Systems and methods for controlling camera perspectives, movements, and displays of video game gameplay

A system for controlling at least one of a navigation, positioning or orientation of a virtual camera configured to capture a plurality of storylines in a multiplayer video game executing on a plurality of gaming devices, wherein each of the plurality of storylines is specific to one player of a plurality of different human players of the multiplayer video game, for broadcasting to a plurality of spectator devices, said system comprising:

• at least one server for hosting a game session of the multiplayer video game and to broadcast said game session to each of a plurality of spectator devices through a network;
• a plurality of gaming modules stored on the plurality of gaming devices remote from the at least one server and configured to enable the plurality of different human players to play in the game session of the multiplayer video game;
• a plurality of spectator modules stored on the plurality of spectator devices remote from the at least one server and configured to enable a plurality of human spectators to view the broadcast of the game session, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of spectator modules are executing on at least a portion of the plurality of gaming devices and wherein at least a portion of the plurality of gaming modules are executing on at least a portion of the plurality of spectator devices;
• a processor in said at least one server, said processor executing a plurality of executable programmatic instructions to:
• define a function to identify the plurality of storylines;
• define at least one base criterion for ranking each of the plurality of storylines;
• determine a base rank for each of the plurality of storylines, the base rank being a function of the at least one base criterion;
• define one or more factors to weight the base rank, wherein the one or more factors is a function of a first value representative of a relationship between each player and each other player of the plurality of different human players in the multiplayer video game, a second value representative of an orientation of each player relative to each other player of the plurality of different human players in the multiplayer video game, and a third factor representative of a degree of an unobstructed view between each player and each other player of the plurality of different human players in the multiplayer video game;
• determine an overall rank for each of the plurality of storylines by associating the at least one factor with the base rank, wherein a value of the at least one factor has an increasing or decreasing effect on the overall ranking;
• and
• subject to one or more rules, programmatically moving the virtual camera to capture one of the plurality of storylines determined to have a highest overall ranking among the plurality of storylines;
• and
• broadcasting the one of the plurality of storylines determined to have a highest overall ranking among the plurality of storylines to the plurality of spectator modules.

A computer readable non-transitory medium comprising a plurality of executable programmatic instructions wherein, when said plurality of executable programmatic instructions are executed by a processor in at least one server, a process for controlling navigation, positioning and orientation of a virtual camera configured to capture a plurality of storylines in a multiplayer video game, wherein each of the plurality of storylines is specific to one player of a plurality of different human players of the multiplayer video game, for broadcasting to at least one spectator device, said plurality of executable programmatic instructions comprising:

• programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for determining a base rank for each of said plurality of storylines, said base rank being a function of at least one base criterion;
• programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for determining an overall rank for each of said plurality of storylines by associating at least one or more weighting factors with said base rank, wherein the one or more weighting factors is a function of a first value representative of a relationship between each player and each other player of the plurality of different human players in the multiplayer video game, a second value representative of an orientation of each player relative to each other player of the plurality of different human players in the multiplayer video game, and a third factor representative of a degree of an unobstructed view between each player and each other player of the plurality of different human players in the multiplayer video game, wherein said overall rank is determined at a predetermined frequency in the game, and wherein said weighting factor has an accentuating or diminishing effect on the overall rank;
• and
• programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for switching the virtual camera to a second storyline of a second overall rank from a first storyline of a first overall rank, wherein said switching is subject to one or more rules.