Patent ID: 7147562

Claim:
An input processing method for a multi-user system comprising a plurality of information processing devices operated by users of the system, each user of the system being associated with a player character in a virtual environment shared by each user of the system, the method comprising: at each one of the plurality of information processing devices: receiving an input string from a user of the system associated with the information processing device; connecting to a network; sharing information, including said input string, over said network; and processing the shared information to create the virtual environment shared by each user of the system, if said input string contains a string from a set of predetermined strings, triggering a specific event in the virtual environment; if said input string does not contain any string from the set of predetermined strings, displaying the input string to each user of the system, wherein said virtual environment is a virtual chat room, said specific event is a motion of one of the player characters, and wherein when the user associated with the information processing device inputs the input string, the motion of the player character of the other users responds to the input string.