Method of developing the activity of an on-line game site

• US 20080293485A1
• Filed: 10/17/2007
• Published: 11/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Innovatron SA
• Original Assignee: Innovatron SA
• Inventors: Moreno, Roland
• Granted Patent: US 8,007,364 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/29
• 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 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/558 by assessing the players' skills or ranking
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8064 Quiz
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements

Abstract

The on-line game site comprises a question engine coupled with a plurality of terminals controlled by respective players, for sending predefined questions to the players and for receiving answers to the questions from the players. The site awards or does not award prizes to the players as a function of the answers received. The activity of the site is measured by a traffic index representative of the number of players that have played the game over a given time interval. The method comprises: a) displaying, together with the questions sent to the players, paid-for advertising insertions, established on the base of a given rate; b) evaluating the receipts associated with said paid-for, advertising insertions; c) establishing an endowment for sharing amongst a plurality of prizes awardable over a given period of time, the endowments being a function of the level of said receipts; d) increasing the receipts, and correspondingly said endowment, as a result in the increase in the traffic index; and e) continuing, and developing site activity by reiterating step d) above. The answers received from the various players are subjected to scoring involving a technique of characterization in which each answer is compared with a battery of N weighted criteria, or to a table that is a function of rank and of difference compared with a reference answer. A performance index is allocated by summing the partial scores. The game may include classifying the frequency with which the names of artistic, cultural, or historical celebrities appear on a search engine. With a few hundreds of such names, it is possible to obtain very fine graininess, i.e. ability to discriminate between players, that is well above 10¹⁰⁰ different combinations.

Claims

1. A method of developing the activity of an on-line game site, the site comprising a question engine coupled with a plurality of terminals controlled by respective players, for sending questions to the players and for receiving answers from the players, the site allocating or not allocating prizes to the players as a function of the answers received,

the activity of the site being measured by a traffic index representative of the number of players who have played the game over a given time interval,

the method comprising:

a) displaying, together with the questions sent to the players, paid-for advertising insertions, established on the base of a given rate;

b) evaluating the receipts associated with said paid-for advertising insertions;

c) establishing an endowment for sharing amongst a plurality of prizes awardable over a given period of time, the endowments being a function of the level of said receipts;

d) increasing the receipts, and correspondingly said endowment, as a result in the increase in the traffic index; and

e) continuing, and developing site activity by reiterating step d) above.

2. The game of claim 1, in which the game is a game selected from the group comprising:

games of chance, games based on combinations of words, and forecasting games.

3. The method of claim 1, including a prior-stage of priming the site, comprising setting up a group of precursor players for whom the questions sent are displayed without advertising inserts, until an increase in the traffic index is detected above a given initial threshold, leading to a changeover to a stage of opening to advertising, including said display of paid-for advertising insertions together with the questions sent to the players.

4. The method of claim 1, in which step d) further comprises, on detecting an increase in the traffic index above a given threshold, increasing at least one of:

the rate for insertions, and the advertising space allocated to said insertions.

5. The method of claim 4, in which said increase in step d) includes a step of auctioning at least one of:

the rate for insertions, and the advertising space allocated to said insertions.

6. The method of claim 1, further including a step of scoring the answers received from the various players, with a performance index being allocated as a function of the pertinence of the respective answers provided by the players.

7. The method of claim 6, in which the scoring step comprises comparing the answer provided by a player with a battery of N criteria, and allocating or not allocating a partial score depending on whether the corresponding criterion is satisfied or not, the performance index being obtained by summing the N partial scores as allocated in this way.

8. The method of claim 7, including weighting said criterion, with each of the N criteria being given a weight specific thereto for determining the corresponding partial score.

9. The method of claim 7, in which the N criteria are selected so that the probability of obtaining a performance index of zero for any answer is less than some given minimum threshold.

10. The method of claim 9, in which the N criteria are selected in such a manner that the probability of obtaining a performance index of zero for any answer is less than 1/100.

11. The method of claim 10, in which the N criteria are selected in such a manner that the probability of obtaining a performance index of zero for any answer is less than 1/1000.

12. The method of claim 6, in which the answer provided by the player comprises an ordered selection of n items representing the player'"'"'s estimate of a reference answer known to the game site, and the scoring step comprises comparing the answer provided by the player with said reference answer and for each item calculating a partial score that is a function of said comparison, with the performance index being obtained by summing the n partial scores allocated in this way.

13. The method of claim 12, in which the partial score calculated for each item is a function of the difference between the rank of the item in the answer provided by the player and the rank of the same item in the reference answer.

14. The method of claim 13, in which said function is a function that is non-linear and degressive.

15. The method of claim 12, in which the partial score for each item is calculated as a function weighted by the rank of said item in the answer provided by the player.

16. The method of claim 13, in which the weighting of said function is weighting that is non-linear and degressive.

17. The method of claim 6, further including, after the scoring step, a step of classifying players as a function of their respective performance indices.

18. The method of claim 17, further including, after the classification step, a step of sharing said endowment between the n best-placed players.

19. The method of claim 17, in which said endowment sharing between said n best-placed players is non-uniform.

20. The method of claim 1, in which said endowment is a predetermined percentage of said level of receipts evaluated over said given period of time preceding the allocation of the endowment.