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Sony's patent that lets viewers vote and pay to boot players from games gets approval

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
https://kotaku.com/sony-patent-lets...utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=twitter

In 2020, Sony filed a patent for allowing livestream spectators and participants to remove players from a game. Yesterday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office approved the patent, which you can read in full here. Besides removing unskilled players, the system would allow spectators to pay for the privilege of removing players.

Twitch is the most popular streaming platform in the world, and competitive esports is immensely popular. Considering that Sony filed an online tournament patent this year and bought Evo, the world’s largest fighting game competition, it’s clear that the PlayStation-maker is taking competitive gaming more seriously than it did in the past. An approved patent doesn’t mean that Sony is necessarily developing a “benching” system right now. It just gives the company exclusivity if it ever decides to implement one in the future.

In the patent document, Sony outlined a system in which spectators to a livestream can vote to remove a player from an ongoing game. The player would have no veto power over this decision, and they may be reassigned to a different match. The system would display the skill level of the current players and their statistics for the game, such as time played, ratings, and achievements. All of this would take place through “the cloud gaming system,” whatever that means.



To avoid audience abuse of this system, a 60% voting threshold needs to be met in order to bench a player from a game. Spectators with a higher skill level will also have their votes counted more heavily in the election. Despite Sony claiming that this system would be beneficial for removing disrespectful “griefers” from matches, the patent also includes the ability for spectators to pay a fixed price or bid for the ability to remove players from a game. The text also mentions a system in which spectators can warn active players to improve their gameplay. Damn.


This is a terrible idea for so many reasons, one of which is that having this much power might entice someone to use it poorly. Women already face immense barriers in esports, including gender biases about whether or not women are skilled enough to participate in competitive gaming. And the primary inspiration behind these tools traces back to Twitch, according to the opening paragraph of the patent. Except racist Twitch trolls have been organizing hate raids against marginalized streamers lately, all by using platform-approved tools. It’s very likely that a similar coordinated effort could undermine the integrity of a benching vote within Sony’s proposed system.


Though Sony claims that the patent represented something hailing from a line of inventions that “enhance functionality and interactivity for players,” the specifics of said patent are troubling. For all its emphasis on fairness and prioritizing skill level, it’s absurd to patent a system where spectators can pay to remove players from a game. That’s not about making competitive esports a better ecosystem. That’s just trying to funnel more money into Sony’s pockets.
 
fox tv GIF by Last Man Standing
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
https://kotaku.com/sony-patent-lets...utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_source=twitter

In 2020, Sony filed a patent for allowing livestream spectators and participants to remove players from a game. Yesterday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office approved the patent, which you can read in full here. Besides removing unskilled players, the system would allow spectators to pay for the privilege of removing players.

Twitch is the most popular streaming platform in the world, and competitive esports is immensely popular. Considering that Sony filed an online tournament patent this year and bought Evo, the world’s largest fighting game competition, it’s clear that the PlayStation-maker is taking competitive gaming more seriously than it did in the past. An approved patent doesn’t mean that Sony is necessarily developing a “benching” system right now. It just gives the company exclusivity if it ever decides to implement one in the future.

In the patent document, Sony outlined a system in which spectators to a livestream can vote to remove a player from an ongoing game. The player would have no veto power over this decision, and they may be reassigned to a different match. The system would display the skill level of the current players and their statistics for the game, such as time played, ratings, and achievements. All of this would take place through “the cloud gaming system,” whatever that means.



To avoid audience abuse of this system, a 60% voting threshold needs to be met in order to bench a player from a game. Spectators with a higher skill level will also have their votes counted more heavily in the election. Despite Sony claiming that this system would be beneficial for removing disrespectful “griefers” from matches, the patent also includes the ability for spectators to pay a fixed price or bid for the ability to remove players from a game. The text also mentions a system in which spectators can warn active players to improve their gameplay. Damn.


This is a terrible idea for so many reasons, one of which is that having this much power might entice someone to use it poorly. Women already face immense barriers in esports, including gender biases about whether or not women are skilled enough to participate in competitive gaming. And the primary inspiration behind these tools traces back to Twitch, according to the opening paragraph of the patent. Except racist Twitch trolls have been organizing hate raids against marginalized streamers lately, all by using platform-approved tools. It’s very likely that a similar coordinated effort could undermine the integrity of a benching vote within Sony’s proposed system.


Though Sony claims that the patent represented something hailing from a line of inventions that “enhance functionality and interactivity for players,” the specifics of said patent are troubling. For all its emphasis on fairness and prioritizing skill level, it’s absurd to patent a system where spectators can pay to remove players from a game. That’s not about making competitive esports a better ecosystem. That’s just trying to funnel more money into Sony’s pockets.
rubbing hands GIF
 

Tschumi

Member
Anti cheat measure. I like it. I wonder how pay fits into it, surely not as some will instantly assert...
 

killatopak

Gold Member
The idea is nice. Just don’t implement payment.

Just use other metric. I think xbox had a rep system. Maybe use that. Rep that you gain slowly as you play normally. Positive rep to overturn the decision but still be reduced. Negative rep means you get lower priority in match making.

League of Legends has this kind of system and I think it’s good to copy it.

edit: wait, VIEWERS gets to choose? Fuck that. That’ll be easily manipulated.
 
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BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I can already see some rich sociopath like a Martin Shkreli sitting around on a slow Sunday night dropping thousands just to fuck with people and laugh at them as they get removed for no reason.
 

Fare thee well

Neophyte
I don't know what to think of this. Is a 60% margin really the strongest certainty against mob mentality and trolling? I guess I'm no expert. I don't watch twitch streamers.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
They patented THAT.
Granted I havent read the full patent but werent we able to do that in BF3 and BF4.
You could call for a vote to kick people you thought were cheaters. (Yes it was abused and people would just call a vote on people they didnt like)
 

Knightime_X

Member
Expect many MANY "BAD" players on purpose so the cash keeps on flowing.
Next up Season pass kicks and kick DLC MTX that adds graphics to kicking players.
only 6.99 for the color red.
 
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SafeOrAlone

Banned
So instead of them monitoring the cheating, players can join up and pay to have them removed.
But best of all, they may just be moved into another game, where those players can then pay to boot the player??
 

nush

Gold Member
Sony outlined a system in which spectators to a livestream can vote to remove a player from an ongoing game. The player would have no veto power over this decision, and they may be reassigned to a different match.

I could see this being used in a reality TV show event, vote off a competitor kind of way. I don't think it would be used for general livestreams.
 

Danknugz

Member
I can already see some rich sociopath like a Martin Shkreli sitting around on a slow Sunday night dropping thousands just to fuck with people and laugh at them as they get removed for no reason.

this is actually something that's been going on for decades and not just in gaming, it's called DDOS
 

*Nightwing

Member
Yup don’t see this being abused at all…

Sony selling online gaming out to trolls with deep pockets. Do they really complain so much when DDOS no work because of my VPN that buying bans now has become a thing?
 

Vognerful

Member
"they patent it so know one can use it."

Tell me what else bullshit do you tell yourself. There are other ways to implement such a system and Sony cannot patent or control all of them to "save us and keep us protected".
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Give you full marks for making up a saying 😉
It would be worth the money to boot the disruptive, squeaky voiced 12 year old shouting obscenities at everyone and generally being an annoying little shit. Especially if he couldn't come back for a while. $20 to keep little Bobby out of the game for a month? Bring it. It would make me feel better knowing my money was well spent making everyone else's experience better. I can already kick him off of discord but it would be cool to ruin his whole Christmas vacation.
 
It would be worth the money to boot the disruptive, squeaky voiced 12 year old shouting obscenities at everyone and generally being an annoying little shit. Especially if he couldn't come back for a while. $20 to keep little Bobby out of the game for a month? Bring it. It would make me feel better knowing my money was well spent making everyone else's experience better. I can already kick him off of discord but it would be cool to ruin his whole Christmas vacation.
Krampus?
 

Lupin25

Member
Sony has a shitload of patents that never seen real life use. This will probably be another one of those cuz i dont see anyone giving this kind of power to stream viwers that are mostly ppl trolling.

Exactly.

Like women, who surprising make up a huge portion of gamers today.

Just as many wrong outcomes could transpire from this patent.

I don’t see this happening lol.
 
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