A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an accessory having a plurality of tactile-sensitive buttons, a plurality of light sources, wherein each light source emits a controllable spectrum of light through a corresponding one of the plurality of tactile-sensitive buttons, and a controller coupled to the plurality of tactile-sensitive buttons, and the plurality of light sources. The controller can be operable to detect tactile contact of each of the plurality of tactile-sensitive buttons, receive status information associated with a video game, and adjust the spectrum of light emitted by at least a portion of the plurality of light sources according to the status information to indicate one or more aspects of the video game. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

The generation, association, and display of in-game tags are disclosed. Such tags introduce an additional dimension of community participation to both single and multiplayer games. Through such tags, players are empowered to communicate through filtered text messages and images as well as audio clips that other game players, including top rated players, have generated and placed at particular coordinates and/or in context of particular events within the game space. The presently described in-game tags and associated user generated content further allow for label based searches with respect to game play.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the game execution device includes a receiver, an event controller, a selector, and a generator. The receiver receives a request for generating an event based on a request for executing intervention from an auxiliary server, which receives the request for executing intervention to the game issued by a terminal of audience of a real-time play video of the game. The event controller controls events that occur in the game, at least in response to requests for generating events. The selector selects events subject to notification up to a predetermined number of the first events that occur in the game during the first period. The generator generates notification data to inform a game player of the occurrence of events subject to notification.

According to various embodiments, a communication method may be provided. The communication method may include: generating a hint on solving a situation in an electronic game; and transmitting the hint to a server configured to provide the hint to gamers playing the electronic game.

One or more implementations described herein pertain to an augmented reality game system. In some implementations, the augmented reality gaming system comprises one or more processors configured to execute computer program modules. In some implementations, the computer program modules comprise a quest module configured to facilitate a user quest through a virtual environment and a physical environment. Some implementations utilize a physics engine module configured to input movement data of a virtual player's movement in the virtual environment and output information indicating a virtual world location and movement of a first user avatar. In some implementations, an augmented reality photo module configured to superimpose a graphic overlay onto an image of the player in response to a notification from the quest module that the user has completed the user quest.

A strategy system is described that generates a strategy guide for a gameplay session at an arcade machine. To do so, the strategy system leverages a game-specific hash generated by a hashing system, which includes data describing a log of events that occurred during the gameplay session. The strategy guide includes a summary of the gameplay session curated based on a combination of a particular user associated with the gameplay session, a rulebook describing gameplay event scoring, and the specific event sequence described in the game-specific hash. The game-specific hash and the strategy guide are configured for output based on various considerations, such as display capabilities and network connections of the computing devices implementing the strategy system and/or the hashing system as well as characteristics of a computing device at which the strategy guide is output.

Methods and apparatus of associating by a computerized system, labels with the order of execution of steps of solving a puzzle, game or activity, for one or more parts of one or more solution-paths for the puzzle, game or activity are described. Execution of the puzzle solution and also the particular sequence of steps in the solution paths are used to evaluate a relative efficiency of one sequence of steps over the other sequence. By quantifying efficiency of the solution path it becomes possible to logically and objectively compare the efficiency of two or more solutions or completions of the puzzle, game or activity.

The present disclosure provides a visual method and apparatus for compensating sound information, a storage medium, and an electronic device, and relates to the field of human-computer interaction technologies. The method includes: detecting a sound in a first preset range of the game scene, and acquiring a type of the sound, and an orientation of the sound source of the sound relative to the virtual object; providing a visual control on the graphical user interface, the visual control including a virtual component associated with the type of the sound; and controlling a pointing direction of the virtual component according to the orientation of the sound source of the sound relative to the virtual object.

A method of automatically providing a hint to a first user about how a second user is likely to interact with them within a videogame includes: obtaining first indicators of behaviour for the second user recorded during at least a first previous interaction with the first user or an approximate representation of the first user, obtaining second indicators of behaviour for a corpus of a plurality of players having had at least a first successful previous interaction with the first user or an approximate representation of the first user, comparing the first and second indicators of behaviour to obtain comparison information about how the second user compares to the corpus of successful players, and providing a hint to the first user about the second user, based upon the comparison information.

A rhythm-based video game (game) is disclosed. In the game, a player slashes blocks representing musical beats using a pair of energy blades resembling a lightsaber. A gaming console renders multiple digital objects, e.g., digital blocks, digital mines and digital obstacles, that are approaching a player in a virtual space. The gaming console also renders a digital representation of an instrument, e.g., a lightsaber (digital saber), using which the player slashes, cuts or otherwise interacts with the digital blocks to cause a digital collision between the digital saber and the digital blocks. The player can score by slashing the digital blocks, not hitting the digital mines and avoiding the digital obstacles. The game presents the player with a stream of approaching digital objects in synchronization with music, e.g., a song's beats, being played in the game. The pace at which the digital blocks approach the player increases with the beats.