Method for advertising over a computer network utilizing virtual environments of games

A method is provided for advertising within the virtual environments of games. Default images of games are replaced by alternative textures having advertisements implemented therein. An ad server coordinates the matching of ads to demographic data of the game player and properly accommodates ads in formats from game information provided by game sources. The game player is visually influenced by advertisements as he or she views the virtual world of the game, as plug-in software replaces the default images with virtual pictures and figures utilizing an advertisement. View statistics are retrieved from the game player's computer or console to rate viewing effectiveness for ad placement confirmation and billing purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention is a method for advertising within virtual 
environments of games played over a network. Advertisements are used as 
plug-ins for 3D texture areas within an Internet game, as a 
non-interactive means of advertising, which is directed to a wide variety 
of players having a multitude of different demographic profiles. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
Use of the Internet as a global communications network has dramatically 
increased over the past decade. A wide variety of companies can market, 
advertise, and sell their respective products via the worldwide web. The 
advertising activity can receive effective and immediate responses because 
the many users are mindful of the many client software programs (i.e. web 
browsers) available. The Internet is extensively used for entertainment 
purposes as well, and repositories for playing games are one of the many 
services provided by the Internet 
Known in the art are methods for advertising over a network, and more 
notably, methods for combining automated casino-type games with real-time 
product advertising. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,879, Goldberg, et al. 
Information regarding goods or services are exchanged between users as 
they play games such as blackjack, craps, or roulette, etc. Exchanged 
advertising information is adapted to be shown to users who fit a general 
demographic profile. The game players may interactively respond to 
questionnaires or enticing product information. 
Advertising is also simultaneously implemented in computer games that 
enable remote participants to respond to live broadcast sporting games 
described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,088, Vaughn et al. Interactive ad 
messages are transmitted and downloaded from a central computer system 
means and made available for immediate feedback by the network user 
following the game. 
In conjunction with TV and radio advertisements, ads via the Internet are 
disruptive, and they are displeasing to a user not looking for such 
marketing ploys. Also, most advertisers wish to direct the ads towards 
specific viewers or listeners, but this becomes too difficult over such a 
vast network, and ads are unintentionally shown to a wide demographic. The 
wide variety of people using a global network such as the worldwide web 
makes it difficult for the advertiser to know which advertisement or 
location of the advertisement is most effective, and, in particular, there 
is no way of measuring an actual audience. Network game playing servers 
can match some demographic profiles to aim specific advertisements towards 
a select user, but the range of the profile is still lacking, as certain 
games themselves already attract a specific group. Internet game players 
and worldwide web users want to play interactively in the games, not 
further encumbered with the interruption of surveys and advertisements. 
Marketing companies can still, however, advertise effectively within games 
played over a network that would influence users of a larger demographic 
profile, while the game player is not disrupted from the game environment, 
and is not prompted or asked to focus his/her attention away from the 
featured game screen. 
PRIOR ART 
U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,088, Jul. 1, 1997 (Vaughn et al.), shows a game of 
skill or chance played simultaneously by several participants remote from 
each other also provides for interleaved interactive advertising. 
Communication means provide to each participant the common game along with 
interactive advertising. 
U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,879, Oct. 20, 1998 (Goldberg et al.) teaches a game 
playing method and apparatus for automating games such as blackjack, 
poker, craps, roulette, baccarat and pai gow. The invention may also be 
used to play such games on the Internet or an interactive cable television 
network. During a game, advertising is selectively provided by comparing 
player personal information with a desired demographic profile. 
U.S. Pat. No. 5,227,874, Jul. 13, 1993 (Von Kohorn) demonstrates the 
evaluation of stimuli such as broadcast commercials intended to promote 
purchases by shoppers are disclosed. The methods quantify the 
effectiveness of controlled variables of stimuli and of inducements 
associated therewith. 
U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,424, Mar. 3, 1998 (Gifford) shows a complete system for 
the purchasing of goods or information over a computer network is 
presented. A network payment system performs payment order authorization 
in a network with untrusted switching, transmission, and host components. 
U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,675, Apr. 2, 1996 (Cragun et al.) teaches a sales 
promotion program dynamically selected from a plurality of programs for 
presentation in a program presentation unit by a neural network. The 
collected data is provided to the neural network in any one of a plurality 
of training schemes typical for neural networks. The network can be 
retrained in response to sales data. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is the objective of the present invention to provide a non-interactive 
method of advertising within game screen environments on the Internet, 
which does not interrupt the playing of the game, yet exposes the user to 
the advertisement. A variety of shapes and colors that make up patches of 
a game background are replaced by similar shape ad textures embedded in 
certain locations of the game. As a game character, or as the viewer 
himself, walks around or moves in some manner on the game screen or within 
the game environment, he or she views an advertisement in a location 
normally occupied by a similar shaped wall, picture, or machine, etc. A 
user playing a game, which he or she has linked to or downloaded from the 
Internet, controls the movement of a character as seen in the user's view 
or in third person. As the user views the surroundings and his or her 
movement, in conjunction with the character's motion within the game 
environment, a default graphic texture or figure is replaced by a plug-in, 
which advertises a product or service provided by an ad server. Within the 
virtual environment of the game, a character or player is visibly 
influenced by the advertisement and, at the same time, still actively 
taking part in the playing of the game. This reduces the distracting 
element of advertisements within the gaming environment. 
It is a secondary objective of the present invention to direct advertising 
to network game players who fit varying demographic profiles. Many games 
are played via the Internet that users enjoy, which are directly related 
to age, sex, income group, etc. In the present method, advertisers would 
seek user information from a particular database on the game server 
provided to them from a game user login query. Coupling the variety of 
games made available over the worldwide web or other server with a 
particular user's demographic profile would be beneficial to companies or 
services wishing to direct advertising to particular groups of people 
matching a desired demographic range. 
It is a third objective of the present invention to include statistical 
features for each advertisement displayed so the advertiser can rate its 
effectiveness. The number of times the ad is viewed, the time the ad is 
displayed on the screen, the game, and the viewer's demographic profile 
are all provided from the game user computer to the ad server. An 
advertiser relates directly to an ad server what his or her desired viewer 
profile and image features are, and in return, the ad server provides the 
feedback from the user's computer as an identifiable market effectiveness 
rating. The ad server compiles this information into a form suitable for 
billing the advertiser and conveying the statistical information to the 
advertiser.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The invention will now be described in detail in relation to a preferred 
embodiment and implementation thereof which is exemplary in nature and 
descriptively specific as disclosed. As is customary, it will be 
understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby 
intended. The invention encompasses such alterations and further 
modifications in the illustrated device, and such further applications of 
the principles of the invention illustrated herein as would normally occur 
to persons skilled in the art to which the invention relates. 
Referring to FIG. 1, an ad server company, running a server, hereinafter 
referred to as ad server 26, provides the capability through an ad server 
26 to dynamically download information from its ad server 26 to be used in 
a game at runtime. The ad server 26 also has the capability to contact and 
download information from a server alternative to a regular server to ease 
the load on any main server. 
The ad server 26 contacts the game sources 32 and requests texture 
information 50 related to the games. The games may be standard strategic 
games; non-goal oriented games utilizing virtual reality platforms, or any 
online collaborative environment. The texture information 50 includes 
shapes wherein default textures are embedded. This texture information 50 
is then sent to the ad server 26. 
The ad server 26 requests from the game sources 32 that they provide 
`hooks`, or plug-in portions in their game software wherein plug-ins could 
be implemented. It is generally known that a plug-in is a small piece of 
software that can be loaded into memory of a larger software program. 
The ad server 26 contacts advertising sources 30 and provides them with 
advertising formats corresponding to the shapes of the default textures in 
the texture information 50 provided by the game sources 32. The ad sources 
30 then generate and provide the graphical ad images based on a query from 
the ad server 26. The ad server 26 can then correlate each ad image to an 
appropriate format to later load into the plug-in portion of the game 
server software 22. The ad server 26 also provides a description of the 
intended demographic profile 13 of the user 1 for the advertising, and any 
specific requirements for the viewing such as minimum age or sex. A 
demographic profile 13 of the user 1 can be retrieved from the user 1 or 
user computer 11 by query and stored in an ad server database 26a, or can 
be retrieved from a user database 24 by networking to login information. 
The demographic profile 13 may include a user's age group, sex, income, 
employment group, residence location, or ethnicity, etc. A specific rate 
for `impressions` is agreed upon based on demographic impressions and the 
intended target audience. 
The game server 20 is then loaded with the game server software 22. The 
game server 20, which is networked, or on a same system as the ad server 
26, may share software with the ad server 26 and includes the capability 
to work in unison with the ad server 26, and will provide and extract ID 
53 data between the user database 24 and the ad server 26. The game 
software 16 is downloaded by the user 1 from the game server software 22 
at no charge, or sold at computer or vending stores for personal computer 
or free standing video game console installation. 
A user database 24 is set up on the game server 20 to track the user's high 
scores and other game related information, as well as to provide a 
repository for demographic data 13 relevant to the needs of the ad server 
26. The ad server 26 can query the user database 24 when presented with a 
particular information to extract the demographic data 13 corresponding to 
an ID 53 for the most effective advertising purposes. 
An ad server database 26a in the ad server 26 may include all of the data 
from the user database 24 set up on the game server 20 to improve 
communication speed between the ad server 26 and the user computer 11 by 
eliminating the need to communicate between the game server 20 and ad 
server 26. 
When a user 1 logs onto the game server 20 from his or her computer 11, he 
or she provides a user ID and preferably a password 53 to authenticate his 
or herself and allow for retrieval of the game and any demographic data 
13. When the user 1 on the computer 11 chooses a game that is enabled by 
the present invention, the game software 16, now downloaded or installed 
and running on the computer 11, queries the ad server 26 with the user's 
ID, game identification, level of play etc. If the ad server 26 has a copy 
of the user's demographic data 13 in the ad server database 26a, it 
searches to locate appropriate advertising for the game and user from the 
advertising sources 30. Otherwise, the ad server 26 queries the user 
database 24 implemented in the game server 20 for the user's demographic 
data 13 and performs the ad matching. Upon choosing advertising 
appropriate for the game and user 1, the ad server 26 presents the 
information as ad textures 15 to the user's computer 11 for download into 
a local texture store 14, along with intended viewing profiles. After the 
ad textures 15 have been received from the ad server 26 and loaded into 
the local texture store 14, they are loaded as a plug-in 2 to the server 
software 22, which selects individual advertising material for 
presentation to the game player inside the virtual environment of the 
game. 
Once all of the ad textures 15 are loaded and ready, and the user 1 and the 
game server 20 are ready, play will commence. During play of the game, the 
game control engine 10 of the computer 11 builds a graphical image out of 
an internal representation of the virtual space that the game occurs 
within. It then `paints`, or visually implements, the mathematical 
representation of the world with textures from the local texture store 14. 
The game's virtual space will have several locations, provided in the 
texture information 50, where the ad textures 15 received from the ad 
server 26 will be appropriate to display in lieu of the default game 
textures. These default textures include 3D or 2D models of shapes and 
figures, video clips, pictures and signs, or other non-interactive 
features. The plug-in 2 in the game software 16 selects an appropriate ad 
texture 15 for advertising, which replaces the default texture and 
presents the ad texture 15 for display in the graphics generations portion 
12 of the game. The plug-in 2 of the game software 16, then being 
implemented by the user computer 11, also keeps track of the view 
statistics 33. These include the time each ad texture 15 is displayed, the 
number of ad textures 15 displayed, the size, in terms of pixels, each ad 
texture 15 occupies, and the type of views that the ad texture 15 is shown 
as. These view statistics 33 are logged for later download to the ad 
server 26. Between each level of play, while the game is waiting to 
synchronize with the game server 20, additional advertising textures 15 
and information may be exchanged between the ad server 26 and the user 
computer 11 having the downloaded plug-in 2 available for advertising 
within the game. At the completion of the game, the user computer 11 sends 
score and other statistical information from the user's computer 11 to the 
game server 20. At this time, the plug-in portion 2 transmits the viewing 
statistics 33 gathered to the ad server 26. The ad server 26 will then 
transmit confirmation information to the game server 20 to insure credit 
for playing the advertising version of the game server software 22. 
After the game has been played, the ad server 26 calculates the charges to 
the advertising sources 30 based on the user demographic profile 13 and 
the `fit` (accuracy in the want or need of the advertising source 30) 
between the intended viewing audience and the actual viewing audience and 
the number of views or impressions delivered. The ad sources 30 are 
billed, and upon receipt of the money from the ad sources 30, the company 
of the game server 20 will be paid their portion of the revenue. They will 
then pass a portion of the revenue on to the game sources 32, insuring 
that a steady stream of new content is available for this medium.