Adjusting difficulty level of a multiplayer game

• US 8,210,925 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2009
• Issued: 07/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Johnson, Brett
• Primary Examiner(s): Richards, N Drew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Singal, Ankush
• Application Number:
  US12/472,077
• Publication Number:
  US 20100304839A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,134 Days
• Field of Search: 463/23
• US Class Current: 463/23
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• 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 13/80 Special adaptations for executing a specific game genre or game mode
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6027 using adaptive systems learning from user actions, e.g. for skill level adjustment

Abstract

Systems and methods for controlling a difficulty level of a multiplayer networked game are provided herein. One exemplary method includes setting an initial difficulty level at a gaming server for a game played by a main gaming client and one or more challenger gaming clients. The method further includes sending an input request to the main gaming client and each challenger gaming client based on the initial difficulty level. The method further includes receiving main user input from the main gaming client, and challenger user input from each challenger gaming client responsive to the input request. The method also includes adjusting the initial difficulty level to an adjusted difficulty level based on the challenger user input.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a difficulty level of a multiplayer networked game, the method comprising:

setting an initial difficulty level at a gaming server for a game played by a main gaming client, one or more challenger gaming clients, and one or more crowd gaming clients, the main gaming client being a client operated by a player whose game progress may be affected by the one or more challenger gaming clients, the one or more challenger gaming clients being one or more clients whose game progress may affect the main gaming client, and the one or more crowd gaming clients each being a client operated by a player whose game progress does not affect the main gaming client;

sending an input request to the main gaming client, each challenger gaming client, and each crowd gaming client based on the initial difficulty level;

receiving main user input from the main gaming client, challenger user input from each challenger gaming client, and crowd user input from each crowd gaming client responsive to the input request; and

adjusting the initial difficulty level to an adjusted difficulty level based on the challenger user input.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a challenger performance value based on the challenger user input received from the one or more challenger gaming clients.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising changing a first challenger gaming client to a crowd gaming client when an incorrect challenger user input is received from the first challenger gaming client.

4. The method of claim 2, where the adjusted difficulty level is more difficult than the initial difficulty level when the challenger performance value is below a low challenger performance threshold, and where the adjusted difficulty level is less difficult than the initial difficulty level when the challenger performance value is above a high challenger performance threshold.

5. The method of claim 2, where adjusting the initial difficulty level includes adjusting the initial difficulty level to an adjusted difficulty level more difficult than the initial difficulty level when the challenger performance value indicates that less than ten challenger gaming clients provided incorrect challenger user input responsive to two consecutive input requests.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising providing a main user prize and adjusting a main user prize value based on the challenger performance.

7. The method of claim 4, where the low challenger performance threshold and the high challenger performance threshold each indicate a ratio of incorrect challenger user inputs compared to a number of correct challenger user inputs, the high challenger performance threshold being greater than the low challenger performance threshold.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising not adjusting the initial difficulty level when the challenger performance value is greater than or equal to a low challenger performance threshold and the challenger performance value is less than or equal to a high challenger performance threshold.

9. The method of claim 6, where the adjusting the main user prize value includes increasing the main user prize value as the challenger performance value increases.

10. A system for controlling a difficulty level of a multiplayer networked game playable by a plurality of players including a main player playing via a main gaming client, one or more challenger players playing via one or more challenger gaming clients, and one or more crowd players playing via one or more crowd gaming clients, the main gaming client being a client whose game progress may be affected by the one or more challenger gaming clients, the one or more challenger gaming clients being clients whose game progress may affect the main gaming client, and the one or more crowd gaming clients each being a client whose game progress does not affect the main gaming client and the one or more challenger gaming clients, the system comprising:

a gaming server including a processor and memory having instructions executable by the processor to;

set an initial difficulty level for the game,

send an input request to the main gaming client and to the one or more challenger gaming clients based on the initial difficulty level;

receive main user input from the main gaming client, challenger user input from each challenger gaming client, and crowd user input from each crowd gaming client responsive to the input request,

determine a challenger performance value based on aggregated challenger user input, and

adjust the initial difficulty level to an adjusted difficulty level based on the challenger user input, the adjusted difficulty level being more difficult than the initial difficulty level when the challenger performance value is below a low challenger performance threshold.

11. The system of claim 10, where the memory has instructions executable by the processor to adjust the initial difficulty level to an adjusted difficulty level less difficult than the initial difficulty level when the challenger performance value is above a high challenger performance threshold.

12. The system of claim 10, where the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to provide a main user prize and to adjust a main user prize value based on the challenger performance.

13. The system of claim 10, where the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to maintain the initial difficulty when the challenger performance value is greater than or equal to a low challenger performance threshold and the challenger performance value is less than or equal to a high challenger performance threshold.

14. The system of claim 10, where the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to remove a first challenger gaming client from the game when an incorrect challenger user input is received from the first challenger gaming client.

15. The system of claim 10, where the game is also played by a plurality of crowd gaming clients, and where the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to change a challenger gaming client to a crowd gaming client when an incorrect challenger user input is received from the challenger gaming client.

16. The system of claim 11, where the low challenger performance threshold and the high challenger performance threshold each indicate a number of incorrect challenger user inputs compared to a number of correct challenger user inputs, the high challenger performance threshold being representative of a greater ratio than the low challenger performance threshold.

17. The system of claim 12, where the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to increase the main user prize value as the challenger performance value increases.

18. A method for controlling a difficulty level of a multiplayer networked game, the method comprising:

setting an initial difficulty level at a gaming server for a game played by a main gaming client, one or more challenger gaming clients, and one or more crowd gaming clients, the main gaming client being a client operated by a player whose game progress may be affected by the one or more challenger gaming clients, the one or more challenger gaming clients being clients whose game progress may affect the main gaming client, and the one or more crowd gaming clients each being a client operated by a player whose game progress does not affect the main gaming client and the one or more challenger gaming clients;

sending an input request to the main gaming client, each challenger gaming client, and each crowd gaming client based on the initial difficulty level;

receiving main user input from the main gaming client, challenger user input from each challenger gaming client, and crowd user input from each crowd gaming client responsive to the input request; and

adjusting the initial difficulty level to an adjusted difficulty level based on the challenger user input, the adjusted difficulty level being less difficult than the initial difficulty level when a number of incorrect challenger user inputs is greater than a high target number of incorrect challenger user inputs, and the adjusted difficulty level being more difficult than the initial difficulty level when a number of incorrect challenger user inputs is less than a low target number of incorrect challenger user inputs.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising not adjusting the initial difficulty level when the number of incorrect challenger user inputs is greater than or equal to the low target number of incorrect challenger user inputs and the number of incorrect challenger user inputs is less than or equal to the high target number of incorrect challenger user inputs.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising providing a main user prize and increasing a main user prize value as a number of incorrect challenger user inputs increases.