Online, real-time game playing with serving of pages of information to a multitude of players
A central gaming server transmits game lobby pages to a multitude of distributed computing devices accessing a gaming website or websites over a network such as the Internet. To overcome scalability problems in keeping the lobby displays up-to-date and accurate in all the participating distributed workstations, particularly in a dynamic gaming environment where hundreds or thousands of games may be going on simultaneously, game or player data in the lobby displays is transmitted as individual pages along with icons by which the users of the computing devices can request additional pages. Updates are performed for only the displayed pages. This approach provides a significant improvement in server and network performance over prior techniques in which all game statistics for a particular selected type of game (or statistics on all the current players) was sent to each workstation and the workstation would scroll through the entire data set as necessary to view all the game or player data.
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BACKGROUNDThis disclosure relates generally to methods and systems for providing online, real-time game playing over computer networks such as the Internet. More particularly, this disclosure relates to methods of presenting up-to-date, game-related information to a multitude of players in a scalable manner. Aspects of this invention allow a gaming server coordinating a multitude of online game playing to provide real time game information simultaneously to a larger number of game players (e.g., many thousands of such players) in a more efficient manner than previously known.
A system and method for playing games, such as card games, over a computer network is described in published PCT application WO 03/093921 A2, published Nov. 13, 2003, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The entire contents of WO 03/093921 A2 are incorporated by reference herein. The system of the '921 PCT publication includes a central gaming server accessible over the Internet and enables participation in games such as poker games by individuals accessing diverse portal websites (gaming websites).
In the last several years, systems have been commercialized such as described in the '921 patent publication wherein a gaming website provides a facility for online game playing, particularly online poker playing. Such systems have become quite popular and gaming sites may host hundreds, even thousands of players at a time. In online poker, the success of an online poker web site (“online poker room”) is directly related to the magnitude of a pool of would-be players who desire to play a game of online poker. Simply put, the larger the pool of players, the more virtual poker tables (i.e. poker games each accommodating a maximum of, say, 10 players) the online poker software can spawn, thereby increasing the overall liquidity of the online poker room and increasing its attractiveness to other would-be players.
In order to maximize this size advantage, some online poker rooms operate under a centralized topology, in which there is a single operating entity (“operator”) that owns and runs the gaming web site and the player pool is homogeneous (i.e. all players are registered with, or “belong to”, this single operator). The operator makes its money by charging a proportion (a “rake”) of the collective wagers (“the pot”) of all players participating in each game of poker that is played in the online poker room. Under a centralized topology, a player will always be playing only with other players who are registered with the same (i.e. the only) operator. Settlement of player wagers is straightforward: 1) the operator deducts it's rake from the pot; 2) the balance is paid over to the player that has won the game; and 3) the next game starts and the process repeats.
Other online poker rooms may operate under a distributed topology (also referred to, in the art, as a network topology). Under this topology, the player pool is heterogeneous, as players registered with different operators are pooled together to maximize liquidity of the collective player pool. This means that players registered with different operators could find themselves playing in the same poker game. In this instance settlement of player wagers is more complex than in the centralized topology as situations invariably arise in which funds have to be transferred, (or “cleared”), between different operators whose players are playing on the poker network involving a multitude of operators. The principles underlying a distributed topology are set forth in the above-referenced patent application WO 03/093921 A2. The present inventive methods apply to both the centralized and distributed topologies.
Tab 1) Hold'em—poker games of the Texas Hold'em variety;
Tab 2) Omaha—poker games of the Omaha variety;
Tab 3) Omaha—poker games of the Omaha Hi/Lo variety;
Tab 4) 7 Stud—poker games of the 7-Card Stud variety;
Tab 5) 5 Stud—poker games of the 5-Card Stud variety;
Tab 6) Private—invitation-only poker games established by players;
Tab 7) Sit & Go—non-scheduled tournaments; and
Tab 8) MTT (Multi-Table Tournaments)—scheduled tournaments.
When any of the first five tabbed categories or types is selected, a player is presented with a list of all tables with poker games of that particular variation that are currently active. See
a) name of the table (typically, fanciful names to spark player interest, but may also be in the form of a number or index);
b) table stakes in the format: Small Blind/Big Blind;
c) number of Participating Players/Max number of Players that can be accommodated;
d) whether the table is a no limit table, a pot limit table or a fixed limit table;
e) average size of pots at that table;
f) average number of players who have not yet folded at the flop stage of the game;
g) number of players waiting to join the table; and
h) number of hands played per hour.
Note the scroll feature 10 of
Sit & Go Tournaments (Tab 7 of
a) a tournament identification code;
b) a name of the tournament;
c) a type of poker game played in the tournament;
d) whether the tournament is a no limit, pot limit or fixed limit tournament;
e) number of seats available in the tournament;
f) the current size of blinds for active tournaments, and the number of players already entered for pending tournaments.
MTT (Tab 8 of
a) a tournament identification code;
b) a name of the tournament;
c) a type of poker game played in the tournament;
d) buy-in rules;
e) number of entrants for the tournament; and
f) a current size of blinds for active tournaments and a scheduled start time for pending tournaments.
If one considers the amount of information displayed in the displays of
To summarize, every player that is logged on to gaming website or a gaming system must be presented with all the data that can be displayed on the lobby page, as described above in
The net result of this situation is that the gaming server can be swamped by the load placed on it in servicing (i.e., updating) the lobby data tables (e.g., as shown in
This problem of timely and accurate updating of client computers as to game or tournament information and game statistics, without degradation of gaming server performance, is one of scalability. Moreover, the more players that join the network the more load is placed on the central gaming server to provide updates. As more players join and the overload problem gets worse, the result may be that players stop playing or go elsewhere to play. Thus, this problem presents a bottleneck that seriously limits the ability of the gaming website operators to accommodate more players. The inability to accommodate more players diminishes the potential revenue of the gaming website operators.
The conventional solution to the problem is to utilize more server hardware. However, even this approach leaves something to be desired since it is more expensive to provide more server hardware, and even with more server hardware some degradation in performance may still occur during peak times, particularly as the number of participants in online gaming continues to grow. The art has failed to adequately address this problem.
SUMMARYThe following embodiments and aspects thereof are described and illustrated in conjunction with systems, tools and methods which are meant to be exemplary and illustrative, not limiting in scope. In various embodiments one or more of the above-described problems have been reduced or eliminated, while other embodiments are directed to other improvements. Moreover, the principles of the present invention are applicable both to a centralized gaming topology where all players are registered with a single operator, as well as to a distributed topology as described above.
The present inventor has appreciated that a primary cause of the scalability and load problem of providing real-time game information to a multitude of distributed computing devices from a central gaming server can be traced to the manner in which information is displayed on the distributed computing devices. Having made this insight, the present disclosure provides for new methods of presenting and updating information to players engaged in online gaming which overcomes this problem and allows for new levels of scalability to be achieved, far surpassing the ability of the prior art.
In one aspect, the solution presented by this disclosure is to replace scrollable windows in the game lobby page (as shown in
For example, a given lobby page may be presented and the user may click on or select the MTT category. The lobby presents a single page listing one subset of the available tournaments, and the data for the subset of tournaments is sized such that it fits into a window pane on the GUI of the computing device, preferably without requiring any scrolling to view the subset of available tournaments data. If the user wishes to view data for additional tournaments, they request an additional page or pages. When an update of their lobby page needs to occur (e.g., after a certain time T elapses, or, alternatively, when any change in the statistics for a table in the page occurs) only the currently displayed page is updated and non-displayed game instances (e.g., other pages of tournaments or other virtual card tables) are not updated since they are not displayed.
As another example, if the user double-clicks on any active MTT tournament in the MTT tabbed category, the user is presented with a second level lobby display for that particular selected tournament. A window lobby screen displays player information that is split into a multitude of pages, each of which can be retrieved by means of a corresponding page icon displayed at the bottom of the window. For example, additional player information can be requested by clicking on the corresponding page icon whereupon a page request is sent to the gaming server and the requested page is sent to the requesting computing device.
The solution to the scalability problem described herein has been successful in that it may allow a poker network in a distributed topology to host tournaments accommodating approximately double the number of players, without substantial degradation in server performance, as compared to in tournaments hosted by gaming servers in systems that use the prior art scrolling approach. This presents a substantial advance and improvement over the prior art.
The present solution is applicable to online games generally, such as SCRABBLE® and is not necessarily limited to card games. The solution is also applicable to lobbies that would display other types of card games besides wager games, such as bridge, and also to other multiplayer games, such as blackjack, punto banco, craps, and the like.
In one specific embodiment of the invention, an apparatus is provided comprising a machine readable medium storing a set of program instructions. The instructions comprise instructions preferably in the form of a client gaming application for displaying a game lobby page on a user interface of a computing device. The game lobby page displays information as to a game type (e.g., hold'em, craps, bridge, 7 card stud, or tournament) available for play over a computer network and, for the game type, information as to individual instances of games of the game type. The individual instances may take the form of individual games, virtual poker tables, or individual game tournaments. The game lobby page includes a page icon wherein information on additional instances of the games not displayed on the lobby page may be requested from a gaming server in the form of an additional page or pages.
In another embodiment, a gaming server is disclosed that provides updated game information to a plurality of distributed computing devices engaging in game playing over a computer network. The gaming server comprises a processing unit and a database coupled to the processing unit storing game information data for a plurality of instances of games. The database is regularly updated to store real-time or near real time information as to the plurality of instances of games. The gaming server provides periodic updates (e.g., every minute, or when table statistics change) to the displays of instances of games (e.g., individual games, virtual card tables, or specific tournaments) to the plurality of distributed computing devices by means of transmitting pages of data. Further, game information for non-displayed instances are not periodically updated at the plurality of distributed computing devices. For example, if a computing device is displaying page 5 of the 40 pages devoted to Hold'em tables, that computing device would only have page 5 updated. It will be understood that the server will ordinarily be updating all of database information for all the tables continuously, but the only updated pages that are sent to the distributed computing devices are those that are currently displayed on the computing devices. Accordingly, the ability of the server to update the plurality of distributed computing devices in real time or substantial real time without substantial degradation in performance of the gaming server is achieved.
In still another aspect, a method is provided of periodically updating displays of game information on a plurality of distributed computing devices connected to a server over a computer network. The method includes the step of presenting game information as to a plurality of instances of games on the display of the plurality of distributed computing device in the form of a page of game information. The method further comprises the step of maintaining state information at the server, including the current page displayed for each of the distributed computing devices. The method further includes the step of the server periodically updating the displayed page on each of the distributed computing devices by transmitting an updated page to each of the distributed computing devices, wherein only the displayed page at the distributed computing devices is updated and wherein game information for other, non-displayed instances of games are not updated. As in the example above, if a computing device is displaying page 5 of the 40 pages devoted to Hold'em tables, that computing device would only have page 5 updated. It will be understood that the server will ordinarily be updating all of database information for all the tables continuously, but the only updated pages that are sent to the distributed computing devices are those that are currently displayed on the computing devices.
In still another aspect, a method is disclosed of providing game lobby pages to a multitude of distributed computing devices connected to a gaming server over a computer network, the game lobby pages displaying information for a plurality of instances of games. The method comprising the steps of receiving a request for a game lobby page from each of the multitude of distributed computing devices, and transmitting a game lobby page from the gaming server to each of the multitude of distributed computing devices, wherein each game lobby page includes an icon providing the user with the ability to request additional pages and wherein information for instances of games not currently displayed on the game lobby page is requested and transmitted to each of the multitude of distributed computing devices as one or more pages.
In addition to the exemplary aspects and embodiments described above, further aspects and embodiments will become apparent by reference to the drawings and by study of the following detailed descriptions.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSExemplary embodiments are illustrated in referenced figures of the drawings. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.
Overview
The present inventor has appreciated that a primary cause of the scalability and load problem of providing real-time game information to a multitude of distributed computing devices from a central gaming server can be traced to the manner in which information is transmitted to and displayed on the distributed computing devices. Having made this insight, the present disclosure provides for new methods of presenting and updating information to players accessing an online gaming site which overcomes this problem and allows for new levels of scalability to be achieved, far surpassing the ability of the prior art.
In one aspect, the solution presented by this disclosure is to replace scrollable windows in the game lobby page (as shown in
For example, a given lobby page may be presented and the user may click on or select the MTT category. The lobby presents a single page listing one subset of the available tournaments, and data for the subset is sized such that it fits into a window pane on the GUI of the computing device, preferably without requiring any scrolling to view the subset of available tournaments. If the user wishes to view additional tournaments, they request additional pages. When an update of their lobby page needs to occur (e.g., after a certain time T elapses) only the currently displayed page is updated and non-displayed game instances (e.g., other pages of tournaments or other virtual card tables) are not updated on the computing device since they are not displayed. However, as noted above, the server will be continuously updating its database on table statistics and will be able to serve any update page to a computing device that is currently displaying such page.
As another example, if the user double-clicks on any active MTT tournament in the MTT tabbed category, the user is presented with a second lobby display for that particular selected tournament. A window on the right-hand-side of the tournament lobby screen displays a table of player information that is split into a multitude of pages, each of which can be retrieved by means of a corresponding numbered icon (page number icon) displayed at the bottom of the window. Additional player information can be requested by clicking on the corresponding number icon whereupon a page request is sent to the gaming server and the requested page is sent to the requesting computing device.
The solution to the scalability problem described herein has been successful in that it may allow a poker network in a distributed topology to host tournaments accommodating approximately double the number of players, without substantial degradation in server performance, as compared to in tournaments hosted by gaming servers in systems that use the prior art scrolling approach. This presents a substantial advance and improvement over the prior art.
Before describing the preferred embodiments in greater detail, an explanation will be provided first of a computer-based system for online game playing, in which multiple distributed computing devices engage in playing of card games using a central server, and in particular wager games such as poker. The following description is offered by way illustration, and not limitation, of one possible environment in which the invention can be practiced.
Referring to
The gaming server 22 includes a processing unit (such as a central processing unit, not shown) and a database 33 coupled to the processing unit which stores game information data for a plurality of instances of games played by the workstations 24. The database 33 is updated continuously to store real-time or near real time information as to the plurality of instances of games, such as the name of each instance (e.g., table name), the players at each table, the stakes, available seats, waiting time, etc. The gaming server 22 provides the game information data (lobby pages) to the distributed computing devices 24, in the form of pages. The pages include icons or tools by which the users of the devices 24 can request additional pages. Additionally, the server 22 transmits periodic updates to displays of instances of games (e.g., lobby pages) to the plurality of distributed computing devices 24 by means of transmitting pages of updated data. As described in further detail later, game information for instances of a game type that are not currently displayed in the lobby page are not periodically updated, as would be the case with a scrolling solution as shown in
The system 20 includes, further, an administration facility 32 in the form of an application server, which is communicable with the gaming server 22 along a communication network 29. Although the operation of the application web server 32 will be outlined briefly in the description that follows, further details are not particularly pertinent to the present discussion and the reader is directed to the published '932 PCT application cited above for further reference.
The gaming server 22, the online casino web servers (not shown) corresponding to the online casino websites 23a, 23b, the computer workstations 24 and the application web server 32 are capable of communicating with each other by means of an open communication network that is, in this embodiment, the Internet. The Internet is represented in
The application web server 32 provides a clearing account facility 38 (e.g., database) that has a clearing account corresponding to each one of the online casino websites 23a, 23b. Analogously, each online casino websites 23a, 23b includes a corresponding credit account facility 34a, 34b with a credit account corresponding to each player who participates in the game of poker through a computer workstation 24 logically connected to that casino website. In the illustrated embodiment, therefore, the credit account facility 34a has one player credit account associated with it, while credit account facility 34b has two associated player credit accounts. The manner of clearing accounts among the operators of the web sites 33a, 33b is not particularly important and is described in the aforementioned published '921 PCT application.
The gaming server 22 operates under control of a server-stored program (not shown) capable of enabling a predetermined maximum number, say 8 or 10, of players to play an instance of the game of multiplayer poker. Each instance of the game may take the form of a virtual card table playing a particular game (e.g., Hold'em) or virtual game tournament, such as a virtual poker tournament. When the number of players for a given instance of a game reaches this predetermined maximum number, the server-stored program causes a further instance of the game to be initiated (e.g., a new virtual poker table), the new instance of the game also being capable of accommodating a further 10 players. In this manner the gaming server is capable, under server-stored program control, to spawn as many separate instances of the game of multiplayer poker as required in order to accommodate a pool of players who desire to play the game, in groups of a maximum of 10. Each instance of the game spawned in this manner is treated as totally independent of the other instances.
The online casino websites (23a, 23b) enable a player who desires to join the game of multiplayer poker to request, by means of one of the computing devices 24, participation in the game and, once admitted to an instance of the game, to place a wager on a turn of that instance of the game. During the play, each participating player is presented with an identical graphical user interface (GUI) on his respective computing device 24 by a separate, locally stored, program in the computing device. The GUI presents to the player a suitable display of a poker game (not shown) with appropriate activatable icons that enable the player to make his own desired game play decisions and to monitor the progress of the multiplayer game by viewing the game play decisions of the other participating players in the same instance of the game.
The server-stored program also provides a wagering means 37 in the form of computer instructions operable by any participating player to place a wager on a turn of the game, as well as a discrimination means in the form of computer instructions 35 capable of determining whether any wager placed by anyone of the participating players on the turn of the instance of the game of multiplayer poker is successful or unsuccessful. The stored program in the gaming server 22 also maintains a dynamic register 36 of all players admitted to, and actively participating in, all the spawned instances of the poker game from time to time, together with data representative of a corresponding portal (23a, 23b) through which each participating player accessed the game. The dynamic register 36 also contains data representative of an instance of the game in which the player is participating. The application web server 32 also settles the wagers of the participating players after the completion of every turn of any instance of the game.
As a part of this dynamic register 36, or using a separate mechanism such as a state engine or state machine, the gaming server 22 preferably keeps track of the current screen display of each computing device 24. Consequently, when a lobby page is displayed on a computing device 24, the gaming server 22 knows what update needs to occur (i.e., which is the current page displayed on each computing device and therefore which updated page to transmit to the client process for display). Such updated pages are constructed by reference to the stored game instance data in the database 33.
The computing devices 24 may take the form of a conventional personal computer operating under a Windows, Linux, or Macintosh operating system, provisioned with a web browser and a connection to the Internet. The computing devices 24 may also take the form of portable, hand-held computing devices with a web browser and wireless internet access. The gaming server 22 may also operate under a Windows NT or other conventional operating system.
A game of multiplayer poker using a computing device or workstation 24 is facilitated by means of workstation-stored program (not shown) referred to, for convenience, as a client process that is executable on a computer workstation 24, and a corresponding server-stored program (not shown), or server process, that is executable on the gaming server 22. The server process (not shown) generates one or more random events that affect the outcome of the game of poker, such as the dealing of cards to participating players. The client process (not shown) obtains the result of the random events from the gaming server 22, across the communication network 28 and displays the outcome of the game on the display monitor 25 in an intelligible manner.
In order to play multiplayer poker or other games from any computer workstation 24, the client process (not shown) must first be downloaded, e.g., from the gaming server 22 (or from the web site 23a or 23b) to that computer workstation. Such download will typically occur when the computing device 24 first accesses the home page of the web site 23a and 23b, and the user is presented with a message asking the user whether they wish to download the client process in order to play the games. The user selects a “yes” icon and the download then proceeds. The client process is then launched and communication between the computing device 24 and the gaming server 22 then proceeds. In a distributed topology scenario, a player wishing to participate in the multiplayer games such as poker uses a computing device 24 to access an online casino website 23a, 23b) of his choice, but regardless of their choice of website the user is presented with the same underlying client process. The client processes will typically have different trademarks, color schemes, or “look and feel” depending on which online casino website they downloaded the client process from.
Referring now to
When the computing device 24 accesses the server 22, it is provided with the main lobby page shown in
Window 56 in
Note further that the update concepts for
Note further that a given lobby page may present some information using scrolling, such as the data in window 74, but this information (e.g., prize information) is static, not dynamic, and hence the need for current, up-to-the minute information is not acute. As another example, the window 50 of
At step 100, the user accesses a web site 23a offering online gaming with their computer 24. When they access the site for the first time, they are presented with an icon by which they can choose to download a client application to play games and they click a “yes” or “download” icon. The client application is downloaded from the server 22 and installed on the user's computer. Thereafter, at step 102, the application is launched. Every time the client application is run, the server at step 104 sends a lobby page such as shown in
At step 106 the user makes a selection of a type of game for which they wish to view the current table data, which may be different from the preferred (i.e., default) category of games described above. For example, they may select one of the game types as shown in window 50 in
At step 108, the selection made at step 106 is sent to the gaming server 22 and the gaming server responsively sends to the computing device 24 the lobby page with the data for first page of game instance information, as shown for exampled in
At step 110, the user may then request a different page, such as the second of many pages of virtual card tables for the selected game type, by activating a NEXT page icon or taking similar action with the page icons 54. At step 112, the requested page is sent from the server 22. As indicated at 113, the user may select additional pages and such additional pages are sent by the server 22.
At step 114, the gaming server checks a timer to see if the elapsed time for a display of a lobby page is greater than a threshold time T. T may be one minute or any other desired time period, and may be dynamically determined based on activity on the poker network. The purpose of the timer check is to see if the screen display of the current selected page needs to be updated with new table information. (Alternatively, instead of using a timer, the server can check to see if any updates have been made to the “master” lobby page stored in the database or in the underlying data for the tables in the page). If the amount of elapsed time is less that T (or no changes have occurred), the server waits (116) and no update occurs. If the elapsed time is greater than T (or a change has occurred), the server sends an updated page to the computer device 24 (step 118). Such updated page may be generated internally by a separate instruction set or application executed by the server 22 devoted to generating updated lobby pages. Such updated page (and other pages) are preferably generated continuously by the server 22 or by a separate server or computing platform, and stored in the database 33 of
Suppose the user has navigated to lobby page such as shown in FIGS. 4 or 5 and wishes to view specific information on a selected table or tournament. At step 120, they may double click on one of the rows in the display page of
As indicated at steps 130, 132 and 134, an updated process can be performed when the workstation displays the second level of lobby page such as shown in
It will be apparent to persons skilled in the art that the client application and method of
Thus, from the foregoing, it will be appreciated that one specific embodiment of the invention takes the form of an apparatus in the form of machine readable medium (e.g., hard disk memory) storing a set of program instructions. The instructions comprises instructions preferably in the form of a client gaming application for displaying a game lobby page (examples shown in
As noted previously, the machine readable instructions are stored on the general purpose computing device 24 and the instructions are preferably downloaded from the server 22 to the computer 24 over the Internet (28 in
Preferably when a game lobby page such as shown in
In another embodiment, a gaming server 22 is disclosed that provides updated game information to a plurality of distributed computing devices 24 engaging in game playing over a computer network (e.g., Internet 28). The gaming server 22 includes a processing unit (not shown) and a database 33 coupled to the processing unit storing game information data for a plurality of instances of games. The database 33 is regularly updated to store real-time or near real time information as to the plurality of instances of games. The gaming server provides periodic updates (e.g., every minute) to the displays of instances of games (e.g., individual games, virtual card tables, or specific tournaments) to the plurality of distributed computing devices 24 by means of transmitting pages of data, such as shown in the window 52 of
As noted above, when the player wishes to review additional pages, they select a page using a page icon 54 and the server 22 receives a page request for information as to additional instances of games (as in
In a preferred embodiment, the database 33 stores game information in the form of statistics for each the wager games, and in the examples of
From the foregoing description, it will also be appreciated that a method is disclosed for periodically updating displays of game information on a plurality of distributed computing devices 24 connected to a server 22 over a computer network 28. The method includes the step of presenting game information as to a plurality of instances of games on the display of the plurality of distributed computing device in the form of a page of game information, e.g., as in
It will be further appreciated that in still another aspect, a method is disclosed of providing game lobby pages (as shown in
While presently preferred embodiments have been described in some detail, persons skilled in the art will appreciate that variation can be made from the specifics of the disclosed embodiments without departure from the scope of the invention. For example, the detailed processing shown in
Claims
1. Apparatus comprising:
- a machine readable medium storing a set of program instructions, said instructions comprising instructions for displaying a game lobby page on a user interface of a computing device,
- wherein the game lobby page displays information as to a game type available for play over a computer network and, for the game type, information as to individual instances of games of said game type or players playing in games of the game type, and
- wherein the game lobby page includes a page icon wherein information on additional instances of said games or players playing in games of the game type not included on the lobby page may be requested from a gaming server in the form of an additional page or pages.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the game type comprises a card game and wherein the individual instances of games comprises a virtual card table.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the game type comprises a card game and wherein the individual instances of games comprises a tournament of said card game.
4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said card game comprises a wager game.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the machine readable instructions are stored on a general purpose computer and wherein the instructions are downloaded from a server to the computer over the Internet.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein when a game lobby page is displayed on the computing device, the page is periodically updated by transmission of an updated page from the gaming server, and wherein game information for non-displayed instances of games not included in the game lobby page are not periodically updated.
7. A gaming server providing updated game information to a plurality of distributed computing devices engaging in game playing over a computer network, comprising:
- a processing unit;
- a database coupled to the processing unit storing game information data for a plurality of instances of games, wherein the database is updated to store real-time or near real time information as to the plurality of instances of games,
- and wherein the gaming server provides periodic updates to displays of instances of games to the plurality of distributed computing devices by means of transmitting pages of said data, and wherein game information for instances of a game type not included in the pages of data are not periodically updated at the computing devices, thereby improving the ability of said server to update the plurality of distributed computing devices in real time or substantial real time without substantial degradation in performance of the gaming server.
8. The gaming server of claim 7, wherein the games comprise card games and wherein the instances of said card games each comprises a virtual card table.
9. The gaming server of claim 7, wherein the games comprise card games and wherein the instances of said card games each comprises a tournament of said card game.
10. The gaming server of claim 7, wherein the database stores a list of players currently playing games and wherein the gaming server provides periodic updates to displays of players playing games to the plurality of distributed computing devices by means of transmitting pages of said data, and wherein pages containing player information that are not currently displayed on the distributed computing devices are not periodically updated at the computing devices.
11. The gaming server of claim 7, wherein the server receives a page request for information as to additional instances of games, and wherein the requested page is transmitted to a requesting computing device over the Internet.
12. The gaming server of claim 7, wherein the database stores game information for a plurality of wager games, the game information for each of the wager games comprising statistics for a plurality of virtual card tables playing said wager games, and wherein the display includes a display of the statistics.
13. The gaming server of claim 7, wherein:
- the gaming server stores state information for each of the distributed computing devices, the state information including a current display on the distributed computing devices; and wherein
- in the event that a distributed computing device is currently displaying a game lobby page to a user of the distributed computing device the gaming server periodically transmits an updated lobby page corresponding to the displayed lobby page to the distributed computing device but does not transmit updated information for instances of games not included in the game lobby page.
14. A method of periodically updating displays of game information on a plurality of distributed computing devices connected to a server over a computer network, comprising the steps of:
- presenting game information as to a plurality of instances of games on the display of the plurality of distributed computing devices in the form of a page of game information;
- maintaining state information at the server, including the current page displayed for each of the distributed computing devices; and
- the server periodically updating the displayed page on each of the distributed computing devices by transmitting an updated page to each of the distributed computing devices, wherein only the displayed page at the distributed computing devices is updated and wherein game information for other instances of games not included in the page of game information are not updated at the computing devices.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the game information is presented as a lobby page, wherein the lobby page displays a plurality of game types and a plurality of instances of games of at least one of the game types, and wherein the display of the plurality of instances of games includes an icon providing a user to request transmission of an additional page of game information for additional instances of the game.
16. The method of claim 14, wherein the games comprise card games, wherein the plurality of instances of games comprise a plurality of virtual card tables.
17. The method of claim 14, wherein the games comprise card games and wherein the instances of said card games each comprises a tournament of said card game.
18. The method of claim 16, wherein the game types include at least one poker game, and wherein the plurality of instances of the poker game comprise virtual poker tables.
19. The method of claim 16, wherein the games are selected from the group consisting of poker, blackjack, punto banco, craps, and bridge.
20. A method of providing game lobby pages to a multitude of distributed computing devices connected to a server over a computer network, the game lobby page displaying information for a plurality of instances of games, comprising the steps of:
- receiving a request for a game lobby page from each of the multitude of distributed computing devices; and
- transmitting a game lobby page from the gaming server to each of the multitude of distributed computing devices, wherein each game lobby page includes an icon providing the user with the ability to request additional pages and wherein information, if requested, for instances of games not displayed on the game lobby page is requested and transmitted to each of the multitude of distributed computing devices as one or more pages.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein the server maintains state information, including the current page displayed for each of the multitude of distributed computing devices; and
- wherein the server periodically updates the displayed page on each of the distributed computing devices by transmitting an updated page to each of the distributed computing devices, wherein only the displayed page at the distributed computing devices is updated and wherein game information for other, non-displayed instances of games are not updated at the computing devices.
22. The method of claim 20, wherein the game lobby page displays a plurality of game types and wherein a selection of a game type presents a display of a plurality of instances of the game type in the form of a page of game information for the plurality of instances and a page icon wherein additional instances of the game type may be requested.
23. The method of claim 20, wherein the game lobby page displays information for a plurality of virtual card tables.
24. The method of claim 20, wherein the game lobby page displays information for a plurality of tournaments.
25. The method of claim 20, wherein the game lobby page displays a page of players currently playing games and a page icon whereby additional pages of players may be requested for transmission.
26. The gaming server of claim 7, wherein the server communicates with the distributed computing devices in a distributed network gaming topology.
27. The gaming server of claim 7, wherein the server communicates with the distributed computing devices in a centralized network gaming topology.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 21, 2005
Publication Date: Dec 21, 2006
Applicant: Waterleaf Limited (Douglas)
Inventor: Martin Moshal (Queens Way Quay)
Application Number: 11/159,051
International Classification: A63F 9/24 (20060101);