VIDEO GAMES INCLUDING REAL-LIFE ATTRIBUTES AND/OR FANTASY TEAM SETTINGS

• US 20080161113A1
• Filed: 12/13/2007
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Voodoo Gaming LLC
• Original Assignee: Voodoo Gaming LLC
• Inventors: Jones, David A., Hansen, Andrew S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,522,332 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/23 for interfacing with the game device, e.g. specific interfaces between game controller and console
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5375 for graphically or textually suggesting an action, e.g. by displaying an arrow indicating a turn in a driving game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/828 Managing virtual sport teams
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8011 Ball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8052 Ball team management

Abstract

A video gaming system and related network interfaces with an online fantasy sports game. The video game play is enhanced using various features of a fantasy sports game. Similarly, the fantasy sports game can be enhanced using various features of the video game play. In one aspect of the invention the video game system acquires a team roster of the fantasy sport game and the team roster is used to define the sports video game team. The sports video game also acquires sports video game parameters that are associated with real-life attributes of video game team members that are associated with the real-life team members. The video game play changes frequently over a sports season due to the changing video game parameters and fantasy sports settings being used to define video game play.

Claims

1. A method for updating a sports video game with video game parameters representing real-life attributes, comprising:

receiving a real-life attribute;

converting the real-life attribute to a video game environmental parameter; and

transmitting the video game parameter to a video game machine via a network such that the video game parameter is incorporated into the sports video game.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein;

the real-life attribute is an environmental attribute includes an environmental attribute at a particular real-life location;

the environmental attribute is converted into a video game environmental parameter; and

wherein a virtual location in the sports video game representing the particular real-life location is modified using the environmental parameter so that the virtual location more closely represents the particular real-life location.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the environmental attribute includes a real-life weather attribute at a particular real-life location;

the weather attribute is converted into a video game weather parameter; and

wherein a virtual location in the sports video game representing the particular real-life location is modified using the weather parameter so that the virtual weather at the virtual location more closely represents weather at the particular real-life location.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

hosting an online fantasy sports league;

transmitting a fantasy team roster to the video game machine via a network;

receiving a sport attribute for a particular real-life athlete;

converting the sports attribute to a video game performance parameter;

transmitting the video game performance parameter to the video game machine, wherein when the video game performance parameter is incorporated into the sports video game a particular video game character more closely performs like the real-life athlete;

wherein the environmental attribute includes a fan attribute, the method further including receiving a fan attribute for a real-life fan or group of real-life fans;

converting the fan attribute to a video game fan parameter;

transmitting the video game fan parameter to the video game machine, wherein then the video game fan parameter is incorporated into the sports video game a video game fan or group of video game fans are modified to more closely resemble or act like the real-life fan or real-life group of fans, wherein the real-life fan or real-life fans are associated with a particular real-life sports team;

receiving advertisement image data;

transmitting the advertisement image data to the video game machine based on a geographic location of the video game machine;

hosting a virtual world in which video game users create personal motional avatars and navigate the virtual world, wherein the personal motional avatars are capable of walking, running, and/or flying to navigate the virtual world and are able to interact with other personal motional avatars;

modifying a weather parameter of a virtual location in the virtual world based on the real-life environmental attribute, wherein the virtual location represents the particular real-life location;

converting real-world currency to virtual currency, wherein the virtual currency is used as tender in the virtual world;

awarding virtual currency to a user of a particular personal motional avatar based on a result of a video game completion and/or a result of an online fantasy sports league competition;

enabling a user to create features or modify landscape in the virtual world;

displaying sports video depicting a real-life sport event, real-life sport commentary, and/or real life sport reporting in the virtual world;

displaying results describing a real life sports event, a video game competition, and/or an online fantasy sport league competition in the fantasy world;

selling virtual land in the virtual world for the virtual currency;

enabling personal motional avatars to wager in the virtual world on a video game competition, online fantasy sport league competition, and/or a real-life sport competition;

receiving advertisement imagery;

identifying a virtual location for display of the advertisement imagery; and

modifying the virtual world to display the advertisement imagery.

5. A method for updating a sports video game with one or more fantasy settings, comprising:

hosting an online fantasy sports league; and

transmitting a fantasy team roster to a video game machine via a network, wherein the fantasy team roster includes a list of real-world athletes associated with video game characters of a sports video game played at the video game machine.

6. A method according to claim 5, further comprising hosting an online fantasy league including:

receiving a video game competition result;

wherein hosting the online fantasy league includes;

hosting a fantasy draft where players for a plurality of fantasy teams are selected, wherein the fantasy draft order is determined by consideration of the video game competition result;

compiling fantasy competition scores for the fantasy season;

receiving trade selections between two fantasy teams which select players to trade between the teams;

enabling fantasy team owners to pick up players from a waiver list and drop players from their fantasy roster;

enabling fantasy team owners to vary the active and reserve players on their fantasy team;

analyzing the fantasy draft as the fantasy draft is conducted and identifying one or more available players in the fantasy draft for suggested selection, and transmitting information describing the identified players for suggested selection to the video game machine, wherein the fantasy draft analysis includes analyzing historical performance of available players, a scoring format of the fantasy league, and/or a bye week for available players;

transmitting a current fantasy team roster to a video game machine;

evaluating an upcoming match-up for a real-life athlete;

predicting a performance attribute for the real-life athlete'"'"'s performance in the upcoming match-up;

converting the performance attribute to a video game performance parameter;

transmitting the video game performance parameter to the video game machine to modify a performance of a video game character associated with the real-life athlete according to the video game performance parameter;

receiving feedback from fantasy team owners regarding the predicted performance attribute;

modifying the predicted performance attribute;

converting the modified performance attribute to a modified video game performance parameter;

transmitting the modified video game performance parameter to the video game machine to modify the performance of the video game character associated with the real-life athlete according to the modified video game performance parameter;

receiving additional video game competition results;

calculating a combined online fantasy sports score and video game competition score from the additional video game competition results and fantasy competition results.

7. A method for updating parameters of a sports video game with one or more predictive real-life athlete attributes, comprising:

analyzing data associated with a particular athlete or a particular team of athletes to predict a likelihood of performance success for the particular athlete or the particular team of athletes in an upcoming athletic event;

converting the prediction for the likelihood of performance success to a video game character performance parameter; and

downloading the video game character performance parameter to a video game machine for incorporating the video game character performance parameter into the sports video game.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the analyzed data includes current active or inactive status of fantasy team members of fantasy teams, wherein the current active or inactive status is determined by fantasy team owners.

9. A video game program product in the form of instructions on a storage medium, comprising:

sports video game instructions, video game character parameters, and image data configured to provide a sports video game in conjunction with a video game machine;

instructions configured to enable the video gaming machine to download a fantasy setting of an online fantasy sports league;

instructions configured to enable the video gaming machine to download a video game parameter that is associated with a real-life attribute; and

instructions configured to modify the sports video game using the fantasy setting and using the video game parameter associated with the real-life attribute, thereby affecting the video game.

10. A video game program product according to claim 9, wherein the fantasy setting includes a fantasy team roster, and wherein a roster of a video game team is modified based on the fantasy team roster downloaded.

11. A video game program product according to claim 10, wherein:

the fantasy team roster includes a list fantasy team members associated with real-life athletes, the list of fantasy team members being selected in a fantasy draft for a fantasy team in an online fantasy sports league; and

the video game team includes video game characters associated with real-life athletes, the instructions of the video game program product being configured to modify the video game characters of the video game team such that the real-life athletes associated with the video game characters are the same as the real-life athletes associated with the downloaded list of fantasy team members.

12. A video game program product according to claim 11, wherein:

the fantasy team roster includes a list of active status fantasy team members and a list of non-active status fantasy team members;

the video game team includes a list of active video game characters and non-active video game characters; and

the video game program product includes instructions configured to synchronize the status of a particular video game character with a particular fantasy team member where both are associated with the same real-life athlete.

13. A video game program product according to claim 12, further comprising instructions enabling the status of the particular video game character.

14. A video game program product according to claim 13, further comprising instructions configured to transmit information describing a change in video game character status such that a corresponding change in status can be made a fantasy team member in the online fantasy sports league.

15. A video game program product according to claim 9, wherein the instructions configured to modify include instruction that modify the video game parameter, wherein the video game parameter is associated with a particular video game character and wherein the modification of the parameter is based on a predicted relative difficulty of an upcoming real-life athletic competition in which a real-life athlete associated with the particular video game character is scheduled to compete.

16. A video game program product according to claim 15, wherein the relative difficulty prediction is based at least in part on a comparison of an offensive real-life athlete'"'"'s potential for success against a defense in the upcoming real-life athletic competition.

17. A video game program product according to claim 15, wherein the relative difficulty prediction is based at least in part on a historical success of the real-life athlete associated with the particular video game character against an opposing athlete or an opposing defense in the upcoming real-life athletic competition.

18. A video game program product according to claim 9, wherein the video game parameter includes a video game performance parameter for a particular video game character associated with a particular real-life athlete, wherein the video game performance parameter is modified based on a real-life performance attribute of the particular real-life athlete.

19. A video game program product according to claim 18, wherein the video game performance parameter is associated with a catching, throwing, kicking, hitting, driving, sliding, running, tackling, missing, jumping, passing, stopping, turning, or rate of wearing out a device action of the particular video game character.

20. A video game program product according to claim 9, wherein the sport video game includes a football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, soccer, auto racing, professional wrestling, or a cricket sports video game.

21. A video game program product according to claim 9, wherein the real-life attribute is an environmental attribute and an environmental parameter is modified in the video game based on the real-life environmental attribute.

22. A video game program product according to claim 21, wherein the environmental attribute is downloaded for a specified time in real-life during which the environmental attribute occurs.

23. A video game program product according to claim 21, wherein the real-life environment attribute includes a real-life weather attribute at a particular real-life sports event location.

24. A video game program product according to claim 23, wherein the weather attribute relates to whether the weather is sunny, cloudy, shady, raining, snowing, sleeting, thundering, lightening, hot, cold, temperature, slippery, wet, and/or dry in real-life.

25. A video game program product according to claim 21, wherein image data or video game instructions in the video game is modified based on the environmental attribute such that virtual weather at a virtual location representing a real-life location is similar to real-life weather at the real-life location.

26. A video game program product according to claim 21, wherein the real-life environmental attribute includes a real-life fan attribute, and a video game fan parameter is modified based on the real-life fan attribute.

27. A video game program product according to claim 21, wherein the real-life environmental attribute includes a stadium attribute associated with a change to a real-life stadium, wherein a video game stadium parameter associated with a virtual stadium representing the real-life stadium is modified based on the stadium attribute.

28. A video game program product according to claim 9, wherein the real-life attribute includes a real-life athlete appearance attribute and a video game character parameter is downloaded such that a video game character'"'"'s appearance is modified to more closely resemble the appearance of the real-life athlete.

29. A video game program product according to claim 9, further comprising instructions enabling a fantasy team owner using the video game machine to compete in the sports video game against other members of the same online fantasy sports league using a video game team of video game characters associated with the same athletes as associated with the fantasy members of the fantasy team owner'"'"'s fantasy team.

30. A video game program product according to claim 29, wherein the sports video game competition occurs over a network including the Internet.