Patent ID: 8882588

Claim:
A method of providing interactive electronic gaming, the method comprising: detecting, at a game server and during an active interactive electronic game with which a plurality of remote users are participating over a distributed network, a termination of a participation of a first user in the active interactive game, wherein the first user is one of the plurality of remote users, and wherein the game server hosts the interactive game allowing the plurality of remote users through corresponding user devices to access over the distributed network the game server and participate in the interactive game, detecting a loss of an effective communication with a first user device of the user devices utilized by the first user in participating in the interactive game, wherein the effective communication provides sufficient enough communication between the first user device and the game server to allow the first user to continue to participate in the interactive game, and terminating the participation by the first user in the interactive game; identifying a first position within the interactive game corresponding with the first user of the plurality of remote users, wherein the first position allows one of the plurality of remote users to participate in the interactive game and comprises a relative association and cooperative playback, within the interactive game, with one or more of the plurality of remote users participating in the interactive game; determining, at the game server and during the active interactive game, whether to provide a game state transfer of the first position within the interactive game in response to the terminating the participation of the first user in the interactive game; identifying a remote second user to which the first position is to be transferred, wherein the second user is remote from the game server and is not an active participant in the interactive game; and reserving the first position for the identified second user such that the first position is reserved for the second user to subsequently join, through a second user device that is separate from the game server and is configured to access the game server, the interactive game into the first position allowing the second user to participate in the game in place of the first user and take over the first user's participation within the game; wherein the reserving the first position comprises reserving a first game character within the interactive game, wherein the first game character is associated with the first position and controlled by the first user, and wherein the establishing the game state of the second user comprises providing the second user with control over the first game character within the interactive game.