Patent ID: 6837793

Claim:
A system for playing a game of chance, comprising: a plurality of networked gaming machines, each gaming machine of the plurality of gaming machines being adapted for playing a primary game and a bonus game and being adapted to randomly determine an outcome in play of the primary game, the bonus game initiated upon the occurrence of a challenge from another player already qualified to participate in the bonus game and comprising a simulated contest against at least one opponent, each gaming machine of the plurality of gaming machines including at least one bonus game initiation input engageable by a challenged player to perform one of accepting the challenge, whereupon the bonus game is initiated, and rejecting the challenge, whereupon a quantity of credits are debited from the challenged player and credited to the another player; and each gaming machine of the plurality of gaming machines including at least one bonus game input engageable by a player to select a bonus game character to represent the player in the simulated contest against the at least one opponent, and to modify one or more aspects of the bonus game character by selecting bonus game character elements from a library of available bonus game character elements.