USER ANALYSIS SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20190329138A1
• Filed: 01/05/2018
• Published: 10/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: PANESAR, Pritpal Singh, NUSRAT, Mohammed Mansoor, RYAN, Nicholas Anthony Edward, SPENCER, Huge Alexander Dinsdale
• Granted Patent: US 11,033,825 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/46 Computing the game score
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5375 for graphically or textually suggesting an action, e.g. by displaying an arrow indicating a turn in a driving game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/67 adaptively or by learning from player actions, e.g. skill level adjustment or by storing successful combat sequences for re-use
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/798 for assessing skills or for ranking players, e.g. for generating a hall of fame computing the game score A63F13/46
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/305 for providing a graphical or textual hint to the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/558 by assessing the players' skills or ranking

Abstract

A user analysis method of assisting a current user within the videogame, includes: obtaining an indication that a hint is required for a scenario within the videogame; and if so, providing a hint to the current user relating to successful behaviour in the scenario; where providing a hint comprises: obtaining one or more indicators of behaviour for the scenario within the videogame, a difference detecting step comprising detecting a respective difference between the one or more obtained indicators of behaviour and corresponding data derived from a corpus of measured indicators of behaviour previously generated from a subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario, and the providing step comprising providing a hint to the current user indicating a change in one or more behaviours that reduces a respective difference in the one or more measured indicators of behaviour between the current user and the subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario.

Claims

1. A user analysis method of assisting a current user within the videogame, comprising the steps of:

obtaining an indication that a hint is required for a scenario within the videogame; and

if so,

providing a hint to the current user relating to successful behaviour in the scenario;

wherein providing a hint comprises;

obtaining one or more indicators of behaviour for the scenario within the videogame;

a difference detecting step comprising detecting a respective difference between the one or more obtained indicators of behaviour and corresponding data derived from a corpus of measured indicators of behaviour previously generated from a subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario; and

the providing step comprising providing a hint to the current user indicating a change in one or more behaviours that reduces a respective difference in the one or more measured indicators of behaviour between the current user and the subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario.

2. The user analysis method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining an indication that a hint is required comprises receiving a user input indicative of a scenario for which a hint is sought;

and

the evaluating step comprises a step of filtering the corpus of measured indicators of behaviour previously generated from other users for the indicated scenario.

3. The user analysis method of claim 1, comprising the step of measuring one or more indicators of success for a scenario within the videogame as played by the current user;

and

wherein the step of obtaining an indication that a hint is required comprises detecting if the one or more measured indicators of success are below an evaluation threshold.

4. The user analysis method of claim 3, comprising the step of

evaluating the one or more obtained indicators of success with respect to data derived from a corpus of measured indicators of success previously generated for other users for the scenario;

and in which

the evaluation threshold is based upon the data derived from the corpus of measured indicators of success previously generated for other users for the scenario.

5. The user analysis method of claim 4, in which the evaluation threshold is one selected from the list consisting of:

i. the average success of the subset of other users;

ii. M % below the average success of the subset of other users, where M is a predetermined number; and

iii. the P^th standard deviation below the average success of the subset of other users,

where P is a predetermined number.

6. The user analysis method of claim 1, in which the step of obtaining one or more indicators of behaviour for the scenario within the videogame comprises one selected from the list consisting of:

i. a measuring step comprising measuring one or more indicators of behaviour for the scenario within the videogame as played by the current user; and

ii. obtaining the one or more indicators of behaviour from the corpus of measured indicators of behaviour previously generated from a predetermined subset of other users for the scenario.

7. The user analysis method of claim 1, in which at least one difference detecting step comprises comparing the current user with a subset of other users for the scenario, the subset being one selected from the list consisting of:

i. all users;

ii. all users except those outside a predetermined number of standard deviations from the mean;

iii. above-average users; and

iv. the most successful N % of users where N is a predetermined number,

as determined by their respective evaluation of their measured indicators of success.

8. The user analysis method of claim 1, in which at least one difference detecting step comprises comparing the current user with a subset of other users for the scenario, the subset being one selected from the list consisting of:

i. users within a common geographical region;

ii. users within a common demographic group;

iii. users within a self-identified group within the game;

iv. users within the same in-game location; and

v. users following the same in-game quest.

9. The user analysis method of claim 1, in which the providing step comprises the steps of:

calculating the respective differences between the one or more measured indicators of behaviour of the current user and those of the subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario, and

selecting the behaviour corresponding to one selected from the list consisting of;

i. the largest respective difference; and

ii. a difference other than the largest respective difference,

as the subject of the hint.

10. The user analysis method of claim 1, in which the providing step comprises the step of providing the hint to one or more selected from the list consisting of:

i. an application separate from the videogame; and

ii. an application is hosted by a different device to that hosting the videogame.

11. The user analysis method of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

measuring one or more indicators of behaviour for the scenario within the videogame as played by the current user;

measuring one or more indicators of success for a scenario within the videogame as played by the current user;

associating with the measured indicators of behaviour and success metadata indicative of the scenario; and

adding the measured indicators of behaviour and success and associated metadata to the corpus.

12. A non-transitory, computer readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to assist a current user within a videogame by carrying out actions, the actions comprising:

obtaining an indication that a hint is required for a scenario within the videogame; and

if so,

providing a hint to the current user relating to successful behaviour in the scenario;

wherein providing a hint comprises;

obtaining one or more indicators of behaviour for the scenario within the videogame;

detecting a respective difference between the one or more obtained indicators of behaviour and corresponding data derived from a corpus of measured indicators of behaviour previously generated from a subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario; and

wherein the providing step comprises providing a hint to the current user indicating a change in one or more behaviours that reduces a respective difference in the one or more measured indicators of behaviour between the current user and the subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario.

13. A user analysis system arranged to assist a current user within the videogame, comprising:

a hint indication obtaining processor adapted to obtain an indication that a hint is required for a scenario within the videogame; and

if so,

a providing processor adapted to provide a hint to the current user relating to successful behaviour in the scenario;

the providing processor being adapted to obtain one or more indicators of behaviour for the scenario within the videogame;

the providing processor being adapted to detect a respective difference between the one or more obtained indicators of behaviour and corresponding data derived from a corpus of measured indicators of behaviour previously generated from a subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario; and

the providing processor being adapted to provide a hint to the current user indicating a change in one or more behaviours that reduces a respective difference in the one or more measured indicators of behaviour between the current user and the subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario.

14. The user analysis system of claim 13, comprising:

a measuring processor adapted to measure one or more indicators of success for a scenario within the videogame as played by the current user; and

wherein the hint indication obtaining processor comprises a detecting processor adapted to detect if the one or more measured indicators of success are below an evaluation threshold.

15. The user analysis system of claim 13, in which the providing processor is adapted to provide the hint to an application separate from the videogame.