Patent ID: 8602867

Claim:
A method of providing a wagering game for a player, the game including a matrix of symbol locations including a plurality of symbol locations, the method comprising: (a) displaying an arrangement of symbols in the matrix of symbol locations; (b) receiving a wager input from the player; (c) receiving a play input from the player; (d) in response to receiving the play input from the player, randomly or pseudo-randomly determining a new arrangement of symbols to be displayed in the matrix of symbol locations; (e) determining that an alternating wild feature is to be applied in the game; (f) applying the alternating wild feature to transform at least two symbols along a first path of at least three adjacent symbol locations in the matrix of symbol locations into wild symbols, the transformation occurring by the process of (i) moving an alternating wild symbol along the first path with the effect of transforming every other symbol location in the path to wild, (ii) displaying an animation of the alternating wild symbol flipping over from a wild to a non-wild indicator as it moves to at least one intermediate symbol along the first path, and, associated with this animation, making no change in the function of the at least one intermediate symbol; and (iii) displaying an animation of the alternating wild symbol flipping over from a non-wild indicator to a wild indicator as it moves to at least two symbols on the path and, associated with this animation, changing the function of the at least two symbols to be wild; (g) after applying the alternating wild feature, evaluating the matrix for presence of one or more winning patterns formed by the symbols; and (h) in response to finding a winning pattern, awarding a wager win result to the player.