Customizing offers for sales of combinations of virtual items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10369475-B2
Application number	US-201615082701-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 30, 2012
Publication date	Aug 6, 2019
Grant date	Aug 6, 2019

Abstract

A method of customizing offers for sales of combinations of virtual items at discounted prices is disclosed. A combination of virtual items of a computer-implemented game is selected such that the sum of the values of each of the combination of virtual items has a proportion to an amount of currency in an account of a user of the computer-implemented game, the selecting being performed by a processor. An offer for a sale of the combination of the virtual items at a discounted price is generated for the user of the computer-implemented game. The offer for the sale of the combination of virtual items at the discounted price is presented to the user.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
one or more computer processors;
one or more computer memories;
one or more modules incorporated into the one or more computer memories, the one or more modules configuring the one or more computer processors to perform operations for gravitating toward an optimal variant of a plurality of variants of weighted offers for presentation to a plurality of users, the operations comprising:
randomly generating the plurality of variants of weighted offers for storing in a database of the networked system, each of the plurality of variants of weighted offers including a plurality of discount percentages and a plurality of probability percentages corresponding to the plurality of discount percentages;
determining that a first variant of the plurality of variants is outperforming a second variant of the plurality of variants over a first time period with respect to revenues obtained from the plurality of users over the first time period;
repeatedly randomly modifying at least one percentage of the plurality of percentages until the second variant matches or exceeds a performance of the first variant with respect to revenues obtained from the plurality of users over a second time period; and
selecting the second variant as the optimal variant for the presentation to the plurality of users over a third time period.

2. The system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising determining that a third variant of the plurality of variants is outperforming the first variant and the second variant and selecting the third variant as the optimal variant.

3. The system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising determining a value of the offer and the presentation is based on the user making a virtual payment that reflects the value of the offer.

4. The system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising determining provide the optimal variant to a user of the plurality of users for free for a predetermined number of times.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the weighted offers are for combinations of virtual items associated with a game executing on a game networking system.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the combinations of virtual items are selected for a user of the plurality of users based on a monitoring of a behavior of the user with respect to a game networking system.

7. The system of claim 1 , operations further comprising providing the optimal variant to a user of the plurality of user as an incentive for the user to perform an action with respect to a game networking system.

8. A method comprising:
performing operations, using one or more processors of a networked system, for gravitating toward an optimal variant of a plurality of variants of weighted offers for presentation to a plurality of users, the operations comprising:
randomly generating the plurality of variants of weighted offers for storing in a database of the networked system, each of the plurality of variants of weighted offers including a plurality of discount percentages and a plurality of probability percentages corresponding to the plurality of discount percentages;
determining that a first variant of the plurality of variants is outperforming a second variant of the plurality of variants over a first time period with respect to revenues obtained from the plurality of users over the first time period;
repeatedly randomly modifying at least one percentage of the plurality of percentages until the second variant matches or exceeds a performance of the first variant with respect to revenues obtained from the plurality of users over a second time period; and
selecting the second variant as the optimal variant for the presentation to the plurality of users over a third time period.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining that a third variant of the plurality of variants is outperforming the first variant and the second variant and selecting the third variant as the optimal variant.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining a value of the offer and the presentation is based on the user making a virtual payment that reflects the value of the offer.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising providing the optimal variant to a user of the plurality of users for free for a predetermined number of times.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the weighted offers are for combinations of virtual items associated with a game executing on the networked system.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the combinations of virtual items are selected for a user of the plurality of users based on a monitoring of a behavior of the user with respect to the networked system.

14. The method of claim 9 , the one or more module further configured to provide the optimal variant to a user of the plurality of user as an incentive for the user to perform an action with respect to the networked system.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations for gravitating toward an optimal variant of a plurality of variants of weighted offers for presentation to a plurality of users, the operations comprising:
randomly generating the plurality of variants of weighted offers for storing in a database of the networked system, each of the plurality of variants of weighted offers including a plurality of discount percentages and a plurality of probability percentages corresponding to the plurality of discount percentages;
determining that a first variant of the plurality of variants is outperforming a second variant of the plurality of variants over a first time period with respect to revenues obtained from the plurality of users over the first time period;
repeatedly randomly modifying at least one percentage of the plurality of percentages until the second variant matches or exceeds a performance of the first variant with respect to revenues obtained from the plurality of users over a second time period; and
selecting the second variant as the optimal variant for the presentation to the plurality of users over a third time period.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , the operations further comprising determining that a third variant of the plurality of variants is outperforming the first variant and the second variant and selecting the third variant as the optimal variant.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , the operations further comprising determining a value of the offer and the presentation is based on the user making a virtual payment that reflects the value of the offer.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , the operations further comprising providing the optimal variant to a user of the plurality of users for free for a predetermined number of times.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the weighted offers are for combinations of virtual items associated with a game executing on the game networking system.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the combinations of virtual items are selected for a user of the plurality of users based on a monitoring of a behavior of the user with respect to the game networking system.

Assignees

• Zynga Inc

Inventors

• Santini Fabio
• Lai Peter Pao

Classifications

• A63F2300/532

  using secure communication, e.g. by encryption, authentication · CPC title

• A63F13/60

  Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor · CPC title

• A63F13/792 Primary

  for payment purposes, e.g. monthly subscriptions · CPC title

• G07F17/3244 Primary

  Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes · CPC title

• G07F17/3281

  wherein game attributes are transferred between players, e.g. points, weapons, avatars · CPC title