Summary:
Electronic Arts has developed a way to negate the effects of technology advancing faster that software can be developed–a mechanism to provide episodic delivery of entertainment content to a user. EA apparently uses some sort of application module with episodic content technology (e.g., sold at stores, over the Internet, etc.). The application module contains an initial episode of the game and a technology shell to allow future episodes to be downloaded over the Internet and executed. As new technology is developed, the new technology can be incorporated into the technology shell, independent of the content development. While the patent describes a lot of these features, the (single) claim is a little elusive. It’s interesting, though, that with Xbox Live we are seeing more games providing episodic content delivery after the game’s initial launch.

Exemplary claim:
1. A method of providing an Internet-enabled game, the method comprising:

• receiving information regarding a user’s current state in the game;
• responsive to the current state, enabling episodic content to be accessed by the user;
• receiving a search request from the user; and
• responsive to the current state of the user in the game, transmitting game-generated search results to the user.

What does this claim cover? We’re not sure either. But when we figure it out, we’ll let you know. To help out, however, we’re posting some dependent claims as well, as they are somewhat informative…

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the search results are game-related responsive to the search request being game-related and the current state of the user indicating that the user is permitted to receive game-related search results.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the current state information comprises a user action.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the user action is calling a predefined telephone number.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the user action is accessing a predetermined web site.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the user action is requesting a specific search term.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein episodic content is stored within a third-party website that is content-related to the storyline, and the users are directed to the web-site to discover the episodic content.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein episodic content is placed on a third party web site for compensation related to user traffic to the web site related to users searching for the episodic content.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein an episode is made available responsive to determining whether the user has submitted payment, for the episode.

U.S. Patent No. 6,805,632: Video Slot Gaming Machine
Issued October 19, 2004 to Konami Gaming, Inc.

Summary:

Here is a fine example of how a game company can similarly participate in the “gaming” industry. Konami’s patent is for a bonus wild in a slot machine. The slot machine has rows and columns, as one would expect. The apparent novelty of Konami’s machine is that they have incorporated a “bonus” element where the slot machine recognizes the bonus indicator when present in any of the columns, and modifies all the game elements within that column to represent a wild game element, without modifying any of the game elements in other columns in which a bonus element is not present. That catch, as many of us have spent many a penny/nickel/dime/quarter/dollar learning, is that the bonus-to-wild modification occurs only if a wild character in any one of the cells of the column would result in a winning outcome to a sucker, errr, player of the slot machine.

Exemplary Claim:

A video gaming machine, comprising: a housing having a display device for displaying a plurality of game elements in a grid having a plurality of cells defined by rows and columns; a memory device for storing a pay-table; a game controller coupled to the display device and the memory device, the game controller being adapted to randomly select the game elements to be displayed in the display device, from a set of possible game elements, and to determine an outcome based on the displayed game elements, the pay-table, and predetermined paylines; and wherein the set of possible game elements includes a bonus element, and wherein the game controller is adapted to identify the presence of the bonus element in one of the cells of at least one column and to modify all of the game elements within the column to wild without modifying any of the game elements in other columns in which a bonus element is not present and only if a wild character in any one of the cells of the column would result in a winning outcome to a player of the video gaming machine.

Summary:
The ‘989 patent describes a portable electronic communication device with game software that simulates a virtual pet. The virtual pet is able to converse with a user who in turn is able to teach the pet new words. Attributes of the words are modified based upon the responses of a user to questions asked by the pet during conversation and stored in a database. For example, with reference to the figure above, the user might tell the pet that the word “Jane” is a “Human” (1 in the “Human” column) and not “Food” (0 in the column) and that the user really likes “Jane,” (with degree of 4 in the “Like” column). Next time, the friendly virtual pet may begin a conversation by saying something like “I just e-mailed Jane saying that you like her!” (after which the pet can learn a plethora of curses and swears from the user). This innovation may well give rise to various other incarnations, such as a virtual girlfriend that will only accept compliments, or a virtual gunner that will enlighten you with its knowledge of random subjects.

Exemplary Claim:
A communication apparatus between a user and an entertainment apparatus, the entertainment apparatus having at least a microprocessor, memory, display controller and means for inputting user commands, said communication apparatus comprising:

an electronic dictionary comprising words and associated status information related specifically to said words;

an alteration element to modify the status information of one or more words based on user interaction with said entertainment apparatus;

a sentence generator creating a sentence including said one or more words and based on said modified electronic dictionary word status information associated with said one or more words and adapted to a situation between a user and said entertainment apparatus, and

a sentence output element for outputting a sentence generated by the sentence generator to display as a message to a user.

Issued May 11, 2004, to Electronic Arts, Inc.

Summary:
This Electronic Arts patent describes a simulation module to simulate events occurring during a cautionary period of an event, such as when in a NASCAR game a yellow flag is raised, or when a player wrecks out of a race. During this “cautionary period,” a user may, for example, obtain performance related-statistics; view a partially or complete simulation of a completed race; or determine the projected outcome of an ongoing race based on current statistics. Several aspects of the invention include (1) a method to interrupt a normal game, simulate parts of the ongoing game, derive updated statistics, and resume the game; (2) a method to interrupt a normal game, derive statistics from the normal game, and compare such statistics with statistics from a past or predicted outcome; (3) and a collection of files configured to store such data on a computer-readable medium.

Exemplary Claim:
1. A method of simulating game state changes responsive to an interrupt condition in a computer-implemented racing game, comprising:

generating an interrupt condition during game play of the racing game at a first game state, the first game state having a first set of statistics associated therewith;

responsive to said interrupt condition, interrupting game play and calculating a second set of statistics associated with a second game state by simulating events that occur after the first game state based on the first set of statistics; and

wherein the second game state is a completed game state, and wherein the second set of statistics includes statistics associated with a completed race.

Summary:
Nintendo describes the multi-player, portable version of its Pokemon game in this patent. In the pokemon game, each player collects and trains pokemon. When another player is encountered, the pokemon battle each other and the winner captures the loser’s pokemon. Capturing a pokemon includes transferring information about its appearance, strength, etc. to the wining player’s game machine.

Battling other actual players, as opposed to simulated opponents, is encouraged by allowing pokemon captured from another player to have a “virus” that allows them to be more effective in battle. The virus spreads quickly, thus helping a player’s entire collection of pokemon. The patent explains that players whose pokemon have the “virus” will become popular: “The player who luckily captures a virus-infected pokemon … becomes busy with other players’ requests for pokemon data exchange, thereby increasing popularity among other players. As such, the game is useful for cultivating friendship with other players.”

Although the game may bring you new friends, those friends don’t have to stick around once they’re done using you. It is possible to receive information about player and his cadre of Pokemon, and then do virtual battle with him later on. There may be some disadvantages to this approach, however. The properties of the pokemon change with the time of day, and a battle that takes place at night may come out differently than a battle that takes place during the day.

The patent also describes a system for allowing players of different versions of the game to battle each other: Whatever information about a captured pokemon is unavailable from the old version of the game gets made up (assigned randomly) at the time of data transfer. Conversely, data about a pokemon from the new version that cannot be received by the old version is discarded. This ingenious system can also be used to allow users who upgrade to the new version to transfer their old collection of pokemon.

Exemplary Claim:
A method of operating a multiplayer video game system for playing a video game involving characters that may be captured by a player comprising the steps of:

establishing communication between a first player’s video game device and a second player’s video game device;

associating time related data with at least a first video game character that may be captured by a player;

controlling the display of said first video game character based upon said time related data;

receiving by said first player’s video game device identification information identifying said second player; and

storing data in said first player’s video game device relating to said at least one video game character associated with said second player including said time related data.

Summary:

Remember StarFox? I do (I’m getting old). The ‘179 patent describes a number of gameplay aspects of a video game in the StarFox series. As the patent correctly professes, I always enjoyed the ability to select the level I played, instead of having to sequentially move through each level every time I started the game. Allowing the player to replay a level without resetting the game the player avoids being “burdened with unwanted labor, thereby losing his interest in the game or having a burdensome feeling….” In addition to being able to choose the level I start at, I also liked the fact that only my highest score from each level counted towards my final score.

While the ‘179 patent only claims the above concept, it nonetheless also describes detecting collisions to individual sections of the plane the player is flying, instead of processing a hit on any part of the plane in the same way. Let me restate that. The entire plane doesn’t blow up when it gets hit (a la Galaga), but instead, only the portion of the plane that got hit blows up. This allows, for example, for individual wings of the plane to be shot off, but the plane remains navigable (to some extent) by the player. Nice feature. I’ll have to check to see if they claim it in a related patent.

Another feature described (but not claimed) is that of automatic messages shown in the picture below. When it is possible to easily attack the enemy or avoid crises by performing an operation, instructions for performing that operation appear on the bottom of the screen. If multiple messages are possible at a given time, only one is chosen based on a pre-defined hierarchy of importance. This allows “the player, even if unskilled” to advance in the game. Was this perhaps an early patent directed towards in-game hints??? Again, I’ll have to check to see if they claim this feature in a related patent.

Exemplary Claim:

A video game system for playing a video game having a plurality of different courses through which a player can successively advance by successfully completing a current one of said plurality of courses, said video game comprising:

a course choosing screen which enables the player to select a course to play from said plurality of courses when starting said video game and upon finishing a current course;

a first score counter for determining a current course score that the player has achieved by finishing a current course of said plurality of courses;

a score controller for writing a current course score to a memory upon completion of each course, wherein said score controller resets said current course score for said current course to an initial value if said user chooses to replay said current course using said course choosing screen after finishing said current course; and

a second course counter for combining each course score in said memory to provide an overall score for said video game.

Summary:
Developers from Square Enix, publishers of the Final Fantasy series, describe a role-playing game using scenario cards. During the course of the role-playing game, the player is presented with multiple cards from which to choose. For example, each card may represent a different scenario. The player’s selection will directly affect the player character’s subsequent development of the story in the game. For example, upon being presented with cards representing branching quests, a player can select which quest to embark upon (e.g., rescue the town from evil wizard or flirt with waitress in tavern).

Exemplary Claim:
A game program for causing a computer to execute a role playing game which changes a development of a story forming the game on a screen according to an operational input of a player,

wherein the game program causes said computer to execute:

a displaying procedure for displaying a plurality of cards on said screen, each card comprising indicia associated with a significance of the card;

a selecting procedure for selecting one of said plurality of cards displayed in said displaying procedure according to the operational input of the player; and

a determining procedure for determining the development of said story according to a selected card,

wherein selecting of each card always directly affects a player character and the development of the story.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,522,333: Remote Communication Through Visual Representations

Summary:
Electronic Arts has improved the traditional in-game (or out-of-game) chat feature. Instead of informing your sarcasm-impaired friends that you’re joking by typing ;-), you can instead make an on-screen avatar wink for you by typing (wink). In addition, the software can animate your avatar based on natural language processing techniques. A default mood (such as “humorous” or “stone-cold-serious”) is set in order to make sure the system animates ambiguous phrases correctly. This preset can be temporarily or permanently overridden at any time. Gestures can also be programmed to occur every time a specific word is typed. With all these features, you’ll never need an emoticon again… 🙂

Exemplary Claim:

A method of communicating over a network comprising:

receiving a data communication from a first user, wherein the data communication contains behavioral movement information;

translating the received behavioral movement information into a choreography sequence of behavioral movements of a figure of the first user by:

responsive to the data communication containing text, processing the text in accordance with at least one natural language processing rule; and

constructing a choreography sequence from at least one behavioral movement associated with at least one natural language processing rule; and

animating the figure responsive to the choreography sequence.