.g. blocking/halting the operation of a gaming machine
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3272 Games involving multiple players

Abstract

A soft reservation system and method is provided facilitates an unrequested reservation of a gameplay session in multiplayer video games. A soft reservation may include a match between two or more players for one or more subsequent gameplay sessions that are reserved for the players. The system may, for instance, anticipate an interest by players in a gameplay session and make a soft reservation for the players, who may not have explicitly requested the reservation, to play in the gameplay session. A soft reservation may be made for a player based on a match score, a game profile, a player profile, and/or other information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of reserving gameplay sessions for players in a multiplayer video game, the method being implemented by a host computer having one or more physical processors programmed with computer program instructions that, when executed by the one or more physical processors, cause the host computer to perform the method, wherein said host computer is in data communication with a plurality of computing devices and wherein each of said plurality of computing devices is configured to interact with an instance of the multiplayer video game, the method comprising:

using a scoring engine in the host computer to identify a first player for which an unrequested reservation to play in a gameplay session of the multiplayer game is to be made, wherein said unrequested reservation is a reservation to play in the gameplay session of the multiplayer game made before the first player expresses an interest in playing in said gameplay session;

using at least one of the scoring engine or an analytics and feedback engine coupled with the scoring engine in the host computer to determine first availability information associated with the first player, wherein the first availability information indicates an estimated time at which the first player will be available to play in the gameplay session;

using at least one of the scoring engine or the analytics and feedback engine in the host computer to identify a second player for inclusion in the gameplay session based on a potential match of the first player and the second player; and

using a pipelining engine configured to access data indicative of at least one of the match score of the first player and the second player, a game profile of the first player, a profile of the first player, a game progression of the first player, a game mode of interest to the first player, a log in time of the first player, or a log in time of preferred players of the first player;

wherein the pipelining engine is a modular programmatic component, executed by the host computer, and wherein the pipelining engine is further configured to generate the unrequested reservation, within the multiplayer video game, for the first player to play in the gameplay session with the second player based on the first availability and said data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using at least one of the scoring engine and the analytics and feedback engine to identify the second player comprises:

using the scoring engine to generate a match score for the potential match of the first player and the second player; and

using the analytics and feedback engine to determine that the match score exceeds a predetermined threshold value to match the first player and the second player to play in the gameplay session.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein data indicative of the game profile of the first player comprises one or more gameplay preferences of the first player.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the gameplay session caters to the first gameplay preference of the first player, and wherein identifying the second player comprises:

using the pipelining engine to determine that the unrequested reservation for the second player to play in the gameplay session has already been made.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more gameplay preferences comprises a preference to play with one or more preferred players, and wherein using the pipelining engine to generate the unrequested reservation for the first player to play in the gameplay session with the second player comprises:

determining that the second player is among the one or more preferred players; and

determining that the second player is or will be available to play in the gameplay session.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining first availability information comprises:

using the analytics and feedback engine to predict the estimated time at which the first player will be available to play in the gameplay session.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein predicting the estimated time at which the first player will be available to play in the gameplay session comprises:

using at least the scoring engine to determine that the first player is playing in a current gameplay session; and

using at least the analytics and feedback engine to determine an expected completion time of the current gameplay session, wherein the estimated time is based on the expected completion time.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein predicting the estimated time at which the first player will be available to play in the gameplay session comprises:

using at least the analytics and feedback engine to determine a logon time that the first player is expected to logon to play in one or more gameplay sessions.

9. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

providing an interim gameplay session to the first player until the gameplay session has started.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the interim gameplay session is associated with an expected completion time, the method further comprising using at least the scoring engine or the analytics and feedback engine to:

determine a second expected completion time of a current gameplay session of the second player; and

identify the interim gameplay session based on the expected completion time and the second expected completion time.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the expected completion time is on or before the second expected completion time.

12. A system for reserving gameplay sessions for players in a multiplayer video game, the system comprising:

a host computer, wherein said host computer is in data communication with a plurality of computing devices, wherein each of said plurality of computing devices is configured to interact with an instance of the multiplayer video game and wherein said host computer has one or more physical processors programmed with computer program instructions that, when executed by the one or more physical processors, cause the host computer to;

execute a scoring engine to identify a first player for which an unrequested reservation to play in a gameplay session of the multiplayer game is to be made, wherein said unrequested reservation is a reservation to play in the gameplay session of the multiplayer video game made before the first player expresses an interest in playing in said gameplay session;

execute at least an analytics and feedback engine coupled with the scoring engine to determine first availability information associated with the first player, wherein the first availability information indicates an estimated time at which the first player will be available to play in the gameplay session;

execute at least an analytics and feedback engine coupled with the scoring engine to identify a second player for inclusion in the gameplay session based on a potential match of the first player and the second player; and

execute at least a pipelining engine coupled with the scoring engine and the analytics and feedback engine to access data indicative of at least one of the match score of the first player and the second player, a game profile of the first player, a profile of the first player, a game progression of the first player, a game mode of interest to the first player, a log in time of the first player, or a log in time of preferred players of the first player;

wherein the pipelining engine is a modular programmatic component executed by the host computer, and wherein the pipelining engine is further executed to generate, within the multiplayer video game, the unrequested reservation for the first player to play in the gameplay session with the second player based on the first availability and said data.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein to identify the second player, at least one of the scoring engine and the analytics and feedback engine is configured to:

generate a match score for the potential match of the first player and the second player; and

determine that the match score exceeds a predetermined threshold value to match the first player and the second player to play in the gameplay session.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein wherein data indicative of the game profile of the first player comprises one or more gameplay preferences of the first player.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the gameplay session caters to the first gameplay preference of the first player, and wherein to identify the second player, at least one of the pipelining engine and the analytics and feedback engine is configured to:

determine that the unrequested reservation for the second player to play in the gameplay session has already been made.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more gameplay preferences comprises a preference to play with one or more preferred players, and wherein to generate the unrequested reservation for the first player to play in the gameplay session with the second player, the pipelining engine is configured to:

determine that the second player is among the one or more preferred players; and

determine that the second player is or will be available to play in the gameplay session.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein to obtain first availability information, the analytics and feedback engine is configured to:

predict the estimated time at which the first player will be available to play in the gameplay session.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein to predict the estimated time at which the first player will be available to play in the gameplay session, the analytics and feedback engine is configured to:

determine that the first player is playing in a current gameplay session; and

determine an expected completion time of the current gameplay session, wherein the estimated time is based on the expected completion time.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein to predict the estimated time at which the first player will be available to play in the gameplay session, the analytics and feedback engine is configured to:

determine a logon time that the first player is expected to logon to play in one or more gameplay sessions.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the host computer is programmed to:

provide an interim gameplay session to the first player until the gameplay session has started.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the interim gameplay session is associated with an expected completion time, and wherein at least one of the scoring engine or the analytics and feedback engine is configured to:

determine a second expected completion time of a current gameplay session of the second player; and

identify the interim gameplay session based on the expected completion time and the second expected completion time.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the expected completion time is on or before the second expected completion time.

23. A computer-readable non-transitory medium having computer program instructions stored thereon for reserving gameplay sessions for players in a multiplayer video game, the computer program instructions, when executed by one or more physical processors of a host computer, cause the host computer to:

communicate with a plurality of computing devices, wherein each of said plurality of computing devices is configured to interact with an instance of the multiplayer video game;

execute a scoring engine in the computer program instructions to identify a first player for which an unrequested reservation to play in a gameplay session of the multiplayer video game is to be made, wherein said unrequested reservation is a reservation to play in the gameplay session of the multiplayer video game made before the first player expresses an interest in playing in said gameplay session;

execute at least one of the scoring engine or an analytics and feedback engine coupled with the scoring engine in the computer program instructions to determine first availability information associated with the first player, wherein the first availability information indicates an estimated time at which the first player will be available to play in the gameplay session;

execute at least one of the scoring engine or the analytics and feedback engine in the computer program instructions to identify a second player for inclusion in the gameplay session based on a potential match of the first player and the second player; and

execute a pipelining engine in the computer program instructions to access data indicative of at least one of the match score of the first player and the second player, a game profile of the first player, a profile of the first player, a game progression of the first player, a game mode of interest to the first player, a log in time of the first player, or a log in time of preferred players of the first player;

wherein the pipelining engine is a modular programmatic component, executed by the host computer and wherein the pipelining engine is further executed to generate, within the multiplayer video game, the unrequested reservation for the first player to play in the gameplay session with the second player based on the first availability.