Construction of gaming messages with contextual information

• US 8,393,967 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2007
• Issued: 03/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Farrier, Andrew Heth, Carroll, Derek J. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Xuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): GRANT, MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER
• Application Number:
  US11/741,353
• Publication Number:
  US 20080268960A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,146 Days
• Field of Search: 463/42, 709204-206
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• 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 13/63 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 13/87 Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5553 user representation in the game field, e.g. avatar
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/572 Communication between players during game play of non game information, e.g. e-mail, chat, file transfer, streaming of audio and streaming of video
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6009 for importing or creating game content, e.g. authoring tools during game development, adapting content to different platforms, use of a scripting language to create content

Abstract

A message is received on a gaming device from a player. The message provides a message identifier and an identifier for the player. Using the message identifier and game state information related to an avatar that is displayed in a gaming environment and is associated with the player, a contextual message is constructed that includes more game state information than is present in the message. The contextual message is displayed on a display of the gaming device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a simple message at a gaming device, the simple message comprising a message identifier and an identifier for a player who sent the simple message;

a processor in the gaming device using the message identifier and game state information related to an avatar that is displayed in a gaming environment and is associated with the player to select a message from a collection of possible messages that each includes at least one variable and setting a value for a variable within the selected message based on the game state information to construct a contextual message; and

displaying the contextual message on a display of the gaming device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the game state information of the contextual message comprises at least one of a group consisting of:

a location name for the position of the avatar in the gaming environment, a count of other avatars recently viewed by the avatar, a location name for the position of other avatars recently viewed by the avatar, a name of an object held by the avatar, an indication that an object was recently viewed by the avatar, and a location of an object recently viewed by the avatar.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein constructing a contextual message further comprises identifying a language for the contextual message based on a language setting, and converting the contextual message into a different language based on the language setting.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting at least one audio recording that contains information in the contextual message and playing the audio recording through a speaker associated with the gaming device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein selecting at least one audio recording comprises selecting an audio recording based on the language of the contextual message.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising constructing a second contextual message based on the message identifier and the identifier for the player, the second contextual message being different from the contextual message, and providing the second contextual message to an artificial intelligence robot.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising updating at least one knowledge state of the artificial intelligence robot to include game state information found in the second contextual message and having the artificial intelligence robot make a decision based on the at least one updated knowledge state.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the player is an artificial intelligence robot.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying a navigation point based in part on the game state information in the contextual message.

10. A memory device in a gaming device having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

receiving a message from a separate gaming device, the message including information identifying a player who sent the message;

determining a language setting that indicates the language in which text is to be displayed;

retrieving game state information for a game being played on the gaming device;

constructing a contextual message based on the received message and the game state information;

converting the contextual message into a different language based on the language setting; and

displaying the contextual message in the different language on a display associated with the gaming device.

11. The memory device of claim 10 further comprising selecting an audio recording based on the contextual message and playing the audio recording through a speaker associated with the gaming device.

12. The memory device of claim 10 wherein the game state information comprises at least one type of information from a group of types of information consisting of:

a position in a gaming environment of an avatar associated with the player, a count of other avatars recently viewed by the avatar associated with the player, a position in the gaming environment of other avatars recently viewed by the avatar associated with the player, a name of an object held by the avatar associated with the player, an indication that an object was recently viewed by the avatar associated with the player, and a location in the gaming environment of an object recently viewed by the avatar associated with the player.

13. The memory device of claim 10 wherein displaying the contextual message comprises displaying an identifier for the player who sent the message.

14. The memory device of claim 10 further comprising displaying a navigation point on the display based on game state information in the contextual message.

15. The memory device of claim 10 further comprising constructing a second contextual message based on the received message and the game state information, using the second contextual message to update information known by an artificial intelligence bot that is represented by an avatar in a graphical gaming environment.

16. The memory device of claim 10 wherein the player that sent the message is an artificial intelligence bot and wherein the contextual message comprises a location name of a current location of an avatar that represents the artificial intelligence bot.

17. A method comprising:

receiving a message from a player of a game on a gaming device, the message including a message identifier and an identifier for the player, the message identifier identifying a message that requests other players move their avatars to a different location;

retrieving contextual information about a current state of the game based on the message identifier and the identifier for the player, the contextual information comprising a current location of an avatar associated with the player;

constructing a contextual message based on the contextual information and the message identifier, the contextual message comprising a request for other players to move their avatars to a different location based on the current location of the avatar associated with the player;

using the contextual message to increase the amount of information known to an artificial intelligence bot that controls an avatar in the game;

having the artificial intelligence bot change a state of the avatar it controls based on the increase in information; and

displaying a change in the avatar controlled by the artificial intelligence bot on a display associated with the gaming device based on the change in state of the avatar controlled by the artificial intelligence bot.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the player comprises a second artificial intelligence bot that controls a second avatar in the game.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein changing the state of the avatar controlled by the artificial intelligence bot comprises moving the avatar towards the different location.