Game system and method for assigning titles to players based on history of playing characteristics

• US 7,097,559 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2002
• Issued: 08/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Konami Digital Entertainment Company Limited (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Konami Corporation (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Wada, Hiroyuki, Shibamiya, Masakazu, Harano, Yuuki, Kubota, Kazutaka, Okita, Katsunori, Makiishi, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): BROCKETTI, JULIE K
• Application Number:
  US10/266,024
• Publication Number:
  US 20030073488A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,422 Days
• Field of Search: 463/1, 463 11- 42, 700/91, 273/121.B
• US Class Current: 463/11
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/50 characterized by details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• 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: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3276 wherein the players compete, e.g. tournament
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3283 wherein the number of active machines is limited

Abstract

The CPU 161 of the video game apparatus comprises a performance determination unit 161b that determines the order of finish of the players each time a game is completed, a parameter calculation unit 161g that calculates parameters indicating the characteristics of each player in playing games based on the game history data stored in a history storage unit 162b described below and a title assigning unit 161h that assigns a title applicable during games to each player based on the calculated parameters, and the RAM 162 comprises a history storage unit 162b that stores past player game history data for each player, and a title storage unit 162c that associates the titles assigned by the title assigning unit 161h with the players and stores them.

Claims

1. A recording medium which stores an executable game progress control program that controls progress of a game played by a plurality of players while reflecting the game progress on game screens, said game progress control program being configured to enable a video game apparatus to function as:

history storage means for storing past game history data for each player,

parameter calculation means for calculating, based on the game history stored, parameter values for game playing parameters that indicate a plurality of game playing characteristic actions of each player in playing the game wherein ranges of the parameter values for respective ones of the game playing parameters are game playing parameter dependent and differ from one another,

level determination means for converting the parameter values to level values based on conversion criteria specific to respective ones of the game playing parameters and which differ from each other,

title assigning means for assigning titles applicable during games to the players based on relative levels of the level values converted from the parameter values of each player, said titles being indicative of the game playing characteristic actions of each player in playing the game,

title storage means for associating the titles assigned with the respective players and storing the associated titles, and

display means for displaying, on the game screens, the titles associated with respective opposing ones of the plurality of players.

2. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said program enables said video game apparatus to further function as:

item assigning means that virtually assigns a prescribed number of items to players who satisfy prescribed conditions,

performance determination means that determines at an end of each game a winner and losers or an order of each player'"'"'s finish,

item transfer means that, based on the results of the determination conducted by the performance determination means, transfers among players a prescribed number of items from among the items virtually possessed by the players,

rank determination means that determines a rank that indicates the level of a player'"'"'s skill at games based on the number of items virtually possessed by the player, and

rank storage means that associates the number of items and the rank with each player and stores them in memory.

3. The recording medium according to claim 2, wherein said program enables said video game apparatus to further function as an opponent display means that displays on a game screen the ranks of the opposing players.

4. The recording medium according to claim 2, wherein:

said game is a mah-jongg game,

said program enables said video game apparatus to further function as a number of deals selection means that, when a game is begun, displays on a game screen multiple options for the number of deals and receives a selection input from the player, and

said item transfer means determines a number of items to be transferred among the players based on the selected number of deals.

5. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said game is a mah-jongg game, said game history data includes at least data regarding each player'"'"'s cumulative number of deals won and cumulative number of deals played, and said parameter calculation means calculates a number of wins per deal by dividing the cumulative number of deals won by the cumulative number of deals played.

6. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said game is a mah-jongg game, said game history data includes at least data regarding each player'"'"'s cumulative number of losses on his/her own discard and cumulative number of deals played, and said parameter calculation means calculates a number of losses on his/her own discard per deal by dividing the cumulative number of losses on his/her own discard by the cumulative number of deals played.

7. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said game is a mah-jongg game, said game history data includes at least data regarding a cumulative number of exponentials in each win and said parameter calculation means calculates a number of exponentials per win by dividing the cumulative number of exponentials by a cumulative number of deals won.

8. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said game is a mah-jongg game, said game history data includes at least data on a cumulative number of special tiles in each win and a cumulative number of deals won by each player, and said parameter calculation means calculates a number of the special tiles per win by dividing the cumulative number of the special tiles by the cumulative number of deals won.

9. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said display means displays said titles assigned to said plurality of players on the screen of the video game apparatus before the start of the game.

10. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein each of said titles indicates a name of a character that conveys an image associated with the corresponding one of the game playing characteristic actions.

11. The recording medium according to claim 10, wherein each of said titles indicates a name of a character selected from a group consisting of a phoenix, a turtle, a dragon, and a tiger.

12. A game progress control method that controls progress of a game with a video game apparatus played by a plurality of players while reflecting the game progress on game screens, said method comprising the steps of:

storing past game history data for each player in storage means in the video game apparatus,

calculating, based on the game history stored, parameter values for game playing parameters that indicate a plurality of game playing characteristic actions of each player in playing the game wherein ranges of the parameter values for respective ones of the game playing parameters are game playing parameter dependent and differ from one another,

converting the parameter values to level values based on conversion criteria specific to respective ones of the game playing parameters and which differ from each other,

assigning titles applicable during games to the players based on relative levels of the level values converted from the parameter values of each player, said titles being indicative of the game playing characteristic actions of each player in playing the game,

associating the assigned titles with the players and storing the assigned titles in an associated state in storage means in the video game apparatus, and

displaying, on the game screens, the titles assigned associated with respective opposing ones of the plurality of players.

13. A video game apparatus that controls progress of a game played by a plurality of players while reflecting the game progress on game screens, said apparatus comprising:

history storage means for storing past game history data for each player,

parameter calculation means for calculating, based on the game history stored, parameter values for game playing parameters that indicate a plurality of game playing characteristic actions of each player in playing the game wherein ranges of the parameter values for respective ones of the game playing parameters are game playing parameter dependent and differ from one another,

level determination means for converting the parameter values to level values based on conversion criteria specific to respective ones of the game playing parameters and which differ from each other,

title assigning means for assigning titles applicable during games to the players based on relative levels of the level values converted from the parameter values of each player, said titles being indicative of the game playing characteristic actions of each player in playing the game,

title storage means for associating said titles assigned with the respective players and for storing the associated titles, and

display means for displaying on the game screens the titles assigned associated with respective opposing ones of the plurality of players.

14. A recording medium which stores an executable game progress control program that controls progress of a game played by a plurality of players while reflecting the game progress on game screens, said game progress control program being configured to enable a video game apparatus to function as:

history storage means for storing past game history data for each player playing the game and the game being mah-jongg,

parameter calculation means for calculating parameters that indicate a plurality of game playing characteristic actions of each player in playing the game based on the game history data,

title assigning means for assigning titles applicable during games to the players based on relative levels of the calculated parameters of each player, said titles indicating relative levels of the game playing characteristic actions of each player in playing the game,

title storage means for associating the titles assigned with the respective players and storing the associated titles, and

display means for displaying, on the game screens, the titles associated with respective opposing ones of the plurality of players,

said game history data includes at least data regarding each player'"'"'s cumulative number of deals won and cumulative number of deals played, and said parameter calculation means calculates as one of said parameters a number of wins per deal by dividing the cumulative number of deals won by the cumulative number of deals played.

15. The recording medium according to claim 14, wherein each of said titles indicates a name of a character selected from a group consisting of a phoenix, a turtle, a dragon, and a tiger.

16. The recording medium according to claim 14, wherein said game history data includes at least data regarding each player'"'"'s cumulative number of losses on his/her own discard and cumulative number of deals played, and said parameter calculation means calculates as one of said parameters a number of losses on his/her own discard per deal by dividing the cumulative number of losses on his/her own discard by the cumulative number of deals played.

17. The recording medium according to claim 14, wherein said game history data includes at least data regarding a cumulative number of exponentials in each win and said parameter calculation means calculates as one of said parameters a number of exponentials per win by dividing the cumulative number of exponentials by a cumulative number of deals won.

18. The recording medium according to claim 14, wherein said game history data includes at least data on a cumulative number of special tiles in each win and a cumulative number of deals won by each player, and said parameter calculation means calculates as one of said parameters a number of the special tiles per win by dividing the cumulative number of the special tiles by the cumulative number of deals won.

19. The recording medium according to claim 14, wherein said program enables said video game apparatus to further function as:

item assigning means that virtually assigns a prescribed number of items to players who satisfy prescribed conditions,

performance determination means that determines at an end of each game a winner and losers or an order of each player'"'"'s finish,

item transfer means that, based on the results of the determination conducted by the performance determination means, transfers among players a prescribed number of items from among the items virtually possessed by the players,

rank determination means that determines a rank that indicates the level of a player'"'"'s skill at games based on the number of items virtually possessed by the player,

rank storage means that associates the number of items and the rank with each player and stores them in memory,

a number of deals selection means that, when a game is begun, displays on a game screen multiple options for the number of deals and receives a selection input from the player, and

said item transfer means determining a number of items to be transferred among the players based on the selected number of deals.

20. The recording medium according to claim 19, wherein each of said titles includes a name of a character selected from a group consisting of a phoenix, a turtle, a dragon, and a tiger, said phoenix represents a quick win type player, said turtle represents a defense-first type player, said dragon represents a luck-dependent type player and said tiger represents an attack-minded player.