Voting with your feet

• US 8,812,356 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2011
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Inventors: Mahajan, Amitt, Ocko, Matthew Adam, Reynolds, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Suhol, Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): YEN, JASON TAHAI
• Application Number:
  US13/174,737
• Time in Patent Office: 1,146 Days
• Field of Search: 455/411, 455/456.1, 455/518
• US Class Current: 705/14.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0218 based on score
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A method of voting with your feet is disclosed. A performance of a location-based action by a player of a computer-implemented game is associated with a vote on a matter. The performance of the location-based action by the player is detected. A count of votes corresponding to the vote on the matter is incremented based on the detecting of the performance of the location-based action by the player.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a survey question and a plurality of possible answers to the survey question;

associating a first location-based action with a first answer of the plurality of possible answers;

associating a second location-based action with a second answer of the plurality of possible answers;

incrementing a count of votes corresponding to the first answer based on a detecting of a performance of the first location-based action by a first player of a plurality of players of a computer-implemented game;

incrementing a count of votes corresponding to the second answer based on a detecting of a performance of the second location-based action by a second player of the plurality of players of the computer-implemented game, the incrementing of the count of votes corresponding to the second answer being performed by a hardware processor; and

incrementing the count of votes corresponding to the second answer based on a detecting of a lack of the performance of the first location-based action by the first player.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining which answer of the plurality of answers represents a collective opinion of the plurality of players of the computer-implemented game as to the best answer to the survey question.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the survey question and the plurality of possible answers to the survey question are received from a sponsor of the computer-implemented game.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the survey question pertains to a product being marketed by the sponsor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the incrementing of the count of votes corresponding to the first answer is further based on an amount of time that the first player is present at a location of the first location-based action.

6. The method of claim 5, determining that an additional performance of the location-based action by the player is not to result in an additional incrementing of the count of the votes corresponding to the first answer.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising decrementing the count of the votes corresponding to the first answer based on an amount of time having elapsed since the performing by the first player of the location-based action at the first location.

17. The method of claim 3, further comprising providing a virtual item to at least one player character of the plurality of players of the computer implemented game, the virtual item pertaining to the collective opinion of the plurality of players of the computer implemented game as to the best answer to the survey question.

7. A system comprising:

at least one processor-implemented module configured to;

receive a survey question and a plurality of possible answers to the survey question;

associate a first location-based action with a first answer of the plurality of possible answers;

associate a second location-based action with a second answer of the plurality of possible answers;

increment a count of votes corresponding to the first answer based on a detecting of a performance of the first location-based action by a first player of a computer-implemented game;

increment a count of votes corresponding to the second answer based on a detecting of a performance of the second location-based action by a second player of the plurality of players of the computer-implemented game; and

increment the count of votes corresponding to an the second answer based on a detecting of a lack of the performance of the first location-based action by the first player.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor-implemented module is further configured to determine which answer of the plurality of answers represents a collective opinion of the plurality of players of the computer-implemented game as to the best answer to the survey question.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the survey question and the plurality of answers to the survey question are received from a sponsor of the computer-implemented game.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the survey question pertains to a product being marketed by the sponsor.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the incrementing of the count of votes corresponding to the first answer is further based on an amount of time that the first player is present at the first location.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the processor-implemented module is further configured to determine that an additional performance of the location-based action by the player is not to result in an additional

13. A non-transitory machine-readable medium, the non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a set of computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, perform operations comprising:

receiving a survey question and a plurality of possible answers to the survey question;

associating a first location-based action with a first answer of the plurality of possible answers;

associating a second location-based action with a second answer of the plurality of possible answers;

incrementing a count of votes corresponding to the first answer based on a detecting of a performance of the first location-based action by a first player of a plurality of players of a computer-implemented game;

incrementing a count of votes corresponding to the second answer based on a detecting of a performance of the second location-based action by a second player of the plurality of players of the computer-implemented game, the incrementing of the count of votes corresponding to the second answer being performed by a hardware processor; and

incrementing the count of votes corresponding to the second answer based on a detecting of a lack of the performance of the first location-based action by the first player.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the incrementing of the count of votes corresponding to the first answer is further based on an amount of time that the first player is present at a location of the first location-based action.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, the operations further comprising determining that an additional performance of the location-based action by the player is not to result in an additional incrementing of the count of the votes corresponding to the first answer.