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Tournament matchups for a multiplayer environmentRelated 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.)Tournament matchups for a multiplayer environment description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070191102, Tournament matchups for a multiplayer environment. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND [0001] Online computer gaming has quickly grown into a key component of today's video game market, as there are now more and more opportunities to play against others. For example, on the XBOX LIVE.TM. (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash.) online service, it is possible for video game players to play against other players from all over the world. With such a large pool of potential players, there is a correspondingly large range of player abilities, ranging from the first-time or occasional player to the daily, devoted fan, and even on to the ranks of professional video game players. [0002] This wide range of player abilities has introduced a new problem. Many online games are competitive, in that players compete against one another to achieve game objectives and gain a level of ascendancy over their competitors. Such competitive games are often only enjoyable when the various players are close to one another in skills and abilities. If there is too great of a discrepancy in skill level, the dominant-skilled player will not be challenged, while the weaker-skilled player will experience frustration at constantly being beaten. Typical online games, however, collect players as they join game sessions, with no regard for the players' abilities or how close the players are to one another in terms of skill. [0003] Some organized competitions, such as tournaments, may attempt to match players of equal skill in a final round. For example, the NCAA.TM. (National College Athletics Association) basketball tournament takes sixty-five teams, and seeds the teams such that (assuming no upsets) its two semifinal games pit the top four teams against one another (i.e., the four number 1 seeds). However, the path of each number 1 seed through the earlier rounds of the tournament is riddled with imbalanced matchups. For example, the first round of the NCAA.TM. basketball tournament pits the top seed in a bracket against the lowest seed in a bracket (16.sup.th seed). Additionally, the NCAA.TM. arrangement requires a fixed, limited lineup of teams (the 65 teams in seeded order), and would not easily translate into a video game community having thousands (or millions) of players, and players who may drop out or come in at any time. SUMMARY [0004] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. [0005] As will be described in greater detail below, the present application includes a customizable competition structure. Tournament parameters may be defined in advance, and may be automatically instantiated by the game's communication network so that tournaments can be created as needed and exist indefinitely, without the need for constant human supervision. This definition may be done using, for example, an Internet page interface, or by an end user's video game user interface. [0006] A tournament administrator may log in with a tournament server to define the tournament, entering tournament parameters. The tournament may be instantiated one or more times, and the separate instances may individually, and automatically, communicate with the various participants, manage game session results, and determine tournament winners. [0007] In some aspects, scoring arbitration may be used to resolve anomalies in scores reported by the various game consoles in the tournament. For example, a tournament server may compare its received results with results received by a separate leaderboard process, where the separate leaderboard process may use more secured transmissions with the game consoles to help verify communications. [0008] In some aspects, tournaments may run according to a schedule, and may be configured to run one after another (e.g., substantially continuously). [0009] In some aspects, a window factor can identify an amount of time that must elapse before players can be reunited in a game session, to minimize effect of having same players play each other throughout a tournament. Also, a new player factor can be used to adjust scores of newly-entered participants. [0010] In some aspects, tournament parameters and game settings may be downloaded to a game console to automatically configure the player's machine for the next round of a tournament. [0011] In some aspects, a qualification period may precede the tournament, during which players may attempt to qualify by posting their corresponding scores. Players may be notified of their qualification status, and may be notified again if the status changes due to subsequent players' qualification attempts, and may be given an option to make another attempt at qualification. A tournament may be instanced multiple times to accommodate differing levels of qualifiers. [0012] In some aspects, tournaments may be dynamically adjusted to accommodate variable numbers of qualifying tournament entries. The tournament parameters, such as number of winners per match, number of players per match, number of rounds, number of players in the tournament's final round, and others, may be varied so that a desired number of qualifiers may participate in the tournament. Entrants may be ranked using a ratio of their total score to the total possible score for rounds that they have played, and that ranking may be used in later groupings of players. [0013] Tournament user interfaces may be displayed to allow user navigation through the tournament process. The user may play an interactive, online multiplayer and multi-round video game, and view a list of tournaments for which he/she has qualified. Other options may be offered as well, such as searching for tournaments that satisfy user-desired criteria, or displaying tournament and/or competitor details. [0014] These and other aspects will be described in greater detail below. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0015] FIG. 1 illustrates a game console that may be used to implement various features described herein. [0016] FIG. 2 illustrates components that may be used in the console shown in FIG. 1. [0017] FIG. 3 illustrates how various consoles, and other elements, may be interconnected to implement features described herein. [0018] FIG. 4 illustrates an example network configuration using game consoles. [0019] FIG. 5a illustrates an example computing device that may be used to implement features described herein. [0020] FIGS. 5b-m illustrate example software elements and concepts for implementing features described herein. [0021] FIG. 6 illustrates an example process for conducting tournaments. Continue reading about Tournament matchups for a multiplayer environment... Full patent description for Tournament matchups for a multiplayer environment Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Tournament matchups for a multiplayer environment patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Tournament matchups for a multiplayer environment or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Regulated gaming - agile media player for controlling games Next Patent Application: Data acquisition software implementation and scientific analysis methods for sports statistics and phenomena Industry Class: Amusement devices: games ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Tournament matchups for a multiplayer environment patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.14268 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Canon USA , Celera Genomics , Cephalon, Inc. , Cingular Wireless , Clorox , Colgate-Palmolive , Corning , Cymer , 174 |
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