U.S. Patent No. 10,456,680: Determining play of the game based on gameplay events

Issued: October 29, 2019, to Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Priority Date: December 9, 2016

Summary:
U.S. Patent No. 10,456,680 (the ’680 Patent) relates to determining the play of the game based on events that occurred in a completed match. The ’680 Patent details a method of scoring a variety of categories of events, such as a “high score” (kills, damage), “lifesaver” (healing, damage blocked), “sharpshooter” (difficulty of a headshot, shot by/on an airborne player), or “shutdown” (preventing another player from using an ultimate skill, etc.) across periods of time throughout the match. In one embodiment, the game server will select the play of the game category with the highest aggregate score, and in another may choose a category that is deemed more exciting to watch, such as the “high score” category. The play of the game is played by each game client and identifies the player who made the play. The play of the game may be either displayed from that player’s perspective, or in a third-person perspective. 

Abstract:
In an approach, a game server records events that occur within a match of a video game played using a plurality of game clients. After the match has concluded, the game server scores the events according to a plurality of criteria corresponding a plurality of play of the game categories. A sliding window is passed over the events in a number of increments. During each increment, the score for each event that falls within the sliding window is aggregated for each of the categories. The game server then selects a play of the game category and determines the top aggregated score for that category. Once determined, the game server sends one or more instructions to the game clients which causes the game clients to display a replay of the events that occurred during the time window increment corresponding to the top aggregated score for the selected category.

Illustrative Claim:
1. A method comprising: receiving data representing a plurality of events that took place during a match of a game, wherein each event of the plurality of events is tagged with a respective timestamp representing when that event took place during the match, wherein the match includes a start time and an end time; for each event of the plurality of events, generating a plurality of scores for the event, wherein each score of the plurality of scores is related to a respective play category of a plurality of play categories and is generated using a respective set of criteria associated with the respective play category; wherein the plurality of events includes a particular event wherein the plurality of play categories includes a first play category and a second play category that is different from the first play category; wherein generating the plurality of scores for the particular event includes: generating a first score associated with the first play category for the particular event using a first set of criteria associated with the first play category, and generating a second score associated with the second play category for the particular event using a second set of criteria associated with the second play category; wherein the first set of criteria is different from the second set of criteria and the first score is different than the second score; selecting, as a play of the game, a video clip of the match based on scores generated for events that occur in a time window covered by the video clip; providing a mechanism by which the video clip selected as the play of the game may be played after the end time of the match; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.