Patent Grant
9079098
The disclosure relates to systems and methods for providing wagering games on electronic gaming machines. In particular, systems and methods are provided for automated identification of gaming preferences and presentation of a customized set of games to a player based on the identified gaming preferences.
With the emergence of server network and cloud based gaming in the wagering gaming industry a known approach is to download a library of game content to gaming machines from a centralized system. The library of game content is typically not personalized or targeted to a player's preferences, behavior, changing habits or to different types of player segments. The library of game content may be specifically targeted based on a fixed gaming property or history, so that the library is tailored to specific player types based on market research, player research or focus group studies, for instance marketing studies. Furthermore, the operators of the gaming machines and game suppliers may waste time, money and other resources developing and downloading games to thousands of machines in casinos and other venues and these games may not satisfy the unique needs and desired player experience or behavior for specific players.
To enhance the game playing experience, it may be beneficial to personalize the selection of games that are offered to individual game players. One method of personalizing a game selection is based on player identification. The method provides a choice of game content that matches the player's previous game selections or demographic information specific to the identified player. US20080032787A1 discloses a system that recommends games to a player, where the recommendation is based on personal game selection information including demographic information and/or historical game play information specific to the player. US20100298040A1 discloses a gaming recommender system where games are recommended based on theme, brand, game player demographic, past games played by the player, and length of play of games. Both of these disclosures describe the use historical data that is tied to a specifically identified player. These systems depend on player identification and cannot provide good recommendations for new players for whom there is no historical data or even for regular players when new sets of games are introduced to the gaming system. Instead, the tendency with these systems is for the player to play the same games over and over. US20070219000A1 discloses a gaming system that recommends specific games where the recommendation data is determined by the operators of the gaming system. This forces the player to select a game from among choices of games provided by the game operators. The Game player preferences are secondary to the selections of game operators. A significant problem with this approach is that the game operator recommended games might not match player's preferences. US0070054738AI and WO2009/097538AI describe games selections being based on a keyword provided by a player. These systems may not provide suitable selections since they are dependent on matching algorithms that work against the player provided keyword.
Therefore, there is a need for gaming systems and methods invoking new ways to provide game recommendations to regular players and to new players.
New systems and methods for automatic discovery of gaming preferences are provided herein. In certain embodiments, the systems and methods provide personalized content for a game player in real-time. The systems and methods allow gaming machines to dynamically and in real time predict and offer game content that satisfies the real player experience as opposed to pre-loaded or downloading games based on market research or focus group studies.
The systems and methods disclosed herein provide recommendations to a player without the need for historical preferences or demographic information about the player. Player behavioral data monitoring and analysis is performed with anonymous player data, that is, the player need not be specifically identified. Further, the data can be collected and analyzed during live game play. In certain embodiments, the systems and methods monitor the player behavior in real-time and then offers game content to match, track or reflect the behavior and even mood of the player at or near that particular instant in time.
In one embodiment, a computer implemented method of operating a wagering is provided. Preferably the method operates in real time, that is, during live, actual game play by a game player. The method includes the steps of: using a processor to collect a first set of data related to game factors for game play in an ongoing game by a current game player; analyzing, with a processor, the first set of data; determining, with a processor, at least one game player type from among a set of predefined game player types for the current game player based on the analysis of the first set of data; and displaying, on a video display, a selection of games identified for the determined at least one game player type.
In another embodiment, a computer implemented method analyzing a set of data representing game player behavior is provided. Preferably the method comprises the steps of: partitioning, with a processor, a set of data into one or more game play periods, the set of data being related to one or more game factors; analyzing, with a processor, the set of data within each game play period, and creating, with a processor, at least one game player type based at least in part on the analysis of data from one or more game play periods.
In another embodiment, a wagering game system is provided. The system comprises: an electronic gaming machine configured to collect a set of data related to one or more game factors, and a modeling module to receive the set of data. The modeling module is configured to: partition the set of data into one or more game play periods; analyze the set of data within each game play period, and create at least one game player type based at least in part on data from at least one game play period.
In another embodiment, a system for modeling game player behavior is provided. The system comprises: a modeling module to receive a set of data related to one or more game factors. The modeling module is configured to: partition the set of data into one or more game play periods; analyze the set of data within each game play period, and create at least one game player type based at least in part on data from at least one game play period.
In yet another embodiment, a wagering game system is provided comprising: an electronic gaming machine configured to provide a selection of wagering games to a game player having a wagering game system registration; and a processor configured to analyze a set of data and determine at least one game player type from among a set of predefined game player types for a game player based on the analysis of a set of data related to game play by the game player.
In another embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored therein thereon is provided. When executed, the instructions are operable to cause a computerized wagering game system to: collect, with a processor, a first set of data related to game factors for game play in an ongoing game by a current game player; analyze, with a processor, the first set of data; determine, with a processor, at least one game player type from among a set of predefined game player types for the current game player based on the analysis of the first set of data; and display, on a video display, a selection of games identified for the determined at least one game player type.
Certain embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the Figures of the accompanying drawings in which:
For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the principles of the present invention are described by referring mainly to various exemplary embodiments thereof. Although the preferred embodiments of the invention are particularly disclosed herein, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the same principles are equally applicable to, and can be implemented in other systems, and that any such variation would be within such modifications that do not part from the true spirit and scope of the present invention. Before explaining the disclosed embodiments of the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of any particular arrangement shown, since the invention is capable of other embodiments. Throughout this description, certain acronyms and shorthand notations are used. These acronyms and shorthand notations are intended to assist in communicating the ideas expressed herein and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Other terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.
Methods and systems for providing automated discovery of gaming preferences are provided. The gaming preferences can then be used to assemble individualized recommendations of suitable games for a player. The system may operate anonymously, for instance, where the game player is unidentified or unrecognized by the gaming system. Alternatively, the game player may be identified to the gaming system, for instance through a game player account, a responsible gaming account, a social network account, or other suitable indicia of identification. In one embodiment, player game session data may be used to build a gaming and play behavior model that represents different aspects such as play, game and wagering behavior. As used herein, gaming and play behavior is represented data related to any one or more of a plurality of different game features. Game features may include, for instance: game session length; wager denominations, play rates (number of games played per time segment), typical bonus values, and other features as described below. For example, the model could include a cluster of games that are suited to players that like to play games for a shorter time with large amounts of money wagered. Another cluster includes games that are more suitable for players that like to play for longer times with smaller amounts of money. In one embodiment, when a player begins to play a game, data related to the player's game playing behavior is detected an analyzed. Based on the analysis of this data, the player can be classified, in real time, into one of the existing clusters. Once classified, the games associated the most relevant cluster are suggested to the player. The suggested games can be offered to the player in any of a variety of ways, for instance on the main game screen, on a service window or on a banner on the top, bottom or side of the screen. The suggested games can also be offered in an online gaming system.
Components of an exemplary system 10 for automatic discovery of gaming preferences are shown in
The embodiment, the system 30 performs a training process to generate the gaming and play behavior model 32 using a play data database 42. This training may use a temporal representation of the raw historical transaction records within the play data database 42. One embodiment of a temporal representation of the raw play data is depicted in
As shown in
As shown in
Referring back to
In one embodiment a two stage hierarchical training process is employed. The analytic module 38 generates a gaming and behavior model. The model includes a number of clusters where each cluster represents a set of game features. Suitable game features are described throughout this disclosure. Groups of clusters may be assembled and assigned to particular gaming trends or behaviors. For instance, a group of clusters may be assembled to identify game players that prefer short games with relatively low wagers. Another group may be assembled for game players that prefer games with multiple rounds of betting or larger wager amounts.
As an alternative to or in addition to clustering, the statistical analysis may employ other data analytic techniques such as factor or regression analysis.
In one embodiment, the player actions collector 58 collects player data from the moment a player inserts a player card or begins a wagering game, for instance by inserting a wager, or pressing a start button or otherwise providing an indication of a player's desire to play a wagering game. In certain embodiments, the player data comes directly from the gaming device 62. The system may be configured to collect data for a predetermined or preset length of time, which time period may be adjustable by the game operator. Software in the system may be configured to perform a preprocessing step, involving cleaning the data collected by the player actions collector 58 with a preprocessor 64. Cleaning the data may involve any one or more of the following subtasks: noise reduction or removal, identification and removal of outlying data entries, and resolving inconsistencies in the data. Cleaning may also refer to taking data in a raw or uncleaned state or form and converting the data into a form that is better suited for a mining or modeling task. For instance, cleaning may include processing or removal of extraneous or unnecessary data such as meta data, tags, or empty fields. Software in the system may also be configured to filter the data from the player actions collector 58 with a features extractor 66. In this context, filtering refers to a specific approach to feature extraction where redundancies (i.e., attributes carrying less information) are eliminated by a function or ranking process. Other techniques for data manipulation may also be used or they may be used in the alternative, for instance wrapper, embedded and search based models of data management and manipulation. The preprocessing step and feature extracting steps may be performed separately, in sequence or in parallel, or they may be performed together. Similarly, the software module or engine(s) that perform these steps may be provided separately or together.
In one embodiment, in a pre-defined time period, for instance a time period beginning from the start of game play, the system for automatic discovery of gaming preferences 60 begins to attempt to match the player's session gaming behavior with one or more specific clusters of game content that have previously been identified by the data mining steps, described herein (those steps involved in cluster model generation or other suitable analysis). The result of this matching are used to determine which of the one or more previously identified clusters of game content are most closely matched with the player and game wagering behavior. In one embodiment, each previously identified cluster of game content is matched to at least one unique game player type. In this way, the player may be assigned one of several game player types. The matching and determination of a game player type may be determined by a classifier 68 in a classifying or determining step where the game player is classified into a game player type.
In another embodiment, a player may provide and the system may receive a selection of a game to play from the game player. This selection may be used in the determination of the at least one game player type.
In another embodiment, a player may provide or the system may receive (either from the player or otherwise) geographical data related to the location of the game. This geographical data may be provided by the game operator. This geographical data may be used in the determination of the at least one game player type.
In another embodiment, a player may provide or the system may receive (either from the player or otherwise) data related to the language of the game. This language data may be provided by the game operator or a game itself. This language data may be used in the determination of the at least one game player type.
After or responsive to the determination of a game player type, the player is provided with a plurality of games from which to choose from. The plurality of games may be provided to the player (chosen via a game selector process 70) that is better matched to the game player type through a real-time window on the gaming machine. The player may be offered a choice on whether they would like to be informed of new games before initiating the first game play. The recommender system may send an alert message to the gaming machine during the game play or at the end of a game. The alert message may provide new or different game selections expected to satisfy the player experience for the identified game player type. Alternatively, or additionally, the selection of different games may be provided to the player on a video screen between rounds of a game.
Alternatively, the player may be offered a choice of selected games based on the identified game play type through a separate area on the screen of the gaming machine. In such an embodiment, the new game may run and operate and be displayed in the same separate area on the screen of the gaming machine. In this embodiment, the player has the option of playing the pre-loaded game on the machine and, at the same time, trying out one or more games suggested based on the identified game player type. The new games suggested to the player could be different themes and genre (linked, community, social, progressive, tournament, episodic etc.) than the pre-loaded games on the gaming machines. In addition, in another embodiment the system may recommend games based one or more time slices, where a time slice represents a discrete duration of activity, such as game play. For instance analysis of a 7 day time slice may provide a different game player type and selection of games than an analysis for the same player based on a longer time slice, for instance a 10 day time slice. The system may be configured to calculate the differences between the two analyses (the 7 day time slice and the 10 day time slice). The system may then recommend games based wholly or in part on only the more recent or longer duration time slice. Alternatively, the system may recommend games based on a combination of the recent time slice match and the longer time slice match. Further, the system is configured to have the ability to store and partition data to later defined time slice based patterns. In this instance, the system is configured to allow for time slicing a data set into discrete time slices, as an example, 1 hour slices, or 1 day slices, or whatever time period is deemed desirable by the game operator.
In another embodiment, a player, either unregistered or registered, may be prompted, at least once, by an electronic gaming machine, to agree to the system monitoring his game playing. Alternatively, or additionally, the player may be prompted to agree to the system collecting game play data related to the activity of the player. Accordingly, the methods may include the steps of: receiving an indication of agreement to monitoring of game play from the game player, and/or receiving an indication of agreement to collection of game play data from the game player. According to subsequent live game playing data collection and analysis, the player may then be presented with a set of games selected to match the player's gaming preferences. Further, the system may update or change the player's game player type based on live or near live game playing data or metrics. In one embodiment, the system may update the player's game player type after a predetermined number of games are played or after a predetermined length of time. The predetermined number of games or predetermined length of time may be set by a game operator, for instance a casino of electronic gaming machine operator or by the game player, for instance by requesting that the game player input how often or frequently they would like to be presented with a new selection of games. The unregistered player may be prompted again to agree to the system monitoring his game playing at another electronic gaming machine within the same establishment (for instance a casino or a video lottery terminal system with geographical limits, or within geographical limits, for instance, by an online gaming system).
In another embodiment, a registered player having an account or other method by which the player might be identifiable to a gaming system is logged into the system, for instance with an electronic gaming machine, or online, and is prompted for approval at least once, at the electronic gaming machine or online, to agree to the system monitoring his game playing. According to subsequent live game playing data collection and analysis the player may then be presented with a set of games selected to match the player's gaming preferences. For instance, the system may have previously assigned the player a game player type based on historical game play data. Further, the system may update or change the player's game player type based on live or near live game playing data or metrics. In one embodiment, the system may update the player's game player type after a predetermined number of games are played or after a predetermined length of time. The predetermined number of games or predetermined length of time may be set by a game operator, for instance a casino of electronic gaming machine operator or by the game player, for instance by requesting that the game player input how often they would like to be presented with a new selection of games.
In one embodiment, a registered player has a responsible gaming account or profile. In such an embodiment, the system is configured to consider data or other information from the responsible gaming account in determining the profile for the player or in adjusting a game selection previously offered to a player or previously determined without consideration of the existence of a responsible gaming account or data associated with that account. In adjusting a game selection, the system may take a selection of games based on a determined player profile and then add or remove games, the addition or subtraction of games being based on the data associated with or the presence of the player registration or the responsible gaming account. In one embodiment, the system may recommend a selection of games in whole or in part also due to the existence of the responsible gaming profile of the player, in addition to, or as an alternative to, data associated with the responsible gaming profile. The responsible gaming data may be processed by the system but stored separately, for instance in a separate responsible gaming database or module. In one embodiment, the methods include the step of determining that the wagering game system has responsible gaming data related to registered game players and including the responsible gaming data in the determination of the at least one game player type. Additionally, the system may recommend at least one game to the current player that has previously been recommended to registered game players having the same game player type, a similar game player type or a substantially similar game player type.
For a non-registered player, or a player that is unidentified to the gaming system, if the player profile resulting from a live session based analysis falls within a particular risk category, or otherwise identifies certain risk factors, then the system, may, in part or whole, recommend a selection of games which it would otherwise recommend to registered players also having that risk category.
In another embodiment, the player may request to be presented with a new selection of games, for instance at any time during game player. In one such embodiment, the player would press a button or other indicator to cause the machine to present a new selection of games based on recent or historical game play behavior.
Referring to
Additionally, the gaming preferences of a player and even game player type may be derived or obtained from a player's social networking accounts. In this instance, the system would customarily request permission to access the player's social networking account. This embodiment where social networking information or data is factored in to the selection of games or the determination of the game player type may be used only with registered players, or it may also be used with players that are unregistered or unidentified or even those that do not have a player account. In such instance, the wagering game system may be hold or have no access to information or any player account identifying the player to the wagering game system. The persona may be derived through proprietary software or third party available software. The persona may be used in part to recommend games to registered players or even to players which have patterns similar to registered players being offered the selections. In addition, eligible games may be offered for selections which are non-wagering games, online games as well as wagering games for electronic gaming machines.
Referring again to
The method includes the step of collecting a set of data related to game factors for game play in an ongoing game by a current game player 82. This collection of data is performed during a game player's actual game play, in real time or near real time. These game factors may be the same as or a larger set or subset of the game factors described above with respect to analyzing the larger data set used to generate game player types. A separate software module may be provided to handle collection of the data and this module may be provided in any suitable location or device, for instance, a gaming device, a controller in a gaming venue, a local system in the gaming venue, a system in a data center, a system in a social media network or in a private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud or community cloud.
The method also includes the step of analyzing the collected set of data 84. Certain game factors, or indicators, may be weighted or the dimensions of measurement adjusted so that they are more important or less important than other factors in the overall analysis of the data. In one embodiment, the data analysis is performed using a cluster analysis of the collected set of data. Additionally, or alternatively, the analysis may simply involve identification of particular game factors, the frequency of these game factors, any trends in the appearance of the game factors (for instance, whether particular actors tend to appear closer together in time), or a combination of these different indicators.
The method may also include determining at least one game player type 86 for the current game player based on the analysis of the collected set of data. As described above, for instance, the analysis may reveal that a game player continually selects different games. The system may, for instance, interpret and determine this as an indicator that the player does not favor games of the type that he stopped playing and use this information to assign the player an appropriate game player type. In another example, if the game player continues to play longer games with multiple rounds of wagers, then the system would identify a game player type that exhibits these features.
The system may then display, on a video display, the selection of games 88 identified for the game player type determined by the analysis of the collected set of data. The player may then make a selection of the one of the displayed games and the game machine presents the selected game to the player. For instance, the selection of games may be presented on a video lottery terminal, electronic gaming machine, personal computer, laptop computer, tablet, mobile phone, or a functional equivalent of one of the foregoing.
These game factors may be the same as or a larger set or subset of the game factors described above with respect to analyzing the larger data set used to generate game player types and suitable game factors are described throughout this disclosure. Additionally, the second set of data may be larger than the first set of data.
The method may also include the step of analyzing the second set of data 112. Certain game factors may be weighted or the dimensions of measurement adjusted so that they are more important or less important than other factors in the overall analysis of the data. In one embodiment, the data analysis is performed using a cluster analysis of the second set of data. Additionally, or alternatively, the analysis may simply involve identification of particular game factors, the frequency of these game factors, any trends in the appearance of the game factors (for instance, whether particular actors tend to appear closer together in time), or a combination of these different indicators.
The method may also include determining at least one game player type 114 for the current game player based on the analysis of the second set of data. For instance, the analysis may reveal that a game player continually selects different games. The system may, for instance, interpret and determine this as an indicator that the player does not favor games of the type that he stopped playing and use this information to assign the player an appropriate game player type. In another example, if the game player continues to play longer games with multiple rounds of wagers, then the system would identify a game player type that exhibits these features. Thus, in this way, the system may continually monitor, collect data, and update a current game player's previously-determined game player type. In one embodiment, the step of determining the at least one game player type for the current game player includes factoring and/or updating a previously identified game player type.
In one embodiment, the step of determining at least one game player type for the current game player based on the analysis of the second set of data involves determining that at least one updated game player type is different from a previously identified game player type. In this embodiment, the method may further include the step of changing the previously identified game player type for the current game player to the updated game player type.
In another embodiment, a game player type may be updated based on an analysis of an additional set of not just one, but a plurality of game play periods, data sets, factors, or a combination of any of the foregoing.
The system can then optionally make a determination as to whether to update the game player type 116. In certain embodiments, the system default may be set to update the game player type and no separate determination step is necessary. In an instance where the game player type is updated, the method may proceed to display a selection of games 108 associated with the newly identified, updated, game player type. In an instance where the game player type remains unchanged, the process may continue to collect a new or the same second set of data 110 and then work back through the steps of analyzing the new or updated second set of data 112 and a subsequent determination of the game player type 114. Alternatively, where the game player type remains unchanged, the method may end (not shown).
In another embodiment, the system may request and receive feedback from the game player related to the player's rating of the recently played game. For instance the system may be configured so that a player can assign a numeric rating to the recently played game. Data from this rating may be combined with data about the recently played game to update a previously-determined game player type. In another embodiment, the method involves updating a previously-determined at least one game player type based on an additional set of data, the additional set of data related to game player feedback reflecting a player indication of how often the player would play the game. The indication of how often the player would play the game may be received from the player in the form of a selected set of responses, for instance indicating the player would play often, sometimes, or never.
The system may then display 108, on a video display, the selection of games identified for the game player type determined by the analysis of the second set of data. The player may then make a selection of the one of the displayed games and the game machine presents the selected game to the player.
Referring now to
An optional step involves partitioning the set of data 122 into one or more game play periods. Each game play period may represent a continuous or relatively continuous period of game play, for instance, a series of consecutive games played by a player in one sitting at an electronic gaming machine. This step may be combined with the step of collecting the data and it may also be combined with the step of analyzing the data 124. In addition, gaming data may be held in a central repository and be partitioned based on geo zones which may reflect local or country based partitioning. The system may offer a mix of selection from within various partitions based upon language; geo zones as well as time sliced processed data.
The data is analyzed 124 to identify instances of the game factors described above, including the frequency of appearance of the game factors, their distribution within the data set, and clusters, trends or other patters are identified. Certain game factors, or indicators, may be weighted or the dimensions of measurement adjusted so that they are more important or less important than other factors in the overall analysis of the data. In one embodiment, the data analysis is performed using a cluster analysis of the set of data within each game play period. Additionally, or alternatively, the analysis may be performed against the set of data without partitioning into game play periods.
The data analysis allows the system to create at least one game player type 126. In one embodiment, the game player type is an association or collection of one or more game factors, such as those described above. This association or collection may represent a particular model of game player. For instance, the data analysis may show that certain players prefer games that are quickly resolved (from start to finish) and have small wager amounts. Data suggesting this trend could be used to create a game player type based on this trend. In one embodiment, the game player type is a collection of data including an identifier that allows the system to identify the collection of data, and, optionally, that the data provides a game player type. The game player type may also include data which indicates the game factors defining the particular features of the games to be affiliated with the game player type. These features may be identified in the affirmative, for instance as features that should or are preferably present in the games to be affiliated with the game player type. Alternatively, or additionally, some features may be identified in the negative, for instance features that should not be or are preferably not present in the games to be affiliated with the game player type.
In one embodiment, the method may include the system selecting games for the game player type based at least in part on the analysis of data from one or more game play periods or from analysis of the data set at large, without any partitioning or consideration of partitioning of the data into game play periods.
The method may also include the step of identifying a selection of games for a game player type 128. The identification is based on data related to the games and the information or data from the game player type. For instance, if the game player type is for players that like longer games with multiple rounds of wagers, then the system would identify a selection of games that exhibit these features. Data related to a game could be provided manually or it could be generated in a separate data analysis step, for instance analysis of data representative of game play activity, for instance, live, virtual or historical play of a given game. The data related to the games could include a combination of data entered manually, for instance game theme data, as well as other data collected or assembled through analysis of game play activity. Alternatively, the system may identify a selection of games based directly on the analysis of the set of data, without any creation of a game player type. In this embodiment, the selection of games may be based directly on the results of the cluster or trend analysis.
The above-described embodiments of the present invention can be implemented in any of numerous ways. For example, the embodiments may be implemented using hardware, software or a suitable combination thereof. When implemented in software, the software code can be executed on any suitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in a single computer or distributed among multiple computers. Such processors may be implemented as integrated circuits, with one or more processors in an integrated circuit component. Further, a processor may be implemented using circuitry in any suitable format.
It should be appreciated that a computer may be embodied in any of a number of forms, such as a rack-mounted computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer. Additionally, a computer may be embedded in a device perhaps not generally regarded as a computer but with suitable processing capabilities, including an electronic gaming machine, a Web TV, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone or any other suitable portable or fixed electronic device.
Also, a computer may have one or more input and output devices. These devices can be used, among other things, to present a user interface. Examples of output devices that can be used to provide a user interface include printers or display screens for visual presentation of output and speakers or other sound generating devices for audible presentation of output. Examples of input devices that can be used for a user interface include keyboards, and pointing devices, such as mice, touch pads, and digitizing tablets. As another example, a computer may receive input information through speech recognition or in other audible format.
Such computers may be interconnected by one or more networks in any suitable form, including as a local area network or a wide area network, such as an enterprise network or the Internet. Such networks may be based on any suitable technology and may operate according to any suitable protocol and may include wireless networks, wired networks or fiber optic networks. As used herein, the term “online” refers to such networked systems, including computers networked using, e.g., dedicated lines, telephone lines, cable or ISDN lines as well as wireless transmissions. Online systems include remote computers using, e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, as well as various combinations of the foregoing. Suitable user devices may connect to a network for instance, any computing device that is capable of communicating over a network, such as a desktop, laptop or notebook computer, a mobile station or terminal, an entertainment appliance, a set-top box in communication with a display device, a wireless device such as a phone or smartphone, a game console, etc. The term “online gaming” refers to those systems and methods that make use of such a network to allow a game player to make use of and engage in gaming activity through networked, or online systems, both remote and local. For instance, “online gaming” includes gaming activity that is made available through a website on the Internet.
Also, the various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded as software that is executable on one or more processors that employ any one of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Additionally, such software may be written using any of a number of suitable programming languages and/or programming or scripting tools, and also may be compiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code that is executed on a framework or virtual machine.
In this respect, the invention may be embodied as a tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable storage media) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compact discs (CD), optical discs, digital video disks (DVD), magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuit configurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductor devices, or other non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage media) encoded with one or more programs that, when executed on one or more computers or other processors, perform methods that implement the various embodiments of the invention discussed above. The computer readable medium or media can be transportable, such that the program or programs stored thereon can be loaded onto one or more different computers or other processors to implement various aspects of the present invention as discussed above. As used herein, the term “non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” encompasses only a computer-readable medium that can be considered to be a manufacture (i.e., article of manufacture) or a machine and excludes transitory signals.
The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense to refer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executable instructions that can be employed to program a computer or other processor to implement various aspects of the present invention as discussed above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that according to one aspect of this embodiment, one or more computer programs that when executed perform methods of the present invention need not reside on a single computer or processor, but may be distributed in a modular fashion amongst a number of different computers or processors to implement various aspects of the present invention.
Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.
Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in any suitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may be shown to have fields that are related through location in the data structure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigning storage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium that conveys relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanism may be used to establish a relationship between information in fields of a data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags, addresses or other mechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.
Various aspects of the present invention may be used alone, in combination, or in a variety of arrangements not specifically discussed in the embodiments described in the foregoing and the concepts described herein are therefore not limited in their application to the details and arrangement of components set forth in the foregoing description or illustrated in the drawings. For example, aspects described in one embodiment may be combined in any manner with aspects described in other embodiments.
Also, the invention may be embodied as a method, of which several examples haves been provided. The acts performed as part of the method may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments may be constructed in which acts are performed in an order different than illustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, even though shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.
While the invention has been described with reference to certain exemplary embodiments thereof, those skilled in the art may make various modifications to the described embodiments of the invention without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention. The terms and descriptions used herein are set forth by way of illustration only and not meant as limitations. In particular, although the present invention has been described by way of examples, a variety of devices would practice the inventive concepts described herein. Although the invention has been described and disclosed in various terms and certain embodiments, the scope of the invention is not intended to be, nor should it be deemed to be, limited thereby and such other modifications or embodiments as may be suggested by the teachings herein are particularly reserved, especially as they fall within the breadth and scope of the claims here appended. Those skilled in the art will recognize that these and other variations are possible within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims and their equivalents.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/586,547 filed Jan. 13, 2012, the entire disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
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