US 11,305,196 B1Granted

Promoting fair online game play through disadvantaged interactions with online gaming

AssigneeElectronic Arts Inc.

InventorsMichael Gluck, Geoff Green

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Abstract

A cheating enforcement system and method determines if a player profile that is to play an online game is linked to another player profile that had been identified as cheating. If such a link is found, then one or more penalties may be imposed on the player profile, so that penalties for cheating cannot be averted by a player by opening a new player profile to play the online game. If a certain period of time has transpired since cheating was detected for the other player profile, then the one or more penalties may be removed from the player profile. The penalties imposed on the player profile may include server-side hit detection, latency penalty, damage scaling, and/or dropped moves. In the case of a chain of linked player profiles, severity of penalties may increase based on the number of linked accounts where cheating use was detected.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An online gaming system, comprising:

one or more processors;
and
one or more computer-readable media storing (i) profile data including records of instances of cheating in online games, and (ii) computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
receive, from one or more computing devices, one or more requests for corresponding player profiles to participate in an online video game;
identify, from among the player profiles, a first player profile that is to participate in an online game;
determine at least one of a network address or a device identifier associated with the computing device corresponding to the first player profile;
determine, based at least in part on the network address or the device identifier, that the first player profile is associated with a second player profile;
determine, based on the stored profile data, that the second player profile has previously been found to have cheated during an online game;
determine, based at least in part on the determination that the first player profile is associated with the second player profile previously determined to have cheated, a level of severity of online game penalties to be imposed on the first player profile, the level of severity of online game penalties defining one or more penalties to be implemented on the first player profile, wherein at least one of the one or more penalties impede the ability fully engage in the online game;
and
start or continue the online game for the first player profile with the one or more penalties implemented on the first player profile including:
receiving, via a network, an input from the one or more computing devices associated with the player profiles participating in an instance of the online game;
generating updated game state information representing a game state of the online game based on the input and the one or more penalties implemented on the first player profile;
and
outputting the updated game state information to the one or more computing devices.

12 more elements

An online gaming method, comprising:

receiving, by an online gaming system and from one or more computing devices, one or more requests for corresponding player profiles to participate in an online video game, the online gaming system including one or more computer-readable media storing profile data including records of instances of cheating in online games;
identifying, from among the player profiles, a first player profile that is to participate in an online game;
determining that the first player profile is associated with a second player profile;
determining, based on the stored profile data, that the second player profile has previously been found to have cheated during an online game;
determining, based at least in part on the determination that the first player profile is associated with the second player profile previously determined to have cheated, that the second player profile is associated with a level of severity of online game penalties to be imposed on the first player profile, the level of severity of online game penalties defining one or more penalties to be implemented on the first player profile, wherein at least one of the one or more penalties impede the ability fully engage in the online game;
and
starting or continuing the online game for the first player profile with the one or more penalties implemented on the first player profile including:
receiving, via a network, an input from the one or more computing devices associated with the player profiles participating in an instance of the online game;
generating updated game state information representing a fame state of the online game based on the input and the one or more penalties implemented on the first player profile;
and
outputting the updated game state information to the one or more computing devices.

8 more elements

A system, comprising:

one or more processors;
and
one or more computer-readable media storing (i) profile data including records of instances of cheating in online games, and (ii) computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
determine that a first player profile had cheated during online game play;
ban the first player profile from online game play;
associate the first player profile with a level of severity of online game penalties, the level of severity of online game penalties defining one or more penalties to be implemented on other player profiles associated with the first player profile, wherein at least one of the one or more penalties impede the ability fully engage in the online game;
receiving, by an online gaming system and from one or more computing devices, one or more requests for corresponding player profiles to participate in an online video game;
identifying, from among the player profiles, a second player profile that is to participate in an online game;
determine that the second player profile is associated with the first player profile;
determine, based on the stored profile data, that the first player profile has previously been found to have cheated during an online game;
determine, based at least in part m the determination that the second player profile is associated with the first player profile previously determined to have cheated, that the first player profile is associated with a level of severity of online game penalties to be imposed on the second player profile;
and
start or continue online game play for the second player profile with the one or more penalties implemented on the second player profile including:
receiving, via a network, an input from the one or more computing devices associated with player profiles participating in an instance of the online game;
generating updated game state information representing a game state of the online game based on the input and the one or more penalties implemented on the second player profile;
and
outputting the updated game state information to the one or more computing devices.

14 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/775,905Filed 29 Jan 2020 · us provisional application
Priority: 22 Mar 2019
Granted: 19 Apr 2022
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

A63F 13/75
Game security or game management aspects: enforcing rules, e.g. detecting foul play or generating lists of cheating players
A63F 13/30
Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions: interconnection arrangements between game servers…
A63F 13/352
Details of game servers: involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of…
A63F 13/358
Details of game servers: adapting the game course according to the network or server load, e.g. for reducing latency due to different connection…

Family

Application62/822,441Us provisional application · filed 22 Mar 2019
US 11,305,196 B1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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