Audience adjusted gaming

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10155167-B2
Application number	US-201414585089-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2014
Priority date	Dec 29, 2014
Publication date	Dec 18, 2018
Grant date	Dec 18, 2018

Abstract

A system and method includes a first device with one or more processors coupled to a memory that executes instructions from the memory to perform the steps of receiving a request to begin a videogame; streaming video of the videogame to an audience; determine a popularity of the streaming video; and changing the videogame mechanics based on the popularity of the streaming video.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, performs a method, comprising:
receiving, from one or more computing devices, a request to begin a video game;
streaming video of the video game to one or more viewers associated with each of the one or more computing devices;
determining a popularity of the streaming video based, at least in part, on one or more actions received by at least one of the one or more viewers of the streaming video; and
changing the video game mechanics based, at least in part, on the determined popularity of the streaming video.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein changing the video game mechanics comprises increasing a difficulty of the video game.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein increasing the difficulty of the video game comprises changing an attribute of a unit.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein changing the attribute of the unit comprises changing a damage-per-second of the unit.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein changing the attribute of the unit comprises changing a movement speed of the unit.

6. The system of claim 2 , wherein increasing the difficulty of the video game comprises changing a number of minions in the video game.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein increasing the difficulty of the video game comprises changing a re-spawn time in the video game.

8. A computer implemented method of broadcasting a video game, comprising:
receiving, from a player of a video game on a first device, a request to begin the video game;
streaming the video game to a second device associated with a viewer;
receiving, from the second device, input that indicates that the viewer wants to help the player; and
providing help to the player in response to the input, wherein a type of the help, is based, at least in part, on a type of the input.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein streaming the video game to the second device includes displaying actuatable elements that, when actuated, provide the indication.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the actuatable elements are enabled by a monetary transfer.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the monetary transfer comprises transferring money from the viewer to the player.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein providing help to the player comprises hindering a second player playing the video game.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein hindering the second player comprises reducing a damage per second of a unit.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein hindering the second player is temporary.

15. A media display system, comprising:
at least one processor; and
a memory coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method, comprising:
identifying a plurality of viewers of a media stream;
identifying a preferred game mechanic of the plurality of viewers based, at least in part, on input received from one or more computing devices, each of which are associated with a viewer of a plurality of viewers;
receiving, from at least one of the one or more computing devices, a request to start a video game displayed in the media stream; and
changing a mechanic of the video game based on the preferred game mechanic.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein identifying the preferred game mechanic of the plurality of viewers further comprises:
determining a plurality of popular video game replays; and
identifying a common game mechanic from the plurality of popular video game replays, the common game mechanic being the preferred game mechanic.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the common game mechanic is a game map.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein determining a plurality of popular video game replays comprises counting up and down votes provided by the plurality of viewers.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein identifying the preferred game mechanic of the plurality of viewers comprises determining a popular game mechanic from a questionnaire filled out by the viewers.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the common game mechanic is a character race.

Assignees

• Ebay Inc

Inventors

• Ziaja Jason
• Luk Bryant Genepang
• Tang Yu
• O'Toole Christopher Diebold
• He Robert

Classifications

• H04N21/2668

  Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles {(information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063)} · CPC title

• H04N21/2407

  Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads (arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14) · CPC title

• A63F2300/535

  for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters · CPC title

• A63F13/86

  Watching games played by other players · CPC title

• A63F13/67 Primary

  adaptively or by learning from player actions, e.g. skill level adjustment or by storing successful combat sequences for re-use · CPC title