Electronic investment and trading game with entertainment and educational purpose

• US 7,846,014 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2009
• Issued: 12/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Shelton Communications LLC
• Original Assignee: Shelton Communications LLC
• Inventors: Shelton, Sylvester Martin
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis; David L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hall; Arthur O.
• Application Number:
  US12/402,945
• Publication Number:
  US 20090233718A1
• Time in Patent Office: 635 Days
• Field of Search: 463/1, 463 9- 13, 463/16, 463 18- 23, 463 25- 27, 463 29- 34, 463/42, 273/138.1, 273/138.2, 273/139, 273/141.A, 273/142.B, 273/142.C, 273/142.J, 273/142.R, 273/145.R, 273/147, 273/292, 273454-456, 273460-461, 705/1, 705 7- 8, 705/14.17, 705/26, 705/35, 705/36.R, 705/37, 705/42, 705/59, 705/77, 700 99-102, 902/10, 902/23
• US Class Current: 463/9
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 18/16 Control of vehicle drives by interaction between vehicle and track; Control of track elements by vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

A system and method for a computer-implemented educational investment and trading game comprising a player interface for display on player computer comprising a computer-usable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for continuous display of current values for indicia in the group comprising player account equity, where player account equity comprises cash, stocks, and bonds in a player account object, economic indicators, where economic indicators comprise economic indicators used in a real-life economy and selected by the player from a database of pre-defined economic indicators during a game initialization step, and current stock price for each corporation selected by the player in a game initialization step, the indicia being adjusted upon execution of each play iteration of the game, the player interface further comprising a notice of activity icon during the execution of the play iteration comprising a textual explanation of the step being executed.

Claims

1. In an entertaining and educational investment and trading video game, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code embodied therein configured to cause the execution of the following steps:

i. Prompting a player to select a plurality of corporations from a database of corporations, wherein each corporation record in the database of corporations has a pre-defined initial value for the attributes of stock price, earnings-per-share, level of risk, capitalization, and descriptive narrative of a history of the corporation adding entertainment value to the game;

ii. Prompting the player to select a game complexity level linked to the player'"'"'s selection of one or more pre-defined objects from a securities database, a database of economic indicators, and a database of actors, wherein the database of securities comprises stocks, bonds, warrants, and derivatives, the database of economic indicators comprises economic indicators used in a real-life economy, and the database of actors comprises an Exchange, a Brokerage House, an Internal Revenue Service, a legislature, and a U.S. Supreme Court;

iii. Automatically presenting a play option to the player, each play option comprising a selection of a directive from a database of directives and a selection of an opportunity from a database of opportunities, wherein each directive in the database of directives comprises an instruction that causes a change in the stock price of a corporation, and wherein each opportunity in the database of opportunities comprises an instruction that changes the financial position of the player or an opposing player, and wherein furthermore the probability of presentation of the selections is determined by pre-defined rules linked to a behavior of a real-life economy given a current value for each of the economic indicators;

iv. Automatically executing the play option,

v. Prompting the player to optionally engage in an investment or trade transaction and then automatically executing the transaction if the player elects to engage in an investment or trade transaction,

vi. Continuously displaying current values for the economic indicators, corporation stock prices, and player account equity, where player account equity comprises values for cash, stock, and bonds in a player account;

vii. Automatically verifying the current value of the player account equity and deleting the player account if the value is zero or less, and

viii. Iteratively presenting a new play option per Step iii above and executing Steps iv through vii, for each player whose player account equity is greater than zero.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium per claim 1 having program code embodied therein further configured to prompt the player to optionally input into the database of corporations a corporation record for a corporation linked to a real-life corporation in which the player has a controlling interest, the player directly inputting values for the corporation'"'"'s attributes of stock price, level of risk, capitalization, and descriptive narrative of a history of the corporation.

3. A system for conducting an educational and entertaining investment and trading game comprising:

a master game server computer and

a plurality of player computers in communication with the master game server computer over the Internet, each of the plurality of player computers comprising a graphical display device that displays prompts and game information to a player,

the master game server computer configured with a processor causing the execution of the following steps;

i. Prompting the player to select a plurality of corporations from a database of corporations, wherein each corporation record in the database of corporations has a pre-defined initial value for the attributes of stock price, earnings-per-share, level of risk, capitalization, and a descriptive narrative of a history of the corporation adding entertainment value to the game;

ii. Prompting the player to select a game complexity level linked to the player'"'"'s selection of one or more pre-defined objects from a securities database, a database of economic indicators, and a database of actors, wherein the database of securities comprises stocks, bonds, warrants, and derivatives, the database of economic indicators comprises economic indicators used in a real-life economy, and the database of actors comprises an Exchange, a Brokerage House, an Internal Revenue Service, a legislature, and a U.S. Supreme Court;

iii. Automatically presenting a play option to the player, each play option comprising a selection of a directive from a database of directives and a selection of an opportunity from a database of opportunities, wherein each directive in the database of directives comprises an instruction that causes a change in a stock price of a corporation, and wherein each opportunity in the database of opportunities comprises an instruction that changes the financial position of the player or an opposing player, and wherein furthermore the probability of presentation of the selections is determined by pre-defined rules linked to a behavior of a real-life economy given a current value for each of the economic indicators;

iv. Automatically executing the play option;

v. Prompting the player to optionally engage in an investment or trade transaction and then automatically executing the transaction if the player elects to engage in an investment or trade transaction;

vi. Continuously displaying on the graphical display device of each of the plurality of player computers current values for the economic indicators, corporation stock prices, and player account equity, wherein player account equity comprises values for cash, stock, and bonds in a player account;

vii. Automatically verging the current value of the player account equity and deleting the player account if the value is zero or less, and

viii. Iteratively presenting a new play option per Step iii above and executing Steps iv through vii, for each player whose player account equity is greater than zero.

4. The system per claim 3 wherein the processor of the master game server computer further causes the automatic display of a notice of activity icon during the execution of the play option per step iv, the notice of activity icon comprising a textual explanation of the play option being executed, the display via the graphical display device of each of the plurality of player computers.