Gaming System Symbol Storage and Nudge Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gaming machines lack innovative features to maintain player interest and excitement, as existing technologies fail to provide engaging and rewarding experiences.
Innovation Solution
A gaming system that generates and displays symbols, allowing players to collect and store predetermined symbols, which can be converted into awards, with features like nudge symbols that alter gameplay, prevent symbol replacement, and trigger bonus games, enhancing player interaction and reward potential.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the gaming system generates new symbols to replace displayed symbols, then the game progresses and new opportunities arise, but previously collected predetermined symbols are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by collecting and storing predetermined symbols before the symbol replacement occurs. The storage mechanism is prepared in advance to capture symbols that would otherwise be lost during normal game progression, allowing the game to continue while preserving valuable collected symbols.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary storage mechanism that acts as a buffer between the displayed symbols and the symbol replacement process. This intermediary storage area captures and holds predetermined symbols, preventing their loss during the replacement operation while allowing the game to progress normally.
2Duration of action of moving object
If the gaming system allows continuous symbol replacement, then the game remains dynamic and engaging, but players cannot accumulate valuable symbol collections
Solution Approach 1:
The intermediary storage mechanism enables continuous game play by decoupling the symbol replacement process from the symbol collection process. Players can engage in prolonged gaming sessions with continuous symbol replacement while the storage mechanism accumulates predetermined symbols, resolving the contradiction between game duration and symbol accumulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system discards the limitation where symbols are permanently replaced, and recovers the value of predetermined symbols through the storage mechanism. Even though symbols are replaced on the display, the predetermined symbols are recovered and stored, allowing both continuous game play and symbol accumulation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the gaming system replaces all displayed symbols with new symbols, then the game maintains freshness and excitement, but players lose previously obtained symbols and feel disappointed
Solution Approach 1:
The storage mechanism serves as a protective intermediary that prevents player disappointment by ensuring predetermined symbols are not lost during replacement. This intermediary captures symbols before replacement, guaranteeing that players retain their collections while still experiencing the freshness of new symbols through continuous game play.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the potentially harmful effect of symbol replacement (loss of collected symbols) into a beneficial outcome. The replacement process continues to provide game variety and freshness, while the storage mechanism simultaneously preserves the collected symbols, turning what would be a harmful loss into a beneficial retention.
Data Source
AI summary
Various implementations of a gaming system and method perform operations including generating and displaying symbols, where a player collects and stores predetermined symbols. The operations also include converting the predetermined symbols into awards for the player. The operations further include generating and displaying a new plurality of symbols and enabling the player to collect and store predetermined symbols from the generated new plurality of symbols while the gaming system also displays nudge symbols. The operations further include moving symbols in a column of displayed symbols when one of a plurality of columns of displayed symbols includes a nudge symbol. The nudge symbols in a column of displayed symbols may prevent replacement of the displayed symbols in the column with the newly generated symbols.