Granted Patent B2

US 8,986,095 · App. 13/867,787 · Granted Mar 24, 2015

Abstract

Claims (59)

1. A computer-implemented method in a gaming system primarily dedicated to playing a casino wagering game, the gaming system including a random element generator, one or more processors, an electronic display device, an electronic input device, and a plurality of gaming terminals that participate in a community event, the method comprising:

generating one or more random elements with the random element generator;

receiving, via a physical input to the electronic input device, a wager input to initiate the casino wagering game;

determining, by the one or more processors, an outcome of the casino wagering game based, at least in part, on the one or more random elements;

displaying the outcome on the electronic display device;

awarding, by the one or more processors, a tangible award in response to the outcome meeting a predetermined award criterion;

providing, by at least one of the one or more processors, individual enhancements at one or more of the plurality of gaming terminals, each of the individual enhancements having an initial value prior to the community event being triggered;

if the initial value exceeds a predetermined value upon the community event being triggered, modifying, by at least one of the one or more processors, the initial value to a modified value based on the initial value; and

awarding, by at least one of the one or more processors, the modified value upon the community event being triggered;

wherein the modifying includes randomly selecting, by at least one of the one or more processors, the modified value.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying includes increasing, by at least one of the one or more processors, the initial value to the modified value.

3. A computer-implemented method in a gaming system primarily dedicated to playing a casino wagering game, the gaming system including a random element generator, one or more processors, an electronic display device, an electronic input device, and a plurality of gaming terminals that participate in a community event, the method comprising:

generating one or more random elements with the random element generator;

receiving, via a physical input to the electronic input device, a wager input to initiate the casino wagering game;

determining, by the one or more processors, an outcome of the casino wagering game based, at least in part, on the one or more random elements;

displaying the outcome on the electronic display device;

awarding, by the one or more processors, a tangible award in response to the outcome meeting a predetermined award criterion;

providing, by at least one of the one or more processors, individual enhancements at one or more of the plurality of gaming terminals, each of the individual enhancements having an initial value prior to the community event being triggered;

if the initial value exceeds a predetermined value upon the community event being triggered, modifying, by at least one of the one or more processors, the initial value to a modified value based on the initial value; and

awarding, by at least one of the one or more processors, the modified value upon the community event being triggered;

wherein the individual enhancements include a first enhancement with a first initial value at a first gaming terminal and a second enhancement with a second initial value at a second gaming terminal, the modifying, by at least one of the one or more processors, including modifying the first initial value to a first modified value and the second initial value to a second modified value.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the first modified value is different than the second modified value.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the first modified value is greater than the second modified value.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the first initial value is greater than the second initial value, the difference between the first modified value and the first initial value being greater than the difference between the second modified value and the second initial value.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising awarding, by at least one of the one or more processors, the initial value of each of the individual enhancements in accordance with respective wagering criteria at the plurality of gaming terminals.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the individual enhancements are selected from a group consisting of multipliers, extra credits, free spins, extra seconds of eligibility for a subsequent community event, extra paylines, and payback percentage of points.

9. A gaming system primarily dedicated to playing a casino wagering game, the gaming system comprising:

a plurality of gaming terminals that participate in a community event;

at least one community display for displaying the community event thereon;

an electronic display device;

an electronic input device configured to receive a physical input from a player to initiate the casino wagering game and transform the input into an electronic data signal;

a random element generator configured to generate one or more random elements; and

at least one controller in communication with the at least one community display and the plurality of gaming terminals, the controller being operative to

initiate the casino wagering game in response to the electronic data signal from the electronic input device,

determine an outcome of the casino wagering game based, at least in part, on the one or more random elements,

direct the electronic display device to display the outcome,

award a tangible award in response to the outcome meeting a predetermined award criterion,

provide individual enhancements at one or more of the plurality of gaming terminals, each of the individual enhancements having an initial value prior to the community event being triggered,

randomly determine whether to modify the initial value to a modified value based on the initial value,

select a modification to apply to the initial value to generate a modified value, and

award the modified value upon the community event being triggered.

10. The gaming system of claim 9 , wherein the modified value is greater than the initial value.

11. The gaming system of claim 9 , wherein the individual enhancements include a first enhancement with a first initial value at a first gaming terminal and a second enhancement with a second initial value at a second gaming terminal, the first initial value having a first modification applied to generate a first modified value and the second initial value having a second modification applied to generate a second modified value.

12. The gaming system of claim 11 , wherein the first modified value is greater than the second modified value.

13. The gaming system of claim 12 , wherein the first modification is greater than the second modification.

14. The gaming system of claim 9 , wherein the modification is randomly selected from a range of enhancement values.

15. The gaming system of claim 9 , wherein the initial value of each of the individual enhancements is based on respective wagering criteria at the plurality of gaming terminals.

16. The gaming system of claim 9 , wherein the individual enhancements are selected from a group consisting of multipliers, extra credits, free spins, extra seconds of eligibility for a subsequent community event, extra paylines, and payback percentage of points.

17. One or more machine-readable non-transitory storage media including instructions primarily dedicated to playing a casino wagering game and which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

generating one or more random elements with a random element generator;

receiving, via a physical input to an electronic input device, a wager input to initiate the casino wagering game;

determining, by one or more processors, an outcome of the casino wagering game based, at least in part, on the one or more random elements;

displaying the outcome on an electronic display device;

awarding, by the one or more processors, a tangible award in response to the outcome meeting a predetermined award criterion;

providing individual enhancements at one or more of a plurality of gaming terminals participating in a community event, each of the individual enhancements having an initial value prior to the community event being triggered,

if the initial value exceeds a predetermined value upon the community event being triggered, modifying the initial value to a modified value based on the initial value, and

awarding the modified value upon the community event being triggered;

wherein the operations further include randomly selecting the modified value.

18. The machine-readable non-transitory storage media of claim 17 , wherein the operations further include awarding the initial value of each of the individual enhancements in accordance with respective wagering criteria at the plurality of gaming terminals.

Assignments (9)