Method and system for providing contextual information about available gaming activity

Abstract

Methods, systems for providing contextual information about available gaming activities are provided herein. The method comprises: maintaining, by at least one remote networked service, a game plan comprising a list of activities associated with at least one application; receiving information associated with availability of the activity to the user; determining an estimated game time of the available activity; and generating a user interface having contextual information associated with one or more of the available activities, the contextual information including the estimated game time.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of the invention patent application with the application date of October 15, 2019, application number 201980069462.X, and invention name “Remote networking service for providing contextual information”.

[0002] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0003] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 748,974, filed on October 22, 2018. Technical Field

[0004] The present technology relates generally to remote networked gaming services and, more particularly, to providing contextual information to users regarding available gaming activities. Background Art

[0005] The approaches described in this section may be pursued, but they are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

[0006] Video games are becoming more complex, while the time allocated to play them is more limited than ever. Players want to stay engaged and immersed in the video games they play from beginning to end. However, these players often have questions about the games they are playing, and in order to get answers to these questions, they must leave the game and go to a third-party site. This is because the state and video game activity within the game are not aggregated and analyzed across video games and video game players. It would be a huge workload for game developers to implement all the features required to provide game help to players and reduce the frustration of players within the context of a single game. Therefore, a data model and a developer-friendly API are needed to support multiple players and game environments across a unified data platform.

[0007] Additionally, players may be overwhelmed by the many available activities that modern games (both open world and closed world games) offer in the flow of a game ("game flow"). Due to the large number of options provided in such games, much of a player's scarce console time is spent choosing what to do next in the game. In the worst case, choice paralysis can lead to player withdrawal, causing the player to stop playing the game. Additionally, if a player has limited available game time, they may often reduce their opportunities to play the game because they may not be confident that they can complete meaningful in-game activities in that available game time.

[0008] For example, players try to predict how long it will take to get back into a narrative-rich game. Those players may wait until they have a large amount of time available to play, but such time slots may be few and far between. At the same time, players lose focus on where they are in the narrative, what activities they are in, etc., further exacerbating the difficulty of getting back into the game. This problem is exacerbated by the proliferation of other forms of entertainment that have fixed durations or that only require the player to have short periods of mental concentration.

[0009] Therefore, there is a great need for a system that allows players to plan ahead and select activities within their game before starting to play by reviewing available activities using key contextual information (such as game time estimates and review information) required to make choices before playing. Summary of the invention

[0010] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0011] In general, the present disclosure relates to a remote networking service for providing contextual information about available gaming activities to users. The remote networking service may be referred to herein as a "game plan," which allows users to review at least one gaming activity available to them across games that the user is actively playing at a platform level (on the console and outside the console). The platform provides contextual information about gaming activities, such as estimated play time, in-game location, and rewards. Users can then make informed choices about gaming activities before launching a game, and thus focus their time on the game rather than navigating menus to view options.

[0012] The remote networking service provides guidance on the next available in-game activities. The activities may include, for example, time-sensitive activities, task-based activities, or achievement-based activities. Each activity is a discrete part of a game with associated metadata, and the metadata of each activity includes name, description, image, date range (e.g., for time-limited activities) and other information as described herein. On a per-user basis, the associated metadata may include whether the activity is available (e.g., based on progress), whether the activity should be hidden to avoid spoilers and estimated game time. In one or more embodiments, the activity is instantiated as an activity instance, which has associated metadata, including start time, end time, player list, context information (difficulty, equipment, map, etc.), result information (score, completion time, etc.) and progress amount.

[0013] In various embodiments, the remote networking service is able to access a unified data system that provides a method for game clients and game servers to send data to the platform without the need for per-feature or per-service integration. The remote networking service is able to access contextual information related to the user's game application, including: any progress and activities, including the name, description, and status associated with the activity, and telemetry related to the start and end timestamps of the activity, the estimated game time, the position and rewards within the game; any actions and results, including the initiator, timestamp and location associated with the action and the affected entity, the timestamp, location and related actions associated with the result; any areas and locations, including the name, description, virtual coordinates and events associated with the areas and locations; any characters and attributes, including character statistics, inventory, abilities and telemetry related to changes in character statistics, inventory and abilities; any choices and forks, including the dialogue, paths, options of the forked situation, and telemetry related to the user encountering a particular fork and which option was selected.

[0014] The context information may include information associated with the availability of an activity to a user. The information itself may provide whether an activity is available to a user. The information may also allow a server to make a determination whether an activity is available to a user.

[0015] In various embodiments, the unified activity module represents the relevant available activities that the user can participate in. For example, the unified activity module can represent the events in the single player level or mission, multiplayer mode, valid multiplayer competition, prize or other available game that are available or in progress. The unified activity module includes description, location, estimated duration (that is, estimated game time), reward for completing the activity, progress indicator or any combination thereof. The estimated duration can be an estimate of how long a particular activity will take the user to complete. The estimated duration can be based on statistics of completion time from other users, completion time of users for other activities, self-identification of users to skills and thoroughness, etc. The unified activity module can also include suggesting that users should start activities now or wait until a higher readiness is achieved later based at least in part on the estimated success rate.

[0016] The user interface may present multiple unified activity modules organized by progress, location, reward, or time remaining (for activities with a set of available time windows). The particular unified activity module presented to the user may be based on contextual information, such as proximity to the virtual location of the user's character, amount of progress toward completing the activity, completion or availability status of friends for the activity (including friends' results for the activity, such as score, completion time, character used, difficulty setting, etc.), friend challenges, estimated play time, duration of time the activity is available, or other suitable information.

[0017] According to another aspect of the embodiments disclosed herein, a user interface provides information about ongoing activities to a user. The information can be combined with a transcript to show the user media associated with the activity in the game or game plan, thereby providing the user with a review to restart after an interruption.

[0018] In some embodiments, in response to a user selecting an activity via a user interface, the remote networking service transmits a boot parameter to a client to launch an application with the selected activity. The boot parameter is configured to launch the application and navigate to an available activity. The boot parameter can be transmitted to the same client or a different client configured to execute the associated application.

[0019] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method for providing contextual information about available gaming activities is provided, the method comprising: maintaining a gaming plan by at least one remote networked service, the gaming plan comprising a list of activities associated with at least one application; receiving information associated with the availability of activities to a user; determining an estimated gaming time for the available activities; and generating a user interface having contextual information associated with one or more of the available activities, the contextual information comprising the estimated gaming time.

[0020] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a system is provided, the system comprising: a processor; and a memory, the memory being coupled to the processor and storing a program, the program being executable by the processor to perform a method for providing contextual information about available gaming activities, the method comprising: maintaining a gaming plan by at least one remote networking service, the gaming plan comprising a list of activities associated with at least one application; receiving information associated with the availability of an activity to a user; determining an estimated gaming time for the available activities; and generating a user interface having contextual information associated with one or more of the available activities, the contextual information comprising the estimated gaming time.

[0021] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a program is embodied, and the program can be executed by a processor to perform a method for providing contextual information about available gaming activities, the method comprising: maintaining a gaming plan by at least one remote networking service, the gaming plan comprising a list of activities associated with at least one application; receiving information associated with the availability of activities to a user; determining an estimated gaming time for the available activities; and generating a user interface having contextual information associated with one or more of the available activities, the contextual information comprising the estimated gaming time.

[0022] The user interface may be presented via a number of client devices, such as a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a game console, a gaming device, a set-top box (STB), a television device, a cellular telephone, a portable music player (e.g., a portable hard drive audio device), a network appliance, or any machine capable of presenting a user interface. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements.

[0024] Figure 1 An exemplary system architecture for providing contextual information to a user regarding available gaming activities is shown according to an exemplary embodiment.

[0025] Figure 2 Another exemplary system architecture is described according to an exemplary embodiment.

[0026] Figure 3 An exemplary system for providing a data model of a unified data platform according to an exemplary embodiment is shown.

[0027] Figure 4 An exemplary user interface according to an exemplary embodiment is depicted.

[0028] Figure 5 Another exemplary user interface is shown according to an exemplary embodiment.

[0029] Figure 6 A flow chart illustrating a method for providing contextual information to a user regarding available gaming activities is illustrated.

[0030] Figure 7 is a diagrammatic representation of an exemplary machine in the form of a computer system within which a set of instructions is executed for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] The following detailed description includes references to the accompanying drawings that form a part of the detailed description. The drawings show diagrams according to exemplary embodiments. These exemplary embodiments, which are also referred to herein as "examples," are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the subject matter. The embodiments may be combined, other embodiments may be utilized, or structural, logical, and electrical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the claimed content. Therefore, the following detailed description will not be viewed in a limiting sense, and the scope is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0032] In general, various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to providing contextual information about available gaming activities to a user. The contextual information may include information associated with the availability of an activity to a user. The information itself may provide whether an activity is available to a user. The information may also allow a server to make a determination as to whether an activity is available to a user.

[0033] Figure 1 1 is an exemplary system architecture 100 for providing contextual information about available gaming activities to a user according to an exemplary embodiment. In some embodiments, the exemplary system architecture 100 includes a game client 105, a unified data system (UDS) software development kit (SDK) 110, a console system software 115, a local rule engine 120, a UDS server 125, a game server 130, processed data 135, and one or more other remote networked services, including a help service 140, a game plan 145, user generated content (UGC) tags 150, and other services 155. The help service 140 may also receive information from other data sources 160.

[0034] The game client 105 and the game server 130 provide context information about at least one application to the unified data system (UDS) server 125 via the UDS data model, which describes the logical structure of the UDS data used by the UDSSDK 110. The UDS data model enables the platform to implement remote networking services, such as help services 140, game plans 145, UGC tags 150, and other services 155 that require game data, without the need to patch the game separately to support the service. The UDS data model assigns context information to a portion of the information across games in a unified manner. The context information from the game client 105 and the UDSSDK 110 is provided to the UDS server 125 via the console system software 115. It will be understood that the game client 105, the UDSSDK 110, the console system software 115, and the local rule engine 120 can be run on a computer or other suitable hardware for executing at least one application.

[0035] The UDS server 125 receives context information from at least one application from the game client 105 and the game server 130 and stores the context information. Of course, the UDS server 125 can receive context information from multiple game clients and game servers for multiple users. The information can be uniformly processed (i.e., processed data 135) and then received by multiple remote networking services 140, 145, 150, and 155.

[0036] Figure 2 Another exemplary embodiment of a system architecture according to the present disclosure is shown. A game client 205 sends context information to a UDS server 210, which provides the context information to multiple remote networked services in a unified data model, including profile data 215, game plans 220, sessions 225, matches 230, attendance 235, and a help system 240.

[0037] Figure 3An exemplary system for providing a data model of a unified data system 300 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the system 300 may include at least one device 330 configured to execute at least one of a plurality of applications 332, each of which has an application data structure. A unified data platform 310 may be executed on one or more servers. The unified data platform 310 may include a data model that is unified across multiple application data structures. The data model may include metadata 312 corresponding to at least one object indicated in the data model, and events 314 corresponding to trigger conditions associated with at least one metadata entry. The values ​​of the metadata 312 and the events 314 may be associated with a user profile. The unified data platform 310 may be configured to receive application data from at least one device 330 and store the application data in the data model. The system 300 may also include a plurality of remote networking services 320, which are configured to access application data from the unified data platform 310 using the data model.

[0038] In various embodiments, metadata 312 may include: a list of all activities that a user can perform in the application, the name of the activity, a description of the activity, the status of the activity (whether it is available, started or completed), whether the activity requires completion of a goal or campaign, the reward for completing the activity, the opening or ending part of the plot screen, the location in the game, one or more conditions that must be met before the activity becomes available, and the parent activity that contains the activity as a child activity. Metadata 312 may also include: a list of abilities that the user can use, the effect of each action, telemetry indicating when the actions and effects occur, including corresponding timestamps and locations, a coordinate system in the game, a list of forking situations in the game, and telemetry indicating when a forking situation is encountered and which option the user selects. A list of in-game statistics, items, lore, in-game areas, and corresponding attributes about each statistic, item, lore, or area may also be included in metadata 312. In addition, metadata 312 may indicate whether a particular activity, entity (such as a character, item, ability, etc.), setting, result, action, effect, location, or attribute should be marked as hidden.

[0039] Events 314 may be triggered in response to a number of various trigger conditions. For example, such trigger conditions may include: a previously unavailable activity becoming available, a user starting an activity, a user ending an activity, an opening or closing cutscene of an activity starting or ending, a user's in-game location or zone change, in-game stats change, an item or lore acquired, an action performed, an effect occurring, a user interacting with a character, item, or other in-game entity, and discovering an activity, entity, setting, result, action, effect, location, or attribute. Events 314 may include other information about the state of the application when event 314 was triggered, such as a timestamp when a user started or ended an activity, difficulty settings and character statistics, success or failure of an activity, or a score or duration associated with a completed activity. It will be understood that metadata 312 and events 314 may include any and all contextual information related to the activities described in the present disclosure.

[0040] Figure 4 An exemplary embodiment of a user interface 400 for a game plan remote networking service disclosed herein is described. The user interface 400 includes a plurality of activity modules 405, which represent activities available to users or in progress. The user interface 400 may similarly include unavailable or completed activities. The activity module 405 includes a name 410, a position 415, a reward list 420, an estimated game time 425, and a current progress 430. Each activity module 405 presented by the user interface 400 may be updated in real time to ensure that the user has the latest available information to decide what to do next. In response to user selections, such as tapping or clicking, verbal inquiries via a voice recognition system, or other suitable user inputs, the user interface 400 may provide other contextual information about available activities. The other contextual information may include one or more parent activities, one or more child activities, related media (such as plot screens, audio recordings, books in the game, knowledge, etc. that the user has discovered), and help information for completing the selected activity.

[0041] In various embodiments, the user interface 400 is generated based on metadata, such as metadata stored in a UDS server. The metadata may indicate the type and current state of each activity. For example, the type of activity includes an activity within a game, a multiplayer session, an event within a game, an event scheduled by a user, a prize, a feature / promotional activity, a pinned activity at the top of a list, or a hidden activity at the bottom of a list. An activity within a game may have the following states: unavailable, available, ongoing with a certain amount of user progress, or completed (including the results of the activity, such as score, completion time, characters used, difficulty setting, etc.). A multiplayer session may be joined, not joined, a multiplayer session is currently active, upcoming, and / or can be joined, and an event within a game or an event scheduled by a user may be registered, not registered, an event within a game or an event scheduled by a user may be currently active, upcoming, and / or can be registered. A prize may be locked, unlocked, or ongoing with a certain amount of user progress with a goal of unlocking a prize. The metadata associated with a particular activity may further indicate whether the activity is required to complete the core game campaign, which may be predefined by the game developer.

[0042] For unavailable activities, user interface 400 may include a recommendation for the next available or ongoing activity to be completed, which will ultimately lead to the selected unavailable activity. For example, an activity may be available only when the user has advanced to a particular stage, completed another activity, obtained a particular item, etc., or any combination thereof. The availability of an activity may be based on a tree list of activities or other suitable schedules. In this way, an activity may include one or more parent activities and one or more child activities. Therefore, user interface 400 may include a recommendation or other requirement to complete one or more parent activities in order to gain access to an unavailable activity.

[0043] The user interface 400 may also include a sort input 435 that may cause the system to re-sort the activity modules 405 by progress (such as the value of the current progress 430), location (such as location 415 and the virtual distance between the location and the user's current in-game location), or reward (such as the value of reward 420). The activity modules 405 may similarly be sorted by: progress toward unlocking a prize; the type or status of the activity; whether the activity is required or optional for the core game campaign; the estimated play time; whether the estimated play time is less than a predetermined or selectable amount of time, given a game title; or whether the user has already received a challenge to complete the activity. The user interface 400 may include additional controls to allow the user to: search for activities; pin an activity to a pinned subgroup of activities that appears near the top of the activity module list 405; hide an activity in a hidden subgroup of activities that appears near the bottom of the activity module list 405; or register or unregister for an in-game or user-scheduled event. To assist in orienting the user through the story of the game, the additional controls may also include controls that allow the player to see an automatically generated sequence of cutscenes previously encountered in the game in the chronological order in which they were previously encountered.

[0044] Figure 5 Another exemplary embodiment of a user interface 500 of the present disclosure is illustrated. The user interface 500 includes a plurality of activity modules 505 representing time-sensitive or urgent activities that are about to expire. The activity modules 505 may likewise be sorted by the amount of time remaining for the activity and display the amount of time remaining to the user.

[0045] Figure 6 6 is a process flow diagram illustrating a method 600 for providing a remote networking service for a game plan according to an exemplary embodiment. The method 600 may be performed by processing logic including hardware (e.g., decision logic, dedicated logic, programmable logic, application specific integrated circuits), software (such as software running on a general purpose computer system or a dedicated machine), or a combination of the two. In an exemplary embodiment, the processing logic involves Figure 1 and Figure 2 The operations of method 600 described below may be performed in an order different from the order described and shown in the figures. In addition, method 600 may have additional operations not shown herein but understood by those skilled in the art based on the present disclosure. Method 600 may also have additional operations than those described in the figures. Figure 6 There are fewer operations shown and described below.

[0046] Method 600 begins at block 610, where a list of activities associated with at least one application is maintained. For example, the list of activities may include levels, missions, prizes, multiplayer modes, etc. associated with a particular gaming application. The information is provided by, for example, PlayStation The one or more servers may be maintained by one or more servers such as PSN or other suitable servers. It will be appreciated that the one or more servers may also maintain other contextual information associated with at least one application described in the present disclosure. The information maintained by the one or more servers may be updated in real time so that activity lists, user status information for activities, and estimated game time are up to date.

[0047] In box 620, method 600 may include receiving information from the client indicating whether the activity is available for the user. The information may include whether the activity should be hidden to avoid spoilers, and the estimated game time. The information received from the client may also include information about one or more instances of the activity, such as the activity name, start time, end time, player list, minimum and maximum number of players, one or more counts or percentages of the acquired collections, context information (difficulty, equipment, map, etc.), result information (score, completion time, etc.) and progress amount. If one or more conditions are met, the activity may be available to the user. For example, the activity may be available only when the user has advanced to a specific stage, completed another activity, obtained a specific item, etc., or any combination thereof. The availability of the activity may be based on a tree list of the activity or other suitable progress. In this way, the activity may include one or more parent activities and one or more child activities.

[0048] In block 630, method 600 may include determining an estimated play time for the available activities. In various embodiments, the determination is based on one or more of: received estimated play time, statistics of completion times from other users, user completion times for other activities, user character statistics, user self-identification of skill and thoroughness, developer estimated play time, or other suitable information.

[0049] Determining the estimated play time may also include estimating the user's readiness for available activities relative to in-game statistics, equipment, or skills. The system may determine an expected success rate based on character statistics, equipment, and skills. The estimated play time may be further based on completion times of other users with similar readiness, such as using the same character or having similar in-game statistics, equipment, or skills.

[0050] In block 640, method 600 may include generating a user interface with context information associated with one or more of the available activities, the context information including the estimated game time. The user interface may then be presented to the user so that the user can view a list of available activities across at least one application at the platform level to make a wise choice of how to spend his or her time. The estimated game time may be presented as a single time value or a time range. It will be appreciated that the user interface may be generated by the client device based on the latest information received from one or more servers (such as UDS server 125), or it may be generated on a remote server and transmitted to the client device. In addition, the client device may include a cache for context information associated with one or more activities, which may be used when the client device is disconnected or otherwise unable to reach one or more servers.

[0051] Figure 7 A diagrammatic representation of a computing device of a machine in an exemplary electronic form of a computer system 700 is shown, within which a set of instructions for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein may be executed. In an exemplary embodiment, the machine operates as a standalone device, or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine may operate as a server, a client machine in a server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The machine may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a game console, a gaming device, a set-top box (STB), a television device, a cellular phone, a portable music player (e.g., a portable hard drive audio device), a network appliance, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (continuously or otherwise) specifying an action to be taken by that machine. In addition, although only a single machine is described, the term "machine" shall also be deemed to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The computer system 700 may be, for example, at least a console (e.g., see Figure 1 ), an instance of a game server 130 or a UDS server 125.

[0052] The exemplary computer system 700 includes a processor or multiple processors 705 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or both) communicating with each other via a bus 720, as well as a main memory 710 and a static memory 715. The computer system 700 may also include a video display unit 725 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD)). The computer system 700 also includes at least one input device 730, such as an alphanumeric input device (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device (e.g., a mouse), a microphone, a digital camera, a video camera, etc. The computer system 700 also includes a disk drive unit 735, a signal generating device 740 (e.g., a speaker), and a network interface device 745.

[0053] The drive unit 735 (also referred to as the disk drive unit 735) includes a machine-readable medium 750 (also referred to as the computer-readable medium 750) that stores one or more sets of instructions and data structures (e.g., instructions 755) that embody or are utilized by any one or more of the methods or functions described herein. The instructions 755 may also reside, in whole or in part, within the main memory 710 and / or within the processor 705 during execution of the instructions by the computer system 700. The main memory 710 and the processor 705 also constitute machine-readable media.

[0054] The instructions 755 may further be transmitted or received over the communication network 760 via the network interface device 745 using any of a number of well-known transmission protocols, such as the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), CAN, Serial, and Modbus. The communication network 760 includes the Internet, a local intranet, a personal area network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a virtual private network (VPN), a storage area network (SAN), a frame relay connection, an advanced intelligent network (AIN) connection, a synchronous optical network (SONET) connection, a digital T1, T3, E1, or E3 line, a digital data service (DDS) connection, a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection, an Ethernet connection, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) line, a cable modem, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) connection, or a fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) or copper distributed data interface (CDDI) connection. In addition, the communication network 760 may also include a link to any of a variety of wireless networks, including Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) or Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), a cellular telephone network, a Global Positioning System (GPS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Research in Motion, Limited (RIM) two-way paging network, Bluetooth radio, or an IEEE 802.11-based radio frequency network.

[0055] Although the machine-readable medium 750 is shown as a single medium in the exemplary embodiment, the term "computer-readable medium" should be deemed to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., centralized or distributed databases, and / or associated caches and servers) that store one or more sets of instructions. The term "computer-readable medium" should also be deemed to include any medium having the following properties: capable of storing, encoding, or carrying a set of instructions for machine execution; and causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methods of the present application; or capable of storing, encoding, or carrying a data structure utilized by or associated with such a set of instructions. The term "computer-readable medium" should therefore be deemed to include (but not limited to) solid-state memory, optical media, and magnetic media. Such media may also include (but not limited to) hard disks, floppy disks, flash memory cards, digital video disks, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), etc.

[0056] The exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented in an operating environment including computer executable instructions (e.g., software) installed on a computer, in hardware, or in a combination of software and hardware. The computer executable instructions may be written in a computer programming language or may be embodied in firmware logic. If written in a programming language that conforms to a recognized standard, such instructions may be executed on a variety of hardware platforms and used for interfaces with a variety of operating systems. Although not limited thereto, a computer software program for implementing the methods of the present invention may be written in any number of suitable programming languages, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Dynamic HTML, XML, Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), Wireless Markup Language (WML), Java, and the like. TM , Jini TM , C, C++, C#, .NET, Adobe Flash, Perl, UNIX Shell, Visual Basic or Visual Basic Script, Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML), ColdFusion TM or other compiler, assembler, interpreter or other computer language or platform.

[0057] Thus, technology for providing remote networking services for contextual information is disclosed. Although the embodiments have been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, it will be appreciated that various modifications and changes may be made to these exemplary embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the present application. Therefore, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing contextual information about available gaming activities, the method comprising: maintaining, by at least one remote networked service, a game plan, the game plan comprising a list of activities associated with at least one application; receiving information associated with the availability of the activity to the user; Determining estimated play time for available activities; as well as A user interface is generated having contextual information associated with one or more of the available activities, the contextual information including the estimated play time.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the estimated play time for available activities is determined based on one or more of: statistical information from other users' completion times, the user's completion time for other activities, user character statistics, user self-identification, and developer estimated play time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one remote network service maintains the game plan at a platform level, wherein the user can access the game plan on the console and outside the console.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining one or more of the available activities based on one or more of: proximity to the virtual location of the user's character, completion progress, friend completion, friend activity availability status, friend challenges, the estimated play time, and the duration that the activity is available.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user interface comprises unified activity modules, each unified activity module having the contextual information corresponding to one of one or more available activities, wherein the unified activity modules are arranged in a first order, the first order being based on one or more of: proximity to a virtual location of the user's character, completion progress, friend completion, friend activity availability status, friend challenge, the estimated play time, and a duration for which the activity is available.

6. The method of claim 1, the context information further comprising an activity description, a location, one or more rewards, and a progress.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising updating the activity list and the estimated play time for each available activity in real time.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information received from the client further comprises one or more of the following items of the ongoing activity: a start time, an end time, a player list, context information, result information, and a progress amount.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: In response to user selection of an activity, boot parameters configured to launch an application associated with the activity are transmitted.

10. A system, comprising: processor; as well as A memory coupled to the processor and storing a program executable by the processor to perform a method for providing contextual information about available gaming activities, the method comprising: maintaining, by at least one remote networked service, a game plan, the game plan comprising a list of activities associated with at least one application; receiving information associated with the availability of the activity to the user; Determining estimated play time for available activities; and A user interface is generated having contextual information associated with one or more of the available activities, the contextual information including the estimated play time.

11. A system as described in claim 10, wherein the estimated play time for available activities is determined based on one or more of: statistical information from other users' completion times, the user's completion times for other activities, user character statistics, user self-identification, and developer estimated play time.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one remote network service maintains the game plan at a platform level, wherein the user can access the game plan on the console and outside the console.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the program is further executable to transmit the generated user interface to a second client.

14. A system as described in claim 10, wherein the program is further executable to determine the one or more of the available activities based on one or more of the following: proximity to the virtual location of the user's character, completion progress, friend completion, friend activity availability status, friend challenges, the estimated play time, and the duration that the activity is available.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the user interface comprises unified activity modules, each unified activity module having the contextual information corresponding to one of one or more available activities, wherein the unified activity modules are arranged in a first order, the first order being based on one or more of: proximity to a virtual location of the user's character, completion progress, friend completion, friend activity availability status, friend challenge, the estimated play time, and the duration for which the activity is available.

16. The system of claim 10, the context information further comprising an activity description, a location, one or more rewards, and a progress.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the program is further executable to update the list of activities and the estimated play time for each available activity in real time.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the information received from the client further includes one or more of the following for the ongoing activity: a start time, an end time, a player roster, context information, result information, and an amount of progress.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the program is further executable to, in response to a user selection of an activity, transmit a boot parameter configured to launch an application associated with the activity.

20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a program embodied thereon, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for providing contextual information about available gaming activities, the method comprising: maintaining, by at least one remote networked service, a game plan, the game plan comprising a list of activities associated with at least one application; receiving information associated with the availability of the activity to the user; Determining estimated play time for available activities; as well as A user interface is generated having contextual information associated with one or more of the available activities, the contextual information including the estimated play time.

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