Detecting and preventing cheating in a location-based game

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10912989-B2
Application number	US-201916600333-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 11, 2019
Priority date	Jul 22, 2013
Publication date	Feb 9, 2021
Grant date	Feb 9, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for detecting and preventing cheating in a location-based game are provided. In particular, a server-side statistical cheat detection algorithm can be implemented upon receiving a player request to perform a game action. A given dataset describing the respective times and locations of previous game events performed by the player can be analyzed to determine a probability that such game events represent legitimate gameplay. The determined probability can affect whether the player-requested game action is effectuated or can influence a number of points awarded for completion of the game action. An example system includes a host server and a client device in communication over a network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for discouraging cheating, the method comprising:
hosting, by one or more computing devices, a location-based game;
logging, by the one or more computing devices, event locations and event times for a plurality of game events, each game event associated with one of the event locations and one of the event times;
receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a request to effectuate a requested game action, the request having a request location and a request time;
calculating, by the one or more computing devices, an inter-event velocity based on a difference between the request location and at least one of the event locations and difference between the request time and at least one of the event times;
inputting, by the one or more computing devices, the inter-event velocity into a probability function to obtain an event probability; and
determining, by the one or more computing devices, whether to effectuate the requested game action based on the event probability.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the event probability represents a probability that the inter-event velocity reflects legitimate gameplay.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to determining to effectuate the requested game action:
modifying game data to effectuate the requested game action; and
creating a database entry reflecting the requested game action in a game database.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a number of points to reward to a player for a completed game action by multiplying an expected number of points by the event probability.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to determining not to effectuate the requested game action:
transmitting, by one or more computing devices, an indication that the game action was denied.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the probability function includes a velocity threshold term that reflects a boundary between legitimate gameplay and cheating.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the probability function comprises a logistic function with the constant e raised to a velocity difference term, the velocity difference term being the velocity threshold term subtracted from the inter-event velocity, such that the probability function trends toward zero as the inter-event velocity increases in magnitude with respect to the velocity threshold term and trends towards one as the inter-event velocity decreases in magnitude with respect to the velocity threshold term.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the probability function is a logistic function that provides an output based on the difference between the inputted inter-event velocity and the velocity threshold term.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the velocity threshold term is modeled on gameplay data previously received by a game server.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the velocity threshold term is generated by training a supervised binary classifier on a set of game data previously classified as indicative of either cheating behavior or non-cheating behavior.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions executable by a processor, the instructions comprising:
instructions for sending, from a client device, event locations and event times for a plurality of game events, each game event associated with one of the event locations and one of the events times;
instructions for sending a request to effectuate a requested game action, the request including a request location and a request time;
instructions for receiving a decision of whether to effectuate the requested game action, wherein the decision was determined by:
calculating an inter-event velocity based on a difference between the request location and at least one of the event locations and difference between the request time and at least one of the event times; and
inputting the inter-event velocity into a probability function to obtain an event probability; and

instructions for displaying a result of the request based on the decision.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the event probability represents a probability that the inter-event velocity reflects legitimate gameplay.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the instructions to display the result comprise:
instructions for receiving modified game data describing the effectuation of the requested game action.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the instructions to display the result comprise:
instructions to display a notification of a number of points awarded to a player for completing the game action, wherein the number of points was determined by multiplying an expected number of points by the event probability.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the instructions to display the result comprise:
instructions for displaying an indication that the game action was denied.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the probability function includes a velocity threshold term that reflects the boundary of legitimate gameplay and cheating.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the probability function comprises a logistic function with the constant e raised to a velocity difference term, the velocity difference term being the velocity threshold term subtracted from the inter-event velocity, such that the probability function trends toward zero as the inter-event velocity increases in magnitude with respect to the velocity threshold term and trends towards one as the inter-event velocity decreases in magnitude with respect to the velocity threshold term.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the probability function is a logistic function that provides an output based on the difference between the inputted inter-event velocity and the velocity threshold term.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the velocity threshold term is modeled on gameplay data previously received by a game server.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the velocity threshold term is generated by training a supervised binary classifier on a set of game data previously classified as indicative of either cheating behavior or non-cheating behavior.

Assignees

• Niantic Inc

Inventors

• Kornmann David
• Wang Jim
• Vladimirov Alexander
• Wu Edward
• Keslin Phillip Craig
• Kanodia Neal

Classifications

• A63F13/75 Primary

  Enforcing rules, e.g. detecting foul play or generating lists of cheating players · CPC title

• A63F13/70 Primary

  Game security or game management aspects · CPC title

• A63F2300/535

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

• A63F13/216

  using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS · CPC title

• A63F13/30

  Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers · CPC title