Techniques for providing narrative content for competitive gaming events

• US 8,821,271 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2012
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CBS Interactive Inc. (Paramount Global (f/k/a ViacomCBS Inc.))
• Original Assignee: CBS Interactive Inc. (Paramount Global (f/k/a ViacomCBS Inc.))
• Inventors: Guiro, Boubou, Davison, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Milap
• Application Number:
  US13/561,692
• Publication Number:
  US 20140031114A1
• Time in Patent Office: 764 Days
• Field of Search: 463/1, 463 29- 33, 463 40- 43, 704/9
• US Class Current: 463/30
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/54 involving acoustic signals, e.g. for simulating revolutions per minute [RPM] dependent engine sounds in a driving game or reverberation against a virtual wall
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition

Abstract

Various embodiments for providing a narrative summary for content related to competitive gaming are described. An aspect may provide receiving data about a competitive gaming event, the data comprising one or more data items; selecting a narrative template for the competitive gaming event according to the data, the narrative template comprising one or more word slots and one or more data slots; filling a data slot in the narrative template with a data item; filling a word slot in the narrative template with a word selected from a word list configured for the word slot; and publishing the narrative template with the one or more word slots and the one or more data slots filled as competitive gaming narrative content. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving data about a competitive gaming event, the data comprising one or more data items;

selecting, by a processor, a beat writer from a plurality of beat writers stored in a data store, wherein each of the plurality of beat writers represents a respective one of a plurality of different computerized authors, each configured for respectively different writing styles;

selecting, by the processor, a story type from a plurality of story types based on the selected beat writer;

selecting, by the processor, a story flavor from the one or more story flavors associated with the story type;

selecting, by the processor, a narrative template for the competitive gaming event according to the data and story type, the narrative template comprising at least one paragraph from the set of paragraph types associated with the selected template story flavor, the at least one paragraph having one or more sentences, and one or more empty word slots within the one or more sentences, and one or more empty data slots within the one or more sentences;

selecting, by the processor, for each of the one or more empty word slots, a word list configured for the word slot according to the selected beat writer;

filling, by the processor, each of the one or more empty data slots in the narrative template with a data item from the one or more data items;

filling, by the processor, each of the one or more empty word slots in the narrative template with a word selected from the selected word list configured for the word slot based on the competitive gaming data; and

publishing, by the processor, the narrative template with the one or more empty word slots and the one or more empty data slots filled as a narrative summary of competitive gaming narrative content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is obtained from at least one of:

a competitive gaming league;

a competitive gaming event organizer;

a competitive gaming content producer; and

a video game developer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising logging at least one of:

the narrative template selected, a date that the narrative template was selected, and the competitive gaming narrative content.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising selecting a narrative template that has not been used within a specified time period.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising publishing the narrative template at irregular intervals.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein publishing comprises at least one of:

publishing to a competitive gaming league web site;

publishing to an electronic mail message;

publishing to a social network;

publishing a text-to-speech version of the published narrative template to a radio feed stream;

publishing a video comprising an avatar speaking a text-to-speech version of the published narrative template;

publishing to a news ticker on at least one of;

a website, a video, and a television program;

publishing a press release; and

publishing to a website external to a competitive gaming league website.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises at least one of:

a competition name;

a league name;

a competitor name;

a team name;

a date of the event;

a time of the event;

a competition result;

a prize money value;

a score;

a video game level;

a video game title; and

a video game character.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the competitive gaming event comprises a competitive gaming league, the competitive gaming league comprising a plurality of competitive gaming participants, the method further comprising:

tracking at least one of a participation rate and a prize money amount of a competitive gaming participant at a competitive gaming web site; and

publishing a filled narrative template for a competitive gaming participant at a rate according to the prize money amount associated with the competitive gaming participant.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a logic device comprising a processor circuit;

a first data store communicatively coupled to the logic device and configured to store narrative templates comprising a plurality of story types, wherein each of the story types is associated with one or more story flavors, and wherein each of the one or more story flavors comprises a set of paragraph types;

a second data store communicatively coupled to the logic device and configured to store competitive gaming data;

a summary engine executing on the logic device, configured to;

select a beat writer from a plurality of beat writers stored in at least one of the first data store and the second data store, wherein each of the plurality of beat writers represent a respective one of a plurality of different computerized authors, each configured for respectively different writing styles;

select a template story type from the plurality of story types based on the selected beat writer;

select a template story flavor from one or more story flavors associated with the template story type;

retrieve the competitive gaming data from the second data store;

construct a master template according to the template story type, the master template comprising at least one paragraph from the set of paragraph types associated with the selected template story flavor, the at least one paragraph having one or more sentences and one or more empty word slots within the one or more sentences; and

fill each of the one or more empty word slots of the master template by selecting one or more words from a predetermined word list based on the competitive gaming data to generate a narrative summary of a competitive gaming event associated with the competitive gaming data; and

a publishing engine, executing on the logic device, configured to;

publish the narrative summary with the one or more empty word slots filled as competitive gaming narrative content.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the master template comprises a condition, the summary engine, executing on the logic device, further configured to:

determine a state of the condition according to the competitive gaming data; and

select a first template sub-section to include when the condition is true and a second template sub-section to include when the condition is false.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, the publishing engine further configured to publish to at least one of:

a website;

a real simple syndication feed;

an e-mail message;

a news ticker;

a social network site;

a short messaging service message;

a multimedia messaging service message;

a text-to-speech telephone message;

an audio stream;

a video stream; and

a radio broadcast.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein a beat writer comprises at least one of:

personal traits;

style;

personality;

content type;

publication settings;

league affiliation;

preferred video game title; and

preferred gaming system.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the competitive gaming data comprises at least one of:

a competition name;

a league name;

a competitor name;

a team name;

a date of the competitive gaming event;

a time of the competitive gaming event;

a competition result;

a prize money value;

a score;

a video game level;

a video game title; and

a video game character.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, the summary engine further configured to:

select a beat writer according to at least one of;

style, personality, content type, video game title expertise, video gaming system expertise, and league affiliation.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, the publishing engine further configured to publish the narrative template with the one or more empty word slots filled at a completion of the competitive gaming event.

16. At least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed cause a computing system to:

receive data about a competitive gaming event, the data comprising one or more data items;

select a beat writer from a plurality of beat writers stored in a data store, wherein each of the plurality of beat writers represents a respective one of a plurality of different computerized authors, each configured for respectively different writing styles;

select a story type from a plurality of story types based on the selected beat writer;

select a story flavor from the one or more story flavors associated with the story type;

select a narrative template for the competitive gaming event according to the data and the selected story type, the narrative template comprising at least one paragraph from the set of paragraph types associated with the selected story flavor, the at least one paragraph having one or more sentences, and one or more empty word slots within the one or more sentences, and one or more empty data slots within the one or more sentences;

fill each of the one or more empty data slots in the narrative template with a data item from the one or more data items;

fill each of the one or more empty word slots in the narrative template with a word selected from a predetermined word list configured for the one or more empty word slots based on the competitive gaming data; and

publish the narrative template with the one or more empty word slots and the one or more empty data slots filled as a narrative summary of competitive gaming narrative content.

17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the data is obtained from at least one of:

a competitive gaming league;

a competitive gaming event organizer;

a competitive gaming content producer; and

a video game developer.

18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the narrative template is published at a completion of the competitive gaming event.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the data comprises at least one of:

a competition name;

a league name;

a competitor name;

a team name;

a date of the event;

a time of the event;

a competition result;

a prize money value;

a score;

a video game level;

a video game title; and

a video game character.