System and method for scoring, ranking, and awarding cash prizes to interactive game players

• US 20040225387A1
• Filed: 05/07/2004
• Published: 11/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jay Smith III
• Original Assignee: Jay Smith III
• Inventors: Smith, Jay III
• Granted Patent: US 7,416,489 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/92
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3276 wherein the players compete, e.g. tournament

Abstract

A method and system for computing scores and determining a winner between a plurality of users playing a plurality of different games on an interactive gaming network. Players are sequentially assigned to a player group as they initially log on to the gaming network. Each player selects and plays a game to produce a present raw score value which is converted into a present ranked percentage score value by calculating the percentage of past raw score values for the selected game that are below the present raw score value. A handicap value is added to the present raw score value to determine a normalized game score that can be compared to the normalized game scores of other users playing the same or different games in any combination. An average of a minimum number of game scores are used to compare players within the same player group.

Claims

1. A method of computing scores and determining a winner between a plurality of players of a plurality of different games, each of the different games having a history of stored past raw score values for all players of the game, the method comprising:

selecting a game from a plurality of different games;

playing the selected game to produce a present raw score value;

calculating a present ranked percentage score value from the present raw score value and the history of past raw score values of all players of the selected game, the present ranked percentage score value being the percentage of past raw score values below the present raw score value;

adding the present ranked percentage score value to a collection of ranked percentage score values containing all ranked percentage score values for the plurality of players of the plurality of different games collected over a predetermined historical period; and

selecting the player having the highest ranked percentage score value in the collection over a predetermined gaming period as a winner, the winner being selected from among the plurality of players of the plurality of different games.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the predetermined historical period is four weeks.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the predetermined gaming period is one week.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating an average of the ranked percentage score values of a particular player having played a predetermined minimum number of games to produce an averaged ranked percentage score value for the particular player;

adding the averaged ranked percentage score value to a collection containing all averaged ranked percentage score values for the plurality of players of the plurality of different games over the predetermined historical period; and

selecting the player having the highest averaged ranked percentage score value in the collection over the predetermined gaming period as a winner, the winner being selected from among the plurality of players each having played a predetermined minimum number of games.

5. The method of claim 4,

wherein the predetermined minimum number of games is five.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning each player from the plurality of players to a player group having a predetermined maximum number of players, the players being assigned to the player group based on the order in which the player selects a first game from the plurality of games during a predetermined gaming period.

7. The method of claim 6,

wherein the predetermined maximum number of players in a player group is fifty.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

rewarding the winner by awarding a prize.

9. The method of claim 8,

wherein the prize is a predetermined portion of a gaming access fee paid by each user.

10. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

selecting a predetermined number of players as a winning group based on a ranking of the averaged ranked percentage score value in the collection; and

rewarding the players in the winning group by awarding a prize to each player in the winning group, the value of the prize awarded to each player in the winning group being determined based on a ranking of highest averaged ranked percentage score values of the players in the winning group, a higher value prize being awarded to the player having the highest averaged ranked percentage score value.

11. A method of selecting, playing, and scoring an interactive network game of skill for a plurality of players, comprising:

providing a unique player account for each player from a plurality of players, the player account for storing the results of playing the selected game;

entering the unique player identifier to access the interactive network of games;

selecting a game from a plurality of different games;

downloading the selected game over a network from a game server onto a gaming terminal;

playing the selected game on the gaming terminal to produce a player raw score value;

uploading the player raw score value and the player account identifier over the network to a score server; and

computing a non-game-specific score value using the player raw score value and a history of player raw score values for all previous players of the selected game over a predetermined period of time.

12. The method of claim 11, the step of computing a non-game-specific score value, comprising:

retrieving the history of player raw score values for all previous players of the selected game over a predetermined period of time defining a plurality of historical raw score values;

ranking the plurality of historical raw score values to produce an ordered list of historical raw score values from lowest to highest value; and

comparing the player raw score value with the ranked historical raw score values to determine the percentage of historical raw score values below the player raw score value, the percentage of historical raw score values below the player raw score value defining the non-game-specific score value.

13. The method of claim 11 being modified to produce a handicapped non-game-specific score value, further comprising:

retrieving a current player handicap value for the selected game; and

adding the current player handicap value and the non-game-specific score value to produce a handicapped non-game-specific score value.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

assigning each player of the plurality of players into one of a plurality of player groups at the beginning of a competition period.

15. The method of claim 14, the step of assigning a player to a player group, comprising:

requesting assignment of the player to a current player group having a current player group number;

advancing the current player group number when the current player group is full; and

assigning the player to the current player group.

16. The method of claim 14,

wherein the player group comprises a predetermined maximum number of players.

17. The method of claim 16,

wherein the maximum number of players in a player group is fifty.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

computing a new current player handicap value.

19. The method of claim 18, the step of computing a new current player handicap value, comprising:

retrieving a predetermined number of previous non-game-specific score values;

selecting a predetermined number of the highest non-game-specific score values from the predetermined number of previous non-game-specific score values;

averaging the selected highest non-game-specific score values to determine an average high non-game-specific score value;

subtracting the average high non-game-specific score value from a maximum non-game-specific score value to determine a raw handicap value; and

computing a predetermined fraction of the raw handicap value to produce a new current player handicap value.

20. The method of claim 19,

wherein the predetermined number of previous non-game-specific score values is ten.

21. The method of claim 19,

wherein the predetermined number of the highest non-game-specific score values is five.

22. The method of claim 19,

wherein the maximum non-game-specific score value is one hundred.

23. The method of claim 19,

wherein the predetermined fraction of the raw handicap value is one of {fraction (19/20)}, {fraction (9/10)}, ⅘

, and ¾

.

24. An interactive gaming system, comprising:

a game server unit for providing a plurality of distributable games over a network;

a score server unit for receiving a plurality of game scores;

a plurality of gaming terminal units, each gaming terminal unit for executing a distributed game and providing a player raw score indicating the skill of the player of the distributed game; and

a network operatively connecting the plurality of gaming terminals, the game server unit, and the score server unit so that the plurality of games are distributable to the plurality of gaming terminal units and the raw scores are sendable from each of the gaming terminal units to the score server unit.

25. The system of claim 24, the gaming terminals comprising:

a user input unit for entering commands from a user and producing a user input signal;

a user output unit for receiving a user display signal and displaying information to the user;

a user input receiver unit for receiving the user input signal from the user input device and outputting a user received signal; and

a network communication unit for receiving the user received signal and a network downstream signal, and outputting the user display signal and a network upstream signal and a network upstream signal.

26. The system of claim 25,

wherein the user input device can be a hand-held remote control device.

27. The system of claim 25,

wherein the user output device can be a television display for emitting both audible and visible information to the user.

28. The system of claim 25,

wherein the network upstream signal is applied to one of a cable TV network interface, a cable modem, a digital subscriber line modem, and a dial-up modem connection.

29. The system of claim 25,

wherein the network downstream signal is received from one of a cable TV network interface, a cable modem, a digital subscriber line modem, and a satellite modem connection.

30. The system of claim 24,

wherein the distribution of the plurality of distributable games includes a repeating carousel of games, a selected game being distributed based on a predetermined position within the carousel.

31. A method of computing scores and determining a winner between a plurality of players of a plurality of different games, comprising:

selecting a first game from a plurality of different games for a first player;

playing the selected first game to produce a present raw score value for the first player;

calculating a first present ranked percentage score value from the first player present raw score value and a history of past raw score values of all players of the selected first game, the first player present ranked percentage score value being the percentage of past raw score values below the first player present raw score value;

selecting a second game different from the first game from a plurality of different games for a second player;

playing the selected first game to produce a present raw score value for the second player;

calculating a second present ranked percentage score value from the second player present raw score value and a history of past raw score values of all players of the selected second game, the second player present ranked percentage score value being the percentage of past raw score values below the second player present raw score value;

comparing the first present ranked percentage score value with the second present ranked percentage score value; and

selecting one of the first player and the second player as a winner, the winner having the higher of the first present ranked percentage score value and the second present ranked percentage score value, each of the first player and the second player having played a different game.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

averaging a plurality of first ranked percentage score values to determine an average first ranked percentage score value for the first player;

averaging a plurality of second ranked percentage score values to determine an average second ranked percentage score value for the second player; and

selecting one of the first player and the second player as a winner, the winner having the higher of the average first present ranked percentage score value and the average second present ranked percentage score value, each of the first player and the second player having played a plurality of different games.

33. The method of claim 32,

wherein the averaging for each of the first player and the second player is performed only using ranked percentage score values calculated over a predetermined competition period.

34. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

rewarding the selected winner by awarding a prize.

35. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

adding a first player handicap value to the first present ranked percentage score value to determine a first present handicapped score value; and

adding a second player handicap value to the second present ranked percentage score value to determine a second present handicapped score value;

comparing the first present ranked percentage score value with the second present ranked percentage score value; and

selecting one of the first player and the second player as a winner, the winner having the higher of the first present handicapped score value and the second present handicapped score value, each of the first player and the second player having played a different game.

36. A method of selecting, playing, and scoring a game of skill, comprising:

selecting a game from a plurality of different games, each game having a predetermined method of scoring;

playing the selected game on the gaming terminal to produce a player raw score value; and

computing a non-game-specific score value using the player raw score value and a predetermined reference score value for the selected game.

37. The method of claim 36,

wherein the predetermined reference score value is determined from a history of player raw score values for all previous players of the selected game over a predetermined period of time.

38. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

comparing the non-game-specific score value with a second non-game-specific score value for a second player having played a second game with a second scoring method different from the first game to determine a winner.

39. The method of claim 36,

wherein the predetermined reference score value is a game-specific target score value, the non-game-specific score value being a ratio of the player raw score value to the game-specific target score value expressed as a percentage.