Real-time, contextual display of ranked, user-generated game play advice

• US 9,108,108 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2009
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Zalewski, Gary M., Turner, Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): RENWICK, REGINALD A
• Application Number:
  US12/509,848
• Publication Number:
  US 20100041475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,213 Days
• Field of Search: 463/9, 463/42, 463/31
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/47 involving branching, e.g. choosing one of several possible scenarios at a given point in time
• 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 13/798 for assessing skills or for ranking players, e.g. for generating a hall of fame computing the game score A63F13/46
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/305 for providing a graphical or textual hint to the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/558 by assessing the players' skills or ranking
• 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

Abstract

Management of user-generated and context appropriate game play advice is disclosed. The present invention allows for management of context appropriate game play advice that is complete and up-to-date regardless of when a particular interactive gaming title is released. Game play advice is pervasive and easily accessible to game players in addition to being accurate and credible such that game players can trust or rely upon the rendered advice. The game play advice is displayed in environmental contexts that are appropriate to the advice being displayed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing user-generated game play advice, the method comprising:

receiving new game play advice from a user through a user interface generated by a game play advice submission engine, the game play advice submission engine coupled to a server and executable by a processor; and

executing instructions stored in a memory, in which execution of instructions by the processor;

displays the new game play advice to a community of users, the new game play advice displayed in a default ranking position and in conjunction with previously received game play advice, the game play advice displayed in a manner that is relevant with respect to a present context of game play, the new game play advice displayed by a game play advice display engine that utilizes an asynchronous programming language;

receives feedback associated with the quality of the new game play advice or the previously received game play advice, the feedback received from the community of users, the feedback received via a feedback engine generating a prompt that is displayed in an immediate context of the new game play advice or the previously received game play advice;

ranks the new game play advice against the previously received game play advice based on the feedback received from the community of users; and

displays the new game play advice in conjunction with the previously received game play advice via the game play advice display engine, the new game play advice and the previously received game play advice displayed in accordance with the ranking of the new game play advice and the previously received game play advice, wherein the new game play advice is no longer displayed in the default ranking position and the new game play advice is displayed in a manner that is relevant with respect to a present context of game play, the ranking allocated by a ranking engine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedback includes the relevance of the context in which the game play advice was displayed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the new game play advice is displayed in a three-dimensional virtual environment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the new game play advice is selected from a group consisting of textual, visual, and audible game play advice.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedback is selected from a group consisting of numeric, characteristic, and binary feedback, the feedback including user commentary.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking the new game play advice in a position that is not the default position occurs substantially in real-time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking the new game play advice in a position that is not the default position occurs according to a predetermined schedule.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking the new game play advice in a position that is not the default position occurs in response to a user query.

9. A system embodied in a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium for managing user-generated game play advice, the system comprising:

a game play advice submission engine, coupled to a server and executable by a processor, to receive game play advice submissions over a network, the game play advice submissions received from a user through a user interface;

a ranking engine, coupled to the server and executable by the processor, to allocate a ranking to the game play advice submissions received over the network;

a context engine, coupled to the server and executable by the processor, to identify a context of an event during game play, wherein the context of the event corresponds to one or more game play advice submissions received over the network;

a game play advice display engine, coupled to the server and executable by the processor, to display the one or more game play advice submissions corresponding to the context of the event identified by the context engine, wherein display of the one or more game play advice submissions occurs during the game play event and in accordance with the ranking allocated by the ranking engine, the one or more game play advice submissions displayed by the game play advice display engine utilizing an asynchronous programming language; and

a feedback engine, coupled to the server and executable by the processor, to receive feedback from a community of users with respect to the quality of the game play advice displayed by the game play advice display engine, wherein the feedback engine and the ranking engine operate to allocate a new ranking to the game play advice in accordance with the feedback received from the community of users, the game play advice being subsequently displayed by the game play advice display engine in accordance with the new ranking, the feedback engine generating a prompt that is displayed in an immediate context of the new game play advice.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the context engine matches the game play advice submissions to the context of the event based on an identification of the game play event.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the game play advice display engine displays those game play advice submissions matched to the game play event by the context engine.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the ranking allocated by the ranking engine is selected from a group consisting of numeric, characteristic, binary, and percentage-based rankings.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the ranking engine is further configured to apply a tie-breaker to game play advice receiving an equal ranking from the ranking engine.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the game play advice display engine operates using an asynchronous programming language to continually update the displayed game play advice submissions in accordance with a most recent new ranking as allocated by the feedback engine and the ranking engine.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the game play advice display engine operates using an asynchronous programming language to continually update the displayed game play advice submissions in accordance with a most recent determination as to the context of game play.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the game play advice display engine displays the game play advice submissions in accordance with a most recent new ranking as allocated by the feedback engine and the ranking engine according to a predetermined schedule.