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

mejin

Member
I'd pay to boot people. Bring it!

giphy.gif
 

VargasPaPuM

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.
Old cs1.6 vote kick script?
 

Tarkus98

Member
I can see this going horribly wrong and getting abused. Perhaps having to pay to boot will cut down on the dunks but still... not feeling this.
 
Only a 60% threshold?
Uh, that is gonna be a problem. 85% would be much better.
Sorry Epic holds the patent for 85%. You snooze you lose.


Anyways who cares? I could careless about streamers, and people that watch streamers. Tax the weirdos Sony. You got my support.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
Bringing class disparity into gaming. Noice.

Sony: Fuck the poors that also aren't good at a game.

Also Sony: *progressive sounding marketing bullshit*
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Imagine playing a game with friends and then getting kicked. Can't get back in. They paid to remove you. This could be the ultimate bad feeling creator.

Kudos to Sony and the guys in r&d!
 
Sony dominating next gen confirmed. Now you can be cancelled real time while playing instead of later on twitter.

Great news for the new gen that watches instead of playing games. Gotta make up for them not buying games.
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Imagine the leverage. Someone says something terrible and you won't pay $£€1 to remove them. Everyone knows you're terrible too.

Sony will be raking it in.
 

CuNi

Member
Streamers winning matches without moving a inch. Viewers will shelv out the bills and just kick the whole lobby
 

Papacheeks

Banned
This is actually a cool feature if implemented correctly and not abused. It would get rid of stream snipers and people who join a game just to troll or say bad shit through the mic. Also would help in keeping people safe from getting SWATTED. Alot of IP programs out there that can be run while your in a game and get other peoples info.

This is a cool feature because imagine your streaming, and someone in your twitch chat or discord is being a fucking asshole, you get them out of the chat, but they join your game. Outside of trying to report them for cheating there isn;t much you can do. ANd you know they are there to fuck with you and not play the game. This will help MLG and league players alot.

But it all comes down to implementation and if people abuse it.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

A recent patent filed by Sony aims to give spectators more options for viewing live gameplay.

The filing is just one of several recent Sony patents related to cloud gaming. In this case, the electronics giant wants to use cloud gaming technology to allow spectators to take control of the camera to observe gameplay from any angle. The system will also give them the ability to share gameplay footage captured from these custom views. On top of that, the patent describes a method of automatically changing camera angles for spectators that prefer a passive but still dynamic viewing experience.

Sony’s patent further describes how passive observers will have the option of either selecting from several available angles or allowing the system to create a dynamic playlist of multiple viewpoints. The patent also suggests allowing spectators to set preferences dictating the playlists. This includes but may not be limited to selecting whether they prefer the player’s camera view, active spectator’s camera views, or a combination of the two. Sony’s patent-pending system will also keep track of viewers’ preferences to improve its playlist suggestions through machine learning.

Games would generate an unlimited number of camera angles by continually rendering a fully 3D environment around the player instead of just what is on screen. While many games already do this, it often leads to performance issues and a much heavier load on the player’s hardware. However, the patent attempts to circumvent this problem by relying on cloud gaming systems such as Sony’s PlayStation Now. Games can render the complete environment without losing performance by offloading most of the heavy lifting to Sony’s central servers.
 

reksveks

Member
In this case, the electronics giant wants to use cloud gaming technology to allow spectators to take control of the camera to observe gameplay from any angle. The system will also give them the ability to share gameplay footage captured from these custom views. On top of that, the patent describes a method of automatically changing camera angles for spectators that prefer a passive but still dynamic viewing experience.

Wasn't half of this already in the initial pitch of Stadia? The only unique element seems to be the recommendation engine of camera angles which seems rather weird but possibly interesting.
 
Idk, this sound easily abusable. I can see it being of use to prevent griefers (remembers of LowtierGod) but it is left to be seen.
 

Tschumi

Member
i don't care if one or two innocent people get kicked lol, anything that gives players a chance to crush the balls of cheaters is fine in my book
 
On one hand I sometimes think that the recent dogpiling on Sony seems to be a bit much.

But when I consider their moves over the last couple of years, I'll be damned if they're not deserving of it. They're not in Ubisoft territory yet.... but they're starting to get close.
 

yurinka

Member
We need Briank75 for threads like this one.
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.
Your alternative sounds as a good idea. Having a reputation system knowing it affects the matchmaking makes people to be less of an asshole. Regarding Sony's system, I think it's pretty similar but with the difference that action gets taken during the gameplay.

I'd understand Sony's system if the ones voting would be the players playing the match and not the ones watching it on a livestream. In that case, very rarely 60% of the players would vote to report/kick a player, and most of these cases would be normal players kicking a toxic one. Or depending how it's implemented, in case someone has been matchmaked with a level too high compared to him they'd be able to kick him and move him to another match of their level.

But in any case, I think that outside the case of kicking a toxic player, it's too agressive to kick someone in the middle of the match. And even more if it's people watching a livestream who vote it. Unless it's in a game designer for it, something like the Squid game where people watching a livestream decide who dies, or a Singstar that mimics some tv talent show where people watching it decides who gets classified.
 
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In the era of division and whales this is a fucking genius move!

Ppl will band together to pay to kick ppl they dont like/disagree with/share different political views.

From a business perspective this is incredible, profiting off ppls tribal disdain for eachother is money in the bank.

How funny isit that YouTube removed dislikes because it was "hurting peoples feelings" while Sony are patenting a way to pay to kick ppl from games based on how you feel about them.
 
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