Patent ID: 8821288

Claim:
An item management method that is implemented by a server system connected to a terminal device via a communication line, the terminal device allowing a user to play a game, the item management method comprising: selecting a high-probability item that differs between one user and a friend user, the one user and the friend user each having a profile storing information on at least one high probability item associated with the one user or the friend user, the friend user being registered as friends by the one user, and the high-probability item being selected is an item already owned by the one user and which is not currently owned by the friend user; detecting whether or not a game situation of the game played by a game execution user has satisfied an item-giving condition, the game execution user being the one user or the friend user who are playing the game; selecting an item from a plurality of items that include the high-probability item based on a lottery, the lottery assigning a win probability for the high-probability item linked to the game execution user to be higher than a win probability of other items in the plurality of items; giving the item selected by the lottery to the game execution user; managing a given item and a number of given items for each of the one user and the friend user; and transferring an item that has been given between the one user and the friend user in response to an item transfer request from the terminal device or a user terminal, at least one of the selecting of the high-probability item, the detecting, the selecting of the item by the lottery, the giving, the managing, and the transferring being performed by a hardware processor.