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Server based gaming system and method for selectively providing one or more different tournamentsRelated Patent Categories: Amusement Devices: Games, Including Means For Processing Electronic Data (e.g., Computer/video Game, Etc.), With Communication Link (e.g., Television Broadcast, Etc.), Network Type (e.g., Computer Network, Etc.)Server based gaming system and method for selectively providing one or more different tournaments description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080070692, Server based gaming system and method for selectively providing one or more different tournaments. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
PRIORITY CLAIM [0001] This application is a continuation application of, claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/760,346, filed on Jun. 8, 2007, which is a non-provisional application of, claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/804,642 filed on Jun. 13, 2006, and is a non-provisional application of, claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/864,711, filed on Nov. 7, 2006, the entire contents of these applications are incorporated herein by reference. COPYRIGHT NOTICE [0002] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains or may contain material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the photocopy reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. BACKGROUND [0003] Gaming device manufacturers strive to make wagering gaming devices that provide as much enjoyment, entertainment and excitement as possible for players. Gaming tournaments, such as slot tournaments, are exciting for certain players and are a widely used form of casino promotion. Generally, a slot tournament is a group event where a plurality of players pay for or otherwise qualify to join the tournament. The players individually play the tournament on designated gaming machines. These designated gaming machines have the same gaming machine paytables. The players may either play the same number of games, play for the same allotted period of time or play with the same allotted initial amount of money or number of credits. The winner or winners of the tournament are determined based on a highest tournament point score or a highest individual game score. Certain tournament games have been slot games and poker games. [0004] More specifically, in a time based slot tournament, the gaming machines used for the tournament are specially configured gaming machines that, upon the issuance of a start command by a game controller or operator, allow the players to play as fast as they can without requiring the player to input any additional money. For each player, the wins during the tournament are accumulated, held and displayed by the gaming machine as that player's points. At the end of the period of time, all of the gaming machines are disabled. The person having the highest accumulated number of points obtained during the tournament period is the winner. The winner is awarded a prize. [0005] The end of known tournament sessions may be determined by more than one factor, such as when the player runs out of time or credits. For example, each tournament player receives 1000 credits to bet and fifteen minutes to play the game. When the player runs out of the 1000 credits or fifteen minutes pass, the player's tournament game play is terminated. [0006] Tournaments are generally run on specially set-up gaming machines which are commonly grouped together in a dedicated room or area in the casino. Tournament gaming machines grouped in a particular room limits the public's ability to view the tournament. Moreover, these gaming devices are dedicated for playing in a tournament and are therefore not played when a tournament is not in progress. That is, the dedicated tournament gaming machines are only active during tournament play and do not provide player's the ability to play other, non-tournament games on these dedicated gaming machines. This gaming machine dedication is costly to a casino because they take up floor space in the casino and because they are unoccupied or not played for significant amounts of time. [0007] It should be appreciated that even in situations where certain gaming machines are not always dedicated for playing in a tournament, converting the gaming machines for use in the play of a tournament requires extensive set-up for the tournament. For each such tournament, a group of gaming machines is roped off to create a tournament area. Each tournament gaming machine must be taken out of service for a casino worker to switch or adjust the hardware and/or software of the gaming machine, and each of the gaming machines have to be rebooted to implement the specific tournament game. Upon completion of the tournament, a casino worker has to switch or adjust the hardware and/or software of each of the gaming machines back to the original hardware and/or software and reboot each gaming machine for regular or non-tournament play. This time intensive set-up and breakdown of the tournament gaming machines is expensive to the casino because of the idleness of the gaming machines during this time and the cost of the labor for the set-up and breakdown of the tournament. Additionally, certain smaller casinos do not have enough floor space to dedicate certain gaming machines to a tournament. For example, riverboat casinos are often too small to have dedicated tournament areas and are also too small to incur extensive set-up and take down costs for a tournament. [0008] It should also be appreciated that the intensive set-up and breakdown process inherently requires that players play the tournament during the time the gaming machines are in tournament mode. This manner of setup requires an inflexible schedule of play for the players because the players must play the tournament gaming machines at the time allotted by a casino. Certain players often must leave the gaming machine they are playing and go to one of the specific tournament gaming machines to participate in the tournament. Thus, current tournaments do not enable players to play at one's leisure. To incorporate even a small amount of flexibility of when players may participate in the tournament, a casino has to allow the gaming machines to remain in tournament mode for extended periods of time which reduces playing time of non-tournament play and which does not maximize use of floor space. If a casino allows flexibility, a number of gaming machines in tournament mode may be completely unoccupied because players may not be playing them at all times. For example, to have a small window of flexibility, a casino enables the 100 tournament players to play between 8 am and 1 pm and allot 25 gaming machines to the tournament. During the designated time interval (i.e., 8 am and 1 pm) there may be no players on the gaming machines at some points in time, thus wasting valuable gaming machine time and casino floor space. At some points, there may also be players wanting to play the tournament, thereby wasting player time. [0009] Additionally, current tournament modes often require an announcer to inform the players of the tournament schedule or status. Certain players are intimidated or annoyed by such announcers and as a result avoid tournaments so they do not have to listen to the announcers. Additionally, often players must be in a certain range of the tournament room to hear the announcer and be aware of an upcoming tournament. This setup does not provide a way for informing all players of the tournament and other pertinent tournament information. [0010] With no way of informing current players about the tournament, casinos lose out on a valuable marketing tool for the tournament. They also have no way to inform target players who are likely to be interested in the tournament, or to encourage tournament play by informing players of entry requirements. [0011] Therefore, there is a need for a new gaming system to improve aspects of the configuration and implementation of tournament game play. SUMMARY [0012] One embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a gaming system including a central server or controller operable to communicate a plurality of different commands, instructions or other communications to a plurality of gaming devices to provide non-tournament game play and communicate a plurality of different commands, instructions or other communications to provide tournament game play on the same gaming devices or machines. The gaming devices or machines of the gaming system are operable to switch from non-tournament game play mode to tournament game play mode upon receipt of such commands, instructions or other communications from the central server or controller. Upon completion of a tournament, the gaming system is operable to switch the gaming devices or machines used in the tournament back to non-tournament game play mode. [0013] In one embodiment, a plurality of the gaming machines are in communication with or linked to a central controller, central server or remote host to form a gaming system. The central, controller, central server or remote host may be any suitable server or computing device which at least includes a processor and a memory or storage device. The central controller: (a) stores a plurality of different commands, instructions or other communications and is operable to cause the execution of these commands on display devices of the gaming machines which act as a "thin client," (b) stores a plurality of different commands, instructions or other communications, such as game programs, and sends one or more of the commands, instructions or other communications to each gaming machine and the individual gaming machines execute the received commands and therefore act as a "thick client" and/or (c) stores a plurality of different commands, instructions or other communications, such as game programs, and sends one or more of the different commands, instructions or other communications to each gaming machine and the individual gaming machines execute the received commands upon a further command from the central controller. In another embodiment, the central controller communicates with a plurality of computers over the internet and enables the tournament to be played over the internet or other suitable data network. It should be appreciated that the gaming system may include any suitable combinations of communication and game control between the central controller and the individual gaming machines to execute non-tournament game play and tournament game play. [0014] In one embodiment, the central server or controller stores a plurality of different executable game programs. In this embodiment, each game program may represent a different setting, configuration, or mode of game play or type of game which may be played on one, more or each of the gaming machines in the gaming system. [0015] In one embodiment, in non-tournament play mode, the central controller stores a plurality of commands such as wagering game programs. The central controller selects, executes and controls one or more of the game programs on each of the gaming machines in the gaming system. The selected game programs may be selected based on any suitable factor, such as but not limited to: (i) a player selection, (ii) a predetermination, (iii) a random determination, (iv) a player's wager amount, (v) a player's status (such as determined through a player tracking system), (vi) a level of a jackpot award, (vii) the time of day or amount of time a game program is played, and (viii) a gaming establishment operator command or instruction, and any combination thereof. In these embodiments, the gaming machine is utilized to display the game program, which is executed by the central controller, receive inputs from the player and provide any award to the player. [0016] In one embodiment, the tournament game program is uploaded to the central controller. In one embodiment, the central controller also executes the selected tournament game program for each of the participating gaming machines in the tournament. That is, the gaming system utilizes the gaming machines to display the tournament game program which is executed and controlled by the central controller. [0017] In other embodiments, one or more selected game programs are communicated from the central controller to one or more gaming machines and the gaming machine stores, selects and executes the game program. In one embodiment, the gaming machines switch programs from the non-tournament game program to the tournament program upon the tournament start time. In another embodiment, the gaming machines activate a tournament mode of the current game program. That is, instead of switching to a new game program, the gaming machine switches to a tournament mode of the gaming program currently running on the gaming machine. The gaming machine then communicates or messages the outcome of the game program to the central controller. [0018] For example, in non-tournament game play, a gaming machine stores one or a plurality of instructions and commands communicated from the central controller. The gaming machine selects and executes a game from the stored instructions and commands. The selected game may be selected based on any suitable factor, such as but not limited to: (i) a player selection, (ii) a predetermination, (iii) a random determination, (iv) a player's wager amount, (v) a player's status (such as determined through a player tracking system), (vi) a level of a jackpot award, (vii) the time of day or amount of time a game program is played, (viii) a gaming establishment operator command, instruction or other communication, or any combination thereof. [0019] In another example, in tournament game play, the game program of the tournament is communicated from the central controller to each of the participating gaming machines or to each gaming machine of the gaming system. Encoded in the game program are the times for the rounds and/or of the sessions of the tournament. Multiple tournament embodiments include players playing a tournament at a same time and at different times. Upon the start time of the tournament where all of the players play the tournament at the same time, each of the participating gaming machines automatically switches to tournament mode and executes the tournament game program at the same time. In another embodiment, the gaming machine only participates in the tournament game if it is an available gaming machine. In one embodiment, if the gaming machine is not available, a gaming system or operator selects another gaming machine to participate in the tournament. In another embodiment, the gaming system or operator makes the gaming machine available by setting up the non-tournament player on a different gaming machine. It should be appreciated that the gaming establishment may determine any suitable method of how to handle gaming machines that are scheduled to participate in a tournament that are being used for non-tournament game play at the start of a tournament. [0020] In another embodiment, before a group tournament where the players play at the same time, the central controller messages the gaming machines scheduled to participate in the tournament to go into a pre-tournament mode a certain amount of time before the tournament start time, such as one hour before the scheduled tournament. If the gaming machine is unoccupied, the gaming machine posts a message to inform potential players that the gaming machine is unavailable because the gaming machine is awaiting a tournament. The gaming machine may additionally provide any other appropriate message to the player, such as how to enter the tournament, an advertisement, where to find a gaming machine with the same game or games and/or how to play another tournament. If a player is playing on one of the gaming machines allocated for the tournament in pre-tournament mode, the gaming establishment may determine rules for that gaming machine, such as whether to select another gaming machine for the tournament and enable the player to keep playing at the gaming machine. Continue reading about Server based gaming system and method for selectively providing one or more different tournaments... 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