Social networking word game

Abstract

A social networking word game that features a set of letters generated randomly from a list of player-associated names or themed words, with letter values determined by the ordinal position of the letter in the name or word, wherein the player is presented with a set of these randomly generated letters and corresponding values and must within a given time limit and a given point system, assemble the highest scoring single word or words. Each player's unique game content may in turn be used to generate new instances of the game. The game can be played as part of a community of players, where each player's unique sub-community is managed by a server, which handles player-to-player challenges and the presentation of game instances. The client side collects game data, the server side processes this data, and then makes it available to the community at large.

1 . In a word game of the type comprising, a set of letters generated randomly from a list of names or words, with letter values determined by the ordinal position of the letter in the name or word, wherein the player is presented with a set of these randomly generated letters and corresponding values and must within a given time limit and a given point system, assemble the highest scoring single word or words, the improvements in combination:
 A) player chooses the base names or words from which the random letter and ordinal value is selected, which could for example be a subset of a list of the player's friends on a social networking site, player's contacts on a cell phone, or a themed list of names or words (e.g. U.S. Presidents)   B) game generates a set of letters and ordinal values from the list of base names or words provided by the player, with a letter and its given ordinal value referred to here together as a “tile”   C) player submits a single optimal word or multiple optimal words from the set of tiles   D) the submitted word is checked for validity against a dictionary list of words   E) the player is notified if the word is not listed in the dictionary   F) there may or may not be a penalty for submitting words that are not valid dictionary words   G) the dictionary may be broken into a set of common words and a set of uncommon words, or a subset of themed words may be created, and these may be scored differently   H) if the word is valid, the player is awarded points based on a point system that is unique for each instance of the game; the point system may or may not take into account the ordinal values of the letters, the specific sequence of the letters in the word selected, the “commonness” of the word in the specific language or compared to other players presented with the same letter and value choices, the length of the word, the amount of time expired before the player submitted the word, the point value rank of the word compared to other possible words that could have been made from the same set of letters   I) once a letter has been randomly selected for presentation by the game, that letter may or may not be available for selection again   J) the player may or may not be credited with bonus points for using letters from the same base name or word in consecutive rounds; likewise, the player may or may not be penalized for NOT using letters from the same base name or word in consecutive rounds   K) in subsequent game rounds, players can choose to replace one or more of the the base names or words used by the game to generate a letter with a different base name or word   L) if a player does not submit a valid word within the allotted time, the round ends, the player scores no points or alternatively receives a penalty, and play moves to the next round   M) some keyboard characters may be eliminated from consideration for random selection in the case where they are not letters in the alphabet of the dictionary used to validate words   N) after completion of the round or game, the player is presented with a list of the top ranking common and/or uncommon words that could have been made from the set of randomly selected letters   O) the background of the letter tiles may or may not be comprised of images representing the base name or word itself, which could for example be the profile picture of the player's friend whose name is used as the base name for randomly generating the letter   P) other data relating to the base name or word itself may also be made available to players or replay players, for example the base name or word itself, contact or social networking information for the person, product or organization whose base name is used, and/or additional photos or video tied to the base name.   Q) the game may be played using dictionaries of different languages, regardless of the base names or words from which the letters are randomly generated   
     
     
         2 . In the game of  claim 1 , the specific set of letters and values (“tiles”) offered in a given round may be subsequently offered to other players
 A) for the purposes of comparing one player's score to another player's score, from the same set of letters and values (creating a “fair” replay game) 
 B) for the purposes of generating a round that does not require the player to choose a set of base names or words from which the game randomly chooses a letter 
 
     
     
         3 . In the game of  claim 1 , the original base name or words may be used by the game to randomly generate a new set of letters with corresponding ordinal values, to be presented to the original or other players; this randomly generated set of letters may itself be filtered by any number of criteria, for example presence of vowels, before presentation to players 
     
     
         4 . In the game of  claim 1 , the list of names or words from which the letters will be randomly selected maybe itself selected randomly selected 
     
     
         5 . In the game of  claim 1 , the specific instance where the number of randomly selected letters is 10, one from each of ten names or words, the ordinal value of each letter is the positional value of the letter in the name or word starting from the left, the number of rounds in a game are 10, the length bonus is 10 points for a six letter word, 25 points for a seven letter word, 50 points for an eight letter word, 80 points for a nine letter word, and 120 points for a ten letter word, and the time bonus is 1 point for every 2 seconds of the 60 seconds remaining on the timer 
     
     
         6 . In the game of  claim 1 , the specific instance where the player can enter multiple words from the set of randomly selected letters, and receives points for the ordinal ranking of the word compared to the lists of either or both common and uncommon words that could be assembled from the set of randomly selected letters 
     
     
         7 . In the game of  claim 1 , the player's or other players' scores can be presented as an index of highest scoring or most recently played games from which to select games for replay in which the player is presented with the identical set of randomly selected letters as the original player, and the scores are compared 
     
     
         8 . In the game of  claim 1 , players may be able to create or be presented with a subgroup of other players with which to compare scores or challenge to play replay games 
     
     
         9 . In the game of  claim 1 , the client may collect game information regarding player's games, such as time and date of original play, base names or words selected, words submitted, and points scored, pass this data onto the server, where it is aggregated and made available to other player's client applications 
     
     
         10 . In the game of  claim 1 , where the same round is played synchronously between players who are online at the same time 
     
     
         11 . In the game of  claim 1 , where players must achieve a set of game play requirements or alternatively buy access, to unlock a set of game features 
     
     
         12 . In the game of  claim 5 , where once a letter has been randomly generated from the base name or word, that letter is no longer available for consideration in subsequent rounds, nor is it considered when determining the ordinal value of randomly selected letters from the the base name or word in subsequent rounds 
     
     
         13 . In the game of  claim 5 , where the player receives a “streak bonus” of one or more points for each consecutive round that the player uses the randomly selected letter from the same base name or word in the valid submitted word; this streak ends when the player fails to use the randomly selected letter from the same base name or word in the valid submitted word, or removes the base name or word from consideration for the subsequent round 
     
     
         14 . In the game of  claim 5 , where the player receives a “streak penalty” of one or more points for each consecutive round that the player fails to use the randomly selected letter from the same base name or word in the valid submitted word; this streak ends when the player uses the randomly selected letter from the same base name or word in the valid submitted word, or removes the base name or word from consideration for the subsequent round 
     
     
         15 . In the game of  claim 5 , the streak bonus or streak penalty may be combined with the ordinal value of the randomly generated letter in display of the tile value to the player or replay players 
     
     
         16 . In the game of  claim 5 , where the highest player score for a given round is combined with highest scores of teammates' rounds of the same game to establish a team score for comparative purposes with other teams or the team's previous and future games