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Method and system of enabling communication activities using bridge between real world and proprietary environments

Method and system of enabling communication activities using bridge between real world and proprietary environments description/claims

The present application claims benefit to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/890,808, filed Feb. 20, 2007, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The present application also claims benefit to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60,892,599, filed Mar. 2, 2007, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention relates to methods of enabling commerce, communications, and other activities between participants in proprietary environments such as those found in on-line games, and more specifically, to an inventive identity and reputation platform and its use to facilitate commerce and other types of interactions while maintaining anonymity and other desirable qualities of participants' interactions with the environments.

Computer and video gaming, and participation in virtual on-line communities have grown to be a popular leisure activity as well as a significant source of revenue for software and game companies. The popularity of such games and virtual communities, and the development of new technologies has naturally resulted in efforts to extend those types of experiences to other platforms (e.g., mobile phones, PDAs, television sets, etc.) as well as to the development of different types of gaming or interactive experiences. One of the newer types of gaming experiences is that termed Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs), also know as Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing games (MMORPG). This type of gaming experience has developed in response to the availability of Internet connectivity and broadband access to the Internet.

In a typical MMO, a large number of players participate in the same gaming environment (or parallel versions of the same game) using the Internet or another suitable network to provide connectivity. The result is a real-time (or pseudo real-time) gaming experience involving multiple players who may act as individuals or be part of a team. MMOs may have between thousands and millions of players, each of whom typically pays a fee to participate, often in the form of a monthly subscription fee, by consenting (often by default) to viewing advertising material, or by agreeing to purchase items for use in the game. The games are often characterized by the creation of, and interaction with, an imaginary world or environment in which characters interact with each other and with other aspects of the environment. The imaginary world or environment may include landscapes of imaginary worlds, other creatures, weapons, tools, weather systems, forces or powers that act in the world, etc. In many gaming environments, players take on new identities (sometimes referred to as characters, avatars or personas) and use those identities or personalities as the basis for interacting with other players and the environment.

Variations on these types of games include Alternate Reality Games (ARG) and meta-games. These are games which create a world that blends online and real world experiences. For example, a detective style game might include clues found in an MMO, and clues found at a physical location. These games may be authored informally by experienced players rather than larger institutions, yet they still share many of the same characteristics.

Among other characteristics, participation in the games and virtual or simulated environments is immersive and time consuming. The popularity of the gaming and virtual community experience has resulted in a desire on the part of some players to participate in activities beyond the game or community itself. As such, a number of services and products have been developed to support this out of game/community participation, and such services or products are generically referred to as the “secondary market.”

As many people recognize the potentials of the secondary market, there have been a great effort to overcome several factors and obstacles currently preventing the secondary market from reaching its potential. However, it is complicated to enable and/or facilitate interactions between players in a cross-world environment, such as commerce, messaging, social networking, and content exchange, among other beneficial and desired interactions.

As suggested by the rapid development of a variety of ancillary products and services, the popularity of MMOs and other forms of interactive gaming has led to the creation of a market for goods and services to be used with or within games. Further, some aspects of these products and services may exist and be obtained in (or facilitated by interactions with) the “real world”, that is in the physical world outside of the gaming or virtual environment. In addition, some MMOs and on-line communities have their own economies where commerce transactions may be facilitated, e.g., goods obtained within the proprietary environment can be traded or exchanged in order to support certain activities. For example, a participant may need some particular weapon for their avatar in order to complete a task within the game or be able to move on to a more advanced level of the game. In some cases, the weapon may be purchased from a vendor or other player in the game in exchange for in-game currency. The in-game currency may come from completing a task or challenge, demonstrating a specific skill or level of achievement, or another economic activity. Note that while currency is used as an example, trades can also be an exchange of non-currency goods, such as a transfer of skills, knowledge, game earned credits, or accumulated abilities.

Generating sufficient game currency or credits to obtain certain items or skills can be a time consuming activity. In response, a market has developed which matches people who have the time or ability to obtain in-game currency with people who are prepared to expend real world currency to make up for the lack of time they can devote, and yet seek to improve their enjoyment of the game environment. Further, some services—such as help in a particular task, or information needed to accomplish a task—can be just as valuable and tradable as goods (such as weapons, powers, tools, etc.) or game credits. In general, such a market facilitates transactions in which an item, information, or other commodity of value in one environment (e.g., a proprietary gaming environment or world) is exchanged for something of value in another environment (e.g., money in the real world). This is an example of an ancillary product or service in which aspects of either the product or service, or of the process of negotiating for and fulfilling a request for the product or service, may require activities that occur in both the real world and in a gaming or other proprietary environments.

As noted, a typical example of an activity or interaction that may involve both the real world and a proprietary environment is one in which a person desires to purchase in-game currency or credits from another game participant. Such a transaction may require communication of an interest in the purchase from a real world identity through their associated in-game identity to a second in-game identity (and as a result to that identity's associated real world identity), followed by negotiations for the purchase price and delivery terms, and eventually the transfer of real world money to an account belonging to the real world person who is associated with the second in-game identity (who is in possession of the in-game currency or credits). At each stage communications may need to flow between in-game characters and between an in-game character and the real world person in control of that character. In addition, game credits may need to be transferred from one in-game character to another, and real world currency may need to be transferred from one real world person to another. However, it is desirable that both the communications and transfers be done without interrupting certain desirable aspects of the experience of the game players or user of a proprietary environment, including retaining a desired degree of anonymity by not disclosing the connection between an in-game character and the real world person associated with that character.

Further, there are certain functions, features, and activities which those participating in a gaming environment or other form of virtual environment may desire to have available as part of the gaming or other experience. These include communications (e.g., messaging), social networking, commerce transactions, interactions with other players, the ability to co-ordinate the accomplishment of certain tasks, and other beneficial activities. However, optimally and safely performing these activities often requires interacting or fulfilling obligations in both the virtual (e.g., gaming) environment and the real world, or exchanging information between them.

What is desired is a system and method to enable and facilitate interactions between players in the virtual environment and the real world, such as messaging, social networking, and content exchange, among other beneficial and desired interactions.

The present invention is directed to a system, apparatus, and method for enabling communications and other forms of interaction between participants in a gaming or other form of virtual environment and the real world, or between a participant in one virtual environment and a participant in a second virtual environment (typically using a connection to the real world as an intermediary stage of the transaction). The invention enables these and other types of interactions to occur with a sufficient degree of trust between the participants to encourage such interactions, while at the same time not compromising certain desired characteristics of the gaming or other experience, such as immersion in the experience and the ability to maintain a high degree of anonymity. In particular, systems are provided to share presence information between participants, including information relating to their images and commercial activities. The presence information is user information that is used by real-time messaging systems to represent the user's current presence and identity. The presence information of a user is presented to other users to help them to decide when or if to communicate with the user.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a computer implemented method is for providing a message service within a Cross World environment by utilizing an identity service system that verifies a user's identity. The method includes receiving a request to engage in a communication via the message service and obtaining an active identity of a first user, the active identity being selected to represent the first user for the communication. The method further includes generating a user presence of the first user, the user presence including the active identity of the first user and information about a Proprietary World corresponding to the active identity. After obtaining a buddy list of the first user, a user presence of each user listed on the buddy list may be presented to the first user. Likewise, the user presence of the first user is transmitted to each user on the buddy list. After an identity of a second user is selected by the first user, the communication between the first user and the second user is facilitated.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a system is for providing a message service within a Cross World environment wherein the system is communicatively connected to an identity bridge system that verifies a user's proprietary identity. The system comprises a managing component, a message agent component and a storage component. The managing component is configured to provide a list of proprietary identities associated with a first user when the first user logs onto the system, to receive from the first user an active identity selected from the list of proprietary identities associated with the first user and to generate a user presence of the first user, the user presence including the active identity. The message agent component is configured to receive from the first user a request for a message service, to receive, from the first user, content and information about at least one recipient and to generate a message including the content and the user presence of the first user. The message agent forwards the message to the at least one recipient.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a computer implemented method is provided for managing a user presence of a user in a Cross World environment. The method includes receiving a request for a presence service, obtaining an active identity of a first user, the active identity selected to represent the first user, and generating a user presence of the first user, wherein the user presence including graphic representation of the active identity of the first user, information about a Proprietary World corresponding to the identity and verification information. The method further includes obtaining the buddy list of the first user and transmitting the user presence of the first user to each user on the buddy list. The method yet further included receiving a request to add a second user to the buddy list of the first user. If the second user has registered with the message service, an active identity of the second user is added to the buddy list of the first user. The user presence of the first user is presented to the second user, wherein the user presence of the first user is updated as a presence status of the first user changes.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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