Gaming System Social Graph API Friend Incentives

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional methods for driving traffic and increasing membership in internet-based gaming sites, such as advertising and social graph data services, result in unsatisfactory growth rates, necessitating a more proactive approach to engage users through social graph information.

Innovation Solution

A network-based gaming system that utilizes a social graph application program interface (API) to aggregate and leverage social graph data, enabling users to discover and engage friends through incentive-based activities and special treatments during gaming sessions, thereby increasing loyalty and membership.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If conventional advertising and social graph data services are used to drive traffic to gaming sites, then some level of membership growth is achieved, but the growth rates remain unsatisfactory

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemembership growth rateVSAvoideffectiveness of traffic driving
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring special treatments and incentives for friends of members before they arrive at the gaming site. The social graph API is queried in advance to identify potential visitors, and predetermined incentives are prepared for automatic deployment when these identified friends actually visit the site, thereby increasing conversion rates and membership growth effectiveness

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms by continuously monitoring visitor behavior and using the social graph API to identify patterns. This feedback loop allows the system to refine its incentive strategies and improve membership growth rates over time, transforming the unreliable conventional advertising approach into a data-driven, adaptive system that achieves satisfactory growth

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Productivity

If social graph information is leveraged to identify and treat friends with special incentives, then membership growth and loyalty are significantly increased, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemembership growthVSAvoidsystem architecture complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system introduces a social graph API as an intermediary layer between the gaming site and external social network data. This intermediary handles the complexity of social graph querying, friend identification, and data aggregation, allowing the core gaming system to remain relatively simple while still leveraging sophisticated social relationship data to drive membership growth and loyalty

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The gaming site system is designed with multi-functionality to handle both conventional gaming operations and social graph-based incentive management. By making the system universal, it can perform multiple functions including game delivery, social graph querying, friend identification, incentive configuration, and automatic treatment deployment, thereby managing complexity through consolidation rather than adding separate specialized systems

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Reliability

If special treatments and incentives are provided to friends during gaming sessions, then consumer loyalty increases, but operational complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveconsumer loyaltyVSAvoidgame configuration complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements self-service by enabling members to automatically configure special treatments for their friends without requiring manual intervention. Members can set up predetermined incentives and rules through the social graph API, and the system automatically applies these configurations when friends visit, thereby increasing loyalty while minimizing operational complexity through automation

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system manages operational complexity by dynamically changing parameters such as incentive types, treatment levels, and configuration rules based on social graph data and member preferences. Rather than requiring complex fixed configurations, the system adapts parameters automatically, allowing flexible customization of friend treatments while keeping the underlying system architecture simple and manageable

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS9028330B2Gaming system
Publication Date: 2015.05.12 ROBLOX CORP
  • US9028330B2 patent drawing
  • US9028330B2 patent drawing
  • US9028330B2 patent drawing

AI summary

A network-based gaming system includes a website hosted by a web server connected to the network, the website including a member login interface, a social graph application program interface (API), and at least one hyperlink to a multi-dimensional game served by a game server connected to the network and a social graph information reader accessible to the game server, the social graph information reader for identifying one or more players of the game by correlating identification information provided or known about the players with social graph data aggregated about the players, and a game configuration interface resident on and executable from the digital medium accessible to the game server, the game configuration interface enabling a member to configure rules pertaining to game and or game object recognition of, and treatment of certain players of the game determined to be friends of the member.