Apparatus, method, and computer readable media to perform transactions in association with participants interacting in a synthetic environment

• US 8,898,325 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2009
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Trion World ABC LLC
• Original Assignee: Trion Worlds, Incorporated (Samarion SE)
• Inventors: Lee, Robert Ernest, Aldridge, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed, Masud
• Application Number:
  US12/504,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20090275414A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,958 Days
• Field of Search: 463/42, 463/31, 463/1, 370/338, 709/220, 709/203, 709/230, 455/418, 707/1
• US Class Current: 709/230
• 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 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/60 Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/513 server hierarchy, e.g. local, regional, national or dedicated for different tasks, e.g. authenticating, billing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5526 Game data structure
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/004 Artificial life, i.e. computing arrangements simulating life

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate generally to computer-based simulations and synthetic environment generation, and more particularly, to a system, a computer-readable medium, a method and an apparatus for generating synthetic environments in a distributed architecture to, among other things, introduce dynamic content. In some embodiments, computer readable medium facilitates transactions in massively multiplayer online games. The computer readable medium can include executable instructions for execution by one or more processors to receive data to perform a transaction between participants associated with the synthetic environment. The executable instructions also can be configured to transact an exchange of a first subset of game data for the first participant and a second subset of the game data for a second participant. The exchange of subsets of the game data between the first participant and the second participant can occur in the common process.

Claims

1. A method to facilitate transactions in association with a digital synthetic environment, the method comprising:

using a processor to generate data representing a synthetic spatial environment through collaboration between a first game management server and a second game management server;

associating portions of the synthetic spatial environment with respective first and second processes among the first and second game management servers;

receiving data representing a request to perform a transaction in association with the respective first and second processes associated with the synthetic environment;

providing a common process space for the transaction aggregated from the first and second processes, wherein the providing of the common process space comprises;

exchanging game data related to the first process to the second game management server and game data related to the second process to the first game management server in the common process space;

determining whether all parts of the updating operation occur, wherein the determining of whether all parts of the updating operation occur comprises;

confirming the exchanging of the game data by a first user relating to the first process and a second user relating to the second process; and

verifying whether the exchanging of the game data violates a rule, the rule including a specific amount of memory sufficient to store an acquired item exists, at least one participant relating to the first and second processes to be of a certain stature, or any combination thereof;

in the event that all parts of the updating operation did not occur, nullifying the exchanging of the game data; and

performing the transaction in association with the common process space, wherein the stature relates to an amount of experience in the synthetic environment or points related to the synthetic environment.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying the game data related to the first process associated with a first process space; and

identifying the game data related to the second process associated with a second process space.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the first and second process spaces are implemented with read-only memory and the common process space is implemented with read/write memory.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

implementing a memory space as either the common process space or one or more of the separate memory spaces.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein implementing the memory space comprises:

determining that the request is associated with transaction-related data; and

implementing the memory space as the common process space to operate with the transaction-related data.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the transaction-related data comprises:

data representing an item to be exchanged between a first participant associated with the first process space and a second participant associated with the second process space.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein implementing the memory space comprises:

receiving data representing another request for a participant associated with the synthetic environment;

determining that the another request is associated with environment-related data; and

implementing the memory space as a separate process space to operate with the environment-related data.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein performing the transaction comprises:

modifying an association within the common process space for a subset of the game data from being related to one of the first process space and the second process space to the other.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein performing the transaction comprises:

exchanging associations of subsets for the game data between a first participant associated with the first process space and a second participant associated with the second process space,

wherein exchanging the associations for the subsets of the game data occurs at the common process.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein performing the transaction comprises:

exchanging subsets of the game data between a first participant associated with the first process space and a second participant associated with the second process space;

determining one subset of the game data did not transfer from either the first participant or the second participant; and

preventing other subsets of the game data from exchanging with any of the first participant or the second participant.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the data representing the request to perform the transaction comprises:

receiving the data representing the request into the common process space; and

determining that both a first participant associated with the first process space and a second participant associated with the second process space confirm the transaction.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

detecting that the first participant and the second participant confirm the transaction; and

executing the transaction in the common space.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a first participant associated with the first process space for the first game management server.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

identifying a first set of game data to be disassociated with the first process space; and

identifying a second set of game data to be associated with the first process space.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

disassociating the first set of game data with the first process space; and

associating the second set of game data with the first process space,

wherein disassociating the first set of game data and associating the second set of game data occur in the common process space.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

updating the first process space to include the second set of game data.

32. The method of claim 1 wherein the common process space is shared among the first and second game management servers.

17. A system to facilitate transactions in association with a synthetic spatial environment, the system comprising:

one or more memories configured to provide a memory space, portions of a synthetic spatial environment being associated with respective processes spaces of a common process space associated with the memory space;

a transaction server associated with a processor configured to interact with the one or more memories, the transaction server comprising;

a transaction manager configured to exchange game data between participants associated with the process spaces in the common process space; and

a failsafe manager configured to execute an exchange of the game data between the participants,

wherein the failsafe manager is further configured to;

determine whether all parts of the exchange occurs, wherein the determining of whether all parts of the exchange occur comprises;

confirm the exchanging of the game data by a first user relating to the first process and a second user relating to the second process; and

verify whether the exchanging of the game data violates a rule, the rule including a specific amount of memory sufficient to store an acquired item exists, at least one participant relating to the first and second processes to be of a certain stature, or any combination thereof; and

in the event that all parts of the exchange did not occur, nullify the exchange of the game data;

wherein the synthetic environment is configured to be presented in association with a display device; and

wherein the stature relates to an amount of experience in the synthetic environment or points related to the synthetic environment.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the one or more memories are configured to provide the memory space, wherein the memory space can be configured to operate as the common process space and the different process spaces.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein the transaction server is configured to receive a request to exchange the game data in association with the synthetic environment.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the request originates from one of the different process spaces.

21. The system of claim 17 wherein the transaction server is configured to detect that the participants are committed to exchange the game data.

22. The system of claim 21 further comprising:

a validator configured to determine whether to the exchange of the game data is a valid action.

23. The system of claim 17 further comprising:

a game data modifier is configured to modify associations of a first set of game data associated with a first process space and a second set of game data associated with a second process space so that the first set of game data is associated with the second process space and the second set of game data is associated with the first process space,

wherein the first process space and the second process space constitute the different process spaces.

24. The system of claim 17 further comprising:

a first game management server; and

a second game management server,

wherein the first game management server and second game management server are configured to exchange messages to initiate a transaction to exchange the game data.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein either the first game management server or the second game management server comprises:

a temporary memory configured to store the game data during the initiation of the transaction,

wherein either the first game management server or the second game management server extracts the game data from the temporary memory and includes the game data as part of a request to exchange the game data.

26. The system of claim 24 wherein the first game management server and the second game management server further comprise a first process space and a second process space, respectively, and the transaction server comprises the common process space,

wherein the first process space, the second process space, and the common process space constitute the memory space.

27. A non-transitory computer readable medium to facilitate transactions in massively multiplayer online games, the computer readable medium comprising executable instructions for execution by one or more processors to:

associate portions of the synthetic spatial environment with respective first and second processes among the first and second game management servers;

receive data representing a transaction request to perform a transaction between a first participant and a second participant associated with the respective first and second processes associated with the synthetic spatial environment;

provide a common process space for the transaction aggregated from the first and second processes, wherein the providing of the common process space comprises;

exchange game data related to the first process to the second game management server and game data related to the second process to the first game management server in the common process space;

determine whether all parts of the updating operation occur;

occur, wherein the determining of whether all parts of the updating operation occur comprises;

confirm the exchanging of the game data by a first user relating to the first process and a second user relating to the second process; and

verify whether the exchanging of the game data violates a rule, the rule including a specific amount of memory sufficient to store an acquired item exists, at least one participant relating to the first and second processes to be of a certain stature, or any combination thereof; and

in the event that all parts of the updating operation did not occur, nullify the exchanging of the game data; and

transact an exchange of a first subset of game data for the first participant and a second subset of the game data for a second participant,

wherein the exchange of the first subset of the game data and the second subset of the game data between the first participant and the second participant occurs in the common process; and

wherein the stature relates to an amount of experience in the synthetic environment or points related to the synthetic environment.

28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27 wherein the executable instructions further comprise executable instructions to:

establish communications between a transaction server and one or more of the first game management server and the second game management server; and

access a read-only memory portion associated with the one or more of the first game management server and the second game management server to determine the first subset of the game data and the second subset of the game data.

29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27 wherein the executable instructions further comprise executable instructions to:

generate for an interface at a display, the interface including;

an input portion of the interface configured to accept data representing an item offered,

an output portion of the interface configured to present another item in exchange for the item, and

another input portion of the interface configured to accept data representing confirmation of the transaction.

30. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 29 wherein the executable instructions further comprise executable instructions to:

generate the transaction to include data representing the item, the another item and the confirmation of the transaction from a process space associated with one of the first process space or the second process space.

31. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 30 wherein the first process space and the second process space include data associated with the first game management server and the second game management server, respectively.