Reporting and crowd-sourced review whether game activity is appropriate for user

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12447409-B2
Application number	US-202217874119-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 26, 2022
Priority date	Jul 26, 2022
Publication date	Oct 21, 2025
Grant date	Oct 21, 2025

Abstract

A method performed for evaluating activity in a video game, including: executing a multi-player session of a video game; during the multi-player session, receiving flag event data from a first player device, the flag event data indicating that a first player has flagged a gameplay incident occurring during the multi-player session as potentially inappropriate; responsive to receiving the flag event data, then sending a request to a plurality of second player devices, wherein responsive to said request each of the plurality of second player devices renders a voting interface to obtain voting input from each of a plurality of second players regarding whether the gameplay incident is inappropriate; receiving said voting input from the plurality of second player devices, and responsive to said voting input identifying a threshold amount of the plurality of second players considering the gameplay incident to be inappropriate, then administering a penalty for the gameplay incident.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by at least one server computer for evaluating activity in a video game, comprising:
executing a multi-player session of a video game;
during the multi-player session, receiving flag event data from a first player device associated to a first player of the multi-player session, the flag event data indicating that the first player has flagged a gameplay incident occurring during the multi-player session as potentially inappropriate;
determining a location of the gameplay incident in a virtual environment;
selecting a plurality of second player devices to receive a request based on a proximity of gameplay by a plurality of second players to the location of the gameplay incident;
responsive to receiving the flag event data, then sending a request to the plurality of second player devices respectively associated to a plurality of second players of the multi-player session, wherein responsive to said request each of the plurality of second player devices renders a voting interface to obtain voting input from each of the plurality of second players regarding whether the gameplay incident is considered to be inappropriate; and
receiving said voting input from the plurality of second player devices, and responsive to said voting input identifying a threshold amount of the plurality of second players considering the gameplay incident to be inappropriate, then administering a penalty related to the gameplay incident.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
recording gameplay video rendered for the first player during the multi-player session;
selecting a portion of the gameplay video based on the flag event data;
wherein the voting interface is configured to present the portion of the gameplay video for viewing by each of the plurality of second players.

3. The method of claim 2 ,
wherein the flag event data identifies a time point in the multi-player session at which the first player flagged the gameplay incident;
wherein selecting the portion of the gameplay video is configured to identify a predefined amount of the gameplay video immediately preceding the time point.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the proximity of gameplay is defined by a location of respective avatars of the second players being within a predefined distance of the location of the gameplay incident in the virtual environment.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of second player devices are selected to receive the request based on identifying the plurality of second players as having viewed the gameplay incident during the multi-player session.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the plurality of second players includes determining view directions of the plurality of second players that are approximately towards a location of the gameplay incident at a time of the gameplay incident.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flag event data is configured to identify a third player of the multi-player session that committed the gameplay incident.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the penalty is administered against the third player.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the penalty is defined by one or more of loss of a resource in the video game, loss of an achievement in the video game, or exclusion from a future multi-player session of the video game.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions embodied thereon, said program instruction being configured, when executed by at least one server computer, to cause said at least one server computer to perform a method for evaluating activity in a video game including the following operations:
executing a multi-player session of a video game;
during the multi-player session, receiving flag event data from a first player device associated to a first player of the multi-player session, the flag event data indicating that the first player has flagged a gameplay incident occurring during the multi-player session as potentially inappropriate;
determining a location of the gameplay incident in a virtual environment;
selecting a plurality of second player devices to receive a request based on a proximity of gameplay by a plurality of second players to the location of the gameplay incident;
responsive to receiving the flag event data, then sending a request to a plurality of second player devices respectively associated to a plurality of second players of the multi-player session, wherein responsive to said request each of the plurality of second player devices renders a voting interface to obtain voting input from each of the plurality of second players regarding whether the gameplay incident is considered to be inappropriate;
receiving said voting input from the plurality of second player devices, and responsive to said voting input identifying a threshold amount of the plurality of second players considering the gameplay incident to be inappropriate, then administering a penalty related to the gameplay incident.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the operations further include:
recording gameplay video rendered for the first player during the multi-player session;
selecting a portion of the gameplay video based on the flag event data;
wherein the voting interface is configured to present the portion of the gameplay video for viewing by each of the plurality of second players.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 ,
wherein the flag event data identifies a time point in the multi-player session at which the first player flagged the gameplay incident;
wherein selecting the portion of the gameplay video is configured to identify a predefined amount of the gameplay video immediately preceding the time point.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the proximity of gameplay is defined by a location of respective avatars of the second players being within a predefined distance of the location of the gameplay incident in the virtual environment.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of second player devices are selected to receive the request based on identifying the plurality of second players as having viewed the gameplay incident during the multi-player session.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein identifying the plurality of second players includes determining view directions of the plurality of second players that are approximately towards a location of the gameplay incident at a time of the gameplay incident.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the flag event data is configured to identify a third player of the multi-player session that committed the gameplay incident.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the penalty is administered against the third player.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the penalty is defined by one or more of loss of a resource in the video game, loss of an achievement in the video game, or exclusion from a future multi-player session of the video game.

Assignees

• Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC
• Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc

Inventors

• Osman Steven
• Bean Celeste

Classifications

• A63F13/79

  involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories · CPC title

• A63F13/335

  using Internet · CPC title

• A63F13/75 Primary

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