Finding friends for multiuser online games
View Patent ↗The present disclosure relates to games and applications in general and in particular to computer-implemented online games, such as online role-playing games, playable by more than one person from more than one location. The game engine can search a player's social network to find friends to play with. These social networks can be constructed implicitly by analyzing a player's game play information and other information.
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
during an ongoing instance of a computer-implemented game in which players are already playing, detecting that the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game has an insufficient number of players;
accessing a storage device for social network information associated with remaining players of the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game; and
in response to detecting that the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game has an insufficient number of players, analyzing, using at least one processor of a machine, the social network information to identify one or more available friends of the remaining players to join as a new player in the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a request from one of the remaining players to find the one or more available friends to join the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a number of new players to join the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game based on the insufficient number of players; and
adding the number of new players to the ongoing instance from the one or more available friends.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a friend from the one or more available friends having at least a first degree connection with one of the remaining players of the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing further comprises:
accessing player profile information associated with the remaining players and the available friends;
analyzing the player profile information to determine a game compatibility factor between the remaining players and the available friends; and
identifying a game compatible friend from the available friends having a game compatibility factor exceeding a predetermined game compatibility threshold value.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the compatibility factor comprises a player character level, a player character experience level, or a player character power level.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing further comprises:
accessing player profile information associated with the remaining players and the available friends;
analyzing the player profile information to determine whether a friend of the available friends is compatible with the remaining players; and
identifying one or more available friends compatible with the remaining players based on the analyzing.
8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a friend of the available friends who have in-game connections with at least two remaining players.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a friend from the available friends who have player characters sharing common attributes from the player characters of the remaining players.
10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a friend from the available friends sharing common game player preferences from the remaining players.
11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the social network information comprises out-of-game social network information and in-game social network information.
12. A system comprising:
at least one processor of a machine; and
a game networking system configured to:
during an ongoing instance of a computer-implemented game in which players are already playing, detect that the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game has an insufficient number of players;
access social network information associated with remaining players of the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game; and
in response to detecting that the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game has an insufficient number of players, analyze the social network information to identify one or more available friends of the remaining players to join as a new player in the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the game networking system is further configured to:
receive a request from one of the remaining players to find the one or more available friends to join the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game.
14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the game networking system is further configured to:
determine a number of new players to join the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game based on the insufficient number of players; and
add the number of new players to the ongoing instance from the one or more available friends.
15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the game networking system is further configured to:
identify a friend from the one or more available friends having at least a first degree connection with one of the remaining players of the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game.
16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the game networking system is further configured to:
access player profile information associated with the remaining players and the available friends;
analyze the player profile information to determine a game compatibility factor between the remaining players and the available friends; and
identify a game compatible friend from the available friends having a game compatibility factor exceeding a predetermined game compatibility threshold value.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the compatibility factor comprises a player character level, a player character experience level, or a player character power level.
18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the game networking system is further configured to:
access player profile information associated with the remaining players and the available friends;
analyze the player profile information to determine whether a friend from the available friends is compatible with the remaining players; and
identify a friend from the available friends compatible with the remaining players based on the analysis.
19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the game networking system is further configured to:
identify a friend from the available friends who have in-game connections with at least two remaining players;
identify a friend from the available friends who have player characters sharing common attributes from the player characters of the remaining players; and
identify a friend from the available friends sharing common game player preferences from the remaining players.
20. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, causes the machine to perform operations comprising:
during an ongoing instance of a computer-implemented game in which players are already playing, detecting that the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game has an insufficient number of players;
accessing social network information associated with remaining players of the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game; and
in response to detecting that the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game has an insufficient number of players, analyzing the social network information to identify one or more available friends of the remaining players to join as a new player in the ongoing instance of the computer-implemented game.