Techniques for creating dynamic game activities for games

• US 9,908,051 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2014
• Issued: 03/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Allen, Corville O., Freed, Andrew R.
• Primary Examiner(s): GALKA, LAWRENCE STEFAN
• Application Number:
  US14/531,677
• Publication Number:
  US 20160121218A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,219 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• 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 13/822 Strategy games; Role-playing games A63F13/825, A63F13/828 take precedence

Abstract

A technique for dynamically generating game activities for a game (e.g., a role-playing game) includes loading game information about the game into a data processing system (e.g., a question answering system). Context data (e.g., a question) is received from a client (e.g., a player of the game, a user of the game, another system, or a game engine). In response to receiving the context data, a game activity is dynamically generated based on the context data and the game information. The game activity is then initiated in the game and presented to the client.

Claims

1. A computer program product configured to dynamically generate game activities for a role-playing game, the computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable storage device; and

computer-readable program code embodied on the computer-readable storage device, wherein the computer-readable program code, when executed by a data processing system, causes the data processing system to;

load game information about a role-playing game;

receive a question from a player of the role-playing game;

in response to receiving the question, dynamically generate a game activity based on the question and the game information, wherein the game activity corresponds to a quest that is different from canned quests that are initially built into the role-playing game by a game designer; and

present the game activity to the player.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable program code, when executed by the data processing system, is further configured to:

receive a player context for the player in the role-playing game; and

in response to the player context changing, adjust the game activity based on the changed player context.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the data processing system is a question answering system and the computer-readable program code, when executed by the question answering system, further configures the question answering system to:

identify one or more characters, one or more locations, and the quest based on one or more answers generated by the question answering system in response to receiving the question from the player; and

present the quest to the player.

4. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the data processing system employs natural language processing and deep semantic processing on the game information to determine and generate the game activity in view of the player context.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the game information comprises one or more of literature, models, rules, locations, and maps for the role-playing game.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the received question asks at least one of who, what, when, where, and why about the game information and is used to determine a context of the player in the game.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the role-playing game is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game.

8. A data processing system, comprising:

a cache memory; and

a processor coupled to the cache memory, wherein the processor is configured to;

load game information about a role-playing game;

receive a question from a player of the role-playing game;

in response to receiving the question, dynamically generate a game activity based on the question and the game information, wherein the game activity corresponds to a quest that is different from canned quests that are initially built into the role-playing game by a game designer; and

present the game activity to the player.