Patent ID: 9659458
Date: 2017-05-23
CPC Classifications: G07F

Claim:
1. A method comprising: providing to a player of a computer-implemented online game an in-game capability available to the player in competitive gameplay, the in-game capability being based on the player having an associated game object and comprising an object-specific ability unique to the associated game object, the player being a member of an associated guild having a plurality of members, each member of the guild being a respective human player of the game, with competitive gameplay occurring between members of different guilds; in an automated operation performed by one or more processors, calculating a guild effect value for the player based at least in part on one or more guild metrics for the associated guild, the one or more guild metrics including a game activity metric that is variable responsive to variation in a count of corresponding guild members who played the game within a predefined preceding time period; and setting a value for a variable attribute of the in-game capability based at least in part on the calculated guild effect value, the variable attribute of the in-game capability comprising a trigger probability that indicates a probability for actual availability of the object-specific ability during competitive gameplay.