Patent ID: 9446317
Filing Date: 2016-09-20
CPC Classification: A63F,G06Q

Claim Text:
1. A method that causes a computer to manage a login history of each of players, and provide a game service, the method comprising: causing the computer to register a plurality of the players according to an operation input performed by each of the players so that the players are linked to each other as a plurality of linked players; causing the computer to perform a bonus-giving process on a processing target player, the processing target player being one of the players which are linked to each other, tie bonus-giving process is performed on the processing target player each time the processing target player logs in during a given period, the bonus-giving process determines whether or not the login history of a linked player of the plurality of linked player satisfies the bonus-giving condition based on the login history of the linked player within the given period, the bonus-giving process giving a given bonus to the processing target player when the login history of the linked player is determined to satisfy a given bonus-giving condition, the linked player being another one of the players which are linked to each other and being linked to the processing target player, the bonus-giving process determines which of a plurality of different bonuses to give as the given bonus based on a count of the login history, the plurality of different bonuses having different values corresponding to different counts of the login history, wherein the different bonuses having a higher value correspond to a higher count of the login history; causing the computer to count a reference count of the linked player, the reference count being a number of times in which the login history of the linked player has been referred to by the bonus-giving process for each of the players, except for the linked player, which are linked to each other in determining, for the processing target player, whether the login history of the linked player satisfies the given bonus-giving condition; and causing the computer to notify the linked player of the reference count, wherein the performing of the bonus-giving process is based on the login histories, within the given period, of the plurality of linked players not including the processing target player, the count of the login history increases for each of the linked players that logs in, the count of the login history is cumulative during the given period, the count of the login history is reset after the current given period, a value of the given bonus for the bonus-giving process on the processing target player continues to increase during the given period as the count of the login histories of the linked players increase, even after the bonus-giving process gives the given bonus to the processing target player in the given period.