DETAILED ACTION
Acknowledgements
This Office Action is in response to Applicant’s correspondence filed on 5/7/25.
The Examiner notes that citations to United States Patent Application Publication paragraphs are formatted as [####], #### representing the paragraph number.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Claims 2, 5-7, 13, 16-18 are objected to.
Claims 1, 3-4, 8-12, 14-15, 19-20 are rejected as set forth below.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
Claims 2, 5-7, 13, 16-18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 10-12, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Non-Patent Literature Title “The Comprehensive Guide to Among Us” in view of Non-Patent Literature Title “The Division 2 – Dive Into the New Dark Zones and Organized PvP”.
As per claim(s) 1, 12, 20, Among Us teaches:
A method for displaying a virtual object, the method being performed by a terminal, and comprising: displaying a virtual battle image, wherein the virtual battle image corresponds to a battle perspective of a first virtual object; displaying, in the virtual battle image and based on a second virtual object existing in the battle perspective, the second virtual object in a camp hidden state, wherein the second virtual object does not eliminate another virtual object in a virtual battle, and wherein the camp hidden state is a state in which a camp to which a virtual object belongs is hidden in the virtual battle; (page 1, “Among Us is a game in which most of the players are crewmates assigned to complete a certain number of tasks on a ship or base. However, one or more of the supposed humans are aliens in disguise, called impostors. They can sabotage systems, crawl through vents, see in the dark, and murder crewmates. Any surviving player can call a meeting, either when discovering a body or by pressing the "Emergency Meeting" button in one of the rooms. During the meeting, they can share what they saw, strategize, and optionally vote someone out.”, The gameplay screen centered on the first player is equivalent to a virtual battle image that corresponds to a battle perspective of a first virtual object.)
Among Us does not explicitly teach, but The Division teaches:
displaying, in the virtual battle image, based on another virtual object being eliminated by the second virtual object, and based on the second virtual object existing in the battle perspective, the second virtual object in a camp disclosed state, wherein the camp disclosed state is a state in which a camp to which a virtual object belongs is disclosed in the virtual battle. (page 3, “Have you turned Rogue and taken out another player? You are now Disavowed Rogue. The red icon means you are more visible on the map to other players, so watch your back.”)
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that applying the known technique of The Division to the known invention of Among Us would have yielded predictable results and resulted in an improved invention. It would have been recognized that the application of the technique would have yielded predictable results because the level of ordinary skill in the art demonstrated by the references applied shows the ability to incorporate such video game gameplay features into a similar invention. Further, it would have been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art that modifying the invention to display, in the virtual battle image, based on another virtual object being eliminated by the second virtual object, and based on the second virtual object existing in the battle perspective, the second virtual object in a camp disclosed state, wherein the camp disclosed state is a state in which a camp to which a virtual object belongs is disclosed in the virtual battle, results in an improved invention because applying said technique changes the risk/reward balance for aggression in the game, thus requiring a more nuanced strategy to succeed in the game and improving the overall level of gameplay of the invention.
As per claim(s) 10, Among Us teaches:
controlling the first virtual object to obtain a verification item, wherein the verification item is configured to verify a camp to which a virtual object in the camp hidden state belongs; and displaying, in the virtual battle image and in response to an item using operation on a fourth virtual object in the virtual battle image, a camp to which the fourth virtual object belongs. (page 6, “Go to the Medbay and stand on the scanning pad and activate the task. The scan takes approximately 10 seconds, then the task will be complete. If visual tasks are enabled, other players will see a green hologram appear around you while you are scanning. Even if visual tasks are disabled, if you have this task, you can 100% verify someone else who is standing on the pad by attempting to do the task before they finish. If they're a crewmate, you will get a message saying you have to wait for them to finish.”)
As per claim(s) 11, Among Us teaches:
wherein before the displaying the virtual battle image, the method further comprises: displaying a battle loading interface, wherein a virtual object other than the first virtual object on the battle loading interface is in the camp hidden state. (page 1)
Claims 3-4, 14-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Non-Patent Literature Title “The Comprehensive Guide to Among Us” in view of Non-Patent Literature Title “The Division 2 – Dive Into the New Dark Zones and Organized PvP”, and further in view of United States Patent Application Publication No. 20120190453 to Skaff.
As per claim(s) 3, 14, Among Us teaches:
wherein the virtual battle image is located on a virtual battle interface; (page 1)
Among Us does not explicitly teach, but Skaff teaches:
and the virtual battle interface further comprises an item control; and wherein the method further comprises: displaying, on the virtual battle interface and based on the first virtual object not eliminating another virtual object, the item control that is in a fourth state; and controlling the first virtual object to attack a third virtual object; or displaying, on the virtual battle interface and based on the third virtual object being eliminated by the first virtual object, the item control that is in a fifth state, wherein the fifth state is different from the fourth state. ([0046], “In yet another example, the interactive application 104 may be a computer game application that provides a virtual environment 320 having a virtual gaming board. The user 106 plays with the virtual gaming board with other human and/or computer-controlled players. In one instance, the user 106 may interact with the virtual board game to unlock new abilities, objects and/or powers in the virtual gaming board or virtual state 324 of the user, for example, by defeating a number of human or computer-controlled opponents, landing on a predefined location of the virtual gaming board or other game occurrence. The interactive application 104 updates the virtual state 324 to reflect the possession and availability of the abilities, objects and/or powers of the user 106 and generates one or more event records 326 reflecting the updated state.”)
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that applying the known technique of Skaff to the known invention of Among Us as modified would have yielded predictable results and resulted in an improved invention. It would have been recognized that the application of the technique would have yielded predictable results because the level of ordinary skill in the art demonstrated by the references applied shows the ability to incorporate such video game gameplay features into a similar invention. Further, it would have been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art that modifying the invention so the virtual battle interface further comprises an item control and the invention includes the steps of: displaying, on the virtual battle interface and based on the first virtual object not eliminating another virtual object, the item control that is in a fourth state; and controlling the first virtual object to attack a third virtual object; or displaying, on the virtual battle interface and based on the third virtual object being eliminated by the first virtual object, the item control that is in a fifth state, wherein the fifth state is different from the fourth state, results in an improved invention because applying said technique provides a significant reward for employing an aggressive strategy, thus requiring a more nuanced strategy to succeed in the game and improving the overall level of gameplay of the invention.
As per claim(s) 4, 15, Skaff teaches:
wherein the displaying, on the virtual battle interface and based on the third virtual object being eliminated by the first virtual object, the item control that is in the fifth state comprises: displaying, on the virtual battle interface, based on camps to which the third virtual object and the first virtual object belong, and based on the third virtual object being eliminated by the first virtual object, the item control that is in the fifth state. ([0046])
Claims 8, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Non-Patent Literature Title “The Comprehensive Guide to Among Us” in view of Non-Patent Literature Title “The Division 2 – Dive Into the New Dark Zones and Organized PvP”, and further in view of United States Patent Application Publication No. 20090298587 to Acharya.
As per claim(s) 8, 19, Among Us teaches:
wherein the virtual battle image is located on a virtual battle interface; (page 1)
Among Us does not explicitly teach, but Acharya teaches:
the virtual battle interface further comprises a camp chat control, and the camp chat control is configured to trigger a chat in a camp to which a virtual object belongs; and wherein the method further comprises: displaying, on the virtual battle interface and based on the first virtual object not performing a particular action, the camp chat control that is in an unavailable state; and controlling the first virtual object to perform the particular action; or displaying, on the virtual battle interface and based on the first virtual object performing a particular action, the camp chat control that is in an available state. ([0010], “Each user, in addition to a gaming system such as a computer, also uses a VoIP enabled device capable of receiving and transmitting audio signals. In addition to the visual state of the game that each player receives, the players also receive related audio communications from the game or the other players. For example, players in the same game room or on the same team can talk to each other. When a player changes game rooms, similar to its change of the visual state, the audio also changes seamlessly. The present invention uses the game server to automatically indicate the requirement for such a change and dynamically switch the players without additional player input.”; [0034], “For a centralized game sever 14 embodiment, the game server 14 acts as a link between all the game participants 12 and maintains the game state profiles for each game participant 12. In the distributed game server 14 embodiment, the maintenance and exchange of game state profile information is done by the each one of the distributed game servers 14. In an embodiment having a game server 14 associated with each participant 12, the participants 12 themselves maintain and exchange the game state information. In this embodiment, whenever any participant 12 performs any action (moves, shoots, leaves, etc.), that participant 12 notifies all other participants 12 about this action, and the other participants update their game state profiles accordingly.”)
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that applying the known technique of Acharya to the known invention of Among Us as modified would have yielded predictable results and resulted in an improved invention. It would have been recognized that the application of the technique would have yielded predictable results because the level of ordinary skill in the art demonstrated by the references applied shows the ability to incorporate such video game gameplay features into a similar invention. Further, it would have been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art that modifying the invention so the virtual battle interface further comprises a camp chat control, and the camp chat control is configured to trigger a chat in a camp to which a virtual object belongs and the invention includes the steps of: displaying, on the virtual battle interface and based on the first virtual object not performing a particular action, i.e. eliminating another player, the camp chat control that is in an unavailable state; and controlling the first virtual object to perform the particular action, i.e. eliminating another player; or displaying, on the virtual battle interface and based on the first virtual object performing a particular action, i.e. eliminating another player, the camp chat control that is in an available state, results in an improved invention because applying said technique provides a significant reward for employing an aggressive strategy, thus requiring a more nuanced strategy to succeed in the game and improving the overall level of gameplay of the invention.
Claims 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Non-Patent Literature Title “The Comprehensive Guide to Among Us” in view of Non-Patent Literature Title “The Division 2 – Dive Into the New Dark Zones and Organized PvP”, and further in view of Non-Patent Literature Title “NEW GAME MODE: Hide n Seek ishere!”.
As per claim(s) 9, Among Us does not explicitly teach, but Hide n Seek teaches:
receiving a camp disclosing instruction from a server, wherein the camp disclosing instruction is sent based on a battle duration of the virtual battle reaching a duration threshold, and based on a quantity of virtual objects that are in the camp disclosed state being less than a quantity threshold; and switching, based on the camp disclosing instruction, a target quantity of virtual objects in the virtual battle from the camp hidden state to the camp disclosed state. (page 4, “FINAL HIDE! These are the last few moments of the game where the Impostor gets a power boost, special Seek map, and a directional ping to where any surviving Crewmates are. CRYING. SCREAMING. TERRIFIED.”, Surviving Crewmates, i.e. crewmates less than the total number of players minus the Imposter, is equivalent to a quantity of virtual objects that are in the camp disclosed state being less than a quantity threshold.)
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that applying the known technique of Hide n Seek to the known invention of Among Us as modified would have yielded predictable results and resulted in an improved invention. It would have been recognized that the application of the technique would have yielded predictable results because the level of ordinary skill in the art demonstrated by the references applied shows the ability to incorporate such video game gameplay features into a similar invention. Further, it would have been recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art that modifying the invention to include the steps of receiving a camp disclosing instruction from a server, wherein the camp disclosing instruction is sent based on a battle duration of the virtual battle reaching a duration threshold, and based on a quantity of virtual objects that are in the camp disclosed state being less than a quantity threshold; and switching, based on the camp disclosing instruction, a target quantity of virtual objects in the virtual battle from the camp hidden state to the camp disclosed state results in an improved invention because applying said technique changes the risk/reward balance for aggression in the game, thus requiring a more nuanced strategy to succeed in the game and improving the overall level of gameplay of the invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20210038988 to Schwarz discloses a method, including: receiving, at an information handling device, controlling input data, wherein the controlling input data is associated with action input provided by a user that affects an object in a video game; identifying, based at least in part on the controlling input data, a moment in the video game; and storing the identified moment in an accessible database. Other aspects are described and claimed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAY HUANG whose telephone number is (408)918-9799. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00a - 5:30p PT.
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/JAY HUANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619
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