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Artificial player character for massive multi-player on-line game

Artificial player character for massive multi-player on-line game description/claims

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/903,381, filed on Feb. 26, 2007, and incorporated herein by reference. This application is related to U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. ______, filed on even date herewith, having attorney docket number B575.101.103, and incorporated herein by reference.

The invention relates generally to a form of an autonomous artificially intelligent software entity for a computer game. More specifically the invention relates to a form of an autonomous artificially intelligent player character for a massive multi-player on-line game.

Massive multi-player on-line (MMO) games are computer games capable of supporting a number of players (e.g., hundreds or thousands of players) simultaneously. In one arrangement, players log onto a central server over the Internet and participate in a gaming experience shared by numerous remotely connected users. As such, MMO games are usually played via remote clients accessing one of a number of central servers. Typically, MMO games are played in a large persistent virtual environment that enables players to compete with and against each other on a grand scale and to interact cooperatively with people around the world.

In one application, MMO games provide a form of electronic entertainment which allows numerous individuals to simultaneously take part in an ongoing virtual world. These games are customarily set in a fantasy role-playing environment, although they can theoretically be set in any conceivable fictional genre, historical setting, or other environment. The usual way in which the player experiences the MMO game is to create an avatar, or Player Character, which then travels throughout the virtual world and interacts with a wide variety of characters which are either controlled by other players or by the game server.

The Player Character customarily spends most of its time improving itself through the collection of experience points, which are earned, for example, through killing monsters and completing adventures assigned to the Player Character by server-controlled Non-Player Characters (NPC) scattered throughout the virtual world in strategic locations.

FIG. 1 demonstrates the usual decision-making process for a human-controlled Player Character presented with the opportunity to engage in an adventure of an MMO game. The adventure structure and the basic form of the interaction between Player Characters and Non-Player Characters is generally a simple form of offer-and-reward which is contingent, for example, upon the player killing a certain number of monsters, collecting a certain number of items, or traveling from one point to another.

The decision-making utilized in this process naturally requires human involvement in order to make the Player Character's decision to embark on the adventure in search of the promised rewards or to reject it. This is a somewhat more complicated process than it might look at first, since it requires balancing a number of variables which include, for example, the perceived ability of the Player Character to find Monster Y, the amount of time required to do so, the risks of travel to Monster Y's location, the ability of the Player Character to kill x number of Monster Y, the likelihood that the Player Character will survive the encounter, the trustworthiness of the NPC to make good on its end of the bargain, and finally, the value of the reward on offer to the Player Character.

A similar process is required for a wide variety of interactions between Player Characters and NPCs, Monsters, and the environment itself. These include, but are not limited to, travel from point A to point B, economic production, economic transactions, character allegiances and alliances, and combat. With the sole exception of combat, wherein an attack on a non-autonomous character type will inevitably be responded to by an attack in self-defense, these processes inevitably require at least one of the two parties involved in the interaction to be an autonomous human-controlled character.

As outlined in the Table of FIG. 2, MMO games often contain six distinct variants of game characters, which can be divided into two categories, autonomous and non-autonomous. These variants can be further differentiated on the basis of their control mechanism and state.

1. Player Characters are human-controlled characters who take active part in the on-line game. Also known as “avatars” they are autonomous, travel freely about the game environment subject only to the limits set by the game designers, and their attributes evolve over time. Their statistics, appearance, skill sets, and possessions are dynamic, constantly changing over the course of the game. Player Characters are only present within the game when the human player controlling them is on-line.

2. Administrative Characters are human-controlled characters who only enter the on-line game in order to deal with specific problems, usually those brought to the attention of the game's managers by the users. Also known as “DMs” or “Game Masters”, these Administrative Characters are autonomous and serve police and technical support functions for the participating users, however their attributes are static as they exist primarily for specific game management purposes. They are very seldom encountered.

3. Non-Player Characters are server-controlled characters who primarily exist in order to provide information, supplies, and rewards for the Player-Characters. Usually called “NPCs”, they are non-autonomous, seldom move of their own volition outside of a strictly limited area (if at all), and their attributes do not evolve over time. Their statistics, appearance and skill sets are static, their possessions may or may not be dynamic; if their possessions are variable, the variable alters solely on the basis of actions on the part of the Player Characters. Their presence is typically constant within the game although their appearance may occasionally be made variable by the use of a trigger based on a Player Character's action.

4. Monster Characters are server-controlled characters who primarily serve as the generic opposition for the Player Characters. Often described generically as “enemies” they are non-autonomous, their movement is strictly circumscribed and their basic attributes do not vary over time although their statistics and state will invariably alter radically in the course of a combat encounter with a Player Character or a Pet. Their presence and location are usually constant and unchanging within the game, subject only to their temporary elimination by a Player Character or the failure of a Player Character to trigger their presence. Their statistics, appearance, and skill sets are essentially static, and their decision-making capabilities are crude and essentially limited to a binary option of fight or flight.

5. Pets are a special form of Non-Player Character which occasionally accompany certain types of Player Characters. They are server-controlled partially-autonomous characters which unlike other NPCs, possess dynamic statistics and skill sets as well as the ability to move about the game environment by following around the Player Character to whom they belong.

6. Environmental Characters are server-controlled characters who primarily serve a decorative purpose within the game. They are non-autonomous, their movement is typically limited, and they seldom have significant interaction with the Player Characters.

In the field of Massive Multi-player On-line games, the division between the activities of the Player Characters and the other five character forms is distinct and easily defined. Player Characters voluntarily engage in goal-oriented adventures, economic activity, and combat, develop skills, abilities, talents, and occupations along elective paths, and obtain experience, reputation, money, and physical possessions. In contrast, none of the five other character forms are able to do any of these things as without the direction of a human mind providing purpose and personal preferences for the character, they simply do not have the capacity.

Even the sole other dynamic character type, the Pet, is wholly dependent upon the ability of the owning Player Character's human mind to make decisions for it as its movements are based upon the Player Character to whom they belong. For example, the Pet's dynamic statistics and skills are chosen by the owning Player Character, and even its semi-autonomous ability to initiate combat is completely at the discretion of the Player Character.

And while MMO games are rightly very popular in the gaming community, they are already running into a fundamental design limitation due to their heavy reliance upon Player Characters to provide the dynamic aspect of the entertainment. Since MMO game designers have limited control over the decision-making processes of the participating Player Characters and are forced to leave the vast majority of these decisions to the discretion of human beings controlling the Player Character, they are forced to spend an inordinate amount of time limiting an individual Player Character's ability to destroy the gaming experience for himself and others. Every aspect of the design, from the storyline to the physics model, is forced to take into account the possibility that any player may, at any time, elect to behave in a manner detrimental to the designer's purpose for the game.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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