Gaming System Group Event Eligibility Timers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gaming systems face challenges in providing a fair and engaging experience, as progressive awards often lead to jackpot fatigue due to the low probability of winning and the need for players to wait for the jackpot to rebuild, discouraging continued play and unequal participation opportunities based on wagering levels.
Innovation Solution
A community event or group competition system where players participate based on their wagering activity, with timers and meters determining eligibility, ensuring that each player's probability of continued participation corresponds to their wagering level, and a shared progressive award is distributed among remaining players at the end of the event.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If a progressive award system is used in gaming machines, then the award amount can grow to provide large jackpots, but players experience jackpot fatigue due to low winning probability and long waiting times
Solution Approach 1:
The progressive award is segmented into multiple smaller awards distributed to different players simultaneously in a group event, rather than one large award given to a single player after long accumulation. This divides the single progressive jackpot into multiple smaller prizes that can be won more frequently by different participants.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts player eligibility and award distribution based on real-time wagering activity during the group event. Players' probabilities of winning are dynamically updated based on their current wagering levels, allowing the system to adapt award allocation to current player behavior rather than following a fixed accumulation schedule.
2Quantity of substance
If group events include multiple players at different wagering levels, then more players can participate, but participation does not correspond to each player's relative level of game play
Solution Approach 1:
Each player is assigned a unique eligibility probability that reflects their individual wagering level and activity. This local differentiation ensures that high wagering players have higher probabilities of winning compared to low wagering players, creating fairness at the individual level while maintaining overall group participation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the probability parameter for each player based on their wagering activity level. As players increase their wagering amounts or frequency, their eligibility probability parameters are adjusted upward, directly linking participation fairness to current gaming behavior rather than using fixed participation rules.
3Productivity
If individual eligibility timers are implemented for each player, then wagering activity can be tracked and rewarded, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The gaming system's central controller performs multiple functions simultaneously: it manages the group event timing, tracks individual player wagering activity, calculates eligibility probabilities, and distributes awards. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise require separate dedicated components into a single universal system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors and updates player wagering activity and eligibility probabilities throughout the group event without interruption. This continuous tracking ensures accurate reflection of player behavior at all times while using efficient real-time processing rather than batch updates or manual tracking.
Data Source
AI summary
A gaming system and method which provides a community group event to a plurality of players at a plurality of the gaming devices in the gaming system. Each gaming device participating in the group event is associated with an individual group event eligibility timer. Such individual group event eligibility timers regularly decrement based on time and may increment based on one or more aspects of the player's gaming experience, such as wagers placed. If the individual group event eligibility timer associated with a gaming device participating in the group event lapses before the conclusion of a group event timer or mode, that gaming device is eliminated from the group event. Upon the conclusion of the group event, a group event award is shared amongst the players at the remaining or non-eliminated gaming devices (i.e., the gaming devices associated with individual group event eligibility timers with any amount of remaining time).