Patent ID: 7326115

Claim:
A method of operating a gaming system, including a plurality of gaming machines, wherein each of the gaming machines is in an active state upon a wager by a player on said gaming machine, said method comprising: (a) enabling one or more players to place a wager; (b) determining which gaming machines are in an active state; (c) enabling the player of each active gaming machine to play the interactive game; (d) determining and displaying an interactive game outcome from a plurality of different interactive game outcomes for the interactive game for each active gaming machine; (e) determining, for each active gaming machine, a paytable from a plurality of different paytables to employ in a same play of a wagering game, wherein said determination is based, at least in part, on the displayed interactive game outcomes; (f) for said same play of the wagering game for all of said active gaming machines; (i) displaying the play of the wagering game to each of the players of each active gaming machine; (ii) determining a same wagering game outcome for each active gaming machine; (iii) causing each active gaming machine to display said same wagering game outcome; and (iv) determining any award to provide to the players of each active gaming machine, wherein said determination is based on the paytable for said gaming machine and based on said same wagering game outcome, wherein awards for the players of the active gaming machines can be different for said play of the game; and (g) providing any determined awards to the players of the active gaming machines.