Patent Application
20170165577
It is to be understood that an average citizen is absolutely not legally required to know and/or anticipate the arbitrary specifications and/or rulings of any government employee concerning whether or not this application (or subsequently approved patent) conforms to some irrelevant or vague specification and/or interpretation. The validity of any current or future claims made by the inventor will be solely determined by the law stating, “Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent. . . . ”
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
This invention can be roughly classified within a new hybrid industry consisting of computer video games and fantasy games, which is now defined by the inventor as ‘Augmented Fantasy’. The relevant arts include software engineering, database architecture, network architecture, logic engineering, project management, game design, video game design, fantasy sports game design, and data science.
Because the invention represents a new industry (Augmented Fantasy), there are few comparisons. The developers at Vulcun created a game perpetuating violence, which awkwardly combines minimal elements of role-playing games with fantasy eSports. There is no known embodiment of a fantasy sports system that integrates elements of role-playing games (RPG's) into a user controlled avatar within a virtual world. There is no known embodiment of a fantasy scoring system that combines the analytical requirements of fantasy sports with the Physiological Movements of video games. There is no known fantasy sports scoring system that is affected by a Participant's reputation points.
https://vulcun.com/
Ranking processes are the norm for skilled contests like chess. Yannis Sismanis and Jeff Sonas invented a superior chess Rating process; however, this process cannot be directly applied to fantasy games. There have been no methods of applying sub-processes that are a function of the margin of victory and a comparison of scoring against the entire population of Participants.
For daily fantasy sports (DFS), the most popular ranking process is produced by the knaves at RotoGrinders. Not surprisingly, their farce of a process is largely based upon a previous iteration designed to rank poker Competitors. There is an improved, but still rudimentary, fantasy sports ranking process used by the programmer's at Yahoo. The deficiencies in these processes are plainly obvious to one skilled in the arts of logic science, game design and data science. The DFS ranking creators have never fathomed a process to rank Participants using their relative standings for each individual competition. Additionally, no one has created a ranking system to accurately evaluate competitors in Augmented Fantasy, because this document is the first time Augmented Fantasy has been introduced to the public.
There is no known fantasy Rating process that accurately Rates individual Participants based on their aggregated lifetime competition results. There is no known fantasy game system that then allows the Participants to, once they have an accurate Rating, make informed opponent selection decisions based on this accurate Rating system.
In the 2012 Olympics, there was a badminton tournament format that consisted of a group round followed by multiple elimination rounds. A scandal resulted due to Participants making intentional efforts to lose. Two reasons this happened was a lack of an accurate Rating system for group play and the use of current tournament results to seed subsequent rounds.
This invention replaces the older tournament models. Competitors are always seeded each round according to previously established Ratings (for example lifetime Ratings). An objective Rating system also gives a more accurate, less predictable evaluation of Participant performance when compared to the more traditional process of counting wins and losses (“less predictable” referring to a Competitor's ability to predict whether ‘throwing a game’ would benefit them in the future seeding process). In addition, there is no known fantasy sports system that determines a seasonal champion using a pod-based tournament process.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badminton_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_doubles
Augmented Fantasy Sports: Traditional fantasy sports integrated with real-time Participant interactions, which directly affect the outcome of the fantasy game.
Client-Device: A Computing Machine that contains a Client-System.
Client-System: A non-volatile, non-transitory storage medium (usually electronic in nature and usually an intricate part of a Computing Machine) embedded with software processes and sub-systems (pre-installed or post installed) with the additional limitation of being specialized for a Participant. Examples of storage mediums include (but are not limited to), computer hard drives, solid-state storage drives (including flash storage within smartphones), portable flash drives, compact discs, and non-human biological storage mediums (including DNA digital data storage).
Competitor: A single individual or group of individuals who, individually or as a group, attempt to achieve a common goal before an opposing individual or group of individuals are able to achieve that same goal. Examples include (but are not limited to) celebrities competing for fame, politicians competing for votes, athletes competing for wins.
Computing Machine: An apparatus, usually electronic in nature, consisting of 2 or more interactive components that produce an effect when energy is applied. Examples include (but are not limited to) computer servers, personal computing devices (including smartphones), video game systems, virtual reality systems, motion sensing systems, and board games.
Master-Device: A Computing Machine that contains a Master-System.
Master-System: A non-volatile, non-transitory storage medium (usually electronic in nature and usually an intricate part of a Computing Machine) embedded with software processes and sub-systems (pre-installed or post installed). Examples of storage mediums include (but are not limited to), computer hard drives, solid-state storage drives (including flash storage within smartphones), portable flash drives, compact discs, and non-human biological storage mediums (including DNA digital data storage).
Participant: A real-life individual who interacts with a Computing Machine. For example, a user who downloads instructions to convert their smartphone into a Client-System.
Physiological Movements: Any internal (or external) action(s) resulting from biological processes of the human body and usually expressed as physical movements. Examples include (but are not limited to) mimicking the motion of swinging a baseball bat, pressing the button on a game controller, moving eyes from side to side, directing neurons in the brain to conceive the motion of swinging a baseball bat, and, preferably, moving a finger on a touchscreen.
Rating: An objective measure used to accurately determine a Participant's relative skill level by processing the results of one or more competitions. All Ratings are rankings, but not all rankings are Ratings.
D1) An overview of the preferred embodiment of the fantasy game (including items not within the system).
D2) A generalized example of the preferred embodiment of the bonus round process for a Master-Device.
D3) A generalized example of the preferred embodiment of the fantasy game for a Client-Device.
D4) An example of the preferred embodiment of The Invitational pod tournament process (IF all higher seeds were to defeat the lower seeds).
The invention consists of a fantasy game system Master-Device, which acts as a server of a fantasy game. One or more Participants use a Client-Device to access this fantasy game system server by communicating through a wireless or wired network (see D1). Preferably, a virtual world is created from scratch or created with a gaming engine (for example, Unity). The virtual world (linear or open) consists of locations (real-life or imaginary) where the Participants will have the opportunity to interact with each other through a customized avatar of their choosing.
Upon registering, a Participant will have the opportunity to select and customize the avatar (see D3). The Participant accesses a lobby area, which allows the selection of at least one opponent or tournament. Within the lobby, Participants can be filtered by various attributes, which are stored in a Participant database. The Participant database may include fields for rating, reputation, gender, location, affiliations, interests, and much more. Upon selecting an opponent and/or competition, the Participant is directed to populate a fantasy roster consisting of real-life Competitors.
The Participant's fantasy roster accumulates points when the selected real-life Competitors complete events. Upon the completion of a key event by a real-life Competitor, the Master-Device transmits a notification to the Participant's Client-Device. The Client-Device displays the Participant's avatar within the virtual world. The Participant must then directly compete with an opponent in a virtual competition that requires the use of Physiological Movements. Upon completion of the virtual bonus round process, the fantasy game system will determine a bonus round winner. The bonus round winner will then receive bonus points that are directly applied to their fantasy point accumulation (see D2).
The Participant with the highest accumulated point total within a predetermined time-frame is the contest winner. Upon completion of the contest, all Participants' reputation points, experience points, overall Rating and pod Rating (if necessary) are recalculated and points and/or prizes are distributed.
1) A Participant downloads a fantasy baseball game system client application from a computer server to their smartphone (possibly an iOS based iPhone) [see D3].
2) The Participant installs the client application on their iPhone at no charge.
3) The Participant is assigned a unique ID by the server.
4) The Participant is prompted to upload a picture, which will be used as a basis for their customized avatar.
5) The Participant uploads a picture of themselves to the server.
6) The Participant enters into a virtual room for avatar creation.
7) The Participant customizes their personal avatar, which was created using their photo as a template.
8) The Participant chooses a sidekick for the avatar, which is presented as a baby dragon.
9) The Participant saves their avatar and sidekick onto their client application and the server.
10) The Participant is prompted to begin a tutorial on basic gameplay, which focuses on the gameplay in the virtual world of the bonus round.
11) The Participant partakes in the tutorial, which takes place in a virtual baseball stadium.
12) Upon completion of the tutorial, the Participant is notified of their ‘Cabbage’ status, which indicates their relative Rating.
13) The Participant partakes in multiple batting and/or pitching practice sessions to become more skilled at bonus round gameplay.
14) The Participant completes a registration form, which requires the submittal of their real name, username, postal code they currently reside in, voice id, social security number, mailing address, and electronically signed statement swearing to the validity of the information in the registration form and agreeing to the reasonable terms of participation.
15) The server securely stores the Participant's user information. A real-life individual stores any sensitive information on another machine that is completely cut off from the network and only accessible by directly accessing a physical terminal.
16) The server notifies the Participant's client application that the Participant is now verified.
17) The full feature-set of the client application is enabled. The features include a Participant summary page, a Participant biography page and a self-contained communication system.
18) The Participant activates the lobby screen.
19) The Participant joins a pod of 5 tournament opponents (6 total Participants) before the weekly deadline.
20) The server creates a randomized schedule where the Participant competes against every opponent in the pod.
21) The Participant populates a fantasy roster using real-life MLB players. (The preferred pool of real-life athletes is derived from a real-life sports league of which the games are played every day of the week; in this embodiment, MLB athletes are used.)
22) The fantasy roster consists of 20 athletes (2×C, 2×1B, 2×2B, 2×3B, 2×SS, 6×OF, 2×SP, 2×RP). The Participant can select a maximum of 3 real-life athletes who are playing at the same stadium.
23) Each real-life athlete is assigned a fantasy currency value by the fantasy game system. The total fantasy roster salary is capped at a specific value.
24) The Participant competes against opponent #1 on Monday.
25) If one of the Participant's rostered athletes hits a home run (key event), the server, which is continuously receiving real-time MLB statistical data, sends a wireless notification of this key event to the Participant's client application.
26) If one of the opponent's rostered athletes hits a home run, the server and client application perform a similar process as occurs during a Participant's home run; however, now the Participant's avatar is designated ‘away’. This avatar will display customized effects consistent with a baseball pitcher.
27) Upon completion of all the real-life games for the day, the server calculates the game winner based on accumulated fantasy points and bonus points. The server then updates the reputation points, experience points, overall Rating and pod Rating (if necessary) for all Participants.
28) The overall Rating consists of two main components. Component 1 is the direct adjustment due to the Participant's bonus points scored verses their opponent. Component 1 is weighted; this weight corresponding to the relative effect the bonus points scored has on the total fantasy points. Component 2 is the adjustment due to a relative comparison of the Participant's base fantasy point score verses the average/median of all contests during the day.
29) The pod Rating (PR) is a modified version of the Overall Rating. PR Component 1 is the direct adjustment due to the Participant's bonus points scored verses their opponents in the pod. PR Component 2 is the adjustment due to a relative comparison of the Participant's base fantasy point score verses the average/median of all the opponents within the Participant's pod.
30) Tuesday through Friday repeats the same processes.
31) After final scores are calculated for Friday, the server eliminates the two lowest Rated teams determined by the pod Rating process. The remaining 4 Participants are seeded according to their Pod Rating.
32) On Saturday, the #1 seed competes against the #4 seed and the #2 seed competes against the #3 seed. The competitions follow the previously outlined processes. The Participant with the highest fantasy point score is the winner.
33) On Sunday, the winning Participants from Saturday compete in the championship contest. The competitions follow the previously outlined processes. After final scores are calculated for Sunday, prizes are awarded to the Participants.
34) The proceeding competitions follow the previously outlined processes until the last 5 weeks of the MLB season. During these last 5 weeks, the top 32 highest Rated Participants are entered into The Invitational tournament.
35) The seeding of The Invitational is based on lifetime Ratings. The Invitational consists of 8 pods composed of 4 Participants (see D4). Pod 1 is composed of the highest seed (higher seed equals lower number) and the lowest seed. Pod 2 is composed of the second highest seed and the second lowest seed. The remaining Pods follow the same pattern. The rest of the Participants are placed one at a time into the pods in descending order by seed number beginning with Pod 1. This process is repeated until there are no Participants left. This process ensures that seeds 1 through 8 (top 25%) are placed in pods where the higher the seed, the lower the seed of their opponents, even after multiple rounds.
b) During week 2, the 16 Participants are divided into 4 pods composed of 4 Participants. The Participants are placed into new pods according to the previously described process. The completion of week 2 follows the previously outlined processes of week 1.
36) Throughout the off-season, the Participant participates in ‘training’ events to gain unique competitive advantages for the following season.
E2) In one embodiment, an unskilled Participant can select entire real-life teams to populate their fantasy roster thus ensuring that their fantasy team will complete key events, which will allow this unskilled Participant to compete in more bonus rounds.
E3) In one embodiment, Participants join a team with multiple Participants. These Participants might share a common attribute, for example an affiliation to an institute of higher learning. This group of Participants will choose to compete against an opposing team of Participants (possibly from a rival institute of higher learning). The Fantasy Sports Game System determines who the ‘home’ team is. The ‘home’ team Participants then collectively determine the individual Participant match-ups. The Participants then compete according to the previously detailed rules of competition; however, at the completion of the contest, all the scores from each team of Participants are aggregated. The team of Participants with the highest aggregate score is determined to be the winner.
E4) In one embodiment, Competitors are selected from the domain of high-school athletes.
E5) In one embodiment, Competitors are selected from the domain of professional athletes from Japan.
E6) In one embodiment, Competitors are selected from the domain of professional soccer players. In the bonus round, the Participant will either be in control of a goalie themed avatar or penalty kicking avatar. The sidekick potentially intervenes if the goal scored is very close. When controlling the goalie, finger gestures don't just control the velocity of the avatar, but supplemental finger gestures also control the arms of the avatar at the same time.
E7) In one embodiment, there is a robust self-contained socializing system for the Participants to use. A sub-system acts as a real-time translator for international Participants who don't speak the same language. Through the system, Participants can act as mentors to those less experienced to earn additional reputation points.
E8) In one embodiment, there is a process that creates a highlight reel of bonus round animations. These animations are displayed similar to the way highlights of real-life athletes might be displayed on a sports news program.
E9) In one embodiment, Competitors are selected from the domain of eSports.
E10) In one embodiment, Competitors are selected from the domain of professional golfers. In the bonus round, the Participant will either be in control of an avatar at a tee or their chosen sidekick. The Participant's avatar chips the ball into the hole while the opponent's sidekick attempts to intercept the ball before it goes in.
E11) In one embodiment, the bonus round consists of a word or logic puzzle that the Participants must solve.
E12) In one embodiment, an avatar is able to navigate the virtual world before, during, and after a bonus round occurrence. The avatar can interact with other avatars. When a key event occurs, the avatar's smartphone rings (this requires the Participant to be logged on during the fantasy competition). The avatar must be directed to a specific location in a limited amount of time.
E13) In another embodiment, the system prints, “How ironic that ordinary attorneys and judges familiar in the art of patent law are unable to interpret said patent laws without undue experimentation, which if said patent laws were applied unto themselves would cause said patent laws to render themselves invalid.”
Provisional Application No.: 62/267,297 Filed on Dec. 15, 2015
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62267297 | Dec 2015 | US |
