Patent ID: 7824268

Claim:
A live-hosted multiplayer online gaming system comprising: a plurality of game clients; a network that provides for data communication to and from game clients; a game controller, coupled to the network, comprising: logic to operate a live hosted multiplayer online game; logic to couple the game controller to at least some of the plurality of game clients via the network; and logic to receive inputs from and to send outputs to the at least some of the plurality of game clients; and a live operator console comprising: logic to couple live operator input to the game server to enable communication between the live operator input and the game controller; logic to synchronize the live operator input to a current game state maintained by the game controller, wherein the logic to synchronize the live operator input further comprises logic to receive audiovisual content generated by a live game host and to provide the audiovisual content to the game controller to be forwarded to the plurality of game clients, the audiovisual content provided by the live operator being synchronized with the current game state, wherein the audiovisual content provided by the live host includes live commentary from the live host regarding in-game events; and logic to send messages to the game controller that cause the game controller to create events that control at least in part the execution of the live hosted multiplayer online game.