Player-Density Chat Room Clustering for Regional Connection Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
In location-based parallel reality games, players often move out of range of their original chat room, disconnecting them from nearby players, and existing systems fail to efficiently distribute chat rooms based on player density and real-world geography.
Innovation Solution
A game server determines chat room locations by clustering player locations into centroid areas, balancing player distribution and adjusting clusters to account for natural groupings, using iterative k-means clustering and border adjustment to evenly disperse chat rooms based on player density and real-world points of interest.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If chat rooms are fixed at specific locations in the virtual world, then players can connect to nearby players at those locations, but players moving to new real-world locations become disconnected from relevant chat rooms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic chat room assignment where chat room membership is not fixed to specific virtual locations but is continuously updated based on real-time player density calculations. The system recalculates chat room assignments as players move through the real world, ensuring players remain connected to relevant chat rooms regardless of their physical location changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of chat room assignment from static location-based to dynamic density-based. By using player density as the determining factor rather than fixed geographic boundaries, the system adapts chat room membership to current player distribution, maintaining connection reliability while accommodating player movement.
2Area of stationary object
If chat rooms are distributed evenly across the virtual world, then coverage area is maximized, but natural player groupings and high-density areas may not be adequately served
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making chat room density proportional to local player concentration. High-density player areas receive more chat rooms or larger chat room capacities, while low-density areas receive fewer. This non-uniform distribution ensures that chat room placement matches actual player needs rather than applying uniform spacing across all regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from player location data to continuously adjust chat room placement. By monitoring where players congregate in the real world and recalculating density metrics, the system adapts chat room distribution to match actual player patterns, ensuring both adequate coverage and proper balance.
3Productivity
If chat rooms are placed only at high-density player locations, then player connection efficiency is improved, but coverage in low-density areas is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by concentrating chat room resources in high-density areas where they provide maximum connection efficiency, while using a different mechanism (such as mobile chat rooms or extended range) to provide minimal coverage in low-density areas. This ensures efficient resource allocation while maintaining basic coverage across the entire service area.
Data Source
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AI summary
The virtual location of a player in a location-based game is determined from the real-world location of the player's client device. The location-based game provides the player access to one or more chat room based on their location. To determine the locations of chat room, a server analyzes player locations in a geographic region, clusters player locations to identify centroids, and adjusts the clusters based on constraints. The server selects chat room locations (e.g., at points of interest) to more evenly balance the number of players in each chat room while complying with one or more restraints on the size of the geographic area served by each chat room.