ON-LINE GAMING
First Claim
1. A gaming server arranged to communicate with a plurality of on-line player'"'"'s terminals for facilitating the playing of a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between a plurality of different players in a virtual environment, the server comprising:
- a playing module arranged to control the playing of the game with each of the different on-line players, the playing module being arranged to generate a series of gaming events, each gaming event being directed to one or more on-line players participating in the game;
receiving means arranged to receive information from a remote player terminal concerning a selected virtual game playing environment and a selected graphical representation of the on-line game player within the environment;
a game state module arranged to construct a specification of the graphical game-playing environment and representations of the players within the environment from the received information, together with a current state of the game; and
transmitting means arranged to transmit the specification to a plurality of remote on-line players'"'"' communication terminals;
the transmitting means being arranged, during the playing of an on-line game, to broadcast in real-time game-playing commands received from a player'"'"'s terminal to other players'"'"' terminals participating in the same game and to update the game state module;
the game-playing commands including information relating to the actions of the on-line player which are reflected in the behavior of the graphical representation of that on-line player.
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Accused Products
Abstract
There is described a player terminal for use with a gaming server over a distributed communications network for facilitating the playing of a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between different players in a virtual playing environment. The player terminal comprises: receiving means for receiving from the server, information specifying a virtual playing environment and on-line players in that environment, and update information relating to game-playing events occurring within that environment during the playing of an on-line game; generating means for generating a graphical representation of the virtual playing environment from the received information, graphical representations of each on-line game player and graphical representations of game-playing events occurring within the virtual environment; interaction means for interacting with the game playing events, the interaction means generating information relating to the actions of the on-line player during the playing of the on-line game, which are reflected in the behavior of the graphical representation of that on-line player; and transmitting means for transmitting to the server, game-playing commands generated at the player terminal in response to the displayed game-playing events; such that other on-line players can ultimately see the actions of the on-line player.
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Citations
153 Claims
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1. A gaming server arranged to communicate with a plurality of on-line player'"'"'s terminals for facilitating the playing of a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between a plurality of different players in a virtual environment, the server comprising:
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a playing module arranged to control the playing of the game with each of the different on-line players, the playing module being arranged to generate a series of gaming events, each gaming event being directed to one or more on-line players participating in the game; receiving means arranged to receive information from a remote player terminal concerning a selected virtual game playing environment and a selected graphical representation of the on-line game player within the environment; a game state module arranged to construct a specification of the graphical game-playing environment and representations of the players within the environment from the received information, together with a current state of the game; and transmitting means arranged to transmit the specification to a plurality of remote on-line players'"'"' communication terminals;
the transmitting means being arranged, during the playing of an on-line game, to broadcast in real-time game-playing commands received from a player'"'"'s terminal to other players'"'"' terminals participating in the same game and to update the game state module;
the game-playing commands including information relating to the actions of the on-line player which are reflected in the behavior of the graphical representation of that on-line player. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 94, 95)
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21. A method of communicating with a plurality of on-line player terminals for facilitating the playing of a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between a plurality of different players in a virtual environment, the method comprising:
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controlling the playing of the game with each of the different on-line players, by generating a series of gaming events, each gaming event being directed to one or more on-line players participating in the game; receiving information from a remote player terminal concerning a selected virtual game playing environment and a selected graphical representation of the on-line game player within the environment; constructing a specification of the graphical game-playing environment and representations of the players within the environment from the received information, together with a current state of the game; and transmitting the specification to a plurality of remote on-line players'"'"' communication terminals;
the transmitting step comprising broadcasting in real-time, during the playing of an on-line game, game-playing commands received from a player'"'"'s terminal to other players'"'"' terminals participating in the same game and updating the specification;
the game-playing commands including information relating to the actions of the on-line player which are reflected in the behavior of the graphical representation of that on-line player.
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22. A player terminal for use with a gaming server over a distributed communications network for facilitating the playing of a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between different players in a virtual playing environment, the player terminal comprising:
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receiving means for receiving from the server, information specifying a virtual playing environment and on-line players in that environment, and update information relating to game-playing events occurring within that environment during the playing of an on-line game; generating means for generating a graphical representation of the virtual playing environment from the received information, graphical representations of each on-line game player and graphical representations of game-playing events occurring within the virtual environment; interaction means for interacting with the game playing events, the interaction means generating information relating to the actions of the on-line player during the playing of the on-line game, which are reflected in the behavior of the graphical representation of that on-line player; and transmitting means for transmitting to the server, game-playing commands generated at the player terminal in response to the displayed game-playing events;
such that other on-line players can ultimately see the actions of the on-line player. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92)
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93. A method of facilitating the playing of a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between different players in a virtual playing environment, over a distributed communications network, for the method comprising:
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receiving information specifying a virtual playing environment and on-line players in that environment, and update information relating to game-playing events occurring within that environment during the playing of an on-line game; generating a graphical representation of the virtual playing environment from the received information, graphical representations of each on-line game player and graphical representations of game-playing events occurring within the virtual environment; interacting with the game playing events, the interaction comprising generating information relating to the actions of the on-line player during the playing of the on-line game, which are reflected in the behavior of the graphical representation of that on-line player; and transmitting game-playing commands generated at the player terminal in response to the displayed game-playing events;
such that other on-line players can ultimately see the actions of the on-line player.
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96. A system for playing a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between different players in a virtual playing environment, the system comprising a central gaming server and at least two player terminals connectable to the server via a communications network, wherein
each player terminal is arranged to generate a representation of the virtual playing environment including a graphical representation of each of the different players and to manipulate the representations to reflect any updated player interactions received from the server; - and
the server is arranged to generate a series of gaming events and to coordinate the distribution of information relating to the gaming events and also the player interactions, received from each player terminal, to other player terminals participating in the same interactive game. - View Dependent Claims (97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110)
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111. A system for playing a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between different players in a virtual playing environment, the system comprising a central gaming server and at least two player terminals connectable to the server via a communications network, wherein
each player terminal is arranged to generate a representation of the virtual playing environment including a graphical animated representation of each of the different players, to manipulate the player'"'"'s animated representation to reflect player-specified information, such information being independent of game play events such that it is potentially misleading to the other players, and to transmit this information to the server; - and
the server is arranged to generate a series of gaming events and to coordinate the distribution of information relating to the gaming events and also the player-manipulated animations, received from each player terminal, to other player terminals participating in the same interactive game. - View Dependent Claims (112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123)
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124. A player terminal for use with a gaming server over a distributed communications network for facilitating the playing of a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between different players in a virtual playing environment, the player terminal comprising:
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receiving means for receiving from the server, information specifying a virtual playing environment and update information relating to game-playing events occurring within that environment during the playing of an on-line game; and generating means for generating a graphical representation of the virtual playing environment from the received information;
wherein the generating means comprises visualization means for generating a plurality of different views of the same virtual playing environment. - View Dependent Claims (125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136)
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137. A player terminal for use with a gaming server over a distributed communications network for facilitating the playing of a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between different players in a virtual playing environment, the player terminal comprising:
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receiving means for receiving from the server, information specifying a virtual playing environment and on-line players in that environment, and update information relating to game-playing events occurring within that environment during the playing of an on-line game; and generating means for generating a graphical representation of the virtual playing environment from the received information and graphical representations of each on-line game player;
wherein the generating means is arranged to enable the player to change the appearance of the graphical representation to reflect the experience of the player in playing the game. - View Dependent Claims (138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143)
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144. A player terminal for use with a gaming server over a distributed communications network for facilitating the playing of a distributed multi-player on-line game involving interactions between different players in a virtual playing environment, the player terminal comprising:
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receiving means for receiving from the server, information specifying a virtual playing environment and update information relating to game-playing events occurring within that environment during the playing of an on-line game; and generating means for generating a graphical representation of the virtual playing environment from the received information;
wherein the generating means comprises an object changing module arranged to change the appearance of a selected object within the virtual playing environment. - View Dependent Claims (145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153)
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Specification