Gaming System Resumption Mechanism for Interruption Handling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Skill-based gaming machines face disruptions due to power failures or other interruptions, which can affect player outcomes and awards, particularly since awards are determined by player inputs and skills, leading to unfair advantages or losses.
Innovation Solution
The gaming system provides players with resumption opportunities after interruptions, allowing them to indicate readiness to resume play, and stores game state data to restore the game state before the interruption, ensuring awards are based on player skills rather than preparedness or unpreparedness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the gaming machine resumes play immediately after a power failure or interruption, then the system returns to operation quickly, but the player may be unprepared to make skill-based inputs, affecting the fairness and outcome of the game
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides a resumption opportunity period after interruption during which the player can prepare to resume play. This preliminary action allows the player to be ready before the game actually resumes, ensuring that skill-based inputs are made voluntarily and fairly rather than being forced by immediate system resumption.
2Reliability
If the gaming machine provides a resumption opportunity period after interruption, then the player can be prepared to resume play fairly, but the system remains non-operational for an extended period
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides a limited-duration resumption opportunity period rather than an indefinite waiting period. This partial action balances the need for player preparedness with the need to minimize interruption time, allowing the system to resume normal operation after a reasonable delay.
3Reliability
If the game state is stored and restored after interruption, then the game can resume from the correct point maintaining player progress, but the complexity of the system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a copy of the game state data in storage memory before interruption occurs. This copied state can be restored after interruption without requiring complex real-time synchronization or checkpoint mechanisms, simplifying the overall system architecture while maintaining game state continuity.
Data Source
AI summary
A gaming system and method that provides one or more players with one or more pre-resumption opportunities prior to resuming the play of the skill-based game. The gaming system enables one or more players to affirmatively acknowledge, following a game play interruption, that they are ready to resume play of the skill-based game. Such an opportunity to indicate a readiness to resume the play of the skill-based game provides that the play of the skill-based game resumes when the player is ready and minimizes the affect of any game play interruption on the player's outcome of the skill-based game.