Patent to bypass Twitch

I just got a US patent Bypass a game watching platform issued today 1 Feb 2022! The GWP refers mostly to Twitch, the pre-eminent platform for this. While the patent mostly is about gaming, it also applies to the Metaverse. (See the last section of this article.) Figure A shows a gamer Jill and a fan Bob. Jill plays a game, usually on a PC. There is a game server which runs the game. On Jill’s PC, she runs an app made by the GWP. The app copies screenshots of her game and sends these to a platform server. Bob is a fan of the game or of Jill specifically. He watches using his smartphone or a PC or laptop.

Bob is a customer of the GWP. It shows pop up ads to Bob. And it lets him buy a subscription to remove the ads. Jill is also a customer of the GWP. It pays her to keep playing because she brings fans like Bob to it. How much depends. Often this is calculated as a % of the ad revenue from her fans. A mooted figure is she gets 30%.

Fans might be able to make donations to Jill via a digital tip jar provided on the GWP. Typically she keeps all the tips.

Using this method. Twitch grew fat, reaching a valuation of $1 billion when it sold itself to Amazon.

Take a closer look at Figure A. To the game firm, the GWP is the middleman. The firm spends $millions yearly to make new elements in the game and to promote it. It makes money by charging the gamer. Part of the cost is to develop new artwork involving the characters and the scenes. To the firm, the GWP is a parasite. It broadcasts the gamer and artwork and pays nothing to the game firm. To game firms, this likely grates. Figure A uses the example of League of Legends, made by Riot Games.

For a game firm whose game is popular, there is nothing to stop it becoming a GWP. A natural extension of its business. This is what Riot does. But Riot also lets its gamers play on Twitch. It figures that the overall exposure of its game benefits.

A different solution to Figure Ais Figure. Jill gets a linket, which is a string like [Gamer Jill]. It’s like a domain name, but is not limited to Roman letters. It can be in Chinese, Russian, Hindi etc. Jill builds an email list of her fans. Perhaps thru her own website, if she has one. She sends the linket as a clickable link in an email. If Bob clicks it, this goes to a linket…