Acquiring an interactive digital content item including a plurality of content portions includes receiving a first set of the content portions that is less than an entirety of the content portions. A partial functionality version of the interactive digital content item is presented using the first set of content portions. A second set of the content portions is received while the partial functionality version of the interactive digital content item is presented. Functionality is added to the partial functionality version of the interactive digital content item using the second set of content portions without interrupting presentation of the partial functionality version of the interactive digital content item.

A system and related methodologies of delivering storyline content to users are presented herein. A server system maintains storyline data corresponding to an interactive narrative storyline having variable narrative paths that influence outcomes of the storyline. Storyline messages are communicated from the server system using a messaging service, wherein each communicated storyline message includes a portion of the narrative storyline. The server system receives messages generated from the subscriber device in response to communicated storyline messages, wherein each response message includes a user-specified storyline option. Subsequent storyline messages are retrieved by the server system based on the user-specified storyline options conveyed with the user responses.

Apparatus and methods are provided to implement a technique for managing the response of a digital entity in a simulation to reflect its interaction with one or more players over time, such as managing a non-player character's responses to player characters in an online computer game. In the system, a computer system tracks the interaction of the digital entity with other entities and the occurrence or status of internal and external events to control how the digital entity reacts to current events and interactions.

An in-terminal display device causes at least one first icon to appear and displays the at least one first icon in at least one of a plurality of areas. An in-terminal input device receives an operation of switching areas and an operation of selecting a first icon. An in-terminal controller or an in-server controller controls a game corresponding to a selected first icon such that the game can be played when any one of first icons is selected in a switched area. The in-terminal controller of the in-server controller limits the number of first icons to be caused to appear to an upper limit value or less.

An information processing device running a game program offering an improved level of strategy in a game in which a plurality of game content divided into two or more groups participate. The program may include starting a game part game content featuring the two or more groups, and a plurality of areas in a virtual space. When no area exists that does not belong to a first group on a route from an area belonging to the first group to a specific area belonging to the first group, a first parameter of a first game medium, which may be located on the area and may belong to the first group, may be changed. If another area belonging to the first group and having a second state different from a first state exists on the route, the first parameter of the first game medium may change less or not at all.

Implementations of the present disclosure are directed to a method, a system, and an article for managing the presentation of content in a multiplayer online game. An example method can include: providing, to a plurality of users, a multiplayer online game having a virtual environment; assigning, to at least one of the users, a timeline defining times at which items of content will be introduced into the virtual environment for the at least one user; advancing the virtual environment forward in time; and introducing the items of content into the virtual environment according to the times defined by the timeline.

Game client, game server, Web application server, and database server including database with data representative of a virtual world. Game client or server, or both, includes motifs, motif manager, character manager, scenes-a-faire manager, and display manager coupled to display, all in communication with game manager, and pseudorandomizer, which can instigate changing of a motif. Motifs are representative of a game character or environment. A user interface has mass sensor, accelerometer, haptic device, first device for visual input, output, or both, second device for audio input, output, or both, and tactile sensor, effector or both. Included may be automatic translator, or TTS/STT module. The online game can be virtual world representative of at least two of a northern continent, a western continent, a southern continent, a central continent, and an eastern continent. Methods provide game client, game server, and a database that manipulate character or environment motifs and scenes-a-faire.

An initial seed input for generation of a storyboard is received. A current image generation input is set the same as the initial seed input. A first artificial intelligence model is executed to automatically generate a current frame image based on the current image generation input. The current frame image and its corresponding description are stored as a next frame in the storyboard. A second artificial intelligence model is executed to automatically generate a description of the current frame image. A third artificial intelligence model is executed to automatically generate a next frame input description for the storyboard based on the description of the current frame image. The current image generation input is set the same as the next frame input description. Then, execution of the first, second, and third artificial intelligence models is repeated until a final frame image and its corresponding description are generated and stored.

A playset comprises a plurality of hotspots positioned within a plurality of scenes. A switching mechanism is configured to selectively couple to the each of the plurality of hotspots and is communicatively coupled with a controller. The controller is configured to establish communication with a first object using a first hotspot and determine an object type of the first object and a location of the first object within the playset. The location of the first object corresponds to a scene that contains the first hotspot. The controller is further configured to select an interactive media based on the object type and the location of the first object, select a first media file based on the selected interactive media, and instruct the first media file to be output on an output device.

Implementations of the present disclosure are directed to a method, a system, and an article for managing the use of global position information in a multi-player online game. An example computer-implemented method can include: identifying a number of random events for which each random event has a plurality of possible outcomes and each possible outcome has a respective probability of occurrence for each random event; selecting a first possible outcome from the plurality of possible outcomes; determining a probability distribution for the first possible outcome that defines a relationship between (i) a number of occurrences of the first possible outcome in the number of random events and (ii) a range of probabilities; selecting a first probability from the range of probabilities; and determining the number of occurrences of the first possible outcome based on the probability distribution and the selected first probability.