Action video game for wagering where the player's reward to a challenge is determined by combining the player's skill in facing the challenge with the realization of a randomly generated event, where the likelihood of each possible realization of the random event depends on the player's skill

Abstract

An action video game for wagering that determines the player's monetary reward in a round of play by combining the player's skill in facing a challenge presented by the game with the realization of a randomly generated event, where the likelihood of each possible realization of the random event depends on the player's skill. The game progresses by presenting a challenge to the player that requires the player to take a series of actions in order to achieve the goals implied by the challenge. The performance of the player is evaluated according to a number of features that in conjunction define skill, thus generating a skill score. The game's final outcome and monetary reward are determined by combining the skill score with a random component, where the likelihood of the random component itself can be a function of the skill score. In one embodiment of the invention, different independent mechanisms used to generate random events are indexed according to the skill score. Once the player takes action and a concrete skill score is calculated, the corresponding mechanism is chosen. The outcome presented to the player is determined by an event generated from the chosen mechanism. The game can present a single challenge, as described, or a sequential series of challenges where the final reward is a function of the accumulated outcomes from each individual challenge.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates generally to action games for wagering, including slot machines and other games that are suitable for play in a casino and / or as computer video games, on or off the intemet, and more particularly to betting games that incorporate player skill into the random process that determines the game's outcome and, as a result, the player's monetary award. BACKGROUND [0002] Gaming is becoming an increasingly popular leisure activity in the United States and abroad. Current gaming machines are mostly games of chance, providing monetary awards based on a procedure that draws solely from an independent random mechanism. To date, player skill has played a limited role in video gaming devices. Most of the games offering some degree of player interactivity are card games where skill is related to the ability of calculating probabilities based on the incomplete information revealed by hands that are randomly drawn. [0003] A player's response in th...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] We can see that the game presents a positive relationship between skill and odds. The probability distribution associated with a high skill level presents a higher frequency of monetary payback and a larger possible jackpot than the corresponding probability distribution for a medium skill level (see graph of FIG. 500). In turn, the distribution for a medium level of skill dominates the distribution for a low skill level in terms of hit frequency and jackpot size. Thus, in this embodiment, the skill level has a non-trivial effect on the random mechanism generating monetary paybacks.

Problems solved by technology

Specifically, no gaming system had yet developed a video arcade gambling system combining, in a material way, player skill and a random occurrence.

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