CASCADING POINTS SYSTEM

TECHNICAL FIELD

The subject disclosure relates to a cascading points system for a game, within an advisory services network, that provides individual scores based upon individual contributions of a variety of players relative to overall goals of the advisory services network.

BACKGROUND

In enterprise business, the importance of information technology (IT) is ever increasing. Large enterprise organizations rely more and more on robust technology products and related services to support their businesses. Over the past several decades, a large consulting services industry has developed to support and service these large enterprise organizations. Typically, consulting organizations apply one model in executing consulting services. This model involves top-performing, senior level consultants developing customer service partnerships with large enterprise organizations. The senior level consultants leverage a large number of junior consultants to design IT solutions. This model, however, is not easily scalable, it is labor intensive and thus expensive, and does not guarantee quality results. In addition, consulting organizations attempt to leverage previous solutions, developed for other customers, as a means for raising profit margins. This approach leads to non-differentiated solutions which partially address core problems of the enterprises.

Enterprise organizations seek the assistance of consultants to identify, analyze, and solve complex business problems. Complex business problems, as the name suggests, can be extremely complex, and result from various factors. For instance, complex business problems can arise from a series of business changes, rapid growth of businesses, technology changes, and/or technological limitations.

Enterprise organizations, who understand their businesses to a greater extent than consulting firms, desire a collaborative approach in which the enterprise organizations and consulting firms work closely to develop creative business solutions for complex problems. Accordingly, it can be beneficial to leverage business knowledge, held by the enterprise organizations, to immerse a team of consultants into the problems faced by the enterprise organizations in order to develop effective solutions.

One possible immersion mechanism is “serious” games. Serious games can encompass many forms and subject matters and teach players information relating to education, health, science, law and government, computers, and/or a multitude of other subjects. Typically, computer games are designed for entertainment purposes. However, with serious games, the goal is to train and educate players through a planned curriculum and set of objectives. Players can learn new material in a fun, educational environment. Conventional serious games, while challenging, are not aimed at real-life business problems nor provide clear problem statements and solutions which can be implemented by enterprise organizations. Rather, conventional serious games are designed to look at societal weaknesses and/or extreme world disaster scenarios in the world and in the future without regard to the existence of workable solutions.

In many conventional games, a concept of a score or a point system is typically included whereby players receive points for game play. For instance, a player can receive points or lose points based upon actions or activities within the game. In massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), for example, players receive points for completing missions or finishing group quests. Game players can unlock additional capabilities to gain additional points, achieve new levels, use points as in-game credit to purchases items, etc. Accordingly, point systems can attract players, provide goals to players, and/or direct players into particular courses of action.

Conventional points systems for games reward players for various actions such as acquiring skills, items (e.g., weapons, armor, etc.), defeating an enemy, completing a game challenge, or the like. A player can also lose points or receive a reduced reward for actions the game wishes to discourage, e.g., failing objectives, etc. Some typical games can track player points via leaderboards, which can be user interface displays. Leaderboards, in some implementations, can includes lists of players with an all-time record for highest points, players with highest weekly points, highest daily points, highest points in a particular level, etc.

Conventional games can also include various interface elements that enable tracking of a player's own points so that the player can see a current number of points, see when points are added, and see when points are lost. In addition, such games can include mechanisms that determine when a player is to move up in rank or level. For instance, players can move up in level if the players acquire a certain amount of points, perform specific tasks, gain a certain number of hours of experience. Conventional games and points systems, however, do not enable a player to aggregate points based on ideas which are built-up or reused by other players.

The above-described deficiencies of conventional consulting solutions and game points systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems and techniques, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with conventional systems and techniques, and corresponding benefits of the various non-limiting embodiments described herein may become further apparent upon review of the following description.

SUMMARY

A simplified summary is provided herein to help enable a basic or general understanding of various aspects of exemplary, non-limiting embodiments that follow in the more detailed description and the accompanying drawings. This summary is not intended, however, as an extensive or exhaustive overview. Instead, the sole purpose of this summary is to present some concepts related to some exemplary non-limiting embodiments in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description of the various embodiments that follow.

In various, non-limiting embodiments, an advisory services network is provided that enables enterprise organizations to identify complex business problems from apparent business problems, immerse a diverse group of people in the businesses of the enterprise organizations, and promote collaboration to develop viable solutions to the complex business problems. An enterprise organization can supply a collection of data to enable members of the diverse group of people to immerse themselves into the problem space, participate in creative discussions, and brainstorm potential solutions. The advisory services network can include a gaming platform on which instances of serious games can be developed and deployed. Serious games deployed on the gaming platform guide players (e.g., members of the diverse group of people sourced by the advisory services network) through a thought-provoking environment in which the players uncover idiosyncrasies and complexities of the business of an enterprise organization. Through the serious games on the gaming platform, players are immersed in the problem space of the enterprise organization. The players are encouraged to identify real problems of the enterprise organization, for which solutions are currently unknown, and develop potential solutions to those real problems. The gaming platform further enables sharing of ideas among players, discussions among players, and other player interactions to facilitate compounding of perspectives and solutions among a diverse group.

In yet another embodiment, the advisory services network can employ a points system whereby players can increase individual overall points by providing innovative and creative solutions to the complex business problems. An overall score, for any player, can be aggregated over time such that the player continues to earn points, levels, or achievements when ideas are referenced, incorporated, or implemented by other players. According to an aspect, the advisory services network or, in particular, the gaming platform of the advisory services network can utilize a cascading points system that enables game players to build up points through actions and links. The cascading points system rewards players with additional points when contributed concepts or ideas are utilized by other players and/or compound into a final solution provided to the enterprise organization.

These and other embodiments are described in more detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various non-limiting embodiments are further described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting advisory services network for sourcing a group to develop solutions to complex problems;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for developing solutions to complex business problems via crowd sourcing;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment of an advisory services network implemented as a gaming platform;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for a gaming environment which immerses players in a business of an enterprise organization facing a complex business problem;

FIG. 5 is an exemplary, non-limiting illustration of a user interface of a gaming environment of an advisory services network;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment of a advisory services network hosting a game instance;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for aggregating points for a player based upon actions that influence actions of other players;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting act of points aggregating to a player from actions taken by other players in accordance with one or more embodiments;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary non-limiting embodiment for cascading points rewarded for acceptance of a solution to a plurality of players whom contributed to the solution;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary set of linked actions according to one or more embodiments;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting system to aggregate and cascade points in a network gaming environment;

FIG. 12 is an exemplary, non-limiting illustration of a cascading points scheme in accordance with one or more embodiments;

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for performing game actions for which points are rewarded;

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for performing a game action which is influenced by or in response to a game action taken by another player;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting act of initiating actions in a network game environment;

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for adjusting points for disingenuous player actions;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting system for verifying an integrity of a points subsystem in a network game environment;

FIG. 18 is an illustration of a exemplary, non-limiting game interactions which exhibit suspicious characteristics;

FIG. 19 is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for adjusting points rewarded for a player action based upon feedback on the player action from other players;

FIG. 20 is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for implementing labels to incorporate an additional dimension to a cascading points system;

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting act of incorporating feedback information into point reward decisions;

FIG. 22 is an exemplary, non-limiting illustration of a user interface of a network game within a gaming environment according to one or more embodiments;

FIG. 23 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting advisory services network system in accordance with one or more embodiments;

FIG. 24 is a block diagram representing exemplary non-limiting networked environments in which various embodiments described herein can be implemented; and

FIG. 25 is a block diagram representing an exemplary non-limiting computing system or operating environment in which one or more aspects of various embodiments described herein can be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Overview

As discussed in the background, conventional consulting services employ a non-scalable and expensive business model that often produces non-differentiated solutions to enterprise organizations facing complex problems. In addition, a large volume of information is typically associated with the complex problems, which requires a significant effort to absorb and understand. Accordingly, conventional consulting services cannot cost effectively immerse themselves in the business of enterprise organizations in order to provide high quality, viable solutions to complex problems.

In various, non-limiting embodiments, an advisory services network is provided that enables enterprise organizations to identify complex business problems from apparent business problems, immerse a diverse group of people in the businesses of the enterprise organizations, and promote collaboration to develop viable solutions to the complex business problems. An enterprise organization can supply case studies of real-life scenarios, data, ethnographic interviews to convey multiple views of problematic areas, etc., to enable members of the diverse group of people to immerse themselves into the problem space, participate in creative discussions, and brainstorm potential solutions. In addition to immersion, the advisory services network can improve solution building processes through identification of subject matter experts. The subject matter experts, drawn from the diverse group of players interacting in the advisory services network, can collaborate, co-innovate, and problem solve in a virtual team environment fostered by the advisory services network.

According to a further embodiment, the advisory services network can include a gaming platform on which instances of serious games can be developed and deployed. Serious games deployed on the gaming platform guide players (e.g., members of the diverse group of people sourced by the advisory services network) through a thought-provoking environment in which the players uncover idiosyncrasies and complexities of the business of an enterprise organization. Through the serious games on the gaming platform, players are immersed in the problem space of the enterprise organization. The players are encouraged to identify real problems of the enterprise organization and develop potential solutions to those real problems. The gaming platform further enables sharing of ideas among players, discussions among players, and other player interactions to facilitate compounding of perspectives and solutions among a diverse group.

In a specific, non-limiting example, the cascading points system of the advisory services network allows players to build up points in exchange for providing the most referenced or trafficked solutions, artifacts, or interactions. With the cascading points system, players receive points for actions. By way of example, actions that result in a points reward can include: reviewing evidence; adding evidence to a game dossier; adding tags to media; starting a discussion around evidence or media; engaging or commenting in a discussion; sharing a personal dossier; adding evidence or media to an on-going discussion; generating solution concepts; sharing solution concepts; discussing solution concepts; participating in discussions on solution concepts; voting on solution concepts; voting on discussion thread ideas; joining a virtual team to identify solution concepts; joining a virtual team to build a prototype; sending a prototype for approval; engaging a customer in a discussion; consideration, by a customer, of a solution for implementation; and/or acceptance of a solution by the customer. It is to be appreciated that the foregoing example actions are not exhaustive of the types of actions for which points are awarded in the advisory services network and that other actions may be apparent based upon this disclosure.

Players, whose solutions or solutions concepts become candidate solutions or winning solutions, obtain a highest number of points. Thus, the cascading points system encourages players to collaborate in developing high quality solutions to complex business problems. For instance, the cascading points system facilitates perspective compounding as described below. In addition, the cascading points system provides an intrinsic incentive to encourage players to participate often in the advisory services network and participate with creative thought.

According to an example of the cascading points system, a first player can introduce a new idea (e.g., start a discussion thread which shares the idea) and receive points. If the new idea is referenced time and time again, the first player receives additional points each time the idea is shared, referenced, discussed, implemented, etc., by other players. In this manner, the cascading point system entices players to collaborate and engage in open discussions around ideas and solution concepts shared within the game.

According to one or more aspects, solutions, discussions threads, comments, evidence items, actions results, etc., can be embodied on the gaming platform as game objects referred to herein as artifacts. Player actions that reference or build upon artifacts can result in other game objects referred to herein as interactions. It is to be appreciated, however, that interactions, as game objects, can be manipulated and treated as artifacts such that interactions can relate to other interactions. In yet another example, interactions can be links that associate one or more artifacts.

When a first player takes an action, a first game object is generated and the first player receives a number of points based upon the action taken to create the first game object. If the first game object is referenced by a second player (e.g., the second player posts or includes the first game object in a discussion thread), a second game object is generated as a result of the action taken by the second player. The first game object can be linked to the second game object such that the second player receives points for the creation of the second game object and the first player also receives points for the creation of the second game object by way of the link.

In one embodiment, a method is described herein that includes identifying a first action taken by a first player of a network game, awarding the first player a first number of points for the first action, identifying a second action taken by a second player of the network game, wherein the second action is based upon the first action taken by the first player, and awarding the first player a second number of points for the second action taken by the second player. The method can also include awarding the second player a third number of points for the second action taken by the second player. In an example, the second number of points is a percentage, less than a whole, of the third number of points.

According to another embodiment, the method can include receiving a notification that a sponsor of the network game accepts a solution developed within the network game, awarding a third player, who developed the solution, a fourth number of points, and awarding a set of players bonus points, wherein the set of players generated ideas directly referenced by the solution. The method can also include identifying a second set of players whose ideas are referenced by the set of players and conferring additional points to players of the second set of players. According to an example, the method includes recursively identifying reference sets of players and awarding additional points to the reference sets of players recursively identified until progenitor ideas are reached.

In yet another embodiment, the method includes creating a first object in response to the first action taken by the first player, generating a second object in response to the second action taken by the second player, and linking the first object to the second object, wherein linking includes associating the first object and the second object in a directional manner such that the second object references the first object. In one example, creating the first object and generating the second object can include constructing the first object and the second object based upon respective action information obtained from the first player and the second player. In another example, the method includes detecting when a new object, created in response to a player action, links to the first object, and rewarding the first player with bonus points for the player action associated with the new object.

In another embodiment, the method includes analyzing a set of linked objects to generate a directed graph of linked actions that spans from the solution to initial actions, wherein objects of the set of linked objects are associated with players actions that lead to the solution, and awarding bonus points to players corresponding to action of the directed graph of linked actions, wherein awarding bonus points includes granting an amount of bonus points awarded to a particular player according to a function of graph distance from the solution to a particular action corresponding to the particular player. Further, the method can include, in an additional embodiment, generating a graph comprising artifacts and interactions, wherein artifacts are objects created from player actions and interactions are artifacts that reference other artifacts, performing graph analysis techniques on the graph to identify an inconsistency that indicates an attempt to artificially inflate a points total, and adjusting points of players corresponding to the inconsistency.

In yet another embodiment, the method includes obtaining feedback from a third player regarding an artifact resulting from an third action of a fourth player, associating the feedback obtained with the artifact, and adjusting points awarded to the fourth player for the third action based at least in part upon the feedback obtained. In an example, adjusting points awarded to the fourth player includes identifying the feedback as one of positive or negative feedback, adding points to a score of the fourth player when the feedback is identified as positive, and deducting points from the score of the fourth player when the feedback is identified as negative.

According to further embodiments, a game client of a network gaming platform is described herein that includes a display interface module configured to generate a user interface and to obtain action input from a player, an action generation module configured to generate action information based upon the action input, and a game engine interface module configured to communicate with a game engine of the network gaming platform. In an example, the game engine interface module is further configured to transmit the action information to the game engine and to receive a notification regarding a number of points rewarded to the player for performing an action specified by the action information. In another example, the display interface module is further configured to obtain navigation input from the player and the game engine interface module is configured to transmit the navigation input to the game engine as an object request. The game engine interface module is further configured to receive an object in response to the object request and the display interface module is further configured to display a representation of the object on the user interface. The action information generated by the action generation module includes a reference to the object to indicate that the object influenced the player to take the action specified in the action information. The game engine interface module is further configured to receive a second notification that indicates an amount of points rewarded to the player for actions of other players taken based upon the action, of the player, specified in the action information.

In an additional embodiment, a gaming platform of an advisory services network is described herein that includes a game engine, associated with an instance of a game, and configured to manage execution of the game, wherein the game involves a variety of players who attempt to solve a real-world problem for which a solution is yet to be found based on evidence input to the game. The gaming platform also includes a plurality of data storage locations such as an object data store configured to retain a collection of artifacts created to represent actions taken by players of the game; and a score data store configured to retain respective scores of the players of the game. The game engine can also include a point allocation module configured to give a player points for actions directly taken as well as for actions taken by disparate players based upon the action taken directly by the player and a cascade module configured to reward points to players of the game who contributed to a final solution accepted by a sponsor of the game. According to an example, the game engine can include an object generation module configured to generate an artifact from a player action and to store the artifact generated in the object data store, an object association module configured to link a first artifact to a second artifact in the object data store when a first action corresponding to the first artifact influences a second action corresponding to the second artifact, and an integrity check module configured to identify attempts by players to artificially inflate scores.

Herein, an overview of some of the embodiments for a cascading points subsystem in an advisory services network gaming platform has been presented above. As a roadmap for what follows next, an overview of exemplary, non-limiting embodiments and features of an advisory services network and/or an advisory services network gaming platform are described in more detail. Then, various exemplary, non-limiting embodiments and features for cascading points in the gaming platform are described. Finally, some non-limiting implementations and examples are given for additional illustration, followed by representative network and computing environments in which such embodiments and/or features can be implemented.

Overview of an Advisory Services Network and Gaming Platform

As mentioned above, in various embodiments, an advisory services network enables consulting services to be rendered to enterprise organizations facing complex problems. The advisory service network, unlike conventional consulting business models, does not rely on a handful of senior consultants maintaining customer relationships while junior consultants handle problem solving. The advisory services network provides immersion mechanisms through utilization of ethnography, capitalizes on a crowd sourcing to a diverse group and engages identified experts in a talent marketplace to develop quality solutions to enterprise organizations.

The advisory services network implements several primary aspects. First, the advisory services network facilitates transforming the problem. Transforming the problem includes methodology to immerse experts in real-life case studies to identify with complex problems faced by enterprise organizations. For instance, transforming the problem can involve the use of ethnography (e.g., real-life interviews and observations) to obtain perspective on a culture, problems, and experiences of an enterprise organization. In addition, transforming the problem can involve various immersion tactics to place the consultants within the advisory services network in the place of the enterprise organization, e.g., walk in their shoes. Further, transforming the problem can include querying a crowd to expose or uncover a core problem or identify other problems. The advisory services network can also facilitate crowd sourcing a solution, including methodology to utilize a large diverse group of individuals to solve complex problems. Finally, the advisory services network can implement a talent marketplace with methodology to leverage solution concepts and transform solution concepts into collaborative solutions.

In a specific, non-limiting embodiment, the advisory services network can be implemented as a gaming platform to coordinate transforming the problem, crowd sourcing problem solving, and engaging experienced talent to develop real world solutions. A serious game, e.g., a game with a primary objective to be fun and educational, can be developed on the gaming platform. The game can be based around one or more complex problems plaguing an enterprise organization. In particular, the developed game can include a back story, a plurality of narratives, and evidence (e.g., videos, graphics, documents, data, etc.).

The game immerses players (e.g., members of a diverse source group of the advisory services network) into the problem space of the enterprise organization. The game challenges players to identify real problems from apparent problems and develop possible solution to the real problems. The game encourages players to share ideas with other players who can provide fresh perspectives and additional input based upon their own, individual findings. As the game pushes more and more players to offer viewpoints and solutions concepts, the game provides mechanisms to enable players to interact, exchange ideas, and discuss ideas. In this manner, the players can modify their own ideas based upon the viewpoints of other players, collaborate together on solutions, and otherwise uncover high quality and robust solutions via perspective compounding.

With respect to one or more non-limiting aspects of the advisory services network as described above, FIG. 1 shows a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for sourcing a group to develop solutions to complex problems. As shown in FIG. 1, an advisory services network 100 can receive an initial problem statement 102. In an example, an enterprise organization, a business, a governmental organization, or other similar entity experiencing a complex problem can supply initial problem statement 102, which attempts to portray the complex problem. Advisory services network 100 draws upon sourced group 110 to generate and develop one or more solutions 104, which potentially solve the complex problem of the organization supplying initial problem statement 102.

Sourced group 110 can include diverse group of experts, consultants, and other people. Diversity with sourced group 110 can exist in a variety of ways. For instance, members of sourced group 110 can exhibit diversity in terms of geography, culture, ethnicity, age, education, career, skills, background, experience, etc. Sourced group 110 can be built to achieve, intentionally, diversity in one or more characteristics. It is also to be appreciated that, as sourced group 110 grows in size, diversity in a variety of aspects inevitably occurs.

FIG. 2 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for developing solutions to complex business problems via crowd sourcing. The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 can be utilized by advisory services network 100 of FIG. 1 to leverage sourced group 110 to develop solutions 104 based upon initial problem statement 102. At 200, an initial problem statement is obtained from an organization. The initial problem statement can convey an apparent problem faced by the organization. According to a non-limiting example, the apparent problem can be related to dataflow and information sharing limitations, capturing and transmitting real-time data, securing the right resources and equipment, brainstorming future innovations, etc.

At 210, the initial problem statement is transformed to generate multiple perspectives, sub-problems, and/or alternative problems. The problem can be transformed by a diverse group of participants in the advisory services network through direct observations, ethnographic interviews, support documents, etc., which capture various viewpoints of the initial problem statement from employees and associates of the organization. Participants in the advisory services network can build dossiers to provide multiple perspectives or views of the problems faced by the organization, to articulate root problems of the organization, and/or to present focused opportunities for the organization in the future. During this phase, the participants immerse themselves in the problem space, review qualitative and quantitative data, and provide a wide variety of insights and perspectives as a result.

At 220, the transformed problem is crowd sourced to a diverse group. Crowd sourcing is a model that leverages collective insights and experience of the diverse group to produce quality results. At 230, the diverse group is engaged to develop solutions. In a specific, non-limiting example, a rewards-based model can be employed to entice members of the diverse group to participate and develop solution concepts. For instance, as described in greater detail below, members of the diverse group can earn points for participation. At 240, solution concepts are built and implemented. For example, in the previous phases, subject matter experts can be identified in the diverse group. Virtual teams can be constructed around these subject matter experts. The virtual teams can collaborate to translate solution concepts, submitted by the diverse group sourced by the advisory service network, into solution designs and architectures. The organization can select one or more solution designs and architectures for implementation and deployment. At 250, implemented solutions are provided to the organization for deployment.

Turning to FIG. 3, a block diagram is shown illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for a gaming environment which immerses players in problems faced by an organization. As shown in FIG. 3, a gaming platform 300, implementing the advisory services network, on which a serious game can be designed, implemented, and deployed. The serious game, as mentioned above in the Overview, can provide an entertaining and thought provoking environment in which at least a portion of the process described with respect to FIG. 2 can occur. For instance, the serious game can be designed to facilitate solving real-world complex business problems and challenges faced by an organization, such as enterprise entity 302. The serious game of gaming platform 300 is configured to immerse a set of players 304 into the business of enterprise entity 302, to engage and reward the set of players 304 for solution building, and to promote interaction, collaboration, and discussion among the set of players 304.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, gaming platform 300 obtains various inputs from enterprise entity 302 and/or the set of players 304. In addition, gaming platform 300 provides various outputs to enterprise entity 302 and the set of players 304. For instance, enterprise entity 302 can supply gaming platform 300 with an initial problem statement specifying an apparent problem and evidence such as videos, audio clips, documents, etc., which further detail the apparent problem. The gaming platform 300 employs the initial problem statement and evidence to establish a setting (e.g., introduction and narrative game content) of the serious game corresponding to the complex problems suffered by enterprise entity 302. The setting provides a story in which the evidence fits while also supporting the evidence.

The set of players 304, via the established setting, carry out the steps of the advisory services network process described in FIG. 2. For instance, the set of players 304 can provide input to the game in the form of problem perspectives (e.g., description of each player's view of the problems of enterprise entity 302), solution concepts, feedback on solution concepts of other players, interactions and discussions among players, implemented solutions, and the like. Through gaming platform 300, enterprise entity 302 is presented with the problem perspectives, solution concepts, and implemented solutions developed by the set of players 304. In return, the set of players 304 achieve rewards (e.g., points). It is to be appreciated that the inputs and outputs illustrated in FIG. 3 are several examples to facilitate understanding of the gaming platform 300 and are a non-exhaustive listing of the inputs and outputs which can expressed in the gaming platform 300.

FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for a gaming environment which immerses players in a business of an enterprise organization facing a complex business problem. The embodiment depicted in FIG. 4 is one example of a workflow followed by the set of players 304 of a serious game of gaming platform 300 from FIG. 3. At 400, a player enters a game scenario. At 410, a game narrative association with the game scenario is displayed to the player as an introduction. The narrative, according to an exemplary embodiment, can include a plurality of scenes each portraying a portion of a larger story specifying a complex problem. After reading through the game narrative, the player can begin interacting with the game. Accordingly, at 420, input is obtained from the player. The input provided by the player can take several forms or indicate one of several actions desired by the player. In one example, the input can be a selection of an item of evidence associated with a particular scene of the narrative. In response to this input, at 430, the selected item of evidence is displayed to the player. At 440, the selected item of evidence is added to a dossier associated with the player.

In another example, the input can be a solution or a solution concept developed by the player. At 450, the solution or solution concept, provided by the player, is obtained. At 460, the solution or solution concept is submitted for review and/or approval by, for example, an organization whose complex problem is modeled within the game. In yet another example, the input can be navigational input to transition the user to a discussion thread hosted within the game. At 470, in response to navigational input obtained from the player, the discussion thread can be retrieved and displayed. The player can read, respond, collaborate, or otherwise participate in the discussion thread. At 480, player input (e.g., posts, etc.) can be incorporated into the discussion thread.

While FIG. 4 depicts individual input handling paths, it is to be appreciated that such depiction is a simplification to provide a high level overview of potential actions, scenarios, and responses within a game instance of advisory services network gaming platform. For instance, while viewing an item of evidence at 430, the player can provide input for which a game response is to navigate to discussion thread, at 470, associated with or related to the item of evidence. Accordingly, the player is not limited to merely adding the item of evidence to the dossier as a multitude of actions can be taken upon viewing the item of evidence. In another example, submitting a solution, at 460, can start a discussion thread which is navigated to at 470. The game can continue to loop as shown in FIG. 4, wherein the player continues to navigate the narrative, provide input, participate in discussions, etc., until the player exits the game and/or a ending point within the game is reached.

Referring to FIG. 5, an exemplary, non-limiting illustration of a user interface of a gaming environment of an advisory services network. The user interface can be deployed on a standalone application executing on an operating system of a computer or as web-based application executing on a web server and accessed via a web browser. As shown in FIG. 5, the user interface can include a wide array of sections presenting a variety of information. At 500, a logo or name of the system (e.g., “Advisory Services Network”) can be displayed along with a name of specific game instance or narrative. In a specific, non-limiting example, the narrative name can be a name or identity of an organization whose complex problem is modeled by the game instance. In another example, the narrative name can be more descriptive and hint or suggest the complex problem of the organization.

At 502, an indication of time remaining in the game can be displayed. The organization with the complex problem can have a time limit by which it would desire a potential solution to be presented. Such time limit can translate into time duration of the game as shown at 502. At 504, a header portion with header information can be presented. In FIG. 5, header information, in a specific, non-limiting example, can include a greeting and a rank provided to the player in the game. At 506, the player's score can be shown. The score can be utilized to indicate a significance of a player's contribution in the game and/or to serve as a basis to distribute intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to the player. As discussed in greater detail below, the game can include a cascading points system whereby the player's score is a function of the player's actions as well as independent actions of other players referencing the player's actions. In an example, clicking on the score, at 506, can display details on the scoring rules as well as details of point accumulation.

At 508, various game support functions can be presented as a series of buttons. For instance, support functions, when selected, can open up modal displays with appropriate controls. As shown in FIG. 5, some exemplary support functions include a leaderboard function, a feedback function, and a help function. At 510, navigational breadcrumbs are depicted. The navigational breadcrumbs serve a dual purpose. Not only do the navigational breadcrumbs indicate a current scene viewed by the player, but the navigational breadcrumbs also depict the choices or path taken by the player to arrive at the current scene. At 512, a list of other players who have played through the current scene. As shown in FIG. 5, and in accordance with one exemplary, non-limiting embodiment, the list of players can be depicted as a series of thumbnail images of avatars or other identifiers associated with the players. This information can enable a player to research other choices, actions, or input from other players regarding the current scene and evidence.

In FIG. 5, numeral 514 indicates a main content portion of the user interface. Within the main content portion, a scene title (516) can be displayed along with any imagery related to the scene, shown as a primary image at 518 with alternative thumbnail images at 520. Further, a scene narrative, shown at 522, can be presented along with a scrollbar if the narrative extends beyond a viewable pane of the user interface.

At 524, a related evidence tab is displayed, which can be activated to display a list of evidence supporting the current scene. The tab label, as shown in FIG. 5, can provide an indication of a number of evidence items as well as an indication of a number of discussion threads related to the evidence items. At 526, a dossier tab is depicted which enables access to the player's dossier. The tab label of the dossier tab indicates a number of items included in the player's dossier as well as a number of discussions pertaining to the player's dossier. At 528, a series of navigational options are provided to the player. The navigational options present scenes to which the player can navigate to from the current scene.

Turning to FIG. 6, illustrated is a block diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment of advisory services network 600 or gaming platform configured to host a plurality of serious game instances. As shown in FIG. 6, the advisory services network 600 hosts a set of game instances 604, where each game instance is a playable serious game. While FIG. 6 depicts the set of game instances 604 having three game instances, it is to be appreciated that FIG. 6 is an exemplary embodiment to illustrate one or more aspects of the advisory services network 600 and that the set of game instances 604 hosted by the advisory services network 600 can include up to N game instances, where N is an integer greater than or equal to one.

Advisory services network 600 can include a game instance management module 602 configured to administer the set of game instances 604. According to a specific, non-limiting example, the game instance management module 602 can instantiate new game instances. The game instance management module 602 can generate a new game instance from received information provided by a sponsor of the new game instance (e.g., an organization with a complex problem) or developed, by a provider of the advisory services network, based upon information obtained from the sponsor. Specifically, game instance management module 602 creates game instance 606 based upon a collection of data 622 and scenario information 624 provided to the advisory services network 600. The collection of data 622 can include various items of evidence, e.g., photos, videos, audio clips, documents, etc., which support or explain aspects of a complex problem providing the setting of game instance 606. Scenario information 624 can include a series of narratives divided into scenes which organize the collection of data 622 in a meaningful manner to provide a player with a fun and thought-provoking journey through the complex problem of game instance 606. Scenario information 624 can be created so as to the immerse players 620 in the world of the sponsor of game instance 606 while playing the game.

Game instance management module 602 instantiates game instance 606 and populates various data stores therein with data based upon the collection of data 622 and the scenario information 624. For example, when creating game instance 606, game instance management module 602 can store the collection of data 622 into an evidence store 610. In addition, game instance management module 602 can save scenario information 624 into a game information store 614. Further, game instance management module 602 configures a game controller 608, which maintains a user interface for players 620, handles input from players 620, progresses game play in accordance with game information stored in the game information store 614, manages access and storage of data to the various data stores of game instance 606, and performs a variety of other functions. As players 620 engage the serious game provided by game instance 606, game controller 608 appropriate responses. As described above, players 620 can navigate through scenes and narratives, view supporting evidence, and select items of evidence to be added to dossiers respectively associated with the players 620. Game controller 608 receives navigation input from players 620, retrieves requested scene information from game information store 614, and generates a corresponding user interface presented to players 620. Moreover, game controller 608 can receive the evidence selection and update dossier information in a dossier store 612 appropriately.

As described above, an aspect of serious games provided by advisory services network 600 is the ability of players 620 to suggest, develop, collaborate, etc. on solutions to the complex problem of the sponsor. As players 620 generate solutions and/or solution concepts, game controller 608 retains the solutions and solutions concepts in a solution store 616. While FIG. 6 depicts the various data stores as distinct elements, it is appreciated that such separation is a functional separation intended to facilitate comprehension of one or more features of serious games hosted by the advisory services network 600. It is to be appreciated that single data store, with or without partitions, can be employed to store various game, evidentiary, and player-generated information.

As shown in FIG. 6, each game instance in the set of game instances 604 can be associated with a sponsor, such as an organization with a complex problem, from a set of organizations 630. In a specific, non-limiting example, game instance 606 corresponds to organization 632. Accordingly, the collection of data 622 and scenario information 624 employed to generate game instance 606 can originate from organization 632 and can relate to a complex business problem of organization 632. While FIG. 6 shows game instances in the set of game instances 604 individually and respectively associated with distinct organizations in the set of organizations 630, it is to be appreciated that a single organization can sponsor multiple game instances corresponding to multiple complex business problems, or multiple organizations can sponsor a single game instance related to a shared complex problem.

The aforementioned embodiments of an advisory service network and associated gaming platform are intended to provide a general overview of a potential environment in which to implement and deploy the embodiments and features of a cascading points system described below.

Aggregating and Cascading Points of a Game Among and Between Players

As mentioned above, a cascading points system is a mechanism of the advisory services network in which a player's score is not merely a result of the player's action but is also a function of independent actions of other players. Such game scoring scheme incentivizes players to participate in the game since players can acquire meaningful amounts of points from minimal time investment by providing creative ideas and concepts which are incorporated into actual solutions accepted by a game sponsor. Accordingly, players need not invest extended hours in game play to achieve high levels or strong reputations.

In a specific, non-limiting example, with the cascading points system, players of a serious game receive points for individual actions. In addition, a player receives points for individual actions of other players that reference, incorporate, or build upon ideas of the player. Further, actions and ideas which culminate in a final solution, accepted by the game sponsor (e.g., an organization or customer with a complex problem), can trigger a final cascade of points. In an aspect, an objective of the game is to identify a solution to the complex problem of the sponsor. Accordingly, when the final solution is accepted, a large portion of points can be awarded. The large portion of points is awarded not only to the player(s) responsible for the final solution, as accepted, but also other players whose actions or ideas influenced the players to generate the final solution. In short, upon acceptance of a final solution, points cascade from the final solution down links to previous actions, recursively, until progenitor actions are reached. Players respectively associated with the actions from progenitor actions to final solution all receive points. Thus, the cascading points system award players not only for actions, but additionally awards players for actions which ultimately lead to accepted solutions.

For context of an application of cascading points, consider an exemplary, non-limiting scenario, in which a player, having a background in film-making and directing, can register and log into an advisory services network gaming instance. The gaming instance, or game, incorporates a primary objective of solving a complex problem of an organization (e.g., an enterprise, a customer, a sponsor, etc.), for which a solution is currently unknown. Accordingly, the player logs in with the purpose of trying to solve the complex problem. In the exemplary, non-limiting scenario, the player reviews a narrative story that includes various files, documents, videos, and other evidence related to a hospital experiencing difficulty triaging patients entering an emergency room. In particular, in the emergency room, amidst the chaos and people vying for attention, the hospital nurses struggle to quickly diagnose and prioritize patients to determine which patient should be seen first. Due to this difficulty, the nurses triage on a first come, first serve basis unless a patient arrives on a gurney. The player enters the game and comes to understand this issue through immersion in the narrative story and evidence. The player develops a solution that draws upon the player's background in film directing.

The solution devised by the player is based upon a diagram of the emergency room included as evidence in the game. The player would partition the emergency room into areas like a stage. Each area can be assigned a triage title based on information, e.g., evidence, provided in the game. According to the solution, a patient is to be quickly moved into one of the areas and subsequently diagnosed. The player provides these solution concepts through the game, e.g., via a questionnaire, discussion thread, etc., and waits for feedback. For providing the solution, the player receives 20 points. Several days later, the player returns to the game to observe that the player's score has increased to 100 points. The player reviews the solution to discover that 10 other players referenced the solution concepts, added additional details, provided additional thoughts, etc. regarding ways to enhance the player's suggestion. The additional points that the player gains are aggregated by the other players or cascade to the player based upon the actions of the other players.

With respect to one or more non-limiting aspects of the advisory services network game with a cascading points system as described above, FIG. 7 shows a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for aggregating points for a player based upon actions that influence actions of other players. Starting at 700, a notification of an action taken by a first player within the game is received. As described above, a game developed on the advisory services network can support a variety of player actions. Some exemplary, non-limiting actions available to players include, without limitation, reviewing evidence, adding evidence to a dossier, extracting a portion of evidence, starting a discussion thread, commenting on a discussion thread, creating a solution, submitting a solution, etc.

At 710, a type of the action taken by the first player is identified. For instance, by identifying a type of the action, an action of adding evidence to a dossier can be distinguished from an action of submitting a solution, for example. At 720, a number of points to be awarded for the action type identified is determined. According to an example, different types of actions are granted varying point values. Thus, actions which more heavily achieve the objectives of the games can be awarded a greater number of points. At 730, the first player is awarded the number of points determined at 720. At 740, a notification is received of an action taken by a second player which is influenced at least in part on the action taken by the first player. At 750, an amount of points are awarded to the second player, wherein the number of points are in line with the action taken by the second player. At 760, the first player is awarded a percentage of the amount of points awarded to the second player for the action taken by the second player.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting act of points aggregating or cascading to a player from actions taken by other players in accordance with one or more embodiments. As mentioned herein, a player action within the game creates a game object (e.g., an artifact or an interaction). Game objects created from player actions can be linked to build a network or chain of objects via which points can cascade or aggregate. As shown in FIG. 8, a player 800 can undertake an action which creates initial object 802. Initial object 802 can be a dossier, a discussion thread, an extracted portion of a media file, a portion of evidence, external evidence, etc. Initial object 802, in an aspect, is public and can be consumed by other players. For instance, player 810 can review the action by player 800 in the form of initial object 802 and be motivated to act to create object 812. Object 812, being based on an interaction with initial object 802, is linked to initial object 802.

As further depicted in FIG. 8, player 820 can incorporate or reference object 812 from player 810 when performing an action that generated object 822. Similar to initial object 802 and object 812, object 822 can be linked to object 812 to indicate that object 812 influenced player 820 to act. In accordance with an embodiment of the cascading points system, player 820 receives points for the creation of object 822 or, more particularly or alternatively, for the action that results in object 822. Due to the aggregating or cascading nature of the points system, players are additionally rewarded when actions influence further actions by other players. Accordingly, player 810 receives points not only for the action that creates object 812, but also for the action, by player 820, that creates object 822. Points can continue back reference down the chain of objects such that player 800, as the progenitor, can receive points for creation of initial object 802, object 812, and object 822.

Turning now to FIG. 9, illustrated is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for cascading points rewarded for acceptance of a solution to a plurality of players whom contributed to the solution. At 900, a notification of customer acceptance of a solution developed within a game of the advisory service network. The customer, in an example, can be an organization (e.g., a business, an enterprise, a non-profit, etc.) with a complex issue for which the game of the advisory service network engages players to solve. At 910, a set of linked actions which lead to the solution accepted by the customer is recursively analyzed to generate a graph of linked actions spanning from final solution to initial actions. The set of linked actions, according to an example, can be generated as described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

At 920, points can be awarded to players associated with respective actions based at least in part upon respective contributions of the actions to the solutions. A variety of distribution schemes can be utilized when cascading points from an accepted solution. For example, players associated with objects (e.g., artifacts, actions, interactions, etc.), which the solution references, can receive a fixed and predetermined amount of points for being referenced by the solution. The predetermined amount of points for a given object can be based upon a distance on the graph of linked objects. For instance, a first player associated with a first object referenced by the solution receives a larger predetermined amount of points than a second player associated with a second object referenced by the first object. In other words, object closer to the solution receive higher rewards. It is to be appreciated that a percentage of points rather than fixed amounts can be cascaded. For example, an object reference by the solution can receive 40% of the points given to the player associated with the solution.

The mapping of distance (or depth) of a reference object from the solution to an amount or percentage of points can follow either a linear or non-linear progression. In one example, for a linear progression, an amount or percentage of points decreases by a discrete amount for each increase in depth. For a non-linear progression, the amount or percentage of points can decrease exponentially, logarithmically, parabolically, etc., as depth increases.

FIG. 10 shows a block diagram illustrating an exemplary set or graph of linked actions according to one or more embodiments. FIG. 10 depicts a possible graph structure that can be generated through recursive analysis of a set of linked actions as described above with reference to FIG. 9. FIG. 10 illustrates a plurality of artifacts and interactions between artifacts created as products of player actions in the game.

As shown in the example depicted in FIG. 10, a graph of linked actions can be initiated with a video 1000 or other media or evidence. A player can extract a portion of video 1000 to create video clip 1002 (an artifact). Video clip 1002 can be reference, for instance, in a solution concept 1004 developed by another player and/or a comment 1006 of a discussion thread. Comment 1006, in turn, can be referenced by a plurality of other objects, such as a second level comment 1008, a video 1010, a link 1012 to a web page, and a second level comment 1014. Such objects are results of actions by players taken in response to or in continuance of comment 1006.

In addition to objects being referenced by multiple objects, an object can also reference multiple objects. As shown in FIG. 10, second level comment 1014 is based upon (e.g., references, builds on, etc.) solution concept 1004 and comment 1006. An implemented solution 1018 can terminate the graph of linked actions.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting system to aggregate and cascade points in a network gaming environment. As shown in FIG. 11, a game engine 1100 of a network game is provided that is configured to maintain a user interface of the game, handle player input, progress game play, and performs a variety of other functions. According to an embodiment, the game engine 1100 is further configured to implement cascading points as described herein. Game engine 1100, as shown in FIG. 11, can include an action processing module 1102 configured to receive player input in the form of player actions. Action processing module 1102 can analyze the incoming action from player A determine a type of the action, identify content of the action, identify Player A as the originator of the action, etc. Such action information can enable game engine 1100 to manage the action and allocate points to player A and other players consistent with one or more embodiments of the cascading points system as described herein.

For instance, an action by player A can be registered by action processing module 1102, which can instruct an object generation module 1104 to create an in-game object that represents the action by player A. The in-game object can be stored, for example, as object 1112 in an object store 1110. The in-game object or artifact can be a data structure created and managed with the game controlled by game engine 1100. The in-game object can include a variety of information related the action taken by player A. In an example, the in-game object can include an identifier that identifies the object within the game, a type identifier that indicates a type of action associated with the object, content information associated with the object (e.g., comment text when the action involves commenting on a discussion thread), or any other information that game engine 1100 manages in connection with player actions. In another example, the in-game object can be simply a marker to memorialize an action by a player, without further details. In this example, in-game objects operate to map player actions and relationships therebetween such that the map can be traced while awarding points according to aspects described herein.

In a specific, non-limiting example, object generation module 1104 can create object 1112 to correspond to the action taken by player A. Object 1112, once created, can be retained in object store 1110 along with a plurality of other objects. Game engine 1100 further includes a point allocation module 1106 that rewards players for actions. Action processing module 1102 can inform point allocation module 1106 of the action taken by player A. Point allocation module 1106 can access a leaderboard 1120 that maintains scores for each player, including entry 1122 that stores a score for player A and an entry 1124 that retains a score for player B. Point allocation module 1106, based upon the action taken by player A, can increase the score of player A. The amount of score increase can be determined in part upon the type of action taken by player A as determined by the action processing module 1102. The mapping of type of action and amount of points rewarded can be configurable and provided to game engine 1100 as points configuration 1130.

Further to this example, action processing module 1102 can receive an action taken by player B. Similar to the processing, by game engine 1100, of the actions by player A, action processing module 1102 can analyze the action taken by player B to enable the object generation module 1104 to create corresponding object 1114. Further, evaluation of the action by the action processing module 1102 enables point allocation module 1106 to update entry 1124 of leaderboard 1120, retaining a score of player B, to reward player B for the action. In addition, the action taken by player B can be based upon the action taken by player A. Accordingly, point allocation module 1106 also updates entry 1122 to reward player A for the action of player B.

The action of player B, according to the non-limiting example of FIG. 11, can be based upon, in response to, or reference the action taken by player A. Game engine 1100 includes an object association module 1108 to reflect the relationship between the actions. In particular, the object association module 1108 links object 1114 to object 1112 within object store 1110 as shown in FIG. 10. As further shown in object store 1110, an object 1116, which corresponds to a solution created by a player (not shown), can be created by object generation module 1104. In an example, the solution can reference actions or build upon ideas of players A and B. Accordingly, object association module 1108 can link object 1116, e.g., the solution, with object 1112 from player A and object 1114 from player B.

A game sponsor (not shown) can accept the solution embodied in object 1116. Such acceptance, as described above, can trigger a cascade of point rewards starting from the player who created the solution down to players, actions, artifacts, etc., referenced by the player in developing the solution. The points can further cascade from the players referenced by the player developing the solution to even more players who have been referenced by the players referenced by the player developing the solution. Game engine 1100 includes a cascade module 1132 configured to update scores stored in leaderboard 1120 in accordance with the cascade. Cascade module 1132 can traverse the graph of links created between objects by the object association module 1108. For instance, cascade module 1132 can start at object 1116, the solution, and award points to the corresponding player. Cascade module 1132 can additionally follow the links from object 1116 to object 1112 and object 1114 to reward points to players A and B, respectively. Further, cascade module 1132 can follow the link from object 1114 to object 1112 and, accordingly, reward more points to player A.

FIG. 12 is an exemplary, non-limiting illustration of aggregating points in accordance with one or more embodiments. In particular, FIG. 12 depicts a growth of points for a player, e.g., Player A, as a game of the advisory services network progresses. Moreover, each step in the growth of points of Player A is described in from the perspective of the player and from the perspective of the game engine (e.g., game engine 1100 described above).

At the start of the point aggregation process, Player A creates a solution concept. Within the game engine, Object A is created and Player A is awarded points. After creation of the solution concept, Player A has 10 points according to the example depicted by FIG. 12. Subsequently, Player B references A's solution and adds insight. In the game engine, Player B's action creates Object B linked to Object A and Players A and B both receive points. After Player B's action, Player A's score stands at 20 points. Player C, from the players' perspective, references Player B's solution in a thread, which creates Object C, in the game engine, and awards Players A, B, and C points. After the reference in the thread, Player A now has 30 points.

After reviewing the solution concepts, discussions, and insights of other players, Player D builds a prototype bases thereupon. Building the prototype creates Object D in the game engine and all players receive points. At this stage, Player A has 40 points. In a final step shown in FIG. 12, a customer wants the prototype implemented. All players receive points as a reward for building an acceptable solution to the customer. In the example of FIG. 12, Player A, for providing a single solution concept, gains more and more points for actions of other players that build upon that solution concept.

In a further embodiment, the pyramid, illustrated in FIG. 12, that shows the growth or aggregation of Player's A score, can additionally model a cascade of points upon acceptance of a solution by a customer. For instance, an inverse of the pyramid can indicate an amount of points received to each step of a chain of linked objects that lead from initial solution concept to accepted solution. In an example, Player D for building the prototype can receive the most points, while Player A providing the initial solution concept receives the least amount of points.

Turning now to FIG. 13, illustrated is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for performing game actions for which points are rewarded. In an example, FIG. 13 can be carried out on a client apparatus accessing a network game hosted by the advisory services network described herein. At 1300, new action information is generated which specifies an action of a player of the network game. At 1310, the new action information is transmitted to execute the action specified. In an example, execution of the action generates a new artifact in the network game. At 1320, a notification is received on a number of points awarded for the action. At 1330, a subsequent notification is received that indicates a number of points awarded for actions influenced by the new artifact generated as a result of execution of the action of the player.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for performing a game action which is influenced by or in response to a game action taken by another player. Similar to the method described with respect to FIG. 13, the embodiment depicted in FIG. 14 can be implemented by a client apparatus of the network game of the advisory services network. At 1400, an artifact (or game object), associated with a previous action taken by a player of the network game is obtained. At 1410, new action information is generated based at least in part upon the obtained artifact. At 1420, the new action information is transmitted to execute an action specified therein and to generate a new artifact, which can also be referred to as an interaction with respect to the artifact obtained at 1400. At 1430, a notification is received of a number of points awarded for the action specified in the action information. At 1440, a subsequent notification is received that indicates a number of points awarded for actions influenced by the new artifact generated as a result of execution of the action of the player.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting act of initiating actions in a network game environment. As shown in FIG. 15, a game client 1500 configured to obtain user input, display output (e.g., a user interface), and interact with a game engine 1510 which, in an example, can be similar to game engine 1100 from FIG. 11. The game client 1500 can include a display interface module 1502 configured to generate a user interface to a player and obtain user input from the player. In an example, via the user interface maintained by display interface module 1502, navigation input 1520 can be received from the player. The navigation input 1520 can encompass a desire of the player to view an object within the network game environment such as, but not limited to, a discussion thread, a comment on a discussion thread, a solution concept created by a player, a narrative scene, an item of evidence, a portion of evidence extracted by a player, or any other feature or object described herein as part of the advisory services network game. In response to the navigation input 1520, captured by the display interface module 1502, a game engine interface module 1506 of the game client 1500 can transmit an object request 1530 to the game engine 1510. In response to object request 1530, game engine 1510 can return object 1522 as requested.

The player, upon reviewing object 1522 via the user interface provided by the display interface module 1502, can initiate an action which can be expressed by action input 1524 obtained by the game client 1500. An action generation module 1504 of game client 1500 can generate action information 1532 which specifies a type of action, action content, etc. based upon action input 1524 provided by the player. In a specific, non-limiting example, when action input 1524 is influenced by a player generated content from the game (e.g., object 1522 is a player generated object), the action information 1532 includes a reference to object 1522 to enable proper accreditation in accordance with the cascading point system described herein. The game engine interface module 1506 can transmit action information 1532 to the game engine 1510, and, in response, the game engine interface module 1506 can receive a notification from the game engine 1510 that indicates rewarded points 1526 gained by the player for performing the action indicated by action input 1524 and action information 1532.

Turning now to FIG. 16, illustrated is a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for adjusting points for disingenuous player actions. At 1600, a graph of artifacts (e.g., objects created from player actions) and interactions (e.g., artifacts that reference other artifacts) is generated. At 1610, graph analysis techniques are performed to identify at least one of cycles, redundancies, outliers, or potential collusion situations. At 1620, points awarded to players are adjusted when the players are associated with artifacts or interactions (e.g., objects) included in the at least one of cycles, redundancies, outliers, or potential collusion situations, which indicate an attempt to artificially inflate point totals.

FIG. 17 illustrates exemplary, non-limiting player interactions which exhibit suspicious characteristics. At 1700, an example of a suspicious cycle is shown. In the graph of objects (e.g., graph of artifacts and interactions), a cycle is a closed loop of references as shown at 1702. While cycles can occur naturally from complex interactions among players, a cycle, such as that shown at 1702, can be considered suspicious when it is tenuously linked to or remote from a large, main portion of the graph of objects show at 1704. Such cycles can be seen as adding little to achieving the goals of the game and mere attempts to exploit the aggregation of points under the cascading points system to accumulate vast amounts of points. In response, the cascading points system, as mentioned above, can adjust the points awarded for the objects in the cycle so that minimal points or no points are earned.

At 1710, an example of a redundancy is illustrated. An artifact 1712 can be included in the graph of objects as a result of a player action. A redundancy occurs when an artifact 1714, identical to artifact 1712, is incorporated into the graph by another player action. Since redundant information typically does not facilitate finding a solution, the action creating the duplicate artifact can receive no points and/or be removed from the gaming environment altogether.

At 1720, an example of outliers is shown. One type of outlier, shown at 1722, is an interaction reference an artifact of a main portion of the object graph, but is otherwise unconnected. In other words, this type of outlier is an artifact which is created from an action of player that references an artifact of another player, but does not, in itself, seem to embody a valuable contribution within the broader goals of the game. An outlier, such as that 1722, would not be included in a cascade of points resulting from an accepted solution, as described herein, nor would the outlier receive aggregated points from downstream activity as the outlier is not linked via incoming references.

Another type of outlier can be created when an artifact, at 1724, is placed in the stream but remains unconnected. Such outliers can be seen as spam as the actions that result in outlier artifacts do not contribute to the objective of the game (e.g., finding a solution to a problem). In addition, such isolated outliers would not participate in aggregation or cascading of points. Points for outliers can be reduced to discourage meaningless contributions from polluting the object stream. In another aspect, outliers can be removed, e.g., garbage collected.

Another form of suspicious behavior is collusion, shown at 1730. Detecting collusions involves monitoring of interactions between groups of players over time. As shown in FIG. 17, a group of players, A, B, and C, are shown frequently interacting as respective artifacts and interaction in the object graph are commonly linked. In one aspect, frequent interaction among a small group of players can net less and less points to encourage players to interact with a broader spectrum of other players. However, it is to be appreciated that collusion can supported when the small group of players produce ideas frequency consider by customers. Collusion, however, can be punished by the cascading points system when the small group of players do not further the objective of the game, but rather collaborate to artificially inflate each other's scores.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting system for verifying integrity of a scoring subsystem in a network game environment. As shown in FIG. 18, an integrity check module 1800 is provided to identify, correct, and/or punish suspicious activities by players. In an example, suspicious activity can include actions by players to accumulate points without genuine intent to achieve the objectives of the game. Integrity check module 1800 can include a graph generation module 1802 configured to obtain artifacts and interactions 1812 from object database 1810 and construct a graph of objects such as the graph of objects depicted in FIG. 10. As mentioned previously, objects are created as a result of player actions. Objects which are generated by player actions in reference to another object (e.g., from a previous player action) are referred to as interactions whereas the object (from the previous player action) being referenced is referred to as an artifact. Accordingly, both artifacts and interactions are objects resulting from player actions. Moreover, it is to be appreciated that each object in object database 1810 can be considered both an artifact and an interaction depending on context. For instance, within the context of a relationship between a first object and a second object, the first object can be viewed as an artifact and the second object can be viewed as an interaction when the second object, created subsequent to the first object, references the first object. However, the second object can be viewed as an artifact in the context of a relationship between the second object and a third object when the third object includes a reference to the second object.

Integrity check module 1800, in an embodiment, includes a graph analysis module 1804 that evaluates the graph of objects created by the graph generation module 1802 to identify a suspicious or disingenuous action of a player. For example, the graph analysis module 1804 can identify redundancies, outliers, collusions, or cycles as described above. A points correction module 1806 can render score adjustments 1822 to scores in a score database 1820 based upon suspicious or disingenuous actions of players as discovered by the graph analysis module 1804.

Turning now to FIG. 19, a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for adjusting points rewarded for a player action based upon feedback on the player action from other players is illustrated. In previous embodiment described, integrity checks can be autonomously executed without player involvement. In accordance with one or more aspects of this embodiment, player feedback can be leverage to further enhance the integrity of the scoring system. At 1900, feedback is obtained form a player, wherein the feedback regards an artifact or interaction (e.g., an object). At 1910, the feedback is associated with the artifact or interaction. At 1920, points awarded to a player, associated with the artifact or interaction, are adjusted based at least in part on the feedback obtained.

FIG. 20 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment for implementing labels to incorporate an additional dimension to a cascading points system. At 2000, a type of feedback associated with a game object (e.g., an artifact or interaction) is identified as being one of positive, negative, or neutral. According to a non-limiting example, feedback can incorporate a voting mechanism whereby an object created from an action of a player can be voted up or down by other players. For instance, an idea of a player expressed in a discussion thread can be voted up or down. Down voting, in an aspect, can be a player-controlled mechanism to reduce idea spamming by players. In another example, the voting mechanism can include a rating system where an object can be rated by players on a predetermined scale that ranges from a poor rating to an excellent rating. In the above examples, a down vote or low rating can be considered negative feedback while an up vote or a high rating can be considered positive feedback. A middle rating can be neutral.

At 2010, a label or tag included in the feedback information, which can be optionally applied to the game object, is identified. The tag or label can provide an additional dimension to the point system and/or the feedback information. Some examples of possible tags include, without limitation, “informative”, “spam”, “incomplete”, “duplicate”, “off-topic”, “helpful”, “revealing”, etc. Such labels provide additional mechanism to identify and reward sufficiently compelling ideas.

At 2020, points awarded to a player associated with the game object can be adjusted based upon the type of feedback information and the optional label. For example, negative feedback can trigger a negative adjustment, positive feedback can trigger a positive adjustment, and neutral feedback can result in no adjustment. Further, bonus points or additional punishment can result in response to optional labels. For example, object labeled as “informative”, “helpful”, etc., can receive bonus points while an object labeled as spam or a duplicate can trigger a deduction of points and/or removal of the object.

At 2030, a point adjustment on an object made on the basis of feedback information can optionally cascade to other objects. According to an aspect, the cascade proceeds in an appropriate direction according to the feedback to either reward other players for influencing a player to produce a positively regarded object or to punish players for attempting to benefit from a negatively regarded object. Specifically, objects referenced by a positively regarded object (as well as more objects referenced by the referenced objects, etc.) can receive bonus points whereas objects referencing a negatively regarded object can have points deducted.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting act of incorporating feedback information into point reward decisions. As shown in FIG. 21, a player 2100 can provide feedback information 2104 regarding an object 2102 (e.g., an artifact or interaction) created from a previous action by another player. Further, feedback information, in an aspect, is not limited to player-crated objects. For example, player 2100 can provide feedback information 2108 relative to another player 2106. As shown in FIG. 21, a feedback module 2110 is illustrated. Feedback module 2110 is configured to associate feedback information with the corresponding object. For instance, feedback module 2110 can link feedback information 2104 to object 2102. Feedback module 2110 can interface with object database 2120 which retains game objects such as player-created objects, game information objects, profile objects, etc. As shown in FIG. 21, feedback module 2110 can generate feedback objects 2122 and 2126 based upon feedback information 2104 and 2108. In addition, feedback module 2110 can link the feedback objects 2122 and 2126 with corresponding objects to which the feedback information pertains. For instance, feedback object 2122, generated from feedback information 2104, can be linked to object 2102. Feedback object 2126 can be linked to profile object 2124, which corresponds to player 2106. In a further aspect, feedback module 2110 can access a score database 2130 to adjust scores of player 2106 or a player associated with object 2102 based at least in part upon feedback information 2108 and feedback information 2104, respectively.

FIG. 22 is an exemplary, non-limiting illustration of a user interface of a network game within a gaming environment according to one or more embodiments. This illustration is provided to highlight and describe embodiments and features of the cascading points system and not intended to limit the appended claims to the depictions described here. It is to be appreciated that alternative user interfaces can be devised to accomplish the functionality described herein and that such alternative interfaces are intended to be within the scope of the appended claims.

FIG. 22, in particular, shows a simplified user interface placed with a context of an exemplary user interface for the advisory services network game as described previously with reference to FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 22, a display or panel 2200 of a related evidence tab can slide over the interface for the game when activated. Panel 2200 can include a title 2202 of an item of evidence displayed as well as a control 2204 to add the item of evidence to a dossier. An evidence display portion 2206 can display the item of evidence, which is a video in the example user interface of FIG. 22. A timeline 2208 associated with the video can be utilized to select a portion of the video (e.g., from time 00:37 to time 01:29). The selected portion can be tag or included in a discussion via a discussion timeline 2210 which includes a tag 2212 indicating the portion of video extracted for discussion. The tag 2212 can include a thumbnail image or avatar associated with the player extracting the portion and/or starting the discussion. When tagging a portion of evidence (video) for discussion, a pop-up 2214 that includes controls to enter a discussion title and a discussion comment, add an image, add a hyperlink, add a tag to the discussion, and/or create the discussion thread. A discussion portion 2216 of panel 2200 can list discussion threads associated with the evidence displayed in panel 2200. A control is provided to arrange available discussion by time, title, user, number of responses, rating, etc. FIG. 22 shows a discussion thread 2218 in the list of threads. As shown, discussion thread 2218 can specify a title, a rating (e.g., 100% votes are positive), a timestamp of the video portion, and various controls to up vote, down vote, reply, etc.

FIG. 23 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary, non-limiting advisory services network in accordance with one or more embodiments. As shown in FIG. 23, a gaming platform 2300 can implement functionality of an advisory service network described herein. Gaming platform 2300 can host, e.g., execute, a serious game 2310 based upon a complex problem faced by a sponsor, e.g., an enterprise entity or other organization.

The serious game 2310 can include a game engine 2312 configured to manage execution of the serious game. The serious game 2310 further includes a plurality of data stores such as a game information store 2314, an object store 2316, and a score data store 2318. The game information store 2314 can store data game-related information such as scene information on a plurality of scenes of serious game 2310 and associated narrative information. The object store 2316 retains a collection of artifacts created to represent actions taken by players of serious game 2310. Finally, the score data score 2318 can retain respective scores of the players of serious game 2310. Game engine 2312 can include a cascading points subsystem 2320 configured to award a player points for actions directly taken as well as for actions taken by disparate players based upon the action taken directly by the player and to reward points to players of the game who contributed to a final solution accepted by the sponsor of serious game 2310.

Exemplary Networked and Distributed Environments

One of ordinary skill in the art can appreciate that the various embodiments of cascading points systems and methods described herein can be implemented in connection with any computer or other client or server device, which can be deployed as part of a computer network or in a distributed computing environment, and can be connected to any kind of data store. In this regard, the various embodiments described herein can be implemented in any computer system or environment having any number of memory or storage units, and any number of applications and processes occurring across any number of storage units. This includes, but is not limited to, an environment with server computers and client computers deployed in a network environment or a distributed computing environment, having remote or local storage.

Distributed computing provides sharing of computer resources and services by communicative exchange among computing devices and systems. These resources and services include the exchange of information, cache storage and disk storage for objects, such as files. These resources and services also include the sharing of processing power across multiple processing units for load balancing, expansion of resources, specialization of processing, and the like. Distributed computing takes advantage of network connectivity, allowing clients to leverage their collective power to benefit the entire enterprise. In this regard, a variety of devices may have applications, objects or resources that may participate in the cascading points mechanisms as described for various embodiments of the subject disclosure.

FIG. 24 provides a schematic diagram of an exemplary networked or distributed computing environment. The distributed computing environment comprises computing objects 2410, 2412, etc. and computing objects or devices 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc., which may include programs, methods, data stores, programmable logic, etc., as represented by applications 2430, 2432, 2434, 2436, 2438. It can be appreciated that computing objects 2410, 2412, etc. and computing objects or devices 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc. may comprise different devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), audio/video devices, mobile phones, MP3 players, personal computers, laptops, etc.

Each computing object 2410, 2412, etc. and computing objects or devices 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc. can communicate with one or more other computing objects 2410, 2412, etc. and computing objects or devices 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc. by way of the communications network 2440, either directly or indirectly. Even though illustrated as a single element in FIG. 24, communications network 2440 may comprise other computing objects and computing devices that provide services to the system of FIG. 24, and/or may represent multiple interconnected networks, which are not shown. Each computing object 2410, 2412, etc. or computing object or device 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc. can also contain an application, such as applications 2430, 2432, 2434, 2436, 2438, that might make use of an API, or other object, software, firmware and/or hardware, suitable for communication with or implementation of the cascading points systems provided in accordance with various embodiments of the subject disclosure.

There are a variety of systems, components, and network configurations that support distributed computing environments. For example, computing systems can be connected together by wired or wireless systems, by local networks or widely distributed networks. Currently, many networks are coupled to the Internet, which provides an infrastructure for widely distributed computing and encompasses many different networks, though any network infrastructure can be used for exemplary communications made incident to the systems as described in various embodiments.

Thus, a host of network topologies and network infrastructures, such as client/server, peer-to-peer, or hybrid architectures, can be utilized. The “client” is a member of a class or group that uses the services of another class or group to which it is not related. A client can be a process, i.e., roughly a set of instructions or tasks, that requests a service provided by another program or process. The client process utilizes the requested service without having to “know” any working details about the other program or the service itself.

In a client/server architecture, particularly a networked system, a client is usually a computer that accesses shared network resources provided by another computer, e.g., a server. In the illustration of FIG. 24, as a non-limiting example, computing objects or devices 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc. can be thought of as clients and computing objects 2410, 2412, etc. can be thought of as servers where computing objects 2410, 2412, etc., acting as servers provide data services, such as receiving data from client computing objects or devices 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc., storing of data, processing of data, transmitting data to client computing objects or devices 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc., although any computer can be considered a client, a server, or both, depending on the circumstances.

A server is typically a remote computer system accessible over a remote or local network, such as the Internet or wireless network infrastructures. The client process may be active in a first computer system, and the server process may be active in a second computer system, communicating with one another over a communications medium, thus providing distributed functionality and allowing multiple clients to take advantage of the information-gathering capabilities of the server.

In a network environment in which the communications network 2440 or bus is the Internet, for example, the computing objects 2410, 2412, etc. can be Web servers with which other computing objects or devices 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc. communicate via any of a number of known protocols, such as the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Computing objects 2410, 2412, etc. acting as servers may also serve as clients, e.g., computing objects or devices 2420, 2422, 2424, 2426, 2428, etc., as may be characteristic of a distributed computing environment.

Exemplary Computing Device

As mentioned, advantageously, the techniques described herein can be applied to any device where it is desirable to cascade incentives in a points system of a computing environment. It can be understood, therefore, that handheld, portable and other computing devices and computing objects of all kinds are contemplated for use in connection with the various embodiments, i.e., anywhere where players of a game can contribute. Accordingly, the below general purpose remote computer described below in FIG. 25 is but one example of a computing device.

Embodiments can partly be implemented via an operating system, for use by a developer of services for a device or object, and/or included within application software that operates to perform one or more functional aspects of the various embodiments described herein. Software may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by one or more computers, such as client workstations, servers or other devices. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that computer systems have a variety of configurations and protocols that can be used to communicate data, and thus, no particular configuration or protocol is considered limiting.

FIG. 25 thus illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environment 2500 in which one or aspects of the embodiments described herein can be implemented, although as made clear above, the computing system environment 2500 is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to scope of use or functionality. In addition, the computing system environment 2500 is not intended to be interpreted as having any dependency relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary computing system environment 2500.

With reference to FIG. 25, an exemplary remote device for implementing one or more embodiments includes a general purpose computing device in the form of a computer 2510. Components of computer 2510 may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit 2520, a system memory 2530, and a system bus 2522 that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit 2520.

Computer 2510 typically includes a variety of computer readable media and can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 2510. The system memory 2530 may include computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM). By way of example, and not limitation, system memory 2530 may also include an operating system, application programs, other program modules, and program data. According to a further example, computer 2510 can also include a variety of other media (not shown), which can include, without limitation, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, compact disk (CD)-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible and/or non-transitory media which can be used to store desired information.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 2510 through input devices 2540. A monitor or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 2522 via an interface, such as output interface 2550. In addition to a monitor, computers can also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers and a printer, which may be connected through output interface 2550.

The computer 2510 may operate in a networked or distributed environment using logical connections to one or more other remote computers, such as remote computer 2570. The remote computer 2570 may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, or any other remote media consumption or transmission device, and may include any or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 2510. The logical connections depicted in FIG. 25 include a network 2572, such as a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), but may also include other networks/buses. Such networking environments are commonplace in homes, offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet.

As mentioned above, while exemplary embodiments have been described in connection with various computing devices and network architectures, the underlying concepts may be applied to any network system and any computing device or system in which it is desirable to provide incentives for gaming input.

Also, there are multiple ways to implement the same or similar functionality, e.g., an appropriate API, tool kit, driver code, operating system, control, standalone or downloadable software object, etc. which enables applications and services to take advantage of the techniques provided herein. Thus, embodiments herein are contemplated from the standpoint of an API (or other software object), as well as from a software or hardware object that implements one or more embodiments as described herein. Thus, various embodiments described herein can have aspects that are wholly in hardware, partly in hardware and partly in software, as well as in software.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. For the avoidance of doubt, the subject matter disclosed herein is not limited by such examples. In addition, any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs, nor is it meant to preclude equivalent exemplary structures and techniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “includes,” “has,” “contains,” and other similar words are used, for the avoidance of doubt, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as an open transition word without precluding any additional or other elements when employed in a claim.

As mentioned, the various techniques described herein may be implemented in connection with hardware or software or, where appropriate, with a combination of both. As used herein, the terms “component,” “module,” “system” and the like are likewise intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on computer and the computer can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.

The aforementioned systems have been described with respect to interaction between several components. It can be appreciated that such systems and components can include those components or specified sub-components, some of the specified components or sub-components, and/or additional components, and according to various permutations and combinations of the foregoing. Sub-components can also be implemented as components communicatively coupled to other components rather than included within parent components (hierarchical). Additionally, it can be noted that one or more components may be combined into a single component providing aggregate functionality or divided into several separate sub-components, and that any one or more middle layers, such as a management layer, may be provided to communicatively couple to such sub-components in order to provide integrated functionality. Any components described herein may also interact with one or more other components not specifically described herein but generally known by those of skill in the art.

In view of the exemplary systems described supra, methodologies that may be implemented in accordance with the described subject matter can also be appreciated with reference to the flowcharts of the various figures. While for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the methodologies are shown and described as a series of blocks, it is to be understood and appreciated that the various embodiments are not limited by the order of the blocks, as some blocks may occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other blocks from what is depicted and described herein. Where non-sequential, or branched, flow is illustrated via flowchart, it can be appreciated that various other branches, flow paths, and orders of the blocks, may be implemented which achieve the same or a similar result. Moreover, some illustrated blocks are optional in implementing the methodologies described hereinafter.

In addition to the various embodiments described herein, it is to be understood that other similar embodiments can be used or modifications and additions can be made to the described embodiment(s) for performing the same or equivalent function of the corresponding embodiment(s) without deviating therefrom. Still further, multiple processing chips or multiple devices can share the performance of one or more functions described herein, and similarly, storage can be effected across a plurality of devices. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited to any single embodiment, but rather is to be construed in breadth, spirit and scope in accordance with the appended claims.

CASCADING POINTS SYSTEM

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