System and method to provide a spectator experience for networked gaming

• US 20030038805A1
• Filed: 08/22/2001
• Published: 02/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Glatzer, Asta L., Wong, Curtis G., Drucker, Steven M., Cohen, Michael F., He, Li-wei
• Granted Patent: US 6,999,083 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/473
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• 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 13/5252 using two or more virtual cameras concurrently or sequentially, e.g. automatically switching between fixed virtual cameras when a character changes room or displaying a rear-mirror view in a car-driving game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5255 according to dedicated instructions from a player, e.g. using a secondary joystick to rotate the camera around a player's character
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/577 for watching a game played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 345/952 Simulation

Abstract

A spectator experience corresponding to an occurrence of one or more games or events is generated based on each associated occurrence. The occurrence of a game or event varies in response to contributions and/or interactions of one or more participants of the game or event. The spectator experience enables users thereof to observe an augmented version of the game or event, such as by implementing enhanced viewpoint controls and/or other spectator related effects. In a particular aspect, the spectator experience can provide an indication of the spectators'"'"' presence, which is made available to the spectators and/or to the participants of the game.

Claims

1. A system for providing a spectator experience for a game or event, comprising:

a spectator engine that aggregates selected game data with other data to provide spectator data, the game data varying as a function of at least one of contributions and interactions of at least one participant of an occurrence of the game or event;

the other data including information based on use of the spectator experience; and

a distribution system operative to provide a signal based on the spectator data that is transformable into a representation of the spectator experience.

2. The system of claim 1, the spectator engine further comprising viewing controls programmed to implement cinematographic features relative to spectator data.

3. The system of claim 2, the spectator engine further comprising a plurality of virtual cameras, each of the virtual cameras being operative to selectively animate associated portions of the spectator data, the virtual cameras being selected based on the viewing controls.

4. The system of claim 3, the viewing controls being programmed to select virtual cameras according to a camera selection algorithm.

5. The system of claim 3, the selection of the virtual cameras being user selectable.

6. The system of claim 1, the other data further comprising an indication of a number of users associated with the spectator experience for the game or event.

7. The system of claim 6, the spectator data further comprising data operative to provide the spectator experience with at least one of an audio and visual representation indicative of the number of spectators associated with the game or event.

8. The system of claim 6, the spectator data further comprising data operative to provide the spectator experience with at least one of an audio and visual representation of previously associated users of the spectator experience for the game or event.

9. The system of claim 1, the spectator engine communicating at least part of the spectator data to a portal programmed to post information based on the spectator data for substantially global access.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communications infrastructure that receives the signal from the distribution system, the communications infrastructure being operative to communicate encoded spectator information based on the signal, such that a recipient thereof can decode the spectator information and generate the representation of the spectator experience.

12. The system of claim 11, the communications infrastructure employing at least one of a wired and wireless communications protocol.

13. The system of claim 1, at least portions of the instance of the game or event and the spectator engine being implemented at different computers.

14. The system of claim 1, the occurrence of a game or event comprising an occurrence of a computer-mediated game or event.

10. The system of claim 10, the portal further being programmed to receive spectator data from a plurality spectator engines associated with other games or events and post information for each game or event.

15. A system for providing a spectator experience for a game or event, comprising:

means for receiving game data corresponding to an occurrence of the game or event;

means for receiving spectator information based indicative of use of the spectator experience,

means, responsive to the game data, for aggregating the game data with the spectator information to provide spectator data, the spectator data being transformable into a representation of the spectator experience for the occurrence of the game or event.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising means for dynamically selecting which of the game data and the spectator information is to be combined into the spectator data.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising virtual camera means for dynamically selecting a spectator viewpoint according to a predefined camera selection algorithm, the spectator data being provided based on the selected viewpoint.

18. The system of claim 17, the virtual camera means selecting the spectator viewpoint based on the received spectator information.

19. The system of claim 17, the virtual camera means selecting the spectator viewpoint based on manual instructions provided to the virtual camera means.

20. The system of claim 15, the spectator data includes an indication of the spectators, such that the representation of the spectator experience for the occurrence of the game or event includes a representation of a spectator audience.

21. The system of claim 15, the game data corresponding to the occurrence of a computer-mediated game or event.

35. The system of claim 15, the game data corresponding to the occurrence of a computer-mediated game or event.

22. A portal to a spectator experience associated with at least one game or event, comprising:

a collection system operative to aggregate gaming data based on an occurrence of the at least one game or event; and

a graphical user interface which provides information about the occurrence;

a user interface element implemented within the graphical user interface and operatively associated with the at least one occurrence, the user interface element identifying a location of a spectator experience associated with the at least one occurrence and being operative to direct a user of the portal to the location in response to activation of the user interface element.

23. The portal of claim 22, the occurrence further comprising a plurality of occurrences of the at least one game or event, each of the occurrences having an associated user interface element within the graphical user interface that identifies a location of a respective spectator experience and operative to direct a user of the portal to the location of the respective spectator experience in response to activation of the associated user interface element.

24. The portal of claim 23, the graphical user interface providing information about each of the occurrences based on participation and spectator activity relating to each of the respective occurrences.

25. The portal of claim 24, the information about each of the occurrences including an indication of a number of spectators.

26. The portal of claim 24, the information about each of the occurrences comprising identifying characteristics operative to identify at least one spectator to other spectators that have been previously associated with each other by the identifying characteristics.

27. The portal of claim 24, the information about each of the occurrences comprising an indication of a number of participants of the each of the occurrences.

28. The portal of claim 24, the information about each of the occurrences comprising an indication of an identity for at least some of the participants of each respective occurrence.

29. The portal of claim 24, the information about each of the occurrences further comprising at least one of graphical and audio data derived based on at least part of the respective occurrences.

30. The portal of claim 22, the gaming data corresponding to the occurrence of a computer-mediated game or event.

31. A system for providing a spectator experience for a game or event, comprising:

a game server operative to communicate game data with at least one game client and provide a multiplayer experience for participants of an associated game; and

a spectator server operative to receive the game data and provide spectator data for receipt by at least one spectator, the spectator data being derived from the game data and other data associated with at least one of the participants and the at least one user, the spectator data being transformable into a representation of the spectator experience by the at least one user.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising a portal that receives at least one of the game data and the spectator data, the portal being programmed to post information for substantially global access based on the at least one of the game data and the spectator data.

33. The system of claim 31, the spectator server receiving feedback data based on the at least one spectator that receives the spectator data, the spectator data being updated according to the feedback.

34. The system of claim 31, the spectator server implementing viewing controls to enhance a graphical and functional features of the occurrence of the game being described by the spectator data.

36. A method for providing a spectator experience associated with an event or game, comprising:

receiving game information corresponding to an occurrence of the game or event having at least one participant thereof;

selecting portions of the game information for incorporation into the spectator experience associated with the occurrence of the game or event; and

aggregating the selected portions of the game information and other spectator-related information to provide aggregated spectator data that is transformable into a representation of the spectator experience associated with the occurrence of the game or event.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising receiving at least part of the other spectator-related information based on spectators of the spectator experience that are associated with the occurrence of the game or event.

38. The method of claim 37, the other spectator-related information including an indication of a number of spectators using the spectator experience associated with the occurrence of the game or event.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising providing an indication of the number of spectators of the spectator experience associated with the occurrence of the game or event so that participants of the occurrence of the game or event can perceive the number of spectators.

40. The method of claim 38, further comprising providing an indication of the number of spectators in the aggregated spectator data so that users of spectator experience associated with the occurrence of the game or event can perceive a presence of a spectator audience based on the indication of the number of spectators.

41. The method of claim 36, further comprising identifying identities of spectators to those spectators that have been associated with each other by identifying characteristics.

42. The method of claim 36, the selecting further comprising implementing a virtual camera system associated with a plurality of different viewpoints and choosing a viewpoint for the spectator experience associated with the occurrence of the game or event based on the game information.

43. The method of claim 42, the viewpoint further being chosen based on at least one of a preprogrammed camera control algorithm and a manual selection.

44. The method of claim 36, the occurrence of a game or event corresponding to an occurrence of a computer-mediated game or event.

45. A portal to a spectator experience associated with at least one computer-implemented game or event, comprising:

means for aggregating game data associated with an occurrence of the at least one game or event; and

means for displaying information about the occurrence;

means associated with the displayed information for identifying a location of the spectator experience associated with the occurrence; and

means for directing a user of the portal to the location of the spectator experience associated with the occurrence in response to the user selecting the means associated with the displayed information.

46. A method for providing a portal to a spectator experience associated with at least one computer-mediated game or event, comprising:

aggregating game information based on an occurrence of the at least one game or event; and

displaying information about the occurrence based on the aggregated game information; and

providing a user interface element associated with the occurrence, the user interface element identifying a location of the spectator experience associated with the occurrence, such that, when a user activates the user interface element, the user is directed to the location of the spectator experience associated with the occurrence.

47. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for:

receiving occurrence data indicative of an occurrence of a game or event running at a computer, the data varying as a function of time based on interactions of at least one participant of the occurrence of the game or event being implemented at the computer;

implementing viewing controls relative to the received data to provide enhanced data describing the occurrence of the game or event; and

providing spectator data based on the enhanced data, the spectator data being transformable into a representation of the spectator experience of the occurrence of the game or event.

48. The computer-readable medium of claim 47 having further computer-executable instructions for receiving feedback data based on spectators that generate the representation of the spectator experience, the spectator data being provided based on the enhanced data and the feedback data, such that the representation of the spectator experience includes an indication of a spectator audience according to the feedback data.