Patent Application
20230372816
The present disclosure relates to techniques for giving virtual awards to users.
For a purpose of motivating a user to play a game, a virtual award (award goods) is given to the user when the user completes a mission that is set in the game. PTL 1 discloses a game system that, when game software determines that a mission has been cleared, notifies a trophy management utility about a trophy ID (Identification) corresponding to the mission. The virtual award is called a “trophy” in PTL 1. Bronze, silver, and gold trophies are prepared according to difficulty of the mission, and when the user clears all the missions and obtains all the prepared trophies, a platinum trophy is given to the user.
JP 2016-97089A
Acquired trophies serve as an indicator of how well the game has been played, and users desire to acquire trophies efficiently. Therefore, it is desirable to realize a system that supports the acquisition of trophies, by providing the user with information regarding trophies that can be obtained in the future.
Accordingly, an object of the present disclosure is to implement a mechanism that supports the user in obtaining a virtual award.
In order to solve the above problem, one aspect of the present disclosure is an information processing device that displays information regarding a virtual award to be given to a user who is playing a game when an unlock condition is satisfied, and the device includes an acquiring section that acquires information regarding a virtual award which the user has a possibility of obtaining next, and a display processing section that displays the information acquired by the acquiring section.
Another aspect of the present disclosure is, in an information processing device, a method of displaying information regarding a virtual award to be given to a user who is playing a game when an unlock condition is satisfied, and the method includes a step of acquiring information regarding the virtual award which the user has a possibility of obtaining next and a step of displaying the acquired information.
Yet another aspect of the present disclosure is a server device connected to a plurality of information processing devices operated by a plurality of users, and the server device includes an acquisition information recording section that records acquisition information related to virtual awards acquired by the plurality of users, a relation extracting section for extracting a relation regarding the order of obtaining the plurality of virtual awards on the basis of the order in which a plurality of users have obtained virtual awards, and a relation recording section for recording the extracted relation.
Yet another aspect of the present disclosure is also a server device, and the server device includes an acquisition status acquiring section that acquires the acquisition status of a virtual award acquired by a user, an identifying section for referring to the relation related to the order of acquisition of virtual awards recorded in the relation recording section and identifying a virtual award which the user has a possibility of obtaining next, and a notifying section for notifying the information processing device operated by the user about information regarding the identified virtual award.
It should be noted that any combination of the above-described components and expressions of the present disclosure converted between methods, devices, systems, recording media, computer programs, etc. are also effective as aspects of the present disclosure.
The outline of the present disclosure will be described. In the information processing system of the embodiment, a user plays game software installed in the information processing device. When an event occurs in the game, the game software outputs an event code identifying the event to the system software. An event occurs when there is a change in progress of the game play, when there is a change in an action of a game character, or the like.
Various missions are set in the game, and when the mission is cleared, the user is given a virtual award (trophy) corresponding to the mission. Since a mission clearing condition is a play condition for making the trophy available to the user, the condition is hereinafter also referred to as an “unlock condition” of a trophy. In an embodiment, game software outputs an event code, and system software determines whether the trophy unlock condition is satisfied. The system software sends acquisition information regarding unlocked trophies to an external server device.
The server device collects trophy acquisition information transmitted from a plurality of information processing devices operated by a plurality of users and analyzes play trends regarding user's trophy acquisition. In particular, the server device of the embodiment extracts the relation regarding the trophy acquisition order on the basis of the trophy acquisition information transmitted from a plurality of information processing devices. The server device provides the user with information regarding trophies which the user has a possibility of obtaining next, based on the extracted relation.
The information processing device 10 is wirelessly or by wire connected to an input device 6 operated by a user, and the input device 6 outputs information regarding operation by the user to the information processing device 10. When receiving operation information from the input device 6, the information processing device 10 reflects the operation information in the processing of the system software and the game software, and causes an output device 4 to output the processing result. In the information processing system 1, the information processing device 10 may be a game device (game console) that executes a game, and the input device 6 may be a device such as a game controller that supplies user operation information to the information processing device 10. Incidentally, the input device 6 may be an input interface such as a keyboard or mouse.
An auxiliary storage device 2 is a large-capacity recording device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or an SSD (Solid State Drive), and may be a built-in recording device and may be an external recording device connected to the information processing device 10 via a USB (Universal Serial Bus) or the like. The output device 4 may be a television having a display for outputting images and a speaker for outputting sounds. The output device 4 may be connected to the information processing device 10 with a wired cable or may be wirelessly connected.
A camera 7, which is an imaging device, is provided near the output device 4 and captures an image of the space around the output device 4. Although
The server device 5 provides network services to users of the information processing system 1. The server device 5 manages network accounts that identify respective users, and each user uses the network account to sign in to network services provided by the server device 5. By signing in to the network service from the information processing device 10, the user can register saved game data and trophies that are virtual awards obtained during game plays, in the server device 5. By registering the saved data and the trophies in the server device 5, even if the user uses an information processing device other than the information processing device 10, the saved data and the trophies can be synchronized.
The server device 5 of the embodiment collects acquisition information of trophies acquired by a plurality of users from a plurality of information processing devices 10. The server device 5 analyzes play trends related to trophy acquisition from the collected trophy acquisition information. The server device 5 can use the analysis results related to the trophy acquisition to identify the trophies that the user is likely to acquire next, based on the user's trophy acquisition record up to the present. The server device 5 notifies the user about the trophies that are likely to be obtained next, so that the user can play the game with an awareness of obtaining the trophy.
The main system 60 includes a main CPU (Central Processing Unit), a memory that is a main storage device, a memory controller, a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), and the like. The GPU is mainly used for arithmetic processing of game programs. The main CPU has the function of activating the system software and executing the game program installed in the auxiliary storage device 2 under the environment provided by the system software. The subsystem 50 includes a sub-CPU, a memory that is a main storage device, a memory controller, and the like, and does not include a GPU.
The main CPU has the function of executing a game program installed in the auxiliary storage device 2, whereas the sub-CPU does not have such a function. However, the sub-CPU has a function of accessing the auxiliary storage device 2 and a function of transmitting/receiving data to/from the management server 5. The sub-CPU is configured to have only such limited processing functions, and therefore can operate with lower power consumption than the main CPU. These sub-CPU functions are executed when the main CPU is in the standby state.
The main power button 20 is an input unit for inputting an operation from the user, and is provided on the front surface of the housing of the information processing device 10, to be operated to turn on or off the power supply to the main system 60 of the information processing device 10. The power-ON LED 21 lights up when the main power button 20 is turned on, and the standby LED 22 lights up when the main power button 20 is turned off. The system controller 24 detects pressing of the main power button 20 by the user.
The clock 26 is a real-time clock that generates information regarding current date and time and supplies the information to the system controller 24, the subsystem 50, and the main system 60.
The device controller 30 is configured as an LSI (Large-Scale Integrated Circuit) that exchanges information between devices like a south bridge. As illustrated, devices such as the system controller 24, the media drive 32, the USB module 34, the flash memory 36, the wireless communication module 38, the wired communication module 40, the subsystem 50, and the main system 60 are connected to the device controller 30. The device controller 30 absorbs differences in electrical characteristics and data transfer speeds of the respective devices, and controls the timing of data transfer.
The media drive 32 is a drive device on which a ROM medium 44 that records application software of games or the like and license information is mounted, and which drives the ROM medium 44 to read programs, data, and the like from the ROM medium 44. The ROM medium 44 is a read-only recording medium such as an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a Blu-ray disk.
The USB module 34 is a module that connects to an external device with a USB cable. The USB module 34 may be connected to the auxiliary storage device 2 or the camera 7 with a USB cable. The flash memory 36 is an auxiliary storage device that constitutes an internal storage. The wireless communication module 38 wirelessly communicates with, for example, the input device 6 by using a communication protocol such as the Bluetooth (registered trademark) protocol or the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 protocol. The wired communication module 40 performs wired communication with external devices and connects to the network 3 via the AP 8, for example.
Respective elements described as functional blocks that perform various processes of the information processing device 10 in
The game software 110 includes at least a game program, image data, sound data, and a configuration file. The game program receives operation information of the input device 6 operated by the user and performs arithmetic processing to move the game character in the virtual space. The game image generating section 130 includes a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) that executes rendering processing and the like, and generates game image data. Note that the processing unit 100 includes a sound data generating section that generates game sound data, but the section is omitted in
When an event occurs during the progress of the game, the game program outputs an event code indicating the event that has occurred. The event code acquiring section 120 acquires the event code from the game software 110 and provides the code to the event information generating section 122 and the trophy processing section 124. The event information generating section 122 generates event information in which time information (time stamp) indicating the time of the event occurrence is added to the event code, and provides the event information to the transmission processing section 126. The transmission processing section 126 transmits the generated event information to the server device 5.
A game developer may program various events into the game. An event code is assigned to each event, and the game program may add game data indicating the state of the game at the time of the event occurrence to the event code indicating the event that has occurred, and output the event code. Here, the game data includes the place where the event has occurred, peripheral information regarding opponents, objects, and the like. For example, when a battle with an enemy boss starts, the game program may output an event code indicating the start of the battle, with game data indicating the location of the battle and the character ID of the enemy boss attached to the code.
Various missions are set in the game for the purpose of motivating the user to play the game, and when the user clears the mission, the user is given a virtual award (trophy) corresponding to the mission. In the game, a plurality of types of trophies are prepared according to the difficulty of the mission, and bronze, silver, gold, and platinum trophies are prepared in ascending order of difficulty.
The configuration file included in the game software 110 describes a correspondence relation between event codes output from the game and conditions for unlocking trophies. For example, the configuration file states that the “defeat the little boss” event is a condition for unlocking the bronze trophy. Similarly, the configuration file states that the “defeat the middle boss” event is a condition for unlocking the silver trophy, and that the “defeat the final boss” event is a condition for unlocking the gold trophy.
When the event code is provided from the event code acquiring section 120, the trophy processing section 124 refers to the configuration file and performs a fulfillment determination process of a trophy unlock condition. When determining that the unlock condition is satisfied, the trophy processing section 124 generates acquisition information of the unlocked trophy and provides the information to the transmission processing section 126. The trophy acquisition information includes identification information for identifying the game (game ID), identification information for identifying the unlocked trophy (trophy ID), and information regarding unlocking time (time stamp).
The transmission processing section 126 transmits the generated trophy acquisition information to the server device 5. In the information processing system 1, the process of transmitting the trophy acquisition information is performed by all the information processing devices 10 connected to the server device 5, and the server device 5 collects various game trophy acquisition information from the plurality of information processing devices 10. The information processing device 10 preferably transmits trophy acquisition information to the server device 5 immediately after acquiring a trophy.
Respective elements described as functional blocks that perform various processes of the server device 5 in
The event information acquiring section 210 acquires event information from a plurality of information processing devices 10 operated by a plurality of users, and records the event information in the event information recording section 240. The event information recording section 240 records event information for each game title in association with the user's network account. The server device 5 may analyze the event information to analyze the game play trends of the users.
The acquisition information acquiring section 212 acquires trophy acquisition information from a plurality of information processing devices 10 operated by a plurality of users, and records the information in the acquisition information recording section 242. The acquisition information recording section 242 records trophy acquisition information for each game title in association with the user's network account. As described above, the trophy acquisition information includes information regarding a game ID, a trophy ID, and a time stamp. A procedure of the server device 5 for statistically processing the collected trophy acquisition information and extracting relation information relating to the trophy acquisition order will be described below.
The acquisition rate calculating section 214 calculates the acquisition rate for each trophy. The trophy acquisition rate is calculated as a value between 0% and 100%, and is obtained by the following equation.
Trophy acquisition rate=(number of trophy winners/total number of players in the game)×100
In the example illustrated in
Hereinafter, a process of extracting a relation regarding the acquisition order of trophies by the relation extracting section 220 on the basis of the order in which a plurality of players have acquired a plurality of trophies for one game title will be described.
The acquisition history generating section 222 sorts the trophy IDs acquired by the player by the trophy acquisition time (time stamp) and generates a trophy acquisition history in which the trophy IDs are arranged in order of acquisition. The acquisition history generating section 222 generates a trophy acquisition history for each player on the basis of the time stamp included in the trophy acquisition information recorded in the acquisition information recording section 242.
(a) to (c) of
In the trophy acquisition histories illustrated in (a) to (c) of
In the trophy acquisition history illustrated in (a) of
The acquisition history generating section 222 generates trophy acquisition histories of all players of the game. Incidentally, although (a) to (c) of
The first relation extracting section 224 extracts, for at least one trophy, a first relation that determines trophies that need to be obtained before obtaining the trophy. In other words, this first relation determines trophies that must be obtained in advance in the case of attempting to obtain a certain trophy. For example, in the trophy acquisition history illustrated in (a) to (c) of
The first relation extracting section 224 extracts, for each of all trophies, the first relation that determines trophies that need to be obtained before obtaining the trophy. Hereinafter, as an example, processing for extracting the first relation regarding trophy ID 42 will be described.
First, the first relation extracting section 224 identifies the trophy acquisition history of the player who has acquired the trophy ID 42, and deletes the trophy IDs acquired after the trophy ID 42 from the trophy acquisition history.
(a) and (b) of
The first relation extracting section 224 extracts trophy IDs commonly included in all trophy ID groups. Referring to (b) of
The first relation extracting section 224 extracts, for each of all trophies, a first relation that determines one or more trophies that need to be obtained before obtaining the trophy. It should be noted that the first relation extracting section 224 may exclude trophies acquired by a very small number of players from the targets of the first relation extraction processing. Further, the first relation extracting section 224 may exclude acquisition histories suspected of fraudulence on the basis of the order of trophy acquisition from the targets of the first relation extraction processing. The first relation extracting section 224 records the extracted first relation in the first relation recording section 246 for each game title.
The trophies with trophy IDs 1, 2, 3, 9, 33, and 42 for which only the trophy ID 41 is set can be acquired as long as the trophy with the trophy ID 41 has already been acquired. Therefore, the player who has acquired the trophy ID 41 can acquire the trophies with trophy IDs 1, 2, 3, 9, 33, and 42 next. On the other hand, for trophy ID 50, a trophy ID group of trophy IDs 1, 3, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 33, 35, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 54, and 55 is set. This means that in order to obtain the trophy with trophy ID 50, all the set trophies need to be obtained before that.
The second relation extracting section 226 extracts, for at least one trophy, a second relation that determines trophies that have been acquired after acquisition of the trophy. That is, this second relation determines, for a certain trophy, the trophies that have been won next to the trophy. The second relation extracting section 226 extracts such a correspondence relation from a plurality of trophy acquisition histories supplied from the acquisition history generating section 222.
The second relation extracting section 226 extracts, for each of all trophies, a second relation that determines a trophy that have been won subsequent to the acquisition of the trophy. Hereinafter, as an example, processing for extracting the second relation regarding trophy ID 42 will be described.
First, the second relation extracting section 226 identifies the trophy acquisition history of the player who has acquired the trophy ID 42, and identifies the trophy ID acquired immediately after the trophy ID 42 from the trophy acquisition history.
(a) to (d) of
The second relation extracting section 226 adds up the numbers of trophy IDs following the trophy ID 42. (c) of
The second relation extracting section 226 extracts, for each of all trophies, a second relation that determines the trophies acquired subsequent to the acquisition of the trophy and their acquisition rates. It should be noted that the second relation extracting section 226 may exclude trophies acquired by a very small number of players from the target of the second relation extraction processing. Further, the second relation extracting section 226 may exclude acquisition histories suspected of fraudulence on the basis of the acquisition order of the trophies from the target of the second relation extraction processing. The second relation extracting section 226 records the extracted second relation in the second relation recording section 248 for each game title.
As described above, the acquisition rate calculating section 214 and the relation extracting section 220 periodically perform the statistical processing illustrated in
In the information processing device 10, when the user acquires a trophy during game play, the transmission processing section 126 transmits the trophy acquisition information to the server device 5. In the server device 5, when the acquisition information acquiring section 212 acquires the trophy acquisition information, the acquisition status acquiring section 232 acquires the acquisition status of trophies acquired by the user in the same game. Here, the acquisition status acquiring section 232 acquires information identifying a trophy (trophy ID) acquired by the user in the past from the acquisition information recording section 242 as the acquisition status. The acquisition status acquiring section 232 provides the identifying section 234 with the trophy ID of the trophy currently acquired by the user and the trophy ID of the trophy acquired in the past.
The identifying section 234 refers to the relation related to the trophy acquisition order recorded in the relation recording section 250 to identify a trophy that the user has a possibility of acquiring next. To be specific, the identifying section 234 identifies one or more trophies that can be obtained next on the basis of the trophies that have been obtained by then, and derives the obtainability of the identified one or more trophies.
The identifying section 234 refers to the first relation and identifies one or more trophies that can be acquired next from the trophies that the user has acquired by this time. For example, in the case where the user has acquired trophies with trophy IDs 41, 42, and 43, the identifying section 234 refers to the first relation illustrated in
The identifying section 234 derives the possibility of obtaining a trophy from among the next obtainable trophies by referring to the second relation. In the case where the trophy with trophy ID 43 is the most recently acquired among the acquired trophy IDs 41, 42, and 43, the identifying section 234 refers to the second relation determined for trophy ID 43, and identifies trophies having a relatively high possibility of being won by the user next. To be specific, the identifying section 234 refers to the second relation illustrated in
The notifying section 236 notifies the user's information processing device 10 about information regarding the identified trophies. The notifying section 236 may give only the information regarding a trophy that the user is most likely to acquire next. In this case, the acquisition rate of trophy ID 19 is the highest, so that the notifying section 236 notifies the information processing device 10 about the information regarding the trophy with trophy ID 19.
Note that the identifying section 234 may perform a scoring process for giving scores to the next obtainable trophies, and the notifying section 236 may notify the information processing device 10 about information regarding the trophy given the highest score. The score reflects at least the acquisition rate obtained from the second relation, and may further reflect the acquisition rate recorded in the acquisition rate recording section 244. Since the acquisition rate recorded in the acquisition rate recording section 244 serves as an index of ease with which a trophy can be obtained, the score is preferably calculated so as to be linked to the level of the acquisition rate. In other words, it is preferable that trophies with high acquisition rates recorded in the acquisition rate recording section 244 have relatively high calculated scores, and trophies with low acquisition rates have relatively low calculated scores. Note that the identifying section 234 can also calculate scores according to the trophy types of bronze, silver, and gold.
In the information processing device 10, the trophy information acquiring section 150 acquires information regarding trophies which the user may acquire next, from the server device 5. The display processing section 140 displays the information acquired by the trophy information acquiring section 150.
Here, the system image 180 includes information regarding trophy acquisition for the game title “Combat Field.” The trophy information acquiring section 150 acquires information regarding trophies from the server device 5, and the display processing section 140 displays the system image 180 including information regarding trophies to be acquired next. Note that the display processing section 140 may display the system image 180 including information regarding the acquisition of trophies in “Combat Field” on condition that the user is playing “Combat Field.” In this example, the message “Get this trophy next time” is displayed together with the image of the trophy as information indicating the presence of the possibility of winning the trophy. The trophy recommended for acquisition in the system image 180 is preferably the trophy having the highest possibility of being acquired. This allows the user to recognize a trophy that are likely to be obtained, and play the game so as to win the trophy.
The present disclosure has been described above based on the embodiments. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that this embodiment is an example, and that various modifications can be made to combinations of respective components and respective treatment processes, and such modifications are within the scope of the present disclosure.
The present disclosure can be used for technology in which virtual awards are provided to users.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-165628 | Sep 2020 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2021/034957 | 9/24/2021 | WO |
