RECOMMENDATION COMPONENT FOR ASSISTED ELECTRONIC INFORMATION PROCESSING

Abstract

Methods for a computer implemented game are described that provide assistance to game participants in making various game related decisions easily and quickly. A computer-implemented system may comprise a multimedia content module to provide multimedia content—within a game, a game server application comprising a player ranking module that ranks players based on and a recommendation module to provide recommendations to participants based on the ranking module to assist users with game play. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Description

BACKGROUND

Electronic applications are well known and becoming increasingly popular. In particular, certain types of electronic applications include game experiences which mimic or track real-life activities such as sports, hobbies, etc. These games are provided by computer applications hosted by local servers and/or by servers in the World Wide Web, that allow users to participate on-line among a group of participants interested in the same type of real-life activity.

Generally, electronic applications and in particular fantasy sports games simulate real-life games where participants select active players in various positions to form fantasy teams. A fantasy sports league consists of a plurality of these fantasy sports teams and consequently a number of these participants. Each fantasy team in the fantasy league usually competes against all the other teams in the fantasy league (head to head style) in scheduled matchups or accumulates statistics in chosen categories throughout the season (rotisserie style or ranked style). Success of a particular fantasy team in the fantasy league is determined by the cumulative number of points obtained by each of the fantasy players corresponding to the performance of the real-life players during the real-life athletic competitions. The fantasy team with the best won-lost record compiled during a fantasy season by the participant's fantasy team determines the winner.

Typically, real-life players from various teams within the given sport are drafted to create a roster for a particular fantasy team. Real-life players from different teams comprise a fantasy sports team. This drafting process may be performed via a bidding draft and/or a rotation draft. In a bidding draft, for example, each fantasy sport participant is initially provided with a specific “bankroll” of bidding units which may be used to bid against other participants in an attempt to obtain a specific real-life player to fill a position on a fantasy team roster. In a rotation draft, the participants within a fantasy league determine an order of selection, and proceed through a number of rounds to fill out the roster of a particular number of players for each fantasy team. Once a player has been drafted by a participant to fill a roster of a fantasy team, that player is no longer available to other participants within the league. Therefore, each participant must reprioritize the available real-life players throughout the draft process.

As in professional sports, the fantasy sports league participants may trade players during the season for any one of a number of reasons. These trades are made between participants for fantasy players on other teams and/or from real-life players not selected in the initial draft by the participants within the fantasy sports league. A fantasy sports league typically corresponds to the length of the representative real-life sport with the potential exception of using a certain number of the final regular season games of the real life sports season as the playoffs and subsequent championship for the fantasy sports league.

During the course of a fantasy sports season, management of a participant's roster is one of the keys to presenting a competitive team within the league as well as providing an opportunity to win games. However, during a gaming season a number of situations may occur that impact the ability of the fantasy team and associated roster of players to perform in the league. For example, injuries to real-life players may impact the ability of game participants to utilize players on their rosters. In addition, the volume of statistics and information available for real-life player performance is voluminous and difficult for game participants to sort through. For example, statistics are available for how a particular real-life player performs against particular components, how they perform on artificial surfaces versus grass, how they perform in bad weather versus good weather, etc. In addition, third party “expert” information for both real-life teams and players as well as fantasy sports leagues is also available to game participants. Thus, a game participant may be overwhelmed with the various statistics and information available to determine roster choices for a given game. Currently, there is no mechanism for such participants to process all or a portion of the information available to a game participant or to provide assistance to a game participant with roster management decisions thereby providing an enhanced gaming experience and increased competition among league participants. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present improvements have been needed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates assistant general manager information and interfaces with the user and processing module in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of the interface between the multimedia content and information and the multimedia content interface module of the assistant general manager module in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of the assistant general manager recommendation module in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of the action items module of the assistant general manager module in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the manage settings application associated with the assistant general manager module in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a logic flow for the assistant general manager module in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate an exemplary embodiment of a logic flow for the assistant general manager module in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a computing architecture.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary communications architecture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments are generally directed to gaming systems and methods of playing that provide assistance to game participants in making various roster decisions easily and quickly. This assists game participants with difficult decisions with the goal of keeping participants engaged in game play and maintaining competitiveness of the game as a whole as well as the game experience for all participants. Generally and for exemplary purposes, game play may include various games including, but not limited to, table games, fantasy sports games, interactive television games as well as other simulation games. For example, fantasy sports games may be associated with real-life sports, professional and/or amateur (e.g. college football), having multiple games in an individual season. The operation and function of a fantasy sports league is generally known and typically comprises at least two fantasy teams formed of fantasy players selected or drafted to comprise a fantasy team roster. Each of the fantasy players represent a real-life athlete that participates in a professional or amateur real-life sport. The real-life statistics of each player on each fantasy team are compiled after each real-life game. The statistics correlate to a particular number of fantasy points as mentioned above.

Embodiments are directed to systems and methods of gaming that provide assistance to users/participants in making various roster decisions easily and quickly. For instance, embodiments may comprise a multimedia content module operative to provide multimedia content related to one or more players within a game and a game server application operative to provide player recommendations to one or more users utilizing the multimedia content received from the multimedia content module. A player ranking module may also be included which ranks one or more players based on certain of the multimedia content and outputs a player ranking by corresponding player position. A player comparison module receives the player ranking by position and compares the ranked players to a roster of players associated with the one or more users by corresponding position. A recommendation module receives the comparison of the ranked players to the roster of players by corresponding position and recommends to the one or more users the ranked player when the ranked player is ranked higher than the corresponding player on the roster of a user at the corresponding position.

Although the present disclosure describes gaming mechanics that are focused on embodiments that relate to sports, these same gaming mechanics can be used in any sort of game and gaming mechanics where a platform utilizes data from a real time gaming situation with the same rules, functions and mechanics described herein, to simulate a new game based upon the same rules and mechanics with the same data and/or different data that is being supplied in a different way for a different purpose depending on the type of game. For example, the gaming mechanics may comprise any electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate multimedia feedback on an electronic platform, such as a computing device, video game console, handheld computer, arcade machine, and so forth. The games may include any genre based on many factors such as game play, types of goals, art style and more, and may include without limitation graphic adventures, point-and-click adventures, text adventures, sports, first-person adventures, first-person shooters, comic adventures, anime adventures, reality interactive television based games and so forth. It may be appreciated that any number of different games and gaming mechanics may be implemented for a given game that provides assistance to the user/participant to facilitate game play. However, the embodiments are not limited in this context.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a system 10 comprising a plurality of users/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N, a network communication system 20 that allows each of the plurality of user/participants 15 . . . 15_N to communicate with system server(s) 30. As mentioned above, the system 10 may be configured to support any one of a plurality of game types utilizing an assistant General Manager (“GM”) module to provide gaming recommendations to a user/participant. However, for the purposes of illustration, the system 10 will be described as a fantasy sports system and each of the user/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N may access the system server(s) 30 utilizing participant devices having the exemplary computer architecture as described with reference to FIG. 9. The network communication system 20 may be broadly interpreted as a network of any type or an interconnection of a plurality of networks providing bi-directional communication between each of the users/participants and the system server(s) 30 as described with reference to FIG. 10.

As would be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, system server(s) 30 provides a platform for access to game information and facilitates game play by each of the plurality of user/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N. For example, system server(s) 30 may store multimedia information of various players in multimedia content and information module 40 for one or more fantasy teams in one or more fantasy leagues including, for example, fantasy player statistics, text data, images, audio, video, etc. Again, the player is used herein in the context of sports games, but may also include participants/contestants in any type of gaming context. This information is managed by the system server(s) 30 and accessed by users/participants in order to facilitate game play using processing module 60. As used herein, “statistics” includes any identifiable, measurable, monitored or recorded action by a real-life player in the player's real-life sport. Each real-life sport includes commonly used statistics which translate into points associated with the fantasy sports league. Statistics are calculated, input, or provided by one or more databases either manually or preferably automatically and/or electronically, i.e., by computer or similar processing devices and stored in multimedia content and information module 40. Electronically includes, but is not limited to computer, Internet, or other suitable electronic processing. Automatic updating can occur at set time intervals which may depend on the type of sport (e.g. football may be updated once per week), customized when a league is organized or upon request by a game user/participant. In addition, the statistics may be provided independently by a separate system or integrated with system 10. In further variations, the statistics are received in real-time and/or the player updates are generated automatically or upon request.

Included as part of the system server(s) 30 is a processing module 60 and an assistant general manager (“GM”) module 50. Processing module 60 facilitates game play for the users/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N. In various embodiments, logic for the game processing module 50 and system 10 may be programmed in accordance with various programming languages, application platforms and application frameworks, including JAVA made by Oracle Corporation, COLDFUSION made by Adobe Systems Incorporated, .NET made by Microsoft® Corporation, WebORB for .NET, Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Ruby, Python, Perl, Lisp, Dylan, Pike, Cluster (CLU), Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ruby on Rails (RoR), C, C++, C#, and so forth. The logic may also comprise part of a RIA, such as a front-end of a SOA for deployment on a web browser of a client computing device using various client side technologies, such as an Adobe Flash platform programmed in an object-oriented programming language such as ACTIONSCRIPT™ and ADOBE® FLEX, made by Adobe Systems Incorporated. It may be appreciated that these programming languages are provided by way of example and not limitation. Logic for processing module 60 and associated system 10 may be implemented using any suitable programming language.

Assistant general manager (“GM”) module 50 accesses player information from multimedia content and information module 40 based on requests from game users/participants 1₅₁ . . . 1_5N in order to allow each participant to generate and modify a participant's game profile comprised of a player roster as well as providing the ability to manage a participant's roster for a given competition. In particular, the assistant GM module 50 provides a participant access to information about one or more players. For example, once a participant accesses the assistant GM module, information such as the contestant or player's name, upcoming opponent, game time and day as well as access to the assistant GM recommendation module 80 (see FIG. 2) is provided. Changes in team line-ups may occur during a season, such as by replacement of players for non-performance, injury, or other reasons, including trade of roster players among game users/participants. Additionally, players may be reserved, benched, activated or started, as specific league rules permit.

The assistant GM module 50, multimedia content and information module 40 as well as other components and data are communicatively coupled via various types of communications media. System server 30 manages operations and communication between assistant GM module 50, multimedia content and information module 40 and processing module 60. The coordination may involve the uni-directional or bi-directional exchange of information. For instance, the processing module 60 may control the system server(s) 30 to manage communication in the form of signals communicated over communications media between each of the components and/or functions therein as well as with the user/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N via network communication system 20.

A new and unique operational aspect of game system 10 in accordance with the present disclosure as provided by the game system server(s) 30 is directed to utilization of the assistant GM module 50 to provide assistance to users/participants with team management decisions from a myriad of player information easily to facilitate game play. This is accomplished by the assistant GM module 50 communicating with multimedia content and Information module 40 and processing module 60 to provide user participants 15₁ . . . 15_N with player and roster recommendations.

FIG. 2 illustrates assistant GM module 50 and the communication interface with each of processing module 60 and one of a plurality of users/participants 15_N. Assistant GM module 50 includes multimedia content interface 70, recommendation module 80, action module 90 and a manage settings application 100. As mentioned above, assistant GM module 50 is configured to process received information about players associated with a particular game and determine which players should be recommended to a user/participant 15N to improve the user/participant roster of players. In particular, within the system server(s) 30, the assistant GM module 50 identifies certain information such as, for example, player name, upcoming opponent information, game time and day and stores this information in multimedia content and information module 40 which may be accessed by multimedia content interface 70. This multimedia content and information may be accessed by the assistant GM recommendation module 80 to provide recommendations to a user/participant (e.g. participant 15_N) in making lineup decisions easily and quickly. A user/participant may consider these recommendations and may or may act upon them. Action module 90 allows the user/participant 15_N with the opportunity to act upon the recommendation provided by the recommendation module 80 with processing module 60 via interface 55. The recommendation from recommendation module 80 may be communicated to the user/participant 15_N via an input device again through interface 55. An input device (e.g., game controller, keyboard, joystick, mouse, trackball, touchpad, touchscreen, microphone, headphones, etc.) may accept control directives from the user/participant 15_N to receive and communicate information and/or commands to processing module 60 and/or assistant GM module 50. The processing module 60 and/or assistant GM module 50 may be programmed to output multimedia feedback (e.g., audio, visual, audio/visual, tactile, olfactory, etc.) in response to such user/participant commands using one or more output devices (e.g., a display) to the user/participant 15_N. The manage settings application 100 of assistant GM module 50 allows each user/participant 15_N to manage various recommendations provided by recommendation module 80. For example and as explained in more detail below with reference to FIG. 6, a user/participant 15_N may decide, in the case of a sports fantasy game, to only view free agent suggestions provided by recommendation module 80. In addition, a user/participant 15_N may decide to allow assistant GM module 50 to alert the user/participant of certain deadlines (e.g. lineup submission) and/or trade offers from other users/participants.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the content and interaction of multimedia content and information module 40 from system server(s) 30 and the multimedia content interface module of assistant GM module 50. As briefly mentioned above, multimedia content and information module 40 includes or has access to player information including past performance statistics, video, web sites and/or web page addresses. The information stored or accessible by multimedia content and information module 40 is relevant to the particular game running on system servers 30. For example, if the game running on system server 30 and played by users/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N is a fantasy sports game, various statistics about how real-life or fantasy players perform against certain opponents, in certain weather conditions, etc., could be helpful for a user/participant during game play. In addition, multimedia content and information module 40 may have access to or temporarily store video of relevant real-life players. In the case of fantasy sports gaming, the term “relevant player(s)” refers to those real-life players that play positions which provide points for a user/participant's fantasy team. For example, when the game is a fantasy football game, real-life players such as quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, etc., may produce fantasy points based on their performance in the real-life game. However, players such as offensive lineman, defensive lineman, etc., do not usually have the capability to score fantasy game points. Thus, in this situation multimedia content and information module 40 would store and/or have access to information about relevant players; i.e. those players capable of scoring points for a fantasy game roster as opposed to those players that cannot score points for a fantasy game roster.

Multimedia content and information module 40 accesses system server 30 where the various statistics, video, web site and/or web page addresses are stored. In particular, multimedia content interface 40 may generate a query to a database within system server 30 to obtain such multimedia content and/or information associated with a particular player (e.g. player N). The database that receives the query may be a relational database responsive to Structured Query Language (“SQL”) commands. The server may execute a hypertext preprocessor (“PHP”) script including SQL commands to query the database for such player related information or execute a retrieve command for information stored on an external web page, website or combination of multiple web pages and/or websites. Assistant GM module 50 and more particularly multimedia content interface receives this information from multimedia content and information module 40 and utilizes this information mainly in recommendation module 80 to determine which, if any, of the players 1 . . . N may be compared to players on a user/participant roster and the subject of a trade, free agent acquisition, etc. under action module 90.

FIG. 4 illustrates the assistant GM recommendation module which includes player ranking module 405, and player comparison module 410. Generally, assistant GM module 80 compares player ranking information with the players in a participant's roster to provide the participant with fantasy player recommendations. In particular, information about the performance of particular players supplied by multimedia content interface 70 is input to player ranking module 405. The particular players and the type of information supplied by multimedia content interface 70 may be customized by a user/participant based on the multimedia content information module 40. The fantasy players at a particular position are ranked by player ranking module 405 based on the received information from multimedia content interface 70. Fantasy player ranking module 405 may include a plurality of ranking sub-modules 405₁ . . . 405_N used to rank players based on various parameters. For example, sub-module 405₁ may be used to rank all players at a particular position. Sub-module 405₂ may be used to rank only the top N number of players at a position different from the position ranked by sub-module 405₁ and so on with respect to sub-module 405_N. In this manner, the player ranking module 405 is used to rank different players at different positions based on game and/or participant preferences.

The ranking information is provided to player comparison module 410 which compares the player rankings with a player roster associated with a particular user/participant 15₁ . . . 15_N. These ranked players are compared to the corresponding player at the same position on a participant's roster by player comparison module 410. If a player is compared to a participant's roster player at the same position and is ranked higher than the participant's player at module 410, then the identity of the ranked player is recommended at 406 and displayed to user/participant 15_N via graphical user interface 411. The number ‘N’ of ranked players compared to each position of a participant's roster is customizable and may be, for example, three or four players. Thus, a participant has a choice of N players provided at 406 to choose from to replace the corresponding player on the participant's roster. This replacement may be by starting a bench player or trading for another player as explained in more detail below. In this manner, the assistant GM recommendation module 410 determines if a player is of a caliber and quality to deserve a roster spot on a participant's team.

Player comparison module 410 determines the inadequacies of a current roster player by identifying predetermined weaknesses including, but not limited to, injury, bye week, underperformance based on year to date statistics which may be supplied by multimedia content interface 70, and upcoming projections based on performance to date against a particular opponent. In addition, multimedia content interface 70 may also supply information to player comparison module 410 regarding the percentages of teams within the current fantasy league as well as other leagues that have dropped, traded or otherwise removed a user/participant's roster player from their respective rosters. Each of the above considerations may be supplied to the user/participant 15_N via graphical user interface 411 in a particular order of importance. The order of importance may be based on rules within a particular league, or based on individual user/participant preferences.

Assistant GM recommendation module 80 would typically provide the recommended player(s) information at 406 to a participant who would then initiate roster replacement by anyone of three ways: lineup changes which modifies an active player to a reserve player; free agent acquisition based on league rules, and/or potential trade opportunities for players on other teams. All of the above actions are intended to provide the user/participant with opportunities to upgrade the user/participant's roster for the next scheduled competition quickly and easily. With respect to potential trade opportunities, player comparison module 410 includes rules, based on a particular league, for trade deadlines and associated timing prior to upcoming competitions. With respect to free agent acquisitions, player comparison module 410 includes rules, based on a particular league, for free agent acquisitions where no recommendation is made that contradicts these rules. Rule variations regarding free agent acquisition include but are not limited to the ability to add players immediately, require a minimum time to elapse and/or process requests at scheduled times to allow other participants the opportunity to request the same free agent. Competing requests to be resolved via bidding process or a rotating order.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating action items module 90 of assistant GM module 50. A function of this module, as previously mentioned, is to carry out the replacement of a player on a user/participant's current roster as recommended by assistant GM recommendation module 50. In particular, submodule 90₁ of action items module 90 executes the lineup change as suggested by assistant GM recommendation module 80 upon confirmation by user/participant 15_N. Submodule 90₂ of actions items module 90 executes a comparison of the player on the user/participant's roster with the free agent recommendation from assistant GM recommendation module 80. Upon user/participant acknowledgement via a display device, submodule 90₃ sends the user/participant 15_N to a new page or tab within system 10 (which may be, for example, a web page) that identifies the recommended free agent players for adding or dropping to/from the user/participant's roster based on the free agent recommendations from assistant GM recommendation module 80. Another function of action items module 90 is to execute based on user/participant acknowledgment, a trade of a current roster player based on the recommendation from assistant GM module 50. In particular, submodule 90₄ executes a compare of a player on the user/participant's 15_N roster to players recommended for a trade from assistant GM module 50. Submodule 90₅ provides notification to the team the player recommended to trade for by assistant GM module 50 that a trade opportunity is available for the current user/participant player. Once the user/participant 15N takes action based on the recommendation, assistant GM module 50 updates the rosters of the users/participants based on the trade.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the manage settings application 100 of assistant GM module 50 which allows users/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N to customize their settings for a particular game. In particular, the options submodule 110 allows a user/participant to display or not display lineup suggestions, free agent suggestions and/or trade suggestions from assistant GM recommendation module 80. Submodule 120 allows users/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N to customize the particular pages (i.e. web page interface) displayed within the assistant GM module 50. In particular, the location submodule 120 provides a user/participant to select which or all of the lineup page, sortable statistics page and/or offer trade page to display.

Operations for the above-described game system embodiments may be further described with reference to one or more logic flows. It may be appreciated that the representative logic flows do not necessarily have to be executed in the order presented, or in any particular order, unless otherwise indicated. Moreover, various activities described with respect to the logic flows can be executed in serial or parallel fashion. The logic flows may be implemented using one or more hardware elements and/or software elements of the described embodiments or alternative elements as desired for a given set of design and performance constraints. For example, the logic flows may be implemented as logic (e.g., computer program instructions) for execution by a logic device (e.g., a general-purpose or specific-purpose computer).

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow 500. The logic flow 500 is representative of a general overview of some of the operations executed by one or more embodiments of the game system 10 and more particularly of assistant GM module 50. In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the logic flow 500 provides assistant GM module 50 with player relevant information from multimedia content and information module 40 at step 505. This information may be supplied for each player and by information type depending on user/participant preferences. Assistant GM module 50 recommends changes to a user/participant's 15₁ . . . 15_N lineup at block 510 as described in more detail with reference to FIG. 8. These recommendations may or may not be executed on by the participant. At block 520, assistant GM module 50 updates the lineup of a user/participant with the recommended players depending on whether or not the ranked players are ranked higher than existing players on the user/participant's lineup and based on whether or not the participant wants to make the recommended line-up changes. The logic flow 500 continues to block 525 which supplies the updated lineup for the user/participant to processing module 60 to easily and quickly update the active roster of a user/participant 15_N.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate a logic flow 800 which is an exploded view of block 510 shown in FIG. 7. The ranking of inactive participant lineup players at each position is compared to the ranked players at step 810. After this comparison, a determination is made at step 820 if the ranked players are ranked higher than players on the user/participant's lineup at the corresponding position. If the ranked players are not ranked higher than a player on the user/participant's lineup, then the process proceeds to step 825 and no player is recommended to the user/participant's lineup. If the ranked players are ranked higher than a player on the current user/participant's lineup, then the process proceeds to step 830 where a determination is made whether or not the ranked player at the particular position is a bench player on the user/participant's roster. If the ranked player is a bench player on the user/participant's roster, then a recommendation is made to the participant to activate the bench player at step 835 and the process proceeds to step 865 where the inactive participant's lineup is updated by action items module 90.

If the ranked player is not a bench player on the user/participant current roster, then the process proceeds to step 840 of FIG. 8B where a determination is made if the ranked player, at that position, is on an another user/participant's team. If this condition is not satisfied, then the process proceeds to step 845 and the ranked player must be a free agent. A free agent acquisition is recommended for the ranked player to the user/participant and the process proceeds to step 865 where the inactive participant lineup is updated at the preference of the participant. If, at step 840, it is determined that the ranked player is on another participant's team, a trade offer is recommended to the participant for the ranked player at step 855. At step 860, if the participant decides to execute the recommended trade, a determination is made if the trade offer was accepted by the other user/participant that has the ranked player on its roster. If the trade offer was accepted and any/all other trade approvals have been met (e.g. trades approved by commissioner, voted on by other participants, etc.), the process proceeds to step 865 and the inactive participant lineup is updated with the ranked player at that position. If the trade offer was not accepted by the user/participant, the process proceeds to step 870 where the next ranked player at that particular position is identified and the process returns to step 820. It should be noted that each of these steps in the process may be customized to provide player recommendations for lineup changes, drafts, trades, etc., based on league or game play rule preferences. In addition, the number and details of each ranked player provided by assistant GM module 50 may be dependent on game play rules.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary computing architecture 900 suitable for implementing various embodiments of the game system and methods as previously described. In particular, the computing architecture 900 may be used by a game participant 15₁ . . . 15_N and/or the system server (s) and/or a portion thereof. The computing architecture 900 includes various common computing elements, such as one or more processors, co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards, multimedia input/output (I/O) components, and so forth. The embodiments, however, are not limited to implementation by the computing architecture 1200.

As shown in FIG. 9, the computing architecture 900 comprises a processing unit 904, a system memory 906 and a system bus 908. The processing unit 904 can be any of various commercially available processors. Dual microprocessors and other multi-processor architectures may also be employed as the processing unit 904. The system bus 908 provides an interface for system components including, but not limited to, the system memory 906 to the processing unit 904. The system bus 908 can be any of several types of bus structure that may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of commercially available bus architectures.

The system memory 906 may include various types of memory units to store information in system 10 and may be, for example, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymer memory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase change or ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory, magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of media suitable for storing information. In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 9, the system memory 906 can include non-volatile memory 910 and/or volatile memory 912. A basic input/output system (BIOS) can be stored in the non-volatile memory 910.

The computer 902 may include various types of computer-readable storage media, including an internal hard disk drive (HDD) 914, a magnetic floppy disk drive (FDD) 916 to read from or write to a removable magnetic disk 918, and an optical disk drive 920 to read from or write to a removable optical disk 922 (e.g., a CD-ROM or DVD). The HDD 914, FDD 916 and optical disk drive 920 can be connected to the system bus 908 by a HDD interface 924, an FDD interface 926 and an optical drive interface 928, respectively. The HDD interface 924 for external drive implementations can include at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 interface technologies.

The drives and associated computer-readable media provide volatile and/or nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions, and so forth. For example, a number of program modules can be stored in the drives and memory units 910, 912, including an operating system 930, one or more application programs 932, other program modules 934, and program data 936 applicable to system 10. The one or more application programs 932, other program modules 934, and program data 936 can include, for example, the system 10, the systems used by user/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N, and/or the game system server(s) 30.

A user/participant 15₁ . . . 15_N can enter commands and information into the computer 902 through one or more wire/wireless input devices, for example, a keyboard 938 and a pointing device, such as a mouse 940. Other input devices may include a microphone, an infra-red (IR) remote control, a joystick, a game pad, a stylus pen, touch screen, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 904 through an input device interface 942 that is coupled to the system bus 908, but can be connected by other interfaces such as a parallel port, IEEE 1394 serial port, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, and so forth.

A monitor 944 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 908 via an interface, such as a video adaptor 946 and can be used to display player recommendation information R₁ . . . R_N to the one or more user/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N. In addition to the monitor 944, a computer typically includes other peripheral output devices, such as speakers, printers, and so forth.

The computer 902 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections via wire and/or wireless communications to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 948. The remote computer 948 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainment appliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer 902, although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device 950 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted include wire/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 952 and/or larger networks, for example, a wide area network (WAN) 954. Such LAN and WAN networking environments are commonplace in offices and companies, and facilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such as intranets, all of which may connect to a global communications network, for example, the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 902 is connected to the LAN 952 through a wire and/or wireless communication network interface or adaptor 956. The adaptor 956 can facilitate wire and/or wireless communications to the LAN 952, which may also include a wireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with the wireless functionality of the adaptor 956.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 502 can include a modem 958, or is connected to a communications server on the WAN 954, or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN 954, such as by way of the Internet. The modem 958, which can be internal or external and a wire and/or wireless device, connects to the system bus 908 via the input device interface 942. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 902, or portions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device 950. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers can be used.

The computer 902 is operable to communicate with wire and wireless devices or entities using the IEEE 802 family of standards, such as wireless devices operatively disposed in wireless communication (e.g., IEEE 802.11 over-the-air modulation techniques) with, for example, a printer, scanner, desktop and/or portable computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), communications satellite, any piece of equipment or location associated with a wirelessly detectable tag (e.g., a kiosk, news stand, restroom), and telephone. This includes at least Wi-Fi (or Wireless Fidelity), WiMax, and Bluetooth™ wireless technologies. Thus, the communication can be a predefined structure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices. Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.11x (a, b, g, etc.) to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wire networks (which use IEEE 802.3-related media and functions).

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary communications architecture 1000 suitable for implementing various embodiments of system 10 and associated methods as previously described. The communications architecture 1000 includes various common communications elements, such as a transmitter, receiver, transceiver, radio, network interface, baseband processor, antenna, amplifiers, filters, and so forth. The embodiments, however, are not limited to implementation by the communications architecture 1000.

As shown in FIG. 10, the communications architecture 1000 comprises one or more clients 1302 and servers 1004. The clients 1002 may implement the systems used by the users/participants 15₁ . . . 15_N. The servers 1004 may implement the system server(s) 30. The clients 1002 and the servers 1004 are operatively connected to one or more respective client data stores 1008 and server data stores 1010 that can be employed to store information local to the respective clients 1002 and servers 1004, such as cookies and/or associated contextual information.

The clients 1002 and the servers 1004 may communicate information between each other using a communication framework 1006. The communications framework 1306 may implement any well-known communications techniques, such as techniques suitable for use with packet-switched networks (e.g., public networks such as the Internet, private networks such as an enterprise intranet, and so forth), circuit-switched networks (e.g., the public switched telephone network), or a combination of packet-switched networks and circuit-switched networks (with suitable gateways and translators). The clients 1002 and the servers 1004 may include various types of standard communication elements designed to be interoperable with the communications framework 1006, such as one or more communications interfaces, network interfaces, network interface cards (NIC), radios, wireless transmitters/receivers (transceivers), wired and/or wireless communication media, physical connectors, and so forth. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired communications media and wireless communications media. Examples of wired communications media may include a wire, cable, metal leads, printed circuit boards (PCB), backplanes, switch fabrics, semiconductor material, twisted-pair wire, co-axial cable, fiber optics, a propagated signal, and so forth. Examples of wireless communications media may include acoustic, radio-frequency (RF) spectrum, infrared and other wireless media. One possible communication between a client 1002 and a server 1004 can be in the form of a data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or more computer processes. The data packet may include a cookie and/or associated contextual information, for example.

Various embodiments may be implemented using hardware elements, software elements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements may include devices, components, processors, microprocessors, circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), memory units, logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of software elements may include software components, programs, applications, computer programs, application programs, system programs, machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an embodiment is implemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may vary in accordance with any number of factors, such as desired computational rate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design or performance constraints, as desired for a given implementation.

Some embodiments of the system 10 and associated methods may comprise an article of manufacture. An article of manufacture may comprise a storage medium to store logic. Examples of a storage medium may include one or more types of non-transitory computer-readable storage media capable of storing electronic data, including volatile memory or non-volatile memory, removable or non-removable memory, erasable or non-erasable memory, writeable or re-writeable memory, and so forth. Examples of the logic may include various software elements, such as software components, programs, applications, computer programs, application programs, system programs, machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, for example, an article of manufacture may store executable computer program instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform methods and/or operations in accordance with the described embodiments. The executable computer program instructions may include any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, and the like. The executable computer program instructions may be implemented according to a predefined computer language, manner or syntax, for instructing a computer to perform a certain function. The instructions may be implemented using any suitable high-level, low-level, object-oriented, visual, compiled and/or interpreted programming language.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” along with their derivatives. These terms mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and “connected” along with their derivatives. These terms are not necessarily intended as synonyms for each other. For example, some embodiments may be described using the terms “connected” and/or “coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other. The term “coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

It is emphasized that the Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. Section 1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein,” respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,” “second,” “third,” and so forth, are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system comprising:

a multimedia content module operative to provide multimedia content related to one or more players within a game;

a game server application operative to provide player recommendations to one or more users utilizing the multimedia content received from the multimedia content module, the game server comprising: a player ranking module operative to rank one or more players based on certain of the multimedia content and output a player ranking by corresponding player position; a player comparison module operative to receive the player ranking by position and compare the ranked players to a roster of players associated with the one or more users by corresponding position; a recommendation module operative to receive the comparison of the ranked players to the roster of players by corresponding position and recommending to the one or more users the ranked player when said ranked player is ranked higher than the corresponding player on the users roster at the corresponding position; and an action items module operative to: determine the status of a ranked player, the status being one of a bench player the roster of a user, a player on the roster of another user, and a free agent not currently on any user's roster; and replace the roster player of the one or more users with the ranked player at the corresponding position.

2. (canceled)

3. The computer implemented system of claim 1 further comprising a multimedia content interface operative to receive the certain of the multimedia information from the multimedia content and information module and associate said multimedia information with the corresponding player to be ranked.

4. The computer implemented system of claim 1 further comprising a multimedia content interface operative to receive the certain of the multimedia information from the multimedia content and information module and associate said multimedia information with a corresponding player on the roster of the one or more users at the corresponding position.

5. The computer implemented system of claim 1 further comprising a manage settings application operative to receive recommended ranked player and display said recommended ranked player for acceptance or rejection by the one or more users.

6. The computer implemented system of claim 1 further comprising a manage settings application operative to allow the one or more users to display said recommended ranked player by position.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing multimedia content related to one or more players within a game;

ranking the one or more players based on certain of the multimedia content;

outputting a ranking of each player by corresponding position;

comparing each ranked player to a roster of players associated with the one or more users by corresponding position;

determining the status of a ranked player, the status being one of a bench player on the roster of a user, a player on the roster of another user, and a free agent not currently on any user's roster;

recommending to the one or more users the ranked player when said ranked player is ranked higher than the corresponding player on the roster of the one or more users at the corresponding position; and

replacing the roster player of the one or more users with the ranked player at the corresponding position when the ranked player is ranked higher than the corresponding player on the roster of the one or more users at the corresponding position.

8. (canceled)

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further comprising receiving the certain of the multimedia information from the multimedia content and information module and associating said multimedia information with a corresponding player to be ranked.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further comprising receiving the certain of the multimedia information from the multimedia content and information module and associating said multimedia information with a player on the roster of the one or more users at the corresponding position.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further comprising receiving the recommended ranked player and displaying said recommended ranked player for acceptance or rejection by the one or more users.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 7 further comprising displaying to the one or more users said recommended ranked player by position.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein if the ranked player is a bench player ranked higher than the corresponding player on the roster of the one or more users at the corresponding position, then the method further comprising

replacing the player on the roster of the first user with the ranked player at the corresponding position.

14. The computer-implemented game method of claim 7 wherein the one or more ranked player are at least three ranked players by corresponding position, the method further comprising:

determining if any of the three ranked players has a higher ranking than the corresponding player on the roster of a first of the one or more users; and

if the ranked player is on the roster of another user then proposing a trade to the other user on which the first of the three ranked players is identified as being part of the associated roster.

15. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed enable a system to:

provide multimedia content related to one or more players within a game;

rank the one or more players based on certain of the multimedia content;

output a ranking of each player by corresponding position;

compare each ranked player to a roster of players associated with the one or more users by corresponding position;

determine the status of a ranked player, the status being one of a bench player on the roster of a user, a player on the roster of another user, and a free agent not currently on any user's roster; and

recommend to the one or more users the ranked player when said ranked player is ranked higher than the corresponding player on the roster of the one or more users at the corresponding position.

16. The article of claim 15 wherein the game corresponds to a fantasy sports game and the one or more players corresponds to players in a real-life sporting event.

17. The article of claim 15, further comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to replace the roster player of the one or more users with the ranked player at the corresponding position when the ranked player is ranked higher than the corresponding player on the roster of the one or more users at the corresponding position.

18. The article of claim 15, further comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to receive the certain of the multimedia information from the multimedia content and information module and associate said multimedia information with a corresponding player to be ranked.

19. The article of claim 15, further comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to receive the recommended ranked player and display said recommended ranked player for acceptance or rejection by the one or more users.

20. The article of claim 15, further comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to automatically update the roster of the one or more users with the ranked player at the corresponding position.

21. The computer implemented system of claim 1, the recommendation module further operative to propose a trade for a ranked player on the roster of another user.

22. The article of claim 15, further comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to propose a trade for a ranked player on the roster of another user.