Recording medium storing game progress control program, game progress control program, game progress control method and video game apparatus

• US 20030073488A1
• Filed: 10/07/2002
• Published: 04/17/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konami Digital Entertainment Company Limited (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Konami Corporation (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Wada, Hiroyuki, Shibamiya, Masakazu, Harano, Yuuki, Kubota, Kazutaka, Okita, Katsunori, Makiishi, Takashi
• Granted Patent: US 7,097,559 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/30
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/50 characterized by details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• 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: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3276 wherein the players compete, e.g. tournament
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3283 wherein the number of active machines is limited

Abstract

The CPU 161 of the video game apparatus comprises a performance determination unit 161b that determines the order of finish of the players each time a game is completed, a parameter calculation unit 161g that calculates parameters indicating the characteristics of each player in playing games based on the game history data stored in a history storage unit 162b described below and a title assigning unit 161h that assigns a title applicable during games to each player based on the calculated parameters, and the RAM 162 comprises a history storage unit 162b that stores past player game history data for each player, and a title storage unit 162c that associates the titles assigned by the title assigning unit 161h with the players and stores them.

Claims

1. A recording medium which stores a game progress control program that controls the progress of a game played by a plurality of players while reflecting the game progress on game screens, said game progress control program causes a video game apparatus to function as:

history storage means for storing past game history data for each player,

parameter calculation means for calculating parameters that indicate the characteristics of each player in playing games based on the game history data,

title assigning means for assigning titles applicable during games to the players based on the calculated parameters, and

title storage means for associating these titles with the respective players and storing the associated titles.

2. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said program causes said video game apparatus to further function as:

item assigning means that virtually assigns a prescribed number of items to players who satisfy prescribed conditions,

performance determination means that determines at the end of each game the winner and losers or the order of each player'"'"'s finish,

item transfer means that, based on the results of the determination conducted by the performance determination means, transfers among players a prescribed number of items from among the items virtually possessed by the players,

rank determination means that determines a rank that indicates the level of a player'"'"'s skill at games based on the number of items virtually possessed by the player, and

rank storage means that associates the number of items and the rank with each player and stores them in memory.

3. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said game is a mah-jongg game, said game history data includes at least data regarding each player'"'"'s cumulative number of deals won and cumulative number of deals played, and said parameter calculation means calculates the number of wins per deal by dividing the cumulative number of deals won by the cumulative number of deals played.

4. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said game is a mah-jongg game, said game history data includes at least data regarding each player'"'"'s cumulative number of losses on his/her own discard and cumulative number of deals played, and said parameter calculation means calculates the number of losses on his/her own discard per deal by dividing the cumulative number of losses on his/her own discard by the cumulative number of deals played.

5. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said game is a mah-jongg game, said game history data includes at least data regarding the cumulative number of exponentials in each win and said parameter calculation means calculates the number of exponentials per win by dividing the cumulative number of exponentials by the cumulative number of deals won.

6. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said game is a mah-jongg game, said game history data includes at least data on the cumulative number of special tiles in each win and the cumulative number of deals won by each player, and said parameter calculation means calculates the number of the special tiles per win by dividing the cumulative number of the special tiles by the cumulative number of deals won.

7. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said program causes said video game apparatus to further function as opponent display means that displays on a game screen the ranks and/or titles of the opposing players.

8. The recording medium according to claim 2, wherein said game is a mah-jongg game, said program causes said video game apparatus to further function as number of deals selection means that, when a game is begun, displays on a game screen multiple options for the number of deals and receives selection input from the player, and said item transfer means determines the number of items to be transferred among the players based on the selected number of deals.

9. A game progress control method that controls the progress of a game with a video game apparatus played by a plurality of players while reflecting the game progress on game screens, said method comprising the steps of:

storing past game history data for each player in storage means in the video game apparatus,

performing a parameter calculation process in which parameters that indicate characteristics of each player in playing games are calculated based on the game history data and

performing a title assigning process in which a title applicable during games is assigned to each player based on the calculated parameters are executed in the video game apparatus, and these titles are associated with the players and stored in storage means in the video game apparatus.

10. A video game apparatus that controls the progress of a game played by a plurality of players while reflecting the game progress on game screens, said apparatus comprising:

history storage means for storing past game history data for each player, parameter calculation means for calculating parameters that indicate characteristics of each player in playing games based on said game history data,

title assigning means for assigning a title applicable during games to each player based on the calculated parameters, and

title storage means for associating said titles with the players and for storing the associated titles therein.

11. A game progress control program that controls the progress of a game played by a plurality of players while reflecting the game progress on game screens, said game progress control program causes a video game apparatus to function as:

history storage means for storing past game history data for each player,

parameter calculation means for calculating parameters that indicate the characteristics of each player in playing games based on the game history data,

title assigning means for assigning titles applicable during games to the players based on the calculated parameters, and

title storage means for associating these titles with the respective players and storing the associated titles.