Game Rejoin System with Pre-calculated State Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Network disruptions in electronic games, such as poker tournaments, often result in players being unable to rejoin games in progress efficiently, leading to frustration and potential loss of opportunities due to the need for significant time and focus commitments.
Innovation Solution
An electronic game system that generates a list of games a player is registered for, allowing direct rejoining of in-progress games and implementing mandatory and optional break periods to manage network traffic and player experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a player rejoins a game in progress after a network disruption, then the player can resume playing, but the network communication overhead and client-server processing time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining pre-calculated game state data and player position information on the server before the player disconnects. When the player rejoins, this pre-prepared data is immediately transmitted, eliminating the need for time-consuming state reconstruction and enabling rapid reentry into the game.
Solution Approach 2:
The server maintains a copy of the game state and player information that can be quickly replicated and transmitted to the returning player. This copying mechanism allows the player to resume gameplay immediately without requiring extensive data reconstruction, thereby reducing rejoin processing time while maintaining game continuity.
2Ease of operation
If the system allows immediate rejoining of games after network disruptions, then player convenience increases, but network traffic and server processing load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and transmits only the essential game state data and player position information that the player needs to resume gameplay, rather than transmitting the entire game state. This selective data extraction reduces network communication overhead while still enabling convenient immediate rejoining for players.
Solution Approach 2:
The server prepares and stores essential game state data in advance before player disconnection. When players return, this pre-prepared data is immediately available for transmission, reducing the network overhead and server processing load associated with rejoin operations while maintaining ease of rejoining.
3Reliability
If mandatory break periods are implemented in tournaments, then player fatigue is reduced and network traffic is managed, but tournament duration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic mandatory break periods during tournaments at predetermined intervals or after specific numbers of hands. These regular breaks allow players to rest and maintain performance stability while providing the system with predictable network traffic patterns and manageable server loads, accepting the trade-off of increased overall tournament duration.
Data Source
AI summary
The negative impact of network disruptions in electronic games may be reduced by providing increased efficiency in network communications and client- and server-side processing when a player rejoins a game in progress. In some embodiments, an electronic game system may generate a list of games, such as a poker tournament, for which a player is registered. A client application may provide the list as part of a user interface through which the player may directly rejoin a listed game upon selection of a currently in-progress game from the list. In addition, the system may establish one or more mandatory break periods in certain extended game types such as tournaments. The mandatory break period may be the same time for all extended game types. Other implementations also are described.