Method and system for rendering virtual in
Contents
1. 015 VLVG 1 1205 0904 214 S39vd 83M IN31SAS S39VSS3N OdNI 020 1 11205 1 1205 140165 V1VQ 1 201 213 S31vadn 5153 V1VQ 7213519 553 OdNI SLVLS AWVS WALSAS ONIMMOMLAN 913 SH3JSNVHL 0602 9 ViVd SAVTdSIQ 5 015 VLVd 3AVO U S Patent Jun 17 2014 Sheet 8 of 9 US 8 753 204 B2 SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM GAME NETWORKING SYSTEM 8050 8050 FIG 8 U S Patent Jun 17 2014 PROCESSOR 9002 9024 INSTRUCTIONS MAIN MEMORY 9001 9024 INSTRUCTIONS 9008 STATIC 2008 MEMORY NETWORK 9020 INTERFACE DEVICE 9026 Sheet 9 of 9 4 9000 9010 ALPHA NUMERIC INPUT DEVICE 2012 UICONTROL DEVICE READABLE MEDIUM INSTRUCTION SIGNAL GENERATION 9018 DEVICE FIG 9 US 8 753 204 B2 US 8 753 204 B2 1 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RENDERING VIRTUAL IN GAME ENVIRONMENTS CLAIM OF PRIORITY This patent application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U S C Section 119 e to U S Provisional Patent Appli cation Ser No 61 557 280 entitled Method and System for Rendering Virtual In Game Environments filed on Nov 8 2011 to Manton et al which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety COPYRIGHT NOTICE A portion of the disclosure of this patent document con tains material that is subject to copyright protection The copyri2. client system 7010 may send a batch file to game networking system 7030 whenever 50 updates have been collected or after a threshold period of time such as every minute As used herein the term application event data may refer to any data relevant to a computer implemented game appli cation that may affect one or more game state parameters including for example and without limitation changes to player data or metadata changes to player social connections or contacts player inputs to the game and events generated by the game logic In particular embodiments each applica tion datum may have a name and a value The value of an application datum may change at any time in response to the game play ofa player or in response to the game engine e g based on the game logic In particular embodiments an application data update occurs when the value of a specific application datum is changed In particular embodiments each application event datum may include an action or event name and a value such as an object identifier Thus each application datum may be represented as a name value pair in the batch file The batch file may include a collection of name value pairs representing the application data that have been updated at client system 7010 In particular embodi ments the batch file may be a text file and the name value pairs may be in string format In particular embodiments when a player plays an online game on client system
3. 7010 game networking system 7030 may serialize all the game related data including for example and without limitation game states game events and user inputs for this particular user and this particular game into a BLOB and store the BLOB in a database The BLOB may be associated with an identifier that indicates that US 8 753 204 B2 11 the BLOB contains the serialized game related data for a particular player and a particular online game In particular embodiments while a player is not playing the online game the corresponding BLOB may be stored in the database This enables a player to stop playing the game at any time without losing the current state of the game the player is in When a player resumes playing the game next time game networking system 7030 may retrieve the corresponding BLOB from the database to determine the most recent values of the game related data In particular embodiments while a player is playing the online game game networking system 7030 may also load the corresponding BLOB into a memory cache so that the game system may have faster access to the BLOB and the game related data contained therein Systems and Methods In particular embodiments one or more described webpages may be associated with a networking system or networking service However alternate embodiments may have application to the retrieval and rendering of structured documents hosted by any type of network addressable resource or w
4. and combinations thereof Content object data may also include executable code objects e g games executable within a browser window or frame podcasts and the like Logically data store 8060 corresponds to one or more of a variety of separate and integrated databases such as relational data bases and object oriented databases that maintain informa tion as an integrated collection of logically related records or files stored on one or more physical systems Structurally data store 8060 may generally include one or more of a large class of data storage and management systems In particular embodiments data store 8060 may be implemented by any suitable physical system s including components such as one or more database servers mass storage media media library systems storage area networks data storage clouds and the like In one example embodiment data store 8060 includes one or more servers databases e g MySQL and or data warehouses Data store 8060 may include data asso ciated with different networking system 8020 8030 users and or client systems 8040 Client system 8040 is generally a computer or computing device including functionality for communicating e g remotely over a computer network Client system 8040 may be a desktop computer laptop computer personal digital assistant PDA in or out of car navigation system smart phone or other cellular or mobile phone or mobile gaming device among other suitable co
5. configured e g programmed each of the hard ware implemented modules need not be configured or instan tiated at any one instance in time For example where the hardware implemented modules comprise a general purpose processor configured using software the general purpose processor may be configured as respective different hard ware implemented modules at different times Software may accordingly configure a processor for example to constitute a particular hardware implemented module at one instance of time and to constitute a different hardware implemented module at a different instance of time Hardware implemented modules may provide information to and receive information from other hardware imple mented modules Accordingly the described hardware implemented modules may be regarded as being communi catively coupled Where multiple of such hardware implemented modules exist contemporaneously communications may be achieved through signal transmis sion e g over appropriate circuits and buses that connect the hardware implemented modules embodiments in which multiple hardware implemented modules are config ured or instantiated at different times communications between such hardware implemented modules may be achieved for example through the storage and retrieval of information in memory structures to which the multiple hard ware implemented modules have access For example one hardware implemented module may perfo
6. game within the user interface for the game The social networking system 6040 may include a net work addressable computing system that can host one or more social graphs and may be accessed by the other com ponents of system 6000 either directly or via the network 6030 The social networking system 6040 may generate store receive and transmit social networking data Moreover the game networking system 6050 may include a network addressable computing system or systems that can host one or more virtual games for example online games provided in Flash interactive displays The game networking system 6050 may generate store receive and transmit game related data such as for example game account data game input game state data and game displays The game networking system 6050 may be accessed by the other components of system 6000 either directly or via the network 6030 The player 6010 may use the client device 6020 to access send data to and receive data from the social networking system 6040 and or the game networking system 6050 Although FIG 6 illustrates a particular example of the arrangement of the player 6010 the client device 6020 the social networking system 6040 the game networking system 6050 and the network 6030 this disclosure includes any suitable arrangement or configuration of the these compo nents of system 6000 FIG 7 illustrates an example data flow between the com ponents of an example system 70
7. 00 In particular embodi ments system 7000 can include client system 7010 social networking system 7020 and game networking system 7030 A system 7000 such as that described with reference to FIG 7 may be provided by the client system 7010 the social networking system 7020 or the game networking system 7030 or by any combination of these systems The compo nents of system 7000 can be connected to each other in any suitable configuration using any suitable type of connection The components may be connected directly or over any suit able network Client system 7010 social networking system 7020 and game networking system 7030 can each have one or more corresponding data stores such as local data store 7040 social data store 7050 and game data store 7060 respectively Social networking system 7020 and game net working system 7030 can also have one or more servers that can communicate with client system 7010 over an appropriate network Social networking system 7020 and game network ing system 7030 can have for example one or more Internet servers for communicating with client system 7010 via the Internet Similarly social networking system 7020 and game networking system 7030 can have one or more mobile servers for communicating with client system 7010 via a mobile network e g GSM PCS Wi Fi WPAN etc In some embodiments one server may be able to communicate with client system 7010 over both the Internet and a mobile net
8. JavaScript Flash ActionScript Cascading Style Sheet CSS and frequently Java By way of example HTML enables a page developer to create a structured docu ment by denoting structural semantics for text and links as well as images web applications and other objects that can be embedded within the page Generally a webpage may be delivered to a client as a static document however through the use of web elements embedded in the page an interactive experience may be achieved with the page or a sequence of US 8 753 204 B2 13 pages During a user session at the client the web browser interprets and displays the pages and associated resources received or retrieved from the website hosting the page as well as potentially resources from other websites When a user at a client system 8040 desires to view a particular webpage hereinafter also referred to as target structured document hosted by networking system 8020 8030 the user s web browser or other document rendering engine or suitable client application formulates and transmits arequest to networking system 8020 8030 The request gen erally includes a URL or other document identifier as well as metadata or other information By way of example the request may include information identifying the user such as auser ID as well as information identifying or characterizing the web browser or operating system running on the user s client computing device 8040 The request may
9. Of course any other suitable network and transport layer proto cols can be utilized In addition hosts or end systems described herein may use avariety of higher layer communications protocols including client server or request response protocols such as the HyperText Transfer Protocol HTTP and other communica tions protocols such as HTTP S FTP SNMP TELNET and anumber of other protocols may be used In addition a server in one interaction context may be a client in another interac tion context In particular embodiments the information transmitted between hosts may be formatted as HyperText Markup Language HTML documents Other structured document languages or formats can be used such as XML and the like Executable code objects such as JavaScript and ActionScript can also be embedded in the structured docu ments In some client server protocols such as the use of HTML over HTTP a server generally transmits a response to a request from client The response may comprise one or more data objects For example the response may comprise a first data object followed by subsequently transmitted data objects In particular embodiments a client request may cause a server to respond with a first data object such as an HTML page which itself refers to other data objects A client application such as a browser will request these additional data objects as it parses or otherwise processes the first data object In particu
10. a2 United States Patent Manton et al US008753204B2 US 8 753 204 B2 Jun 17 2014 10 Patent No 45 Date of Patent 54 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RENDERING VIRTUAL IN GAME ENVIRONMENTS 75 Inventors Douglas Manton San Francisco CA US Andrew Foster Irving TX US 73 Assignee Zynga Inc San Francisco CA US Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 0 days 21 Appl No 13 608 635 22 Filed Sep 10 2012 65 Prior Publication Data US 2013 0116046 Al May 9 2013 Related U S Application Data 60 Provisional application No 61 557 280 filed on Nov 8 2011 51 Int CI 9 24 52 U S CI USPC cese erem ete e 463 31 463 42 58 Field of Classification Search coe UM 463 42 31 See application file for complete search history 2006 01 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 7 637 806 B2 2004 0143852 2010 0107214 2011 0225538 12 2009 Rhyne IV et al 7 2004 Meyers 4 2010 Ganz 9 2011 et al FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS WO WO 2013070310 Al 5 2013 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Doom II User Manual Windows 1995 compatible version dated at least as early as 1995 All pages Doom II Cheat Manual Windows 1995 compatible version copy right on p 9 as early as 1995 International Application Serial No PCT US2012 054446 Interna tional Search Repo
11. also include location information identifying a geographic location of the user s client system or a logical network location ofthe user s client system The request may also include a timestamp identifying when the request was transmitted Although the example network environment described above and illustrated in FIG 9 is described with respect to social networking system 8020 and game networking system 8030 this disclosure encompasses any suitable network envi ronment using any suitable systems As an example and not by way of limitation the network environment may include online media systems online reviewing systems online search engines online advertising systems or any combina tion of two or more such systems Modules Components and Logic Certain embodiments are described herein as including logic or a number of components modules or mechanisms Modules or components may constitute either software mod ules e g code embodied 1 on a non transitory machine readable medium or 2 ina transmission signal or hardware implemented modules A hardware implemented module is tangible unit capable of performing certain operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner In example embodiments one or more computer systems e g astandalone client or server computer system or one or more processors may be configured by software e g an applica tion or application portion as a hardware implemented mod ule th
12. at operates to perform certain operations as described herein various embodiments a hardware implemented module may be implemented mechanically or electronically For example a hardware implemented module may comprise dedicated circuitry or logic that is permanently configured e g as a special purpose processor such as a field program mable gate array FPGA or an application specific inte grated circuit ASIC to perform certain operations A hard ware implemented module may also comprise programmable logic or circuitry e g as encompassed within a general purpose processor or other programmable proces sor that is temporarily configured by software to perform certain operations It will be appreciated that the decision to implement a hardware implemented module mechanically in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry or in tem porarily configured circuitry e g configured by software may be driven by cost and time considerations Accordingly the term hardware implemented module should be understood to encompass a tangible entity be that an entity that is physically constructed permanently config ured e g hardwired or temporarily or transitorily config ured e g programmed to operate in a certain manner and or 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 to perform certain operations described herein Considering embodiments in which hardware implemented modules are temporarily
13. being applied using one or more computer pro cessors 9 The system of claim 8 wherein the visual effect module is configured to remove the visual effect from a particular game object of the one or more game objects located in the locked area responsive to player interaction with the particu lar game object 10 The system of claim 9 further comprising a display module configured to display a message in association with the particular game object responsive to player interaction therewith 11 Thesystem ofclaim 8 whereinthe visual effect module is configured to apply the effect to the locked area such that respective locations of one or more game objects representing non player characters located in the locked area are revealed 12 The system of claim 11 wherein the visual effect module is configured to apply the effect to the locked area such that respective silhouettes ofthe one or more non player characters in the locked area are revealed 13 Thesystem ofclaim 8 whereinthe visual effect module is configured to apply the effect to the locked area such that a topological layout of the locked area is revealed 14 The system of claim 8 wherein the visual effect module is configured to determine whether a map section in the virtual in game environment forms part of the locked area or the unlocked area by comparing a pre defined unlocking requirement for the map section with game state data of a player associated with the map sect
14. ctions 9024 may further be transmitted or received over a network 9026 via the network interface device 9020 using any one of a number of well known transfer protocols e g HTTP Session Initiation Protocol SIP The term machine readable medium should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media e g a centralized or distributed database and or associated caches and servers that store the one or more sets of instructions The term machine readable medium shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any of the one or more of the methodologies illustrated herein The term machine read able medium shall accordingly be taken to include but not be limited to solid state memories and optical and magnetic medium Method embodiments illustrated herein may be computer implemented Some embodiments may include computer readable media encoded with a computer program e g soft ware which includes instructions operable to cause an electronic device to perform methods of various embodi ments software implementation or computer imple mented method may include microcode assembly language code or a higher level language code which further may include computer readable instructions for performing vari ous methods The code may form portions of computer pro gram products Further t
15. dified in accordance with the object specific rules at operation 4040 Turning now to FIG 5 an example schematic of a game 5050 is shown Game logic module 5060 comprises the algo rithms and rules that control the display presentation and functionality of the game including instructing the rendering 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 module 5070 to render the game map and associated game objects to a display Rendering module 5070 produces an output of the game map game objects game characters and other sprites onto the display in their proper position and orientation Input module 5075 may take as input one or more inputs from the game player and pass along the input to game logic module 5060 Game logic module 5060 may update the game state data or game play data 5090 stored in memory 5080 in response to the user input based on the game rules and may then have rendering module 5070 update the graphical ren dering to reflect the updated game play data The game state data or game play data may be a data description of all the information necessary to play the game andto keep track of changes inthe game Game play data may include information on particular in game objects including the appropriate glooming effects to apply and the appropriate preview effects to apply Game play data also includes infor mation on game accomplishments of the game player and also purchase history information of the player e
16. e application event data may identify an event or action e g harvest and an object in the game to which the event or action applies For illustration purposes and not by way of limitation system 7000 is discussed in reference to updating a multi player online game hosted on a network addressable system such as for example social networking system 7020 or game networking system 7030 where an instance of the online game is executed remotely on a client system 7010 which then transmits application event data to the hosting system such that the remote game server synchronizes the game state associated with the instance executed by the client system 7010 Ina particular embodiment one or more objects of a game may be represented as an Adobe Flash object Flash may 0 5 20 35 40 45 50 60 65 10 manipulate vector and raster graphics and supports bidirec tional streaming of audio and video Flash may mean the authoring environment the player or the application files In particular embodiments client system 7010 may include a Flash client The Flash client may be configured to receive and run Flash application or game object code from any suitable networking system such as for example social net working system 7020 or game networking system 7030 In particular embodiments the Flash client may be run in a browser client executed on client system 7010 A player can interact with Flash objects u
17. e deployed in various example embodiments Example Machine Implementation FIG 9 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the example form of a computer system 9000 within which a set of instructions for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methods processes operations or meth odologies discussed herein may be executed In alternative embodiments the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected e g networked to other machines In a networked deployment the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server client net work environment or as a peer machine in a peer to peer or distributed network environment The machine may be a Personal Computer PC a tablet PC a Set Box STB a Personal Digital Assistant PDA a cellular telephone a Web appliance a network router switch or bridge or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions sequential or oth erwise that specify actions to be taken by that machine Further while only a single machine is illustrated the term machine shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set or multiple sets of instructions to perform any one or more of the meth odologies discussed herein Example embodiments may also be practiced in distributed system environments where local and remote computer systems which that are linked e g either by hard
18. eb site Additionally as used herein a user may be an individual a group or an entity such as a business or third party application Particular embodiments may operate in a WAN environ ment such as the Internet including multiple network addressable systems FIG 8 illustrates an example network environment 8000 in which various example embodiments may operate Network cloud 8010 generally represents one or more interconnected networks over which the systems and hosts described herein can communicate Network cloud 8010 may include packet based WAN such as the Internet private networks wireless networks satellite networks cel lular networks paging networks and the like As FIG 8 illustrates particular embodiments may operate in a network environment comprising one or more networking systems such as social networking system 8020 game networking system 8030 and one or more client systems 8040 The components of social networking system 8020 and game networking system 8030 operate analogously as such here inafter they may be referred to simply as a networking system Client systems 8040 are operably connected to the network environment via a network service provider a wireless car rier or any other suitable means Networking system 8020 8030 is a network addressable system that in various example embodiments comprises one or more physical servers 8050 and data stores 8060 The one or more physical servers 8050 are op
19. erably connected to computer network 8010 via by way of example a set of routers and or networking switches 8070 In an example embodiment the functionality hosted by the one or more physical servers 8050 may include web or HTTP servers servers as well as without limitation webpages and appli cations implemented using Common Gateway Interface CGI script PHP Hyper text Preprocessor PHP Active Server Pages ASP Hyper Text Markup Language HTML Extensible Markup Language XML Java JavaScript Asynchronous JavaScript and XML AJAX Flash Action Script and the like Physical servers 8050 may host functionality directed to the operations of networking system 8020 8030 Hereinafter servers 8050 may be referred to as server 8050 although server 8050 may include numerous servers hosting for example networking system 8020 8030 as well as other content distribution servers data stores and databases Data store 8060 may store content and data relating to and 0 20 25 35 40 45 60 12 enabling operation of networking system 8020 8030 as digi tal data objects A data object in particular embodiments is anitem of digital information typically stored or embodied in a data file database or record Content objects may take many forms including text e g ASCII SGML HTML images e g jpeg tif and gif graphics vector based or bitmap audio video mpeg or other multimedia
20. ermined time has elapsed Example interactions with the gloomed area that may trig ger previews or teasers include mousing overan area clicking on an object or area scrolling to a particular area or an in game event e g completing a task may require the pur chasing of a gloomed part of the map in this case the game may preview the area to call the game player s attention to that area In some examples interactions may build on each other For example mousing over an area may provide one level ofunglooming e g partial unglooming and clicking on a particular object in the partially ungloomed area may cause the object to be further ungloomed or may trigger a teaser message to be displayed In some examples each gloomed object may respond dif ferently to different interactions For example a building may notungloom on a mouse over but may ungloom ifclicked on Each game object may contain an entry in their data structure which defines which events cause a particular preview effect FIG 2 shows line drawing representation of one example preview In this example a player interacted with the house 2010 The house 2010 temporarily ungloomed showing the house as if it were unlocked with a teaser message stating that the house is someone s house and inviting the player to Explore here to see who lives here Turning now to FIG 3 a method of rendering the map is shown When the map is being rendered the rendering eng
21. g what game objects the user has purchased or what map sections were purchased Memory 5080 may be transitory or non transitory memory such as Random Access Memory RAM or more permanent storage such as magnetic storage on a hard disk or storage on a solid state drive or the like Map section information 5100 is stored in memory 5080 and may be used by the game logic module 5060 to determine how to draw the game map and the various associated objects and sprites Map section information 5100 may store infor mation on the unlocked and locked map sections the require ments for a map section to move from a locked to an unlocked state the objects positioned on one or more map sections and the like Game logic module 5060 may use the particular data in the map section information 5100 and the game play data information 5090 to determine which map sections and which objects are gloomed and what effects to apply as well as to handle inputs from input module 5075 to determine the appropriate preview effects to apply should the user attempt to interact with a gloomed map section or object Social Networking Based Games While the above described disclosures may be applicable to any map based computer game in some examples the game may be a network based game which may also utilize social networking data These games and there operation may be described below in more detail FIG 6 illustrates an example of a system 6000 for imple menting
22. ght owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduc tion by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclo sure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever The following notice applies to the software and data as described below and in the drawings that form a part of this document Copyright ZYNGA INC All Rights Reserved TECHNICAL FIELD This disclosure generally relates to games and applications in general and in particular to computer implemented online games such as online role playing games RPGs playable by more than one person from more than one location BACKGROUND Map based computer games generally involve visually representing a virtual in game environment or virtual world of the game through a map based perspective Typically this involves displaying the virtual world as a plane on which various game objects are displayed in certain spatial locations relative to other game objects A player of the game navigates a character throughout the world by utilizing one or more inputs The graphical image of the character is then moved in response to those inputs on the map giving an impression that the player is viewing the action of the game in a birds eye view BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings which are not necessarily drawn to scale like numerals may describe similar components in different views Like nume
23. h a term in a claim are still deemed to fall within the scope of that claim Moreover in the following claims the terms first second and third etc are used merely as labels and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 18 Method examples described herein be machine or computer implemented at least in part Some examples can include a computer readable medium or machine readable medium encoded with instructions operable to configure an electronic device to perform methods as described in the above examples implementation of such methods can include code such as microcode assembly language code a higher level language code or the like Such code can include computer readable instructions for performing various meth ods The code may form portions of computer program prod ucts Further in an example the code can be tangibly stored on one or more volatile non transitory or non volatile tan gible computer readable media such as during execution or at other times Examples of these tangible computer readable media can include but are not limited to hard disks remov able magnetic disks removable optical disks e g compact disks and digital video disks magnetic cassettes memory cards or sticks random access memories RAMs read only memories ROMs and the like The above description is intended to be illus
24. he code may be tangibly stored on one or more volatile or non volatile computer readable media during execution or at other times These computer readable media may include but are not limited to hard disks remov able magnetic disks removable optical disks e g compact disks and digital video disks magnetic cassettes memory cards or sticks Random Access Memories RAMs Read Only Memories ROMs and the like Additional Notes and Examples Disclosed in some examples is a method of providing a computer implemented game the method includes rendering a display of a virtual in game environment comprising an unlocked area and a locked area an in game player character controlled by a player of the game having access to the US 8 753 204 B2 17 unlocked areas but being restricted from accessing the locked area and using one or more processors applying a visual effect to the locked area to distinguish the locked area from the unlocked area the visual effect revealing one or more aspects of the unlocked area Disclosed in some examples is a system for providing a computer implemented game the system including a render ing module configured to render a display ofa virtual in game environment comprising an unlocked area and a locked area an in game player character controlled by a player of the game having access to the unlocked areas but being restricted from accessing the locked area and a visual effect module configured to appl
25. hronize the game state on the server side Game network ing system 7030 may then re serialize the game state now modified into a BLOB and pass this to a memory cachelayer for lazy updates to a persistent database With a client server environment in which the online games may run one server system such as game networking system 7030 may support multiple client systems 7010 At any given time there may be multiple players at multiple client systems 7010 all playing the same online game In practice the number of players playing the same game at the same time may be very large As the game progresses with each player multiple players may provide different inputs to the online game at their respective client systems 7010 and multiple client systems 7010 may transmit multiple player inputs and or game events to game networking system 7030 for further processing In addition multiple client systems 7010 may transmit other types of application data to game networking system 7030 In particular embodiments computed implemented game may be a text based or turn based game implemented as a series of web pages that are generated after a player selects one or more actions to perform The web pages may be displayed in a browser client executed on client system 7010 As an example and not by way of limitation a client applica tion downloaded to client system 7010 may operate to serve a set of webpages to a player As another example and not by
26. ich when performed by the machine cause the machine to determine whether a map section in the virtual in game environment forms part of the locked area or the unlocked area by comparing a pre defined unlocking requirement for the map section with game state data of a player associated with the map section and responsive to determining that the map section forms part of the locked area apply the visual effect to the map section
27. ilized to enhance the gloominess of the gloomed areas For example the grass areas may be rendered using a gloomed grass texture as well as tinting the map areas which are locked a dark blue tint In another example the gloomed section is rendered using a bluish tint as well as a cross hatch texture This glooming effect may give game players a glimpse of other portions of the virtual world to entice game players to finish challenges pay money or otherwise take an action to unlock the locked portions of the map The glimpse players are given entices them with mystery and intrigue of what challenges and excitement await them in the locked map portions example with glooming effects rendered on locked portions is shown in FIG 1 The unlocked map area is shown as 1010 and the gloomed and locked portion is shown as 1020 The map shows various game objects such as water features walls placed by the game player trees rocks struc tures in game characters and the like The various game objects in the gloomed areas are shown in darker shading and the grass texture is different Transition area 1030 shows a soft transition between the fully bright unlocked areas and the gloomed locked areas While all objects of the locked area may be gloomed using the same effects in some examples each game object may have its own special rules that specify the proper effect to utilize to gloom the object For example the gloomed areas of FIG 1
28. ine checks the requirements of each map section to determine if the game player has met the requirements for having that particular section unlocked at operation 3010 If the require ments are met the section is unlocked otherwise it is locked Ifthe section is unlocked the section is rendered as normal at operation 3020 If the section is locked the section and objects within the section is rendered with glooming effects at operation 3030 Additionally in some examples if the section is locked each object within that section is examined to determine if any special effects are to be applied to that object and to apply those effects at operation 3040 Turning now to FIG 4 at operation 4010 the game receives one or more interactions with a gloomed area or an object within a gloomed area The interactions may include mou seovers clicks taps touch gestures keystrokes or any other indication of an intention by the game player to interact with a game object or map area At operation 4020 the game provides a preview of the gloomed area As previously explained this may include undoing or reversing all or part of the glooming effects applied to the gloomed area or object At operation 4030 specific rules for the object interacted with or the objects within the gloomed area interacted with are consulted to determine any special treatment with respect to that game object and that particular interaction If necessary the preview may be mo
29. ion and 20 25 40 45 55 20 responsive to determining that the map section forms part of the locked area apply the visual effect to the map section 15 Thesystem ofclaim 8 wherein the visual effect module is configured to render one or more preview effects in the locked area responsive to player interaction with the locked area 16 A non transitory machine readable medium that stores instructions which when performed by a machine cause the machine to perform operations comprising rendering a display of a virtual in game environment com prising an unlocked area and a locked area an in game player character controlled by a player of the game hav ing access to the unlocked areas but being restricted from accessing the locked area and applying a visual effect to the locked area to distinguish the locked area from the unlocked area applying the visual effect to the locked area including obscuring at least one property of one or more game objects located in the locked area the visual effect revealing one or more aspects of the unlocked area and being applied to the locked area such that respective locations of the one or more game objects located in the locked area are revealed 17 The non transitory machine readable medium of claim 16 wherein the instructions include instructions which when performed by the machine cause the machine to perform operations comprising revealing at least one obscured prop erty of a partic
30. ked area are revealed 6 The method of claim 1 wherein the visual effect is applied such that a topological layout of the locked area is revealed 7 The method of claim 1 further comprising determining whether a map section in the virtual in game environment forms part of the locked area or the unlocked area by comparing a pre defined unlocking requirement for the map section with game state data of a player associated with the map section and responsive to determining that the map section forms part of the locked area applying the visual effect to the map section 8 A system for providing a computer implemented game the system comprising a rendering module configured to render a display of a virtual in game environment comprising an unlocked area and a locked area an in game player character controlled by a player of the game having access to the unlocked areas but being restricted from accessing the locked area and a visual effect module configured to apply a visual effect to the locked area to distinguish the locked area from the unlocked area the visual effect revealing one or more aspects of the unlocked area the visual effect being applied to the locked area such that respective locations of one or more game objects located in the locked area are revealed the visual effect being applied to the locked area to obscure at least one property ofthe one or more game objects located in the locked area and the visual effect
31. ked area from the unlocked area the visual effect revealing one or more aspects of the unlocked area 22 Claims 9 Drawing Sheets U S Patent Jun 17 2014 Sheet 1 of 9 US 8 753 204 B2 FIG 1 US 8 753 204 B2 Sheet 2 of 9 Jun 17 2014 U S Patent C DIA U S Patent Jun 17 2014 Sheet 3 of 9 US 8 753 204 B2 RENDERER CHECKS THE REQUIREMENTS OF THIS MAP SECTION TO DETERMINE IF THE SECTION IS LOCKED OR UNLOCKED LOCKED t s x UNLOCKED 18 THE SECTION LOCKED gt OR UNLOCKED E APPLY GLOOMING EFFECTS TO THE MAP RENDER AS NORMAL AREA AS IT IS RENDERED 3030 3020 EXAMINE GAME OBJECTS WITHIN AREA TO DETERMINE ANY SPECIAL ine EFFECTS NEEDED AND 3040 APPLY THEM FIG 3 U S Patent Jun 17 2014 Sheet 4 of 9 US 8 753 204 B2 GAME RECEIVES AN INTERACTION WITH A GLOOMED AREA BASED ON GAME RULES PROVIDE PREVIEW OF GLOOMED AREA OR OBJECT FOR EACH OBJECT IN GLOOMED AREA EXAMINE OBJECT SPECIFIC RULES WITH RESPECT TO THE RECEIVED INTERACTION MODIFY GLOOMED PREVIEW FOR THAT OBJECT ACCORDING TO THE OBJECT SPECIFIC RULES IF NECESSARY FIG 4 U S Patent Jun 17 2014 Sheet 5 of 9 US 8 753 204 B2 5075 INPUT MODULE MAP SECTION INFORMATION FIG 5 U S Patent Jun 17 2014 Sheet 6 of 9 US 8 753 204 B2 6000 X SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM 6030 GAME NETWORKING SYSTEM FIG 6 US 8 753 204 B2 Sheet 7 of 9 Jun 17 2014 U S Patent L
32. l of the displayed unlocked area and the total of the dis played gloomed area together constitute the totality of poten tially accessible areas in the particular map A player is thus enabled to view the entire extent of potential in game explo ration that is possible with respect to the particular map Each such totally displayed map may be with respect to an in game territory uniquely associated with a particular player or may be with respect to one of a plurality of levels or realms of a game instance In some examples the locked sections and or the objects within those locked sections may be rendered using one or more visual effects which convey a visual impression to the game player that the area is locked The visual effects contrast or distinguish the locked and unlocked portions of the map while obscuring part of the detail of the locked area in order to cultivate mystery In particular the locked map sections and or any game objects in that map section may be ren dered using one or more dimming coloring shading tinting texturing or other effects In some examples the locked sections and or any game objects in that map section may be rendered using a bluish or darker tint or hue Other examples include filling the locked sections with one or more textures such as hash lines hatch lines dimples blur effects e g the objects and the locked section are given a blurry look or the like For ease of description locked map sec
33. lar embodiments an instance of an online game can be stored as a set of game state parameters that charac terize the state of various in game objects such as for example player character state parameters non player char acter parameters and virtual item parameters In particular embodiments game state is maintained in a database as a serialized unstructured string of text data as a so called Binary Large Object BLOB When a player accesses an online game on game networking system 7030 the BLOB containing the game state for the instance corresponding to the player can be transmitted to client system 7010 for use by aclient side executed object to process In particular embodi ments the client side executable may be a FLASH based game which can de serialize the game state data in the BLOB As a player plays the game the game logic imple mented at client system 7010 maintains and modifies the various game state parameters locally The client side game logic may also batch game events such as mouse clicks and transmit these events to game networking system 7030 Game networking system 7030 may itself operate by retrieving a copy of the BLOB from a database or an intermediate memory cache memcache layer Game networking system 7030 can also de serialize the BLOB to resolve the game state US 8 753 204 B2 9 parameters and execute its own game logic based on the events in the batch file of events transmitted by the client to sync
34. ment or as a server farm while in other embodiments the processors may be distributed across a number of locations The one or more processors may also operate to support performance of the relevant operations in a cloud comput ing environment or as a software as a service SaaS For example at least some ofthe operations may be performed by a group of computers as examples of machines including processors these operations being accessible via a network e g the Internet and via one or more appropriate interfaces e g Application Program Interfaces APIs Electronic Apparatus and System Example embodiments may be implemented in digital electronic circuitry or in computer hardware firmware soft US 8 753 204 B2 15 ware or in combinations of them Example embodiments may be implemented using a computer program product e g a computer program tangibly embodied in an information carrier e g in a machine readable medium for execution by or to control the operation of data processing apparatus e g a programmable processor a computer or multiple comput ers computer program may be written in any form of pro gramming language including compiled or interpreted lan guages and it may be deployed in any form including as a stand alone program or as a module subroutine or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment computer program may be deployed to be executed on one computer or on
35. mputing devices Client sys tem 8040 may execute one or more client applications such as a web browser e g Microsoft Internet Explorer Mozilla Firefox Apple Safari Google Chrome and Opera to access and view content over a computer network In particular embodiments the client applications allow a user of client system 8040 to enter addresses of specific network resources to be retrieved such as resources hosted by networking sys tem 8020 8030 These addresses can be Uniform Resource Locators URLs and the like In addition once a page or other resource has been retrieved the client applications may provide access to other pages or records when the user clicks on hyperlinks to other resources By way of example such hyperlinks may be located within the webpages and provide an automated way for the user to enter the URL of another page and to retrieve that page A webpage or resource embedded within a webpage which may itself include multiple embedded resources may include data records such as plain textual information or more complex digitally encoded multimedia content such as software programs or other code objects graphics images audio signals videos and so forth One prevalent markup language for creating webpages 1s the Hypertext Markup Language HTML Other common web browser supported languages and technologies include the Extensible Markup Language XML the Extensible Hypertext Markup Lan guage XHTML
36. multiple computers at one site or distributed across mul tiple sites and interconnected by a communication network example embodiments operations may be performed by one or more programmable processors executing a computer program to perform functions by operating on input data and generating output Method operations may also be performed by and apparatus of example embodiments may be imple mented as special purpose logic circuitry e g a field grammable gate array FPGA oran application specific inte grated circuit ASIC The computing system may include clients and servers A client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client server relationship to each other In embodiments deploying a programmable computing system it will be appreciated that that both hardware and software architec tures require consideration Specifically it will be appreci ated that the choice of whether to implement certain function ality in permanently configured hardware e g an ASIC in temporarily configured hardware e g a combination of soft ware and a programmable processor or a combination of permanently and temporarily configured hardware may be a design choice Below are set out hardware e g machine and software architectures that may b
37. nd a locked area an in game player character controlled by a player ofthe game hav ing access to the unlocked areas but being restricted from accessing the locked area and using one or more processors applying a visual effect to the locked area to distinguish the locked area from the unlocked area applying the visual effect to the locked area including obscuring at least one property of one or more game objects located in the locked area the visual effect revealing one or more aspects ofthe unlocked area and being applied to the locked area such that respective locations ofthe one or more game objects located in the locked area are revealed 2 The method of claim 1 further comprising revealing at least one obscured property of a particular game object ofthe one or more game objects located in the locked area respon sive to player interaction with the particular game object 3 The method of claim 2 further comprising displaying a message in association with the particular game object responsive to player interaction therewith 4 The method of claim 1 wherein the visual effect is applied to the locked area such that respective locations ofthe US 8 753 204 B2 19 one or more game objects located in the locked area that represent non player characters are revealed 5 The method of claim 4 wherein the visual effect is applied to the locked area such that respective silhouettes of the one or more non player characters in the loc
38. nd locked additional effects such as highlighting effects text boxes prompts or the like For example a game player moving the mouse over a gloomed area may trigger a temporarily ungloom of a par ticular object or area under the mouse pointer so the game player may fully preview that object or area some examples the unglooming may be a full unglooming e g the particular object or area under the mouse cursor may be displayed normally as if it were unlocked or a partial unglooming e g the dark shading may be brightened some what but not completely or the gloomed topographic tex tures may be changed to normal textures or the like Other previews may include displaying one or more teaser mes sages For example a message may identify the object or a US 8 753 204 B2 5 category of the object e g house and may provide one or more messages and prompts to entice the game player into unlocking that map section or game object In some examples the previews may provide purchase opportunities to allow the game player to purchase the one or more locked sections or objects within the locked sections The price for the one or more locked sections may be in real money in game currency or some other currency e g experience points energy points or the like The special previews may last as long as the interaction lasts e g as long as the mouse is over the particular coordinates or may disappear after a predet
39. r otherwise interact with In some examples the map may be divided up into one or more sections or areas Each section may have a set of one or more requirements for allowing the character to travel to or otherwise interact with that particular section Before a game character has com pleted the requirements of a particular section that section be considered locked The character cannot travel to or otherwise interact with locked areas Once the require ments are met the section is unlocked and the character may travel to and interact with the unlocked area Disclosed in some examples are a method system and machine readable medium for displaying locked map sec tions to game players In some examples the locked sections and or the objects within those locked sections may be ren dered along with the unlocked sections but may be rendered using one or more visual effects which convey to the game player that the section is locked and is therefore inaccessible to the player character controlled by the player In some embodiments the locked area of a virtual in game environ ment or map is an area which has not yet been explored by the player and or to which the associated player character does not have access The visual effect may obscure one or more properties ofthe locked area or section and in some examples the effects may obscure one or more properties of objects located within those locked areas or sections Example prop e
40. rals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components The drawings illustrate generally by way of example but not by way of limitation various embodiments discussed in the present document FIG 1 shows a line drawing representation of gloomed and ungloomed areas according to some examples of the present disclosure FIG 2 shows a line drawing representation of gloomed areas ungloomed areas and a preview according to some examples of the present disclosure FIG 3 shows a flowchart of a method of rendering the map according to some examples of the present disclosure FIG 4 shows a flowchart of a method of showing previews according to some examples of the present disclosure FIG 5 shows a schematic of a game application according to some examples of the present disclosure 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 FIG 6 shows a schematic ofa gaming system according to some examples of the present disclosure FIG 7 shows a schematic data flow of a gaming system according to some examples of the present disclosure FIG 8 shows a schematic of a gaming system according to some examples of the present disclosure FIG 9 shows a schematic of a machine implementation according to some examples of the present disclosure DETAILED DESCRIPTION map based game may limit the areas ofthe map to which a virtual game character which is controlled by a player can travel to o
41. rm an operation and store the output of that operation in a memory device to which it is communicatively coupled A further hardware implemented module may then at a later time access the memory device to retrieve and process the stored output Hardware implemented modules may also initiate communi cations with input or output devices and may operate on a resource e g a collection of information The various operations of example methods described herein may be performed at least partially by one or more processors that are temporarily configured e g by software or permanently configured to perform the relevant operations Whether temporarily or permanently configured such pro cessors may constitute processor implemented modules that operate to perform one or more operations or functions The modules referred to herein may in some example embodi ments comprise processor implemented modules Similarly the methods described herein may be at least partially processor implemented For example at least some of the operations of a method may be performed by one or processors or processor implemented modules The perfor mance of certain of the operations may be distributed among the one or more processors not only residing within a single machine but deployed across a number of machines In some example embodiments the processor or processors may be located in a single location e g within a home environment an office environ
42. rt and Written Opinion mailed Jul 12 2012 12 pgs Build an Island Town Online Retrieved from the Internet http itunes apple com us app tap paradise cove id488845680 Is 1 amp mt 8 Accessed Aug 24 2012 3 pgs Rise of Nations Online Retrieved from the Internet www microsoft com games riseofnations default aspx Accessed Aug 24 2012 2 pgs Screen shots from Tap Paradise Cove from Pocket Gems Inc Online Retrieved from the Internet http venturebeat files wordpress com 2012 03 paradise cove jpg w 5 58 amp h 9999 amp crop 0 Accessed Aug 24 2012 2 pgs Screenshot of Rise of Nations Online Retrieved from the Internet http www firingsquad com media article_image asp 1210 02 Accessed Aug 24 2012 3 pgs Tap Paradise Cove iTunes Preview Pocket Gems Inc 00 00 2011 4 pgs cited by examiner Primary Examiner Omkar Deodhar 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Schwegman Lundberg amp Woessner P A 57 ABSTRACT Disclosed in some examples is a method of providing a com puter implemented game the method includes rendering a display of a virtual in game environment comprising an unlocked area and a locked area an in game player character controlled by a player of the game having access to the unlocked areas but being restricted from accessing the locked area and using one or more processors applying a visual effect to the locked area to distinguish the loc
43. rties include color size shape or identity The visual effect may be applied to the locked area and or objects within those areas such that at least some aspects or properties of the locked or unexplored areas and or the objects within those areas are revealed to the player even though the player char acter has not yet travelled to the locked area and does not currently have access to the locked area The locked area may for example be displayed such that locations of respective in game objects and or non player characters are visible even though such objects and or characters are not displayed fully A topological layout of the locked area may also be revealed for example showing the full extent of the locked area and or showing the location of environmental features such as forests rivers bridges buildings or the like This may be beneficial in that it may give game players glimpse into the unexplored and unavailable portions ofthe map in an effort to encourage players to continue playing and to assist in decision making with respect to unlocking new areas In yet other examples special previews may be pro vided to game players who attempt to interact with the locked areas of one or more game objects or portions of the locked sections by removing one or more of the applied effects temporarily or by providing one or more additional preview effects or teaser messages In some examples the requirements for unlocking map areas ma
44. show one or more in game characters 1040 as a shadow or silhouette rather than the shading done to the rest of the game objects and the rest of the map Each in game object may be represented by a data structure which may specify an effect that should be used to gloom the object The effects can be in addition to or a replacement of a default glooming effect In some examples additional glooming effects may include shadowing e g showing the object as a shadow silhouetting not showing the object at all applying additional darker shading applying lighter shading or no additional effects just the default glooming effect Not showing objects in the gloomed area may provide game play ers who unlock the gloomed areas with a surprise In some examples game player interaction with the gloomed areas or objects within the gloomed areas may not be allowed In yet other examples game player interaction with the gloomed areas or individual objects within those areas may cause the game to show previews of the gloomed areas for the game players These previews comprise the application of one or more preview effects to the map sections or objects within those map sections which may entice game players to unlock those map areas or objects The preview effects may include softening or removing the glooming effects revealing one or more obscured properties ofthe game object thus giving players a better view of objects or land which is gloomed a
45. sing client system 7010 and the Flash client The Flash objects can represent a variety of in game objects Thus the player may perform various in game actions on various in game objects by making various changes and updates to the associated Flash objects In par ticular embodiments in game actions can be initiated by clicking or similarly interacting with a Flash object that rep resents a particular in game object For example a player can interact with a Flash object to use move rotate delete attack shoot or harvest an in game object This disclosure contem plates performing any suitable in game action by interacting with any suitable Flash object In particular embodiments when the player makes a change to a Flash object representing anin game object the client executed game logic may update one or more game state parameters associated with the in game object To ensure synchronization between the Flash object shown to the player at client system 7010 the Flash client may send the events that caused the game state changes to the in game object to game networking system 7030 How ever to expedite the processing and hence the speed of the overall gaming experience the Flash client may collect a batch of some number of events or updates into a batch file The number of events or updates may be determined by the Flash client dynamically or determined by game networking system 7030 based on server loads or other factors For example
46. tions objects or areas which have been rendered using the one or more visual effects may be referred to herein as gloomed areas or gloomed sections and the process of applying the one or more visual effects to those sections may be called gloom ing The result of glooming being done on a particular sec tion may be referred to as a gloomed section Other examples of creating the gloomed effect include changing the actual topographical representation of the vir tual land within that map section by rendering it using a different texture which highlights the locked or gloomed nature ofthe section For example if the topography is grass a special grass texture for the gloomed areas may be created which may be different than the grass texture for unlocked sections if the topography is desert a different gloomed desert texture may be utilized and so on For example grass in unlocked areas may have a lawn like appearance while grass in gloomed areas may have a wilder unkempt appear ance In some examples the rendering effects applied to the map sections e g the glooming of the map sections such as the application of the bluish tint may also be applied to the different object textures Thus for example the gloomed 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 grass texture may be tinted dark blue to match the surround ing tinted e g gloomed map sections In some examples multiple effects may be ut
47. trative and not restrictive For example the above described examples or one or more aspects thereof may be used in combination with each other Other embodiments can be used such as by one of ordinary skill in the art upon reviewing the above description The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 1 72 b to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims Also in the above Detailed Descrip tion various features may be grouped together to streamline the disclosure This should not be interpreted as intending that an unclaimed disclosed feature is essential to any claim Rather inventive subject matter may lie in less than all fea tures of a particular disclosed embodiment Thus the follow ing claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Descrip tion with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment and it is contemplated that such embodiments can be combined with each other in various combinations or permutations The scope of the invention should be deter mined with reference to the appended claims along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled What is claimed is 1 A method of providing a computer implemented game the method comprising rendering a display virtual in game environment com prising an unlocked area a
48. ts shown or described or one or more aspects thereof either with respect to a particular example or one or more aspects thereof or with respect to other examples or one or more aspects thereof shown or described herein All publications patents and patent documents referred to in this document are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety as though individually incorporated by reference In the event of inconsistent usages between this document and those documents so incorporated by reference the usage in the incorporated reference s should be considered supple mentary to that of this document for irreconcilable inconsis tencies the usage in this document controls In this document the terms or are used as is common in patent documents to include one or more than one independent of any other instances or usages of at least one or one or more In this document the term is used to refer to a nonexclusive or such that or B includes but not but not A and A and B unless otherwise indicated In this document the terms including and in which are used as the plain English equivalents of the respective terms comprising and wherein Also in the following claims the terms including and comprising are open ended that is a system device article or process that includes elements in addition to those listed after suc
49. ular game object of the one or more game objects located in the locked area responsive to player inter action with the particular game object 18 The non transitory machine readable medium of claim 17 wherein the instructions include instructions which when performed by the machine cause the machine to perform operations comprising displaying a message in association with the particular game object responsive to player interac tion therewith 19 The non transitory machine readable medium of claim 16 wherein the instructions include instructions which when performed by the machine cause the machine to apply the visual effect to the locked area such that respective locations ofthe one or more game objects located in the locked area that represent non player characters are revealed 20 The non transitory machine readable medium of claim 19 wherein the instructions include instructions which when performed by the machine cause the machine to apply the visual effect to the locked area such that respective silhouettes oftheoneor more non player characters in the locked area are revealed 21 The non transitory machine readable medium of claim 16 wherein the instructions include instructions which when performed by the machine cause the machine to apply the visual effect such that a topological layout of the locked area 15 revealed 22 The non transitory machine readable medium of claim 16 wherein the instructions include instructions wh
50. various example embodiments in connection with a user interface providing a network accessible game In some embodiments the system 6000 may comprise a game player 6010 a client device 6020 a network 6030 a social network ing system 6040 and a game networking system 6050 The components ofthe system 6000 may be connected directly or overthe network 6030 which may be any suitable network In various embodiments one or more portions of the network 6030 may include an ad hoc network an intranet an extranet a virtual private network VPN a local area network LAN a wireless LAN WLAN a wide area network WAN a wireless WAN WWAN a metropolitan area network MAN a portion of the Internet a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network PSTN a cellular telephone network or any other type of network or a combination of two or more such networks The client device 6020 may be any suitable computing device e g devices such as a smart phone a personal digital assistant PDA a mobile phone a personal computer US 8 753 204 B2 7 a laptop a computing tablet and the like The client device 6020 may access the social networking system 6040 or the game networking system 6050 directly via the network 6030 or via a third party system For example the client device 6020 may access the game networking system 6050 via the social networking system 6040 The player 6010 may use the client device 6020 to play the virtual
51. way of limitation a computer implemented game may be an animated or rendered game executable as a stand alone appli cation or within the context of a webpage or other structured document In particular embodiments the computer imple mented game may be implemented using Adobe FLASH based technologies As an example and not by way of limita tion a game may be fully or partially implemented as a SWF object that is embedded in a web page and executable by a Flash media player plug in In particular embodiments one or more described webpages may be associated with or accessed by social networking system 7020 This disclosure contemplates using any suitable application for the retrieval and rendering of structured documents hosted by any suitable network addressable resource or website Application event data of a game is any data relevant to the game e g player inputs In particular embodiments each application datum may have a name and a value and the value ofthe application datum may change 1 be updated at any time When an update to an application datum occurs at client system 7010 either caused by an action ofa game player or by the game logic itself client system 7010 may need to inform game networking system 7030 ofthe update For example if the game is a farming game with a harvest mechanic such as Zynga FarmVille an event can correspond to a player click ing on a parcel of land to harvest a crop In such an instance th
52. wired wireless or a combination of hardwired 0 35 40 45 50 16 and wireless connections through a network both perform tasks In a distributed system environment program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices see below example computer system 9000 includes a processor 9002 e g a Central Processing Unit CPU a Graphics Processing Unit GPU or both a main memory 9001 and a static memory 9006 which communicate with each other via abus 9008 The computer system 9000 may further include a video display unit 9010 e g a Liquid Crystal Display LCD or a Cathode Ray Tube CRT The computer system 9000 also includes an alphanumeric input device 9012 e g a keyboard a User Interface UI controller 9014 e g a mouse a disk drive unit 9016 a signal generation device 9018 e g a speaker and a network interface device 9020 e g a transmitter The disk drive unit 9016 includes a machine readable medium 9022 on which is stored one or more sets of instruc tions 9024 and data structures e g software embodying or used by any one or more of the methodologies or functions illustrated herein The software may also reside completely or at least partially within the main memory 9001 and or within the processor 9002 during execution thereof by the computer system 9000 the main memory 9001 and the pro cessor 9002 also constituting machine readable media The instru
53. work In other embodiments separate servers can be used Client system 7010 can receive and transmit data 7070 to and from game networking system 7030 This data can include for example webpages messages game inputs game displays HTTP packets data requests transaction information updates and other suitable data At some other time or at the same time game networking system 7030 can communicate data 7080 7090 e g game state information 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 game system account information page info messages data requests updates etc with other networking systems such as social networking system 7020 e g Facebook Myspace Google etc Client system 7010 can also receive and trans mit data 7100 to and from social networking system 7020 This data can include for example webpages messages social graph information social network displays HTTP packets data requests transaction information updates and other suitable data Communication between client system 7010 social net working system 7020 and game networking system 7030 can occur over any appropriate electronic communication medium or network using any suitable communications pro tocols For example client system 7010 as well as various servers of the systems described herein may include Trans port Control Protocol Internet Protocol TCP IP networking stacks to provide for datagram and transport functions
54. y a visual effect to the locked area to dis tinguish the locked area from the unlocked area the visual effect revealing one or more aspects of the unlocked area using one or more computer processors Disclosed in some examples is a machine readable medium that stores instructions which when performed by a machine cause the machine to perform certain operations In some examples the operations can include rendering a display of a virtual in game environment comprising an unlocked area and a locked area an in game player character controlled by a player of the game having access to the unlocked areas but being restricted from accessing the locked area and using one or more processors applying a visual effect to the locked area to distinguish the locked area from the unlocked area the visual effect revealing one or more aspects of the unlocked area The above detailed description includes references to the accompanying drawings which form a part of the detailed description The drawings show by way of illustration spe cific embodiments in which the invention can be practiced These embodiments are also referred to herein as examples Such examples can include elements in addition to those shown or described However the present inventors also con template examples in which only those elements shown or described are provided Moreover the present inventors also contemplate examples using any combination or permutation ofthose elemen
55. y include accomplishment of a game play objective paying a fee or paying in game currency or tokens Game play objectives may include completing specific tasks or completing a series of one or more tasks Example game play US 8 753 204 B2 3 objectives include defeating an in game villain character accumulating enough experience points through one or more battles with in game villain characters harvesting enough crops utilizing enough energy points or the like In game currency or tokens may be accumulated by completing one or more game play objectives or may be accumulated by pur chasing them with real money Game state data may be used to store any data necessary to describe an instance of the game and may include the states of various game objects game player data e g accomplishments accumulated virtual objects and whether one or more game play objectives have been achieved The system may consult the game state data to determine whether game play objectives necessary to unlock one or more ofthe map sections have been achieved or whether or not the player has enough in game currency to purchase one or more of the locked map sections Game objects placed on the map may include any object within the game to which the game player can interact with and may include trees rocks plants water features in game characters structures paths roads bridges or the like The method may comprise rendering the map such that the tota
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