VIRTUAL AND LOCATION-BASED MULTIPLAYER GAMING

• US 20110319148A1
• Filed: 06/24/2010
• Published: 12/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kinnebrew, Peter Tobias, Kamuda, Nicholas Ferianc, Kantor, Aron B.
• Granted Patent: US 9,573,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• 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 2300/205 for detecting the geographical location of the game platform
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5566 by matching opponents or finding partners to build a team, e.g. by skill level, geographical area, background, play style
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5573 player location
• 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 2300/8082 Virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 in augmented reality scenes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/42 of sport video content

Abstract

A system and method combining real-world actions and virtual actions in a gaming environment. In one aspect, a massively multiplayer environment combines the real world actions and virtual actions of a participant to influence both character metrics and game play within one or more games provided by the service. In the real world or location-based events, game play occurs in and around links explicitly created between real world locations and virtual representations of those locations within the game.

Claims

1. A method of providing a game including a plurality of events comprising a story, the user associated with a character, comprising:

providing a set of location-based events contributing to user progress in the story;

providing a set of virtual based events contributing to user progress in the story;

receiving user participation based on location in at least one location-based event receiving user participation in at least one virtual event advancing user progress in the story; and

updating user progress in the story upon successful completion of each of the events.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes providing a plurality of side events, one or more of the side events comprising a location-based event and one or more of the side events comprising a virtual event, and the method further includes receiving user progress in at least one side event, the side event advancing user progress in the story or contributing a characteristic to the character.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the story is a narrative and user progress includes advancing the story.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing location-based events includes determining a user location and providing location-based events within a distance from the user location.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more location-based events has a link to one or more associated virtual events.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein one or more location-based events includes one or more characteristics of a time, a presence, and a location the user meets to complete the event.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes presenting one or more tokens indicating locations for location-based actions to a user via one or more of a map interface or an augmented reality interface.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the location-based actions include capturing one or more of said tokens by tracking a user position relative to the tokens.

9. The method of claim 8 further including automatically providing one or more tokens in the augmented reality interface when a user is located in a location having the one or more tokens.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes providing location-based events outside the distance from a user location and providing an event exchange allowing users to connect to designee players willing to complete events outside the distance from the user location.

11. A method providing a location and virtual based gaming environment, comprising:

tracking user location to determine user participation and completion in one or more location-based events contributing to user progress in an application;

tracking user performance of one or more virtual events performed on a processing device having an instance of the application and contributing to user progress in the application;

determining user completion of at least one location-based event and at least one virtual event, each of the at least one location-based event and at least one virtual event contributing to user progress in the application; and

updating the application to reflect user progress of completing the events.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein tracking user location is performed by detecting user positioning information based on global positioning data provided by the processing device associated with the user.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein tracking user performance include one of tracking user location relative to one or more event based positioning tokens.

14. The method of claim 13 further including providing event based tokens to the processing device associated with the user by outputting one overlay information to the processing device.

15. The method of claim 14 further including notifying the user when a user location is proximate to a location-based event.

16. A computer readable medium including instructions for providing a processor to provide a game application, the application performing the steps of:

receiving game event information from a location-based gaming service, the event information including location-based information for use in completing or more game events;

outputting the game event information to a user interface, the user interface having a view of a scene at the location and rendering the event information on the scene in the user interface;

updating the game application; and

transmitting user location information to the gaming service, the location information including a user position.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16 wherein the method further includes receiving information on a scene in view of the user, the scene including geographic information regarding a user position and calculating a user location from the geographic information and orientation inputs to the processing device.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the step of receiving includes receiving one or more location-based events contributing to user progress in a story and receiving one or more virtual based events contributing to user progress in the story.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18 wherein the method further includes receiving a plurality of side events, one or more of the side events comprising a location-based event and one or more of the side events comprising a virtual event.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the outputting further includes presenting one or more tokens indicating locations for location-based actions to a user via one or more of:

a map interface or an augmented reality interface.