System and method for enhancing participation in online multiplayer sessions

A session queuing system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory configured to store program code to be executed by the processor, the program code including:
• an audience manager configured to:
• associate users with an activity of a host player by including the users in an activity group;
• a queue manager configured to:
• receive requests from at least a subset of the users in the activity group to join a session of the activity as guest players, the session including participation in the activity with the host player, and
• queue the users that submitted the requests to join the session, the users being prioritized in a queue by the queue manager based at least on information relating to performance by the users in the activity, and
• a session manager configured to:
• determine a beginning of the session,
• automatically insert a first set of users from the queue into the session to initiate an active session, a number of users in the first set corresponding to the activity,
• determine an end of the active session;
• automatically remove the first set of users from the active session;
• and
• automatically insert a second set of users from the queue into the session to initiate a second active session, a number of users in the second set corresponding to the activity.

A method for session queuing performed on a processing system, the method comprising:

• receiving requests from at least a subset of users in an activity group to join a session of an activity as guest players, the session including participation in the activity with a host player;
• adding the users in the subset that submitted the requests to a prioritized queue to join the session, the users in the subset being prioritized in the prioritized queue based at least on previous performance in the activity;
• determining a beginning of the session;
• automatically inserting a first set of one or more users from the prioritized queue into the session to initiate an active session;
• determining an end of the active session;
• automatically removing the first set of one or more users from the active session;
• and
• automatically inserting a second set of one or more users from the prioritized queue into the session to initiate a second active session.

A computer-readable medium having program instructions recorded thereon that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform acts comprising:

• associating users with an activity of a host player by including the users in an activity group;
• receiving requests from individual users in the activity group to participate as guest players in the activity with the host player;
• adding the individual users that submitted the requests to a queue in a priority order based at least on user information relating to performance by the individual users in the activity;
• automatically inserting one or more first users from a top of the queue into a first active session;
• determining an end of the first active session;
• automatically removing the one or more first users from the first active session;
• and
• automatically inserting one or more second users from the top of the queue into a second active session.