Systems and methods for controlling camera movements between storylines in a video game

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 for transmitting 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 transmit 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 a plurality of 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 transmission 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, wherein the base rank is a function of the at least one base criterion;
• define at least one factor to weight the base rank;
• 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, wherein the one or more rules limit a time which the virtual camera must take to travel to capture the storyline determined to have the highest overall ranking and wherein the time ranges between 0.25 to 1 second;
• transmitting 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;
• and
• causing said one of the plurality of storylines to be rendered on the at least one computing device.

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 for transmitting 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, wherein the base rank is 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 weighting factor with said base rank, 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 and wherein the one or more rules limit a time which the virtual camera must take to travel to capture the storyline determined to have the highest overall ranking and wherein the time ranges between 0.25 to 1 second;
• and
• programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for causing said one of the plurality of storylines to be rendered on the at least one computing device.