Patent ID: 8727866

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: at least one input device; at least one processor; at least one display device; and at least one memory device storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to operate with the at least one display device and the at least one input device to: (a) display a game associated with a plurality of non-wild symbols and at least one wild symbol, said symbols displayable at a plurality of symbol positions in a symbol matrix; (b) cause a pick of one of a plurality of different patterns of the symbol positions, each of the different patterns of the symbol positions including at least two predefined symbol positions in the symbol matrix; and (c) for a play of the game: (i) display the wild symbol at each of the predefined symbol positions in the symbol matrix included in the picked pattern; (ii) independent from and in addition to the pick of said pattern, randomly generate a plurality of the non-wild symbols; (iii) after the wild symbol is displayed at each of the predefined symbol positions in the symbol matrix included in the picked pattern, display the generated non-wild symbols at a plurality of the symbol positions in the symbol matrix; (iv) determine any awards associated with any winning combinations of the displayed symbols; and (v) display any determined awards.