The present invention generally relates to prize awarding schemes and more particularly pertains to providing prize awarding schemes implemented on a network gaming system.
Providers of multi-player gaming systems often like to include an award scheme so that users of the gaming system may win prizes through the play of games in the gaming system. By offering prizes, providers have a powerful tool for enticing users to their gaming system. In many cases, the greater the value of the prize offered by the provider, the greater the number of users may be enticed to use the provider""s gaming system.
One type of prize system that a provider may use allows a group of users of the gaming system to each compete for prize credits that accumulate progressively during play. In such an awarding scheme, the users of the gaming system each contribute to the collective progressive score in the gaming system. Typically, the first user to accomplish a goal wins the collective progressive score or a portion thereof which is then added to this winning user""s personal game score.
The collective progressive score may be incrementally increased in a variety of ways. For example, the collective progressive score may be incrementally increased with every game credit used in the gaming system. In another example, the collective progressive score may be automatically incremented over a predetermined or randomly selected interval. The collective progressive score may also be manually increased by the provider as well. In any of these versions, the collective progressive score may be accumulated based on current and previous games played on the gaming system.
Such types of gaming systems with progressive awarding schemes may also be provided to remotely located users via standardized large-scale network systems such as the Internet and World Wide Web. This way, users may participate in games on a gaming system in the comfort of their own home through a connection by a personal computer, a video game console, a set top box, or other device to a remote server of a gaming system provider using telephone lines, coaxial cable lines or other connections to location of the user. This way, a gaming system provider may provide access to their gaming system for a large number of remotely located users so that the users may compete or interact with one another while attempting to win progressive scores of games offered by the gaming system.
However, providing a gaming system with a progressive awarding scheme using the Internet creates several challenges to the gaming system provider. A major problem for gaming system providers using the Internet is unplanned or accidental disconnection of a user from the Internet connection to the gaming system during play. Most at home and remote location connections to the Internet are very fragile and susceptible to frequent unplanned and unwanted disconnections.
Progressive awarding schemes typically require the collective progressive score to be constantly updated. This requires the gaming system to be in constant or frequent contact with each of the users so that actions by the individual users that affect the collective progressive score are collected by the gaming system. If a user is disconnected from the gaming system, the gaming system is unable to obtain the information needed from the particular user to run the progressive awarding scheme. Further, a progressive score of this particular user may not be able to be updated.
If this event happens, the gaming system (and its progressive awarding scheme) may fail or crash. Upon failure of the gaming system from an unplanned disconnection, the disconnected user""s accumulated points are lost and the disconnected user is taken out of contention from winning the collective progressive score.
With the fragility of most at home and remote location connections to the Internet, it is very difficult for a gaming system provider using the Internet to link users to its system to use a progressive awarding scheme that can continue to function with frequent disconnections of its users"" links to the gaming system. Frequent disconnections lead to user dissatisfaction with the particular gaming system and also discourages users from repeat use of the particular gaming system.
Furthermore, every unplanned disconnection forces the user to loose the user""s already accumulated points towards the predetermined progressive goal. When the user re-connects to the gaming system, the user is forced to start the accumulation of points towards the predetermined progressive goal. Now the user may be disheartened in playing with the gaming system because all of their previous efforts to reach the predetermined progressive goal were wasted. Few people would put up with such a loss more than one or two times and therefore, frequent disconnections would lead to fewer and fewer users playing with the particular provider""s gaming system.
Frequently, prior art gaming systems using an Internet connected network have no choice but to rule out any type of progressive prize awarding scheme in order to avoid risking loosing users from dissatisfaction with frequent disconnections from the gaming system.
The present invention provides a system, method, and article of manufacture for providing a progressive prize awarding and redeeming scheme in an intermittently accessed network gaming system. The present invention provides a powerful tool to entice users to their network gaming system. In this scheme, users of the network gaming system each contribute to a collective progressive score in the gaming system. The first user to accomplish a predetermined goal wins the collective progressive score which is then added to this winning user""s personal game score.
Specifically, a beginning prize credit value or score and an increment rate transmitted from a host server are received by a game apparatus connected to the network system. Periodically, a current progressive prize credit value or score is calculated based on the beginning prize credit value or score and the increment rate and is displayed to the user. At the end of the game, the current progressive prize credit value or score is transmitted from the game apparatus of the user to the host server. The present invention solves the problem of how to offer a progressive prize awarding and redeeming scheme on a network system subject to frequent disconnections. With this invention, prize providers are free to offer a progressive prize scheme without fear of user dissatisfaction caused by frequent disconnections of the user to the network system.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the beginning prize credit value or score and the increment rate are received upon connection of the user""s game apparatus with the host server. In a similar embodiment, the beginning prize credit value or score and the increment rate are received prior to beginning the user""s game. In another embodiment of the present invention, the increment rate may be determined based on the number of users that are playing the particular game in the network gaming system. In one version of the present invention, the progressive prize credit value may be awarded to a user based an outcome of the user""s game.
With these embodiments of the present invention, unplanned disconnections no longer force users to loose their already accumulated points towards the predetermined progressive goal. Further, users may continue to accumulate prize credits even when disconnected from the network system.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following descriptions and studying the various figures of the drawings.