Customizing offers for sales of combinations of virtual items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016214019-A1
Application number	US-201615082701-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 30, 2012
Publication date	Jul 28, 2016
Grant date	—

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

1 . (canceled)

2 . A system comprising:
one or more modules incorporated into a game networking system, the one or more modules configuring one or more processors of the game networking system to, at least: randomly generate a 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; determine 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 modify 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 select the second variant as an optimal variant for presentation to the plurality of users over a third time period.

3 . The system of claim 2 , the one or more modules further configured to determine 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.

4 . The system of claim 2 , the one or more modules further configured to determine a value of the offer and the presentation is based on the user making a virtual payment that reflects the value of the offer.

5 . The system of claim 2 , the one or more modules further configured to provide the optimal variant to a user of the plurality of users for free for a predetermined number of times.

6 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the weighted offers are for combinations of virtual items associated with a game executing on the game networking system.

7 . The system of claim 6 , 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.

8 . The system of claim 2 , 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 game networking system.

9 . A method comprising:
randomly generating a 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 an optimal variant for presentation to the plurality of users over a third time period.

10 . The method of claim 9 , 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.

11 . The method of claim 9 , 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.

12 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising providing the optimal variant to a user of the plurality of users for free for a predetermined number of times.

13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the weighted offers are for combinations of virtual items associated with a game executing on the game networking system.

14 . The method of claim 13 , 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.

15 . The method of claim 10 , 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 game networking system.

16 . 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, the operations comprising:
randomly generating a 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 tune period; and selecting the second variant as an optimal variant for presentation to the plurality of users over a third time period.

17 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , the operations further comprising determine 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.

18 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , 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.

19 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , the operations further comprising providing the optimal variant to a user of the plurality of users for free for a predetermined number of times.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the weighted offers are for combinations of virtual items associated with a game executing on the game networking system.

21 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 20 , 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

• G07F17/3244 Primary

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

• A63F13/792 Primary

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

• G07F17/3281

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

• 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