CONTROLLING INTERACTIVITY FOR GAMING AND SOCIAL-COMMUNICATION APPLICATIONS

• US 20120184362A1
• Filed: 09/29/2010
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Inventors: Barclay, Brian J., Guinn, Andrew C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,777,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3225 Data transfer within a gaming system, e.g. data sent between gaming machines and users
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3281 wherein game attributes are transferred between players, e.g. points, weapons, avatars
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In embodiments, the operations can include determining a selection of a selectable object in a first area of a gaming display that is under control of a first application module associated with a wagering game session. The first application module can be for a social communication application or can provide social communication functionality. The operations can further include determining a selection purpose for the selection, determining transference instructions for an item representation of the selectable object, and transferring the item representation to a second area of the gaming display that is under control of a second application module. The second application module can be for a wagering game application or can provide wagering game functionality. The operations can further include performing a function associated with the second application module according to the selection purpose.

Claims

1. One or more machine-readable media having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a set of one or more processors causes the set of one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

determining a selection of a selectable object in a first area of a gaming display that is under control of a first application module associated with a wagering game session wherein the first application module is configured to provide social communication functionality;

determining a selection purpose for the selection;

determining transference instructions for an item representation of the selectable object;

transferring the item representation to a second area of the gaming display that is under control of a second application module, wherein the second application module is configured to provide wagering game functionality; and

performing a wagering game function associated with the second application module according to the selection purpose.

2. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 1, wherein the first application module and the second application module belong to different, independent gaming applications simultaneously running during the wagering game session.

3. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 1, wherein said operation for determining the selection purpose for the selection includes operations further comprising:

presenting a selection-purpose menu with a plurality of selection-purpose options for the selectable object; and

determining a player input that selects one selection-purpose option related to the selection purpose, wherein the one selection-purpose option is one of the plurality of selection-purpose options.

4. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 1, wherein said operation for determining the selection purpose for the selection includes operations further comprising:

determining a player input-selection activity; and

referring to a selection-activity setting that describes a selection-purpose description for the selection activity.

5. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 1, wherein said operation for determining transference instructions for the item representation of the selectable object includes operations further comprising:

determining player input that instructs movement of the item representation; and

presenting movement of the item representation in the gaming display during the transferring of the item representation.

6. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 1, said operations further comprising:

determining a graphical description that represents the selection purpose;

generating a graphical image object that represents the graphical description; and

assigning the graphical image object to the item representation.

7. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 1, said operations further comprising:

assigning persistent metadata to the item representation that indicates the selection purpose, wherein the persistent metadata persists with the object beyond the wagering game session.

8. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining a selection of a wagering game content item that is configured to be selectable within, and transferrable from, a gaming interface associated with a wagering game session, wherein the wagering game content item is presented as part of a wagering game application;

presenting a transferrable item representation of the wagering game content item;

determining a player-indicated movement of the transferrable item representation to a social communication application;

transferring the transferrable item representation from the gaming interface to the social communication application in accordance with the player-indicated movement;

determining a player-indicated release action of the transferrable item representation in an area of the social communication application;

performing a social communication function associated with the area; and

using the transferrable item representation in the social communication function.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein determining the selection of the wagering game content item comprises determining activation of one or more player input selection mechanisms.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the performing the social communication function comprises generating a chat message, and wherein using the transferrable item representation in the social communication function comprises embedding the transferrable item representation in the text message and sending the chat message via the social communication application.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining a player-indicated selection purpose for the wagering game content item;

assigning the player-indicated selection purpose to the transferrable item representation as metadata that persists with the transferrable item representation; and

determining the social communication function based at least in part on the player-indicated selection purpose assigned to the transferrable item representation.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the social communication application is one or more of a chat application, an instant messaging application, a social networking application, an email application, a text messaging application, and a blogging application.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining that a player account associated with the wagering game session performs a required activity; and

enabling the wagering game content item to be selectable and transferrable based on the performance of the required activity.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining that the transferrable item representation is released on an inventory for storing the transferrable item representation; and

storing the transferrable item representation in the inventory.

15. A system, comprising:

a wagering game server comprising

a server content controller configured to provide selectable wagering game content, and

a social communication controller configured to control social communication applications during a wagering game session; and

a client device comprising a

a client content controller configured to present the selectable wagering game content in a gaming display, and

a gaming social communication module configured to

determine a selection of the selectable wagering game content,

determine movement of the selectable wagering game content between a wagering game application and a social communication application,

determine a purpose for the selection, and

perform a function associated with the purpose for the selection.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the wagering game server further comprises an object transfer module configured to

generate representations of the selectable wagering game content, and

package metadata into the representations regarding the purpose for the selection.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the gaming social communication module is further configured to determine the selection purpose using analytics about one or more of a player account, player game play history, a player selection history, properties of the selected item, events of the wagering game session, and environmental events.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the gaming social communication module is further configured to

determine a selection of a file stored on the client device,

generate an item representation that represents the file,

transfer the item representation to the social communication application running on the client device,

launch a web browser application on the client device,

present a gaming interface in the web browser,

present the social communication application in the web browser,

determine selection of the item representation from the social communication application,

determine a drag-and-drop action of the item representation to the gaming interface presented in the web browser, and

incorporate the file into the gaming interface.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

a content controller configured to

present wagering game content, via a wagering game application, during a wagering game session, and

present chat content, via a chat application, simultaneously with the wagering game content; and

a gaming social communication module configured to

determine selection of a chat contact identifier included in the chat content, wherein the chat contact identifier represents a social contact account associated with a wagering game player account for the wagering game session,

present a graphical representation of the chat contact identifier,

determine a player-indicated movement of the graphical representation to a wagering game content item included in the wagering game content,

transfer the graphical representation of the chat contact identifier to the wagering game content item according to the player-indicated movement, and

perform a wagering game function associated with the wagering game content item.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the wagering game function is a pre-assigned function that incorporates the graphical representation of the chat contact identifier into the wagering game content item.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the wagering game function is a pre-assigned function that transfers a benefit from the wagering game content to an additional wagering game player account associated with the chat contact identifier.

22. An apparatus, comprising:

means for presenting a selectable wagering-game object to a wagering game player account via a wagering game interface;

means for determining a player-initiated selection of the selectable wagering-game object in the wagering game interface;

means for determining a player-initiated transfer of the selectable wagering-game object to an inventory in a social communication application;

means for storing the selectable wagering-game object as a persisted object within the inventory;

means for detecting a player-initiated use of the persisted object; and

means for performing a wagering game function based on the player-initiated use of the persisted object.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, comprising:

means for presenting a wagering game message in a message section of the social communication application, wherein the wagering game message is responsive to the persisted object;

means for determining the player-initiated selection and transfer of the persisted object in the inventory to the message section of the social communication application; and

means for performing a wagering game function in response to the wagering game message using the persisted object.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the means for detecting a player-initiated use of the persisted object comprises

means for determining an additional player-initiated transfer of the persisted object to the wagering game interface, and

means for presenting a wagering game activity in response to the additional player-initiated transfer of the persisted object to the wagering game interface.

25. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising:

means for determining an additional player-initiated transfer of the persisted object to a social contact identifier of the social communication application; and

means for sending an instance of the persisted object to an additional wagering game player account associated with the social contact identifier.