NORMALIZING SKILL-BASED WAGERING GAMES

• US 20110218035A1
• Filed: 11/13/2009
• Published: 09/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Thomas, Alfred
• Granted Patent: US 8,308,556 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3267 Game outcomes which determine the course of the subsequent game, e.g. double or quits, free games, higher payouts, different new games
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3286 Type of games
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3295 Games involving skill, e.g. dexterity, memory, thinking

Abstract

In some embodiments, a method comprises initiating a plurality of skill-based bonus games across a plurality of wagering game machines; collecting game result data associated with the plurality of skill-based bonus games; during a normalization process for one of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, determining a rate of awarding a secondary economy asset for the skillbased bonus game is not within a range based on the game result data; adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games; and deploying the skill-based bonus game with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

initiating a plurality of skill-based bonus games across a plurality of wagering game machines;

collecting game result data associated with the plurality of skill-based bonus games;

during a normalization process for one of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, determining a rate of awarding a secondary economy asset for the skill-based bonus game is not within a range based on the game result data;

adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games; and

deploying the skill-based bonus game with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to initiate a normalization process for the plurality of skill-based bonus games based on whether a predetermined amount of game result data has been collected for the plurality of skill-based bonus games;

if the predetermined amount of game result data has been collected for one or more of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, initiating the normalization process for the one or more of the plurality of skill-based bonus games.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, for each of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, said determining whether to initiate a normalization process comprises:

determining whether the skill-based bonus game has been played a predetermined number of times across the plurality of wagering game machines based on the collected game result data associated with the skill-based bonus game;

if the skill-based bonus game has been played the predetermined number of times, initiating the normalization process for the skill-based bonus game;

if the skill-based bonus game has not been played the predetermined number of times, collecting additional game result data associated with the skill-based bonus game before initiating the normalization process.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, during a normalization process for one of the plurality of skill-based bonus games:

determining whether a rate of awarding each of a plurality of secondary economy assets for the skill-based bonus game is within a corresponding range based on the collected game result data;

if the rate of awarding each of the plurality of secondary economy assets for the skill-based bonus game is not within the corresponding range, adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game to normalize the rate of awarding each of the plurality of secondary economy assets across the plurality of skill-based bonus games;

deploying the skill-based bonus game with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said determining whether the rate of awarding each of the plurality of secondary economy assets for the skill-based bonus game is within a corresponding range comprises determining whether the rate of awarding a first secondary economy asset for the skill-based bonus game is within a first range, determining whether the rate of awarding a second secondary economy asset for the skill-based bonus game is within a second range, and determining whether the rate of awarding a third secondary economy asset for the skill-based bonus game is within a third range.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game comprises adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game to increase or decrease a difficulty associated with the skill-based bonus game to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games such that the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset is within the range.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game and deploying the skill-based bonus game comprises dynamically adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game to normalize the awarding of the secondary economy assets across the plurality of skill-based bonus games and dynamically deploying the skill-based bonus game with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

8. A wagering game server comprising:

a bonus game controller configured to initiate a plurality of skill-based bonus games across a plurality of wagering game machines; and

a skill-based bonus game normalization unit configured to collect game result data associated with the plurality of skill-based bonus games, and to

determine, during a normalization process for one or more of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, whether a rate of awarding a secondary economy asset for the one or more the skill-based bonus games is within a range based on the game result data;

if the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset for the one or more skill-based bonus games is not within the range, adjust parameters of the one or more skill-based bonus games to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games; and

deploy the one or more skill-based bonus game with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

9. The wagering game server of claim 8, wherein the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is further configured to determine whether to initiate a normalization process for the plurality of skill-based bonus games based on whether a predetermined amount of game result data has been collected for the plurality of skill-based bonus games, wherein, if the predetermined amount of game result data has been collected for one or more of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is configured to initiate the normalization process for the one or more of the plurality of skill-based bonus games.

10. The wagering game server of claim 9, wherein, for each of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is configured to determine whether the skill-based bonus game has been played a predetermined number of times across the plurality of wagering game machines based on the collected game result data associated with the skill-based bonus game, wherein, if the skill-based bonus game has been played the predetermined number of times, the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is configured to initiate the normalization process for the skill-based bonus game, wherein, if the skill-based bonus game has not been played the predetermined number of times, the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is configured to collect additional game result data associated with the skill-based bonus game before initiating the normalization process.

11. The wagering game server of claim 8, further comprising a secondary economy unit configured to manage secondary economy assets and award secondary economy assets to players of the skilled-based bonus games based on skill exhibited during game play in accomplishing one or more bonus game objectives.

12. The wagering game server of claim 8, wherein, during a normalization process for one of the skill-based bonus games, the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is configured to determine whether a rate of awarding each of a plurality of secondary economy assets for the skill-based bonus game is within a corresponding range based on the collected game result data, wherein, if the rate of awarding each of the plurality of secondary economy assets for the skill-based bonus game is not within the corresponding range, the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is configured to adjust parameters of the skill-based bonus game to normalize the rate of awarding each of the plurality of secondary economy assets across the plurality of skill-based bonus games.

13. The wagering game server of claim 12, wherein the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is configured to determine whether the rate of awarding a first secondary economy asset for the skill-based bonus game is within a first range, determine whether the rate of awarding a second secondary economy asset for the skill-based bonus game is within a second range, and determine whether the rate of awarding a third secondary economy asset for the skill-based bonus game is within a third range.

14. The wagering game server of claim 8, wherein the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is configured to adjust parameters of the one or more skill-based bonus games to increase or decrease a difficulty associated with the one or more skill-based bonus games to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games such that the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset is within the range.

15. The wagering game server of claim 8, wherein the skill-based bonus game normalization unit is configured to dynamically adjusting parameters of the one or more skill-based bonus games to normalize the awarding of the secondary economy assets across the plurality of skill-based bonus games and the bonus game controller is configured to dynamically deploy the one or more skill-based bonus games with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

16. An apparatus comprising:

means for initiating a plurality of skill-based bonus games across a plurality of wagering game machines;

means for collecting game result data associated with the plurality of skill-based bonus games;

means for determining whether to initiate a normalization process for one or more of the plurality of skill-based bonus games;

means for determining whether a rate of awarding a secondary economy asset for the one or more skill-based bonus games is within a range based on the game result data;

means for adjusting parameters of the one or more skill-based bonus games to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games; and

means for deploying the one or more skill-based bonus games with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising means for managing secondary economy assets and awarding secondary economy assets to players of the skilled-based bonus games based on skill exhibited during game play in accomplishing one or more bonus game objectives.

18. A computer-implemented method comprising:

initiating a plurality of skill-based bonus games across a plurality of wagering game machines;

collecting game result data associated with the plurality of skill-based bonus games;

during a normalization process for one or more of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, determining whether a rate of awarding a secondary economy asset for the one or more skill-based bonus games is within a first range based on the game result data;

if the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset for the one or more skill-based bonus games is not within the first range, determining whether the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset is a predetermined amount outside the first range;

if the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset is a predetermined amount outside the first range, adjusting parameters of the plurality of skill-based bonus games to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games to a rate within a second range;

creating a new secondary economy asset for the plurality of skill-based bonus games;

adjusting parameters of the plurality of skill-based bonus games to normalize a rate of awarding the new secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games at a rate within the first range; and

deploying the plurality of skill-based bonus games with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein, if the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset is not a predetermined amount outside the first range, the method further comprising:

adjusting parameters of the one or more skill-based bonus games to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games to a rate within the first range; and

deploying the one or more skill-based bonus games with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said adjusting parameters of the plurality of skill-based bonus games comprises adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game to increase or decrease a difficulty associated with the plurality of skill-based bonus games to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said adjusting parameters of the plurality of skill-based bonus games comprises changing one or more of the speed, the size, the number, the location, and the intelligence of skill-based bonus game elements.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein said adjusting parameters of the plurality of skill-based bonus games and deploying the plurality of skill-based bonus games comprises dynamically adjusting parameters of the plurality of skill-based bonus games to normalize the awarding of secondary economy assets across the plurality of skill-based bonus games and dynamically deploying the plurality of skill-based bonus games with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

23. One or more machine-readable storage media, having instructions stored therein, which, when executed by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprise:

initiating a plurality of skill-based bonus games across a plurality of wagering game machines;

collecting game result data associated with the plurality of skill-based bonus games;

during a normalization process for one of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, determining whether a rate of awarding a secondary economy asset for the skill-based bonus game is within a range based on the collected game result data;

if the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset for the skill-based bonus game is not within the range, adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games; and

deploying the skill-based bonus game with the adjusted parameters across one or more of the wagering game machines.

24. The machine-readable storage media of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining whether to initiate a normalization process for the plurality of skill-based bonus games based on whether a predetermined amount of game result data has been collected for the plurality of skill-based bonus games;

if the predetermined amount of game result data has been collected for one or more of the plurality of skill-based bonus games, initiating the normalization process for the one or more of the plurality of skill-based bonus games.

25. The machine-readable storage media of claim 23, wherein said operation of adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game comprises adjusting parameters of the skill-based bonus game to increase or decrease a difficulty associated with the skill-based bonus game to normalize the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset across the plurality of skill-based bonus games such that the rate of awarding the secondary economy asset is within the range.