Using a participant list to invite players to an on-line game
AssigneeAOL Inc.
InventorsEdmund J. Fish, Allen J. Eichler, June R. Herold
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An instant messaging user may use a buddy list that includes a user-selected list of potential instant messaging recipients (“buddies”) to identify another instant messaging user with whom instant messages are to be exchanged. An instant messaging user also may use a buddy list for other purposes, such as to initiate playing of an on-line game or to invite participants to play an on-line game. The buddy list may be used as an on-line game leaderboard that presents a list of players of the on-line game in ranked order.
Claims21
A computer-implemented method for initiating interaction in a session of an on-line game, the method comprising:
- displaying a participant list of on-line potential participants for a general purpose communication interface to a first user, the participant list being associated with the first user of the general purpose communication interface and the on-line game,
- receiving, from the first user, an indication of a potential participant of the on-line game accessible over a network of computers, wherein the potential participant is one of the potential participants displayed on the participant list, and wherein the indication represents user input selecting the potential participant from the participant list, and
- initiating interaction in a session of the on-line game between the first user and the potential participant, wherein initiating interaction within the session of the on-line game comprises:
- enabling transmission of an invitation to the potential participant, the invitation including a game parameter that describes a game option to be used when playing the session of the on-line game,
- enabling display of the invitation and the game parameter to the potential participant,
- enabling conditional acceptance of the invitation to play the session of the on-line game by the potential participant, the conditional acceptance including an alternative game parameter, and
- enabling rejection or acceptance of the alternative game parameter by the first user.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.