Central Service Provider for Cross-Platform Gaming Interoperability
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Solution Overview
Problem
The on-line gaming community is fragmented due to incompatibility between different gaming consoles and service providers, limiting interaction among gamers subscribing to different services.
Innovation Solution
A distributed loosely coupled unified on-line gaming system that connects multiple gaming service customers and providers through a central service provider via a broadband network, enabling communication and interaction across different hardware and service platforms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If different gaming service providers maintain separate independent networks, then each provider can offer dedicated services and maintain service quality, but the gaming community becomes fragmented and communication between different providers is not possible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a central service provider as an intermediary that connects multiple gaming service providers through a unified network infrastructure. This central provider facilitates communication and data exchange between different gaming providers without requiring them to integrate their own systems directly, thus maintaining service quality while enabling community unity.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified network infrastructure created by the central service provider serves multiple gaming service providers simultaneously, enabling a single network to handle diverse gaming services from different providers. This multi-functional approach allows the system to maintain dedicated service quality for each provider while providing universal access across the entire gaming community.
2Ease of manufacture
If gaming consoles and service providers remain incompatible, then each platform can maintain its own hardware architecture and service offerings, but gamers are restricted to specific subgroups and cannot interact with players on other platforms
Solution Approach 1:
The central service provider acts as an intermediary that translates and routes data between different gaming console architectures and service providers. This allows players on different hardware platforms to communicate with each other while each platform maintains its own independent architecture and service offerings.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs data adaptation and protocol translation mechanisms that modify communication parameters when data travels between different platforms. By changing data formats, protocols, and communication parameters at the central service provider, the system enables compatibility between diverse hardware architectures without requiring changes to the consoles themselves.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a unified network connects all gaming service providers, then the gaming community is expanded and cross-platform interaction is enabled, but the system complexity increases due to coordination between multiple providers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex coordination task by introducing a central service provider that handles all inter-provider communication and data routing. This segmentation isolates the complexity management function from individual gaming providers, allowing each provider to focus on their own services while the central provider manages the coordination complexity of the unified network.
Data Source
AI summary
A distributed loosely coupled unified on-line gaming system comprises a central service provider, gaming service customers providing gaming service customer located equipment connected to the central service provider through a broadband network, and gaming service providers connected to the central service provider through the broadband network. The different gaming service customers are connected to different gaming service providers. A method for providing a distributed loosely coupled unified on-line gaming service comprises the steps of connecting a plurality of gaming service customers and a central service provider through at least a broadband access network, connecting gaming service providers and the central service provider through a broadband access network, establishing a connection between gaming service customers and the plurality of gaming service providers through the central service provider, and establishing multi-customer interactions between the gaming service customers through the central service provider.