Sony Patents New System to Get "Experts" to Help Frustrated Gamers
Sony is making quite a few headlines lately. The latest report comes from IGN which noticed a patent over on PatentScope for a system that Sony may be exploring that would connect gamers to experts to help progress in games. In essence, when you get frustrated with a game, you could connect to this system and an “expert” will help. Based on the patent, it appears the “expert” can help simply by talking players through the difficulty or things can get more hands-on as it appears the “expert” can take over control of the game. This is definitely an interesting idea.
I keep saying “expert” instead of expert because the qualifications for becoming one is very vague and open. Per the patent information on PatentScope:
An expert is generally a player who has registered and/or qualified as an expert. In one implementation, any player can register as an expert after at least playing a portion of the corresponding gaming application. In another implementation, a player can only register as an expert after reaching a qualification standard. For example, the qualification may be given to a player that is an expert of other games, or when a player has played the subject gaming application with high skill, or when a player achieves a certain task or quest identified as being a qualification standard (e.g., qualification boss, intermediate boss, end boss, etc.). Other qualification methods are supported. The player/expert gaming profile generator 121 is configured to create and manage the expert profile. Expert registration and profile information may be stored in database 147.
Based on this, someone who hasn’t even finished the game could become an expert and that just sounds silly. I also wonder if it’s a thing where people will volunteer or if Sony will actually hire and play people to be “experts.”
I also find this news interesting with the recent talks of Sony investing in and partnering with Discord. Could this be one of the ways that they’re looking to incorporate and merge PlayStation Network and Discord? I don’t think that’s so far fetched. What do you think of this new system? Will it actually launch or is this just something that Sony thought up and won’t pursue?