Patent ID: 7946910

Claim:
A method for implementing a simultaneous, but intermittently played, contest, comprising: (a) providing, through a plurality of user devices, each associated with a different player from among a plurality of geographically dispersed players, a user interface that includes an alert signal indicating that a problem is about to be made available, and then shortly thereafter, delivering the problem substantially simultaneously to at least some of said geographically dispersed players through their user devices, the problem being identical for all players; (b) receiving responses to the problem from the players and measuring response times corresponding to the responses; (c) awarding points to the players based on the responses and corresponding response times; and (d) repeating steps (a)-(c) a plurality of times, with a median time interval between delivery of consecutive problems being at least 30 minutes, and with aggregate point totals being maintained for individual players, wherein each of said user devices comprises at least one of a personal computer, a wireless telephone or a wireless personal digital assistant.