Inventory management of virtual items in computer games

• US 7,713,116 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2003
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pryor, Leon, Keam, Nigel S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Peter DungBa
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hall; Arthur O.
• Application Number:
  US10/611,799
• Publication Number:
  US 20040266505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,507 Days
• Field of Search: 463 1- 5, 463 7- 9, 463 30- 34, 463 36- 39, 463 40- 43, 463 49- 57, 273/148.R, 273/148.B, 273/309, 273/317.1, 273/340, 273/348, 273361-367, 273/108.1, 273/127.R, 345 11- 34, 345473-475, 345618-619, 345/629, 345/156, 345/157, 345/160, 345/419, 715/706, 715/738, 715/757, 715762-764
• US Class Current: 463/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/32 using local area network [LAN] connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/533 for prompting the player, e.g. by displaying a game menu
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/63 by the player, e.g. authoring using a level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/792 for payment purposes, e.g. monthly subscriptions
• 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 13/822 Strategy games; Role-playing games A63F13/825, A63F13/828 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/308 Details of the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/404 characterized by a local network connection
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/50 characterized by details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5513 involving billing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/558 by assessing the players' skills or ranking
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6018 where the game content is authored by the player, e.g. level editor or by game device at runtime, e.g. level is created from music data on CD
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/807 Role playing or strategy games

Abstract

Within a game, a filter is applied to a game inventory based on an attribute of each one of a plurality of virtual items. The filter can be player defined, game developer defined, system programmer defined, or a combination thereof. In certain versions, the virtual items that satisfy the query provided by the filter are displayed to the player. The player can thereupon access any one of the virtual items that are represented by the icons that satisfy the filtering query. In one version, the attributes of the virtual items can be changed using the filtering game inventory system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

operating, on a computing device comprising an electronic display, a computer game inventory management system to manage display of a game inventory of a plurality of virtual objects acquired during computer game play on the computing device as a function of computer-executable instructions that configure a processor to perform operations comprising;

indicating to a game player, on the electronic display during computer game play, the plurality of computer generated virtual objects in a graphical scene describer of a game display, the graphical scene describer used to illustrate a computer generated representation of a player character that is interacting with one or more characters within a virtual world in the computer game play, the player character controlled by the game player, wherein the plurality of virtual objects are configured in the computer game play;

to be obtained as possessions by the computer generated representation of the player character; and

to comprise one or more attributes;

collecting, in the graphical scene describer of the game display, the plurality of virtual objects using the computer generated representation of the player character;

indicating, on the game display, at least a portion of the collected plurality of virtual objects as being possessed with the computer generated representation of the player character;

displaying, on the game display, an inventory management describer in addition to the graphical scene describer of the game display, the inventory management describer comprising;

one or more filter icons that represent one or more filters; and

an inventory display that is used to display the filtered plurality of virtual objects;

receiving, in the computer game play, an input via an input device from the game player, the input used to activate a filter of the one or more filters, the activation comprising selecting, in the inventory management describer, a filter icon that represents the filter;

filtering, upon receiving the input from the game play to activate the filter, the collected plurality of virtual objects based on their respective attributes that are assigned during the computer game play, the filtering comprising filtering the collected plurality of virtual objects that match the filter that is activated by the game player; and

displaying, upon activation of the filter, a filtered portion of the collected plurality of virtual objects in the inventory display,

wherein each of the filtered portion of the plurality of virtual objects in the inventory display includes at least an attribute that matches the filter, and

wherein display of the filtered portion of the plurality of virtual objects based on the filter activated by the game player facilitates the game player to determine which of the plurality of virtual objects to be disposed of or used in the computer game play as the computer generated representation of the player character interacts with the one or more characters in the virtual world in the graphical scene describer of the game display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

indicating, in the graphical scene describer of the game display, other computer generated representations as the one or more characters in the game; and

displaying the computer generated representation of the player character and the other computer generated representations as animated characters.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

constructing a first filter and a second filter from the one or more filters, wherein the first filter filters the plurality of virtual objects based on a flag type attribute and the second filter filters the plurality of virtual objects based on an enumeration type attribute; and

filtering with the first filter and the second filter the plurality of virtual objects based on their attributes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein construction of the first filter is performed by the game player and construction of the second filter is performed by a game developer.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising selecting, by the game player, either the first filter or the second filter to obtain the plurality of virtual objects based on their attributes that are assigned during the computer game play.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the one or more filters is used to select the plurality of virtual objects that have associated attributes that match different predetermined attributes associated with the respective filter.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the filtering is executed with one of the one or more filters, and wherein a portion of the one or more filters includes one or more queries that are defined by the game player, and another portion of the one or more filters includes queries that are defined by the game developer.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein only a portion of the plurality of virtual objects that satisfy a query that corresponds to the filter is selected by the filter.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the query includes a structured query language (SQL) query.

10. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

enabling the first filter to filter a first virtual object; and

altering the attribute of the first virtual object to enable the second filter to filter the virtual object and to disable the first filter from filtering the first virtual object.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a virtual item icon within the inventory display to display the virtual object that corresponds to the virtual item icon.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the filter is displayed as a component of a user interface.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a mouse is used to select the filter.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein a joystick is used to select the filter.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein a computer display button is used to select the filter.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein a computer display menu is used to select the filter.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the filter is represented by a name.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the filter is represented by a symbol.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the collected plurality of virtual objects are indicated as being possessed using a virtual bag that is displayed on the game display.

20. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising indicating on the game display that during play of the game the computer representation of the player character uses one of the filtered obtained plurality of virtual objects.

21. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising exchanging one of the filtered virtual objects between the player character and the one or more other characters for value.

22. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the plurality of virtual objects are obtained as possessions by the computer generated representation of the player character from other computer generated representations of the other one or more characters.

23. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the filtering comprises querying the attributes that are selected from a group of queries comprising:

determining that the virtual objects are to be sold and/or bartered,

determining that the virtual objects are weapons against monsters, and

determining that the virtual objects are constructed of a particular material.

24. An electronic device including a game display comprising:

virtual item icons used to indicate a plurality of virtual objects collected by a computer generated representation of a player character during play of a computer game, the player character controlled by a game player, the collected plurality of virtual objects configured to be obtained as possessions by the player character, and at least a portion of the plurality of virtual objects comprising attributes that are assigned during play of the computer game;

a graphical scene describer used to illustrate a computer generated representation of the player character that is interacting with one or more characters within a virtual world in the play of the computer game; and

an inventory management describer comprising;

an inventory filter icon used to represent a filter, wherein the filter is activated to filter the collected plurality of virtual objects that match the filter when the inventory filter icon is selected by the game player; and

a filter result display used to display, in response to activation of the filter, one or more filtered virtual item icons, each of the one or more filtered virtual item icons used to display the filtered plurality of virtual objects that include the attributes that are assigned during play of the computer game and match the filter that is represented by the inventory filter icon;

wherein display of the at least one of the filtered plurality of collected virtual objects in response to the filter facilitates the game player to determine which of the plurality of collected virtual objects to be disposed of or used in the play of the computer game as the computer generated representation of the player character interacts with the one or more characters in the virtual world in the graphical scene describer of the game display.

25. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein dragging, with an input device, one of the virtual item icons that is associated with one of the virtual objects to a different inventory filter icon in the inventory management describer alters the attributes of the one of the virtual objects such that the altered attributes of the one of the virtual objects match a different filter that is represented by the different inventory filter icon.

26. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein the game player defines the inventory filter icon.

27. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein a game developer defines the inventory filter icon.

28. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein the computer game is operative to search the plurality of virtual objects for the computer game, and the game display displays only one or more virtual objects that satisfy search criteria as set forth by the attributes that are filtered based on queries that are associated with the inventory filter icon.

29. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein the game player provides attributes and selects a portion of the plurality of virtual objects based on the criteria that use a user interface.

30. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein the computer game highlights the attributes of certain desirable virtual objects to the player character in the graphical scene describer.

32. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein the virtual objects are obtained as possessions by displaying that the computer representations of the player character captures the virtual objects from computer representations of other characters during the play of the computer game.

33. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein the electronic device searches the plurality of virtual objects for attributes that are assigned during play of the computer game and that satisfy a predetermined search criteria, and wherein the electronic device displays only a portion of virtual objects that satisfy search criteria as set forth by the attributes that are filtered as a result of selection of the inventory filter icon.

31. The electronic device of 24, wherein the electronic device is a game server operative to couple with a plurality of game computers running the computer game.

34. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, configure the processor to perform actions comprising:

indicating to a game player, on the electronic display during computer game play, the plurality of computer generated virtual objects in a graphical scene describer of a game display, the graphical scene describer used to illustrate a computer generated representation of a player character that is interacting with one or more characters within a virtual world in the computer game play, the player character controlled by the game player, wherein the plurality of virtual objects are configured in the computer game play;

to be obtained as possessions by the computer generated representation of the player character; and

to comprise one or more attributes;

collecting, in the graphical scene describer of the game display, the plurality of virtual objects using the computer generated representation of the player character;

indicating, on the game display, at least a portion of the collected plurality of virtual objects as being possessed with the computer generated representation of the player character;

displaying, on the game display, an inventory management describer in addition to the graphical scene describer of the game display, the inventory management describer comprising;

one or more filter icons that represent one or more filters; and

an inventory display that is used to display the filtered plurality of virtual objects;

receiving, in the computer game play, an input via an input device from the game player, the input used to activate a filter of the one or more filters, the activation comprising selecting, in the inventory management describer, a filter icon that represents the filter;

filtering, upon receiving the input from the game play to activate the filter, the collected plurality of virtual objects based on their respective attributes that are assigned during the computer game play, the filtering comprising filtering the collected plurality of virtual objects that match the filter that is activated by the game player; and

displaying, upon activation of the filter, a filtered portion of the collected plurality of virtual objects in the inventory display,

wherein each of the filtered portion of the plurality of virtual objects in the inventory display includes at least an attribute that matches the filter, and

wherein display of the filtered portion of the plurality of virtual objects based on the filter activated by the game player facilitates the game player to determine which of the plurality of virtual objects to be disposed of or used in the computer game play as the computer generated representation of the player character interacts with the one or more characters in the virtual world in the graphical scene describer of the game display.

35. The computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions of claim 34, wherein the actions further comprise constructing the filter via a user interface.

36. The computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions of claim 34, wherein the game player defines the filter.

37. The computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions of claim 34, wherein a game developer of the game defines the filter.

38. The computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions of claim 34, wherein a portion of the plurality of filters is defined by the game player, and another portion of the plurality of filters is defined by a game developer, and wherein the game player selects which of the plurality of filters are to be applied to the inventory.