System and method forming interactive gaming over a TV network

Abstract

A play along television system includes a plurality of questions and answers to be used as part of an interactive game to be played over a network. A main server stores a plurality of questions and answers, the questions are displayed to the users who answer the questions. The users are scored based on whether they answer the questions correctly, and how fast the ester the questions. The users may also receive hence about claim I mean answering the question and those hence are displayed when the user takes longer than a certain time to answer the question. After answering the question, the correct answer is displayed along with a fun fact about the question. All users playing everywhere are globally scored according to the scoring criteria.

1 . A method, comprising: 
 playing a game over a network by forming a plurality of questions to be answered by each of a plurality of users associated with the network;    sending said questions to each of said users over the network;    scoring the user answers of based on both whether an answer is correct, and how fast the answer is given;    giving hints about answers to the questions when a user takes longer than a specified amount of time to enter the question; and    after a time for answering the question is complete, displaying the correct answer and also displaying a fact related to the question, to each user.    
   
   
       2 . A method as in  claim 1 , wherein the game is played over the network, using a game server to coordinate all users to answer all questions, and using local servers, each local server connected to the game server, and each local server coordinating responses of a plurality of local users, which is less than all of local users.  
   
   
       3 . A method as in  claim 2 , further comprising assembling global statistics about all users, using the game server to assemble all the statistics, and wherein the local server receives statistics from a local user, and sends those statistics to the game server.  
   
   
       4 . A method as in  claim 2 , further comprising storing a plurality of questions at the local servers, each of the plurality of questions and answers representing information to be used for a game at a future time.  
   
   
       5 . A method as in  claim 1 , wherein said plurality of questions each include an XML file representing the question, and additional information representing additional information to be displayed as part of the question.  
   
   
       6 . A method as in  claim 5 , wherein said additional information includes pictures and other media.  
   
   
       7 . A method as in  claim 3 , wherein the local server sends only some of the statistics to the game server.  
   
   
       8 . A method as in  claim 1 , further comprising associating at least one of the questions with an expiration information, and preventing the question from being used after said expiration.  
   
   
       9 . A method, comprising: 
 at a first server, storing a plurality of questions and answers which can be used to form a game, and storing global statistic information related to all users' previous playing of the game;    sending questions and answers from the first server to a plurality of second servers;    at each of the second servers, carrying out a game operation allowing a plurality of users to see the questions, and answer the questions, and receiving scores from each of the plurality of users about the questions;    sending only part of those scores from the users from this plurality of second servers to the first server; and    maintaining global scores of each of the users playing the game on the first server.    
   
   
       10 . A method as in  claim 9 , further comprising providing advertising to the users from the second servers, where at least one of the second servers has different advertising content then a different one of the second servers.  
   
   
       11 . A method as in  claim 10 , wherein the advertising content is local advertising content, for an area of said at least one of said second servers that is local to said at least one second server.  
   
   
       12 . A method as in  claim 9 , wherein said first server stores a plurality of questions which include expiration dates that indicate a date after which the questions are no longer used.  
   
   
       13 . A method as in  claim 9 , wherein said questions are stored in XML format.  
   
   
       14 . A method as in  claim 9 , further comprising storing at least one days worth of questions at each of the second servers.  
   
   
       15 . A game system, comprising: 
 a main server, storing a plurality of questions and answers, and storing global statistics about answering of the questions;    a plurality of secondary servers, each connected to the main server, receiving questions and answers therefrom, and coordinating the game with a plurality of users, and reporting back some, but not all, of statistics about the game being played by the plurality of users using the questions; and    said main server sending, to each of the secondary servers and displayed to each of the players, global statistics about ranking of each of the players relative to all the other players.    
   
   
       16 . A system as in  claim 15 , wherein the main server stores each of the plurality of questions and answers in XML format.  
   
   
       17 . A system as in  claim 15 , wherein the secondary server stores advertising content and causes each of the plurality of users connected to the secondary server to view said advertising content, where advertising content for one of the secondary servers is different than advertising content for others of the secondary servers.  
   
   
       18 . A system as in  claim 15 , wherein said plurality of questions and answers include hints associated with the questions and answers, and also includes at least one fact associated with the questions and answers, said fact to be displayed at the same time as the answer is displayed.  
   
   
       19 . A system as in  claim 15 , further comprising a memory at each of the secondary servers, storing at least one days worth of cached questions for games.  
   
   
       20 . A system as in  claim 15 , wherein the main server stores at least some of the plurality of questions with expiration dates associated therewith.