Patent ID: 8850316

Claim:
A method of providing contextual services in a gaming device, comprising: executing a game application on said gaming device; providing predefined configuration data for the game application, wherein said configuration data defines contextual states associated with the game application, wherein said contextual states represent specific game locations or game actions currently being undertaken by a game character in the game application; updating contextual state information associated with said game application, wherein the contextual state information maps to the contextual states within the game application defined by the configuration data to define a context for a gaming experience; reporting and updating said contextual state information to a remote service; and receiving contextual services from said remote service via a contextual services user interface, the contextual services being based on an aggregation of the contextual state information and other contextual state information reported to the remote service from other gaming devices, the contextual services providing relevant assistance to a game user based on a game location or a game action currently being undertaken by the game character and other game characters controlled by other users on other gaming devices in a shared gaming experience in the game application, and the contextual services comprising a chat service facilitating communication between the game user and the other users at the game location via a community chat user interface, the community chat user interface enabling presentation of contextually relevant information for the game location that is posted by the game user or the other users, and the community chat user interface being presented concurrently with the game application, wherein the contextual services further comprise a game user forum facilitating exchange of game information via postings by the game user or by other users of the other gaming devices having a gaming experience relevant to the game location or the game action currently being undertaken by the game character in the game application.