WO2000079464A1

WO2000079464A1 - Hotel franchising system for providing network games

Info

Publication number: WO2000079464A1
Application number: PCT/KR2000/000546
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kyung Ho Lee
Original assignee: Kyung Ho Lee
Priority date: 1999-05-26
Filing date: 2000-05-26
Publication date: 2000-12-28
Also published as: AU5110000A; KR20000074810A

Abstract

A hotel franchising system for allowing a lodger staying at one of a plurality of member hotels of a franchise to enjoy an on-line network game and awarding a prize depending on a result of the game so as to increase the revenue of each member hotel. A client computer (24, 34, 44) for playing the network game in all or some of the guest rooms of each member hotel participating in the franchise. The client computers (24, 34, 44) may be connected to a hotel server (22, 32, 42) of the hotel through an intranet of the hotel. The hotel servers (22, 32, 42) are connected to a system server (10) through Internet. A lodger can enjoy the network game contending with another staying in the same hotel or another hotel. The match result is recorded in the database of the hotel server (22, 32, 42) or the system server (10). The number of lodgers of each member hotel is reported to the system server (10) to be recorded in a database (134). The operator of the system server (10) collects a portion of marginal revenue of each number hotel as fees, some of which are distributed to high ranked players as prizes and players determined by drawing lots.

Description

HOTEL FRANCHISING SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING NETWORK GAMES

Technical Field The present invention relates to a distributed computer system, and more particularly, relates to a game network system

Background Art

Computer networks, which connect computers in remote sites to facilitate the transmission or sharing of data, are widely being used In particular, the Internet of which size is exploding is becoming the main stream of the computer network. Data transmitted through a computer network such as the Internet typically is concerned with business, education or hobby Recently, however, gaming is becoming one of the main uses of the Internet. Particularly, computer software for executing network games such as mud games or strategic simulation games in which multiple users remotely located are involved are establishing a large market

Further, increasing are so-called game rooms which are equipped with multiple computers to enable users to enjoy network games upon paying fees In such game rooms, each computer may be connected to an external match maker through the Internet The user of each client computer connected to the match maker can enjoy the network game with the help of the administration software of the match maker server Typically, the match maker is the manufacturer of the game software or another entity licensed or entrusted by the manufacturer. The detailed process of administering games may differ between the types and manufacturer of the games Meanwhile, looking into such a game room, not so few attendances smoke heavily or chat with their companions while playing the games Therefore, the interior environment of the game room is not so pleasant and each attendance in the game room usually plays the game in a condition of being exposed to the noise and smoke On the other hand, the major customers of the game room are youngsters, and thus an adult is reluctant to enter the game room to enjoy the game no matter how much he or she likes to play the network game

Next, we will consider a hotel The hotel being a kind of lodging institution is a business entity for providing staying rooms and food of daily necessity to travelers or the other sorts of users Services of such hotels include providing rooms, providing food or beverage, and other additional services Of the services, the provision of rooms is most important because the demand of the other services are directly correlated to the sale of the rooms The service of providing rooms, however, has characteristics of lacking of mobility and deposit so that the product diminishes in the absence of the user and the hotel has to passively wait for the user Further, each hotel, particularly a small-sized hotel, suffers from a difficulty that the demand of the rooms shows an excessive seasonal variation In order to reduce the seasonal variation, each hotel tries to hold several kinds of events such as inviting of conventions or meetings and enlargement of subsidiary facilities or leisure facilities A hotel chain or franchise generally might be used, as well, to enhance the managerial efficiency of a hotel When a hotel joins the hotel chain or franchise, the hotel can reduce its cost by cooperative purchasing of required material and utilize the reservation network of the chain or franchise However, the conventional hotel chain or franchise, which does not go beyond the cooperative purchasing of foods, beverages or other material and the sharing the managerial know-how, cannot drastically increase the sale of the rooms nor reduce seasonal variation of the sale Thus, an epoch-making program or scheme for generating needs of using hotels is needed to enhance the sale of the rooms and reduce the seasonal variation of the sale

Disclosure of the Invention

To solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a hotel franchise system for enabling lodgers staying at a plurality of hotels to enjoy network games and enhancing revenues of the hotels by awarding prizes according to game results of the lodgers participating in the network games In the hotel franchising system for achieving the above object, some or all rooms in each member hotel are equipped with a client computer for playing the network game

The client computer in the hotel room may be connected to a hotel server through a hotel intranet of the hotel The hotel server may be connected to a system server of the franchising system, for example, through the Internet

A lodger can enjoy the network game contending with another person staying in the same hotel or another hotel The match result is recorded in the database of the hotel server or the system server The matches go on until the ranks of the lodgers are determined or the ranges of winners are made narrow within a predetermined criterion The number of lodgers of each member hotel is reported to the system server to be recorded in the database The operator of the system server collects a portion of marginal revenue of each member hotel as fees, some of which are distributed to high ranked players as prizes and players determined by drawing lots

Brief Description of the Drawings

The above objectives and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which

FIG 1 illustrates an embodiment of the hotel franchise system according to the present invention,

FIG 2 illustrates an embodiment of each guest room computer shown in FIG 1 , FIG 3 illustrates an embodiment of the hotel server system shown in FIG 1, FIG 4 illustrates an embodiment of the system server shown in FIG 1, FIGS 5 A and 5B illustrate an example of a procedure generating a match in the system of FIG 1,

FIG 6 is a flowchart showing a method of managing games in the system of FIG 1, and

FIG 7 illustrates another embodiment of the hotel franchise system according to the present invention Embodiments

Each member hotel participating in a hotel franchising system for enabling on-line network games, according to the present invention, is equipped with client computers in all or some guest rooms therein and a hotel server for facilitating the client computers to access the Internet Also, a franchiser who operates the franchising system is equipped with a system server for managing games and awarding to the gamers based on game results FIG 1 illustrates the overall configuration of an embodiment of the hotel franchising system according to the present invention In the embodiment of FIG 1, the hotel franchising system includes the system server 10 and a plurality of hotel intranet subsystems 20, 30, and 40 The system server 10 and the hotel intranet subsystems 20, 30, and 40 can be connected to one another through the Internet via respective dedicated lines

Each of the hotel intranet subsystems 20, 30, and 40 are installed in respective member hotel participating in the franchise according to respective contracts with the franchiser Even though three hotels, e g. hotels A, B, and C are shown in FIG 1, more hotels may be participated in the franchise The hotel intranet subsystem 20 of the hotel A includes a hotel server 22 and client computers installed in respective rooms and connected to the hotel server 22 through a hotel intranet Similarly, the hotel intranet subsystem 30 of the hotel B includes a hotel server 32 and client computers installed in respective rooms, and the hotel intranet subsystem 40 of the hotel C includes a hotel server 42 and client computers installed in respective rooms

The users lodging in the hotels participating in the franchise may enjoy network games using the client computer installed in his room Here, each hotel may not charge additional room charges or fees for using the computers to the users lodging in the hotel The user may play the network game contending another user staying in the same hotel or one of the other hotels participating in the franchise The matches played by the users is administered by the hotel server 20, 30, or 40 or the system server 10 The game data finally recorded in the database of the system server 10 to be used for determining prizes The franchiser collects a portion of marginal revenue of each member hotel as fees, some of which are distributed through awarding The amount of prizes increases according to marginal revenues of the hotels, which may be enormous when a lot of hotels participate in the franchise Thus, each hotel may enhance its revenue and enjoy the interest of participating in the franchise

In the franchising system of the present invention, there are two kinds of matches using the room computers 24, 34, or 44 a formal match and an informal match The formal match is certified by the hotel server 22, 32, or 43 and the result is used for determining the winners and amounts of the prizes The informal match is played by the game participants in a small interval of time between the formal matches The result of the informal match is not recorded and may be interrupted by the hotel server 20, 30 or 40 or the system server 10 when a formal match is to be initiated

It is preferable to install separate application programs in the client computers 24, 34, and 44, the hotel server 20, 30, and 40, and the system server 10 FIGS 2 through 4 illustrates the configurations of the client computer 24, 34, or 44, the hotel server 20, 30, or 40, and the system server 10, respectively Referring to FIG 2, each client computer includes a network interface 102, an operating system 104, a web browser or an application program for supporting the network game, and game programs The network interface 102 which connects the client computer to the intranet is implemented by a hardware such as an Ethernet adapter and a networking software The operating system 104 may be Wιndows95 or Wιndows98 (both being trademarks of Microsoft Corporation) The franchise system according to the present invention may support plural kinds of games That is, the user may choose a strategic simulation game such as STARCRAFT provided by Blizzard Entertainment Corporation or a sports game such as a golf or soccer game Also, the user may enjoy a gambling game such as a poker game In the preferred embodiment, the user interface for initiating and managing a match is implemented using a web browser After the computer is connected to the hotel server, the user may perform several kinds of requests or replies by a menu-driven manner or by typing an appropriate phrase in an input window in the screen The screen pictures or pages provided by the hotel server 20, 30, or 40 or the system server 10 includes a "CHOOSING A GAME", a "REQUEST FOR INITIATION OF GAME AND REPLY TO THE SERVER", a "REQUEST FOR SUSPENSION OF GAME", and a "QUERY FOR GAME STATISTICS" pictures.

Alternatively, however, each client computer may be equipped with an application program for processing the game. In the case that the match is processed based on the program stored in the client computer, the program includes program modules for implementing the processes of "CHOOSING A GAME", "REQUEST FOR INITIATION OF GAME AND REPLY TO THE SERVER", "REQUEST FOR SUSPENSION OF GAME", and "QUERY FOR GAME STATISTICS" As shown in FIG. 3, the hotel server 22, 32, or 42 includes a network interface

122, a web server program 123, an application program 126, a database management subsystem (DBMS) 132, and a database 134 In the preferred embodiment, the hotel server 22, 32, or 42 is implemented in a single physical server In an alternative embodiment, however, the hotel server 22, 32, or 42 may be implemented in a plural physical computers.

The web server program 124, which is implemented by a Netscape Enterprise Server provided by Netscape Communications Corporation or a Internet Information Server provided by Microsoft Corporation, provides web documents to the client computers in the hotel or the system server through the network interface 122 The web server program 124 can make some of the application program 126 to be executed in response to the request of the room computers and the system server 10 The web documents provided by the web server program 124 is updated frequently or dynamically according to data stored in the database 134.

The application program 126 includes a communication control program 128 and a game control program 129. The communication control program 128, which performs or controls the data communication with the room computers or the system server, includes a user registration module, a communication module, and an authentification module The user registration module records, in the database 154, information of new lodgers and game participants by a real-time or a batch processing. The information of new lodgers and game participants may be input in the front desk, and some fields of such information may be reported to the system server 10 automatically or in response to the request of the system server 10 The communication module carries out data communication with the room computers or the system server More specifically, the communication module sends and receives messages to and from the room computers through the web server program 124 Also, the communication module sends information of the number of total lodgers and game participants, and the game champion in the hotel to the system server 10 through the web server program 124, and receives messages containing the winners and amount of prizes and the other information from the system server 10 On the other hand, the authentification module makes a lodger logging in the system to input his or her ID and password to compare the input data coincides with those stored in the database 124.

The hotel server 22, 32, or 42 preferably includes a fire wall for preventing from personal information of the lodgers and managerial information of the hotel from being flowing out the hotel or damaged by external hackers Also, it is preferable to encrypt data transmitted between the hotel server 22, 32, or 42 and the system server 10 The use of the firewall and encryption algorithm is well known in the art, the detailed description thereof will be omitted

The game control program 129 administers the matches between lodgers in the hotel, and includes a match generation module, a status monitoring module, and a match interrupt processing module The match generation module generates matches in response to the requests of the lodgers. In case that the matches progress in tournament, the match generation module may instruct the lodgers to initiate the matches according to a predetermined sequence The status monitoring module monitors the log-in status of each lodger and progress of each match. The status information is accumulated in the database 134 Also, the status monitoring module monitors the result of each match to store the result in the database 134 Alternatively, the match result may be reported individually by the participant of the match The interrupt processing module requests a suspension of a match in progress to the participants For example, for a player enjoying an informal match, the interrupt processing module may request to suspend the informal match and initiate a formal match Also, the interrupt processing module may request or compulsorily halt a match when an unallowed person plays a match The interrupt processing result is stored in the database 134 as well The DBMS 132 receives data from the application program 126 to store such data to the database 134, updates data stored in the database 134, and and fetches data stored in the database 134 to output such data to the application program 126 in response to the request of the application program 126 In the present embodiment, the database 134 includes several unit DB's or tables such as a customer DB, a game DB, a lodger status DB, and an unallowed person DB The customer DB stores ID, name, address, phone number, bank account, lodging history, gaming history, winning history, and fingerprint data of all the current and past lodgers who stays or stayed in rooms equipped with computers The game DB stores information of the number and participants of matches in progress Also, the game DB stores the results of the completed matches and ranks of the players Further, the game DB stores information of games suspended or not initiated because of time shortage or the other reasons

The lodger status DB stores number of lodgers per a month or a year, special events held in the hotel, and marginal room sales due to the events The unallowed person DB stores personal information of persons whom the hotel does not allow to enter the rooms equipped with the computers Some examples of the unallowed persons include professional gamers and those whose credits are injured

Referring to FIG 4, the system server 10 includes a network interface, a web server program 144, an application program 149, a database management subsystem 152, and a database 154 In the preferred embodiment, the system server 10 is implemented in a single physical server. In an alternative embodiment, however, the system server 10 may be implemented in a plural physical computers.

The web server 144 provides web documents having an extension of "html" or "asp", for example, to the room computers of member hotels and the other client terminals The web 144 can make some of the application program 146 to be executed in response to the request of the client computers. The web documents provided by the web server 144 is updated frequently or dynamically according to data stored in the database 154

The application program 146 includes a communication control program 148, a game control program 149, and an awarding program 150 The communication control program 148, which performs or controls the data communication with the hotel servers, includes a user query module, a communication module, and an authentification module The user registration module queries the numbers of lodgers and game participants to the hotel servers 22, 32, and 42 Alternatively, the franchiser may receive such data by facsimile or the other communications from the hotels to input through a terminal connected to the server 10 The communication module carries out data communication with the hotel servers More specifically, the communication module sends and receives messages to and from the hotel servers through the web server 144 Particularly, the communication module receives information of the number of total lodgers and game participants, and the game champion in the hotel from the hotel servers through the web server 144, and sends messages containing the winners and amount of prizes determined by the awarding program 150 and the other information to the hotel servers On the other hand, the authentification module manages the list of unallowed persons and sends such list to the hotel servers The authentification can be performed by each of the hotel servers individually after receiving the list The system server 10 preferably includes the fire wall for preventing from personal information of the customers and managerial information of the hotels from being flowing out the hotel or damaged by external hackers

The game control program 149 administers the matches between lodgers in different hotels, and includes a match generation module, a status monitoring module, a match interrupt processing module, and a scheduling module The match generation module generates matches in response to the requests of the players Particularly, in the preferred embodiment, the match generation module of the system server 10 generates matches between champions or higher rankers of the hotels in case that the game progress in tournament the match generation module may instruct the players to initiate the matches according to a predetermined sequence The status monitoring module of the system server 10 monitors the players or observers logged in the system server 10 along with the progress of each match The status information is accumulated in the database 154 Also, the monitored information is stored in the database 135 The interrupt processing module requests a suspension of a match in progress to the players For example, for a player enjoying an informal match, the interrupt processing module may request to suspend the informal match and initiate a formal match Also, the interrupt processing module may request or compulsorily halt a match when an unallowed person plays a match The interrupt processing result is stored in the database 154 as well The scheduling module monitors the progress of the formal matches held in each of the hotels and urges the hotels to complete the formal matches in a predetermined time limit Also, the scheduling module monitors the progress of the formal matches administered by the system server 10 and schedules such matches In case that some of the matches administered by the system server 10 are not completed because of time shortage or the other reasons, the scheduling module makes the players to determine the time to resume In such cases, the players may divide the prizes equally instead of arranging the time to resume

The awarding program, which determines the winners and amount of prizes, includes a fee calculation module and a prize calculation module The fee calculation module calculates fees to be charged to the hotels according to a following equation 1

Fi = (ΔR/ - α)^χRR/ CR + β (1 )

In the equation 1, Fi denotes the fee which each hotel has to pay to the franchiser, ΔRi denotes a marginal room sale of each member hotel caused by participating in the franchise, and RRi and CR denotes an average room charge and a ratio of the fee to the total revenue, respectively The marginal room sale ΔRi is calculated based on a time series sale data of the hotel and reflects of the seasonal variation and the market condition variation Incase that the room charges differ between the rooms, the room charges or averaged with or without weights The ratio of the fee CR is determined by individual contract between a respective hotel and the franchiser and may be 30-50%, for example Each hotel may expects its interest or benefits even when the rate is high because it can enhance the revenues through the additional services

On the other hand, in the equation 1, a and β denotes factors for reflecting further considerations Particularly, can reflect extra variables in the marginal room sale and β can reflect extra factors in the total fee For example, if the room sale of a hotel increased extraordinarily because of a large symposium, the increase in the room sale is irrelevant to the franchise and it is reasonable to subtract the increase from the marginal room sale ΔRi in the equation 1 reflects such temporary increasing or decreasing cause to the marginal room sale ΔRi Meanwhile, when the hotel reconstructs its facilities or continuous campaigns, β reflects the long term change of the revenue

The prize calculation module calculates the total prizes based on the fees calculated by the fee calculation module The amount of the prizes may be determined by contracts between the hotels and the franchiser Also, the prize calculation module any calculate detailed winners of the prizes In the preferred embodiment, the winners are determined by two methods According to one of the methods, the franchiser awards to high ranked players On the other hand, the franchiser may distribute some of the prizes by drawing lots separately from the former method

In the preferred embodiment, the franchiser directly remits the prize to the winner For the purpose, the database 152 of the system server 10 maintains personal information of the game participants, which is described below Alternatively, however, the system server 10 may notify the hotel servers the list of winners so that the prizes are awarded by the hotel

The DBMS 152 in FIG 4 receives data from the application program 146 to store such data to the database 154, updates data stored in the database 154, and fetches data stored in the database 154 to output such data to the application program 146 in response to the request of the application program 146 In the present embodiment, the database 134 includes several unit DB's or tables such as a hotel lodger DB, an unallowed person DB, a game status DB, and a game history DB The hotel lodger DB stores information regarding number of rooms, room charges, and number of lodgers per month and year for last a few years for each hotel, along with information of special events held in each hotel and marginal room demand due to the events Also, for the administration of the games and awarding prizes, the hotel lodger DB stores ID, name, address, phone number, bank account, lodging history, gaming history, winning history, and fingerprint data of all the current and past lodgers in each hotel Meanwhile, in an alternative embodiment of the present invention where the amount and details of the prizes are determined in a unit of hotel so that each hotel independently distribute the prizes, the hotel lodger DB of the system server 10 may store a brief personal information including ID and name of each customer instead of the detailed information The unallowed person DB stores personal information of persons whom the hotels does not allow to enter the rooms equipped with the computers As described above, the examples of the unallowed persons include professional gamers and those whose credits are injured. The game status DB stores the ID, win/loss records, and detailed result of each match for each players participating in the game The game history DB stores the participants of formal matches, ranking, and winners and amounts of prizes of each day Also, the game history Db stores data of suspended games so that the scheduler module of the application program resumes the games later FIGS 5 A and 5B illustrate an example of a procedure generating a match in the system of FIG 1 The drawings show data flow between five users CL1 through CL5 and the match generation module to illustrate the initiation and, maintenance, and completion of formal and informal matches in a system going on tournament matches The number of users, five, is just illustrative and the actual number of users may be larger or smaller than five Also, the match generation module may be either that of the hotel server 22, 32, or 42 or the system server 10. That is, the match generation module will be that of the hotel server 22, 32, or 42 in case that the users CL1 through CL5 is in the same hotel, but that of the system server 10 in case that at least one of the users are in a hotel different from the other users When a first user CL1 requests a match generation to the match generation module in step 200, the match generation module acknoledges the request and transmits a message requesting standy-by in step 202. At this time, the client computer of the first user CL1 displays a message, "Wait a moment! Searching your contender " When a second user CL2 requests a match generation to the match generation module in step 204, the match generation module instructs the first and the second users CL1 and CL2 to start a match in step 206 Accordingly, the first and the second users CL1 and CL2 initiate a match contending with each other in step 208 The match generally goes on to the last When a third user CL3 requests a match generation to the match generation module in step 210, the match generation module acknoledges the request and transmits a message requesting standy-by in step 212 When a fourth user CL4 requests a match generation to the match generation module in step 214, the match generation module instructs the third and the fourth users CL3 and CL4 to start a match in step 216. Accordingly, the third and the fourth users CL3 and CL4 initiate a match contending with each other in step 218 In such a manner, the formal matches generally go on in the order of entrances, i e in the order of the users' logging in and request of match generation. However, the users having completed his match typically has to wait for the next contender's completion of the match because the the starting time and match duration of each user is different from those of the other users In particular, it is difficult to estimate how long will be the small intervals of time between the formal matches Also, in the tournament, a user lost a match may have no chance of playing anoher formal match unless there exists a repechage In such casees, the users may enjoy an informal match. In FIGS. 5 A and 5B, some of the steps 220 through 248 shows the initiation and completion of the informal matches

When a new attendance, a fifth user CL5, requests a match generation to the match generation module in step 220, the match generation module acknoledges the request and transmits a message requesting standy-by in step 222. At this time, if no following attendance logs in, the fifth user CL5 has to spend considerable time period while waiting for his or her contender Meanwhile, assume that the match between the first and the second users CL1 and CL2 is completed while the first user CL1 is determined as the winner of the match (step 224) If the first user CLl requests a second match generation to the match generation module in step 226, the match generation module acknoledges the request to the first user CLl and transmits a message requesting standy-by in step 228 The contender of the first user CLl should be the winner of the match between the third and the fourth users CL3 and CL4 However, since the match between the third and the fourth users CL3 and CL4 is in progress, the first user has to spend wait for considerable time period while waiting for the completion of the match between the third and the fourth users CL3 and CL4 Thus, the match generation module queries to the first and the fifth users CLl and CL5 whether they will play an informal match (step 230) If the first and the fifth users CLl and CL5 accepts the informal match (steps 232 and 234), the match generation module instructs the first and the fifth users CLl and CL5 to start the informal match in step 236, so that the first and the fifth users CLl and CL5 initiate the informal match contending with each other in step 238

If the match between the third and the fourth users CL3 and CL4 is completed during the informal match involving the first user CLl, the informal match is interrupted and another formal match is initiated as described below instructs the first and the second users CLl and CL2 to start a match in step 206 We assume that the third user CL3 wins in the match between the third and the fourth users CL3 and CL4 (step 240) If the third user CL3 requests a second match generation to the match generation module in step 242, the match generation module acknoledges the request to the first user CL3 and transmits a message requesting standy-by in step 244 Afterwards, the match generation module intructs the first and the fifth users CLl and CL5 to suspend the informal match in step 246. When the first and the fifth users CLl and CL5 stops the informal match in response to the suspension instruction (step 248), the match generation module instructs the first and the third users CLl and CL3 to start a second- level formal match in step 250, so that the first and the third users CLl and CL5 initiate the match contending with each other in step 252

The scheduling module in the game management application program controls the match generation module to perform the scheduling of the formal and informal matches Also, the interrupt processing module in the game management application program controls the match generation module to carry out the interrupt processing including the suspension instruction of informal matches

FIG 6 is a flowchart showing a method of managing games in the system of FIG 1 First, as described above with reference to FIGS 5A and 5B, the system allows new formal matches in response to the requests of the lodgers (step 300) If the system allows the entrance of new users regardless of time, however, it is difficult to manage the game Thus, system does not allow the formal matches but the informal matches for the attendances entered after a certain time, which is 9 30 p m , for example In step 302, the system determines whether the certain time passed If the certain time is not passed yet, the formal match is allowed to a new attendance

If the certain time have passed already, however, the formal matches are allowed only for the attendances logged in before the certain time limit while the informal matches are allowed for the attendances logged in after the certain time limit (step 304) The remaining formal matches go on until all the matches are completed If all the matches are completed (step 306), the champion of the hotel is determined (step 308) The champions of plurality of hotels contend with one another to determine a the final champion under the management of the system server 10 Further, in a unit of a month or a year, the final champions may compete to determine a champion of the month or the year, which is not shown in the figure

FIG 7 illustrates another embodiment of the hotel franchise system according to the present invention The system of FIG 7 is similar to that of FIG 1 except that the matches are played in a separate game server 500 One example of such game server 500 may be the web server of the Battlenet site having a URL of "http //www battle net" providing worldwide matches of Starcraft games The present embodiment, the system server 10 or each hotel server 22, 32, or 42 opens a separate game room in the site and makes the game participants enjoy the game The match results may be input by each user manually or collected by the system server 10 or each hotel server 22, 32, or 42 On the other hand, the franchise system according to the present invention is not targeted professional gamers but general adults having ordinary game skills Thus, it is preferable to prohibit professional gamers from entering hotel rooms and logging in the game system server For the purpose, in the preferred embodiment, personal information of disallowed persons is recorded and updated continuously Also, it may be preferable that distibution ratioes of prizes may be reduced for persons alreay awarded more than a predetermined number of times so as to increase the number of prize winners

It is preferable to prevent professional gamers from checking in the hotel in the name of their aquaintances and playing by themselves Thus, a scheme for preventing the entrances of such illegal attendances In one embodiment, a fingerprint recognition system is installed near the door of each guest room to check the fingerprint of each game participant In such a case, the finger print data is transmitted to the hotel server to be compared with those of disallowed persons stored in the database If the finger print coincides with one of those of unallowed persons, the authentification module of the communication control module 128 notifies the terminal of the hotel server operator so that the operator takes an appropriate action Further, monitoring cameras may be installed in the aisles of the hotel On the other hand, other biometric system such as an iris recognition system may be utilized as well instead of the fingerprint recognition system

Although the present invention has been described in detail above, it should be understood that the foregoing description is illustrative and not restrictive Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many obvious modifications can be made to the invention without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics For example, even though the server controls the initiation and operation of matches after game participants choose a game and request the initiation of the matches in the preferred embodiment, each game participant may propose a match to another user in the same user group having chosen the same game to initiate the match, alternatively Thus, it should be apparent that the invention can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles We claim all modifications and variation coming within the spirit and scope of the following claims. Industrial Applicability

The present invention increases the demand for the hotel rooms and the revenues of hotels and reduces the seasonal variation of the demand, and thus may results in the upbringing of the hotel industry and the tourism industry Since the hotel franchise system according to the present invention is implemented based on the Internet, the it is not restricted to the territory of a country but can be expanded to a multinational system

Claims

What is claimed is

1 A hotel franchising system for allowing a lodger staying at one of a plurality of member hotels of a franchise to enjoy an on-line network game and awarding a prize depending on a result of the game, wherein each of the plurality of member hotels are equipped with multiple client computers for playing the network-based game, said system comprising a system server; and means for storing time-series data of numbers of lodgers of each of the plurality of member hotels, wherein, said system server comprises: means for calculating, based on the time series data, a marginal revenue of each member hotel caused by respective member hotel's participating in the franchise, and means for determining at least one prize winner based on the result of the game and determining total prize amount based on the marginal revenue

2 The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said determining means determines a plurality of prize winners, wherein said determining means comprises means for distributing the total prize amount to the plurality of prize winners

3 The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of member hotels is equipped with a registration computer for inputting personal information of a guest when the guest wishes to check in the hotel, wherein said system further comprises: means for storing data of incompetent persons; and means for receiving the personal information of the guest from said registration computer and querying said storing means to determine whether the guest corresponds to one of the incompetent persons and authorize the admission of the guest 4 The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of member hotels is equipped with means for detecting an illegal attendance to output warning signal

5 The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of member hotels is further equipped with means for receiving the warning signal and announcing the presence of the illegal attendance to a personnel working for the hotel

6 The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said system further comprises means for receiving the warning signal and announcing the presence of the illegal attendance to a system operator

7 The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least one of said multiple client computers of each of the plurality of member hotels is installed at respective guest room of the corresponding hotel

8 The system as claimed in claim 7, wherein said illegal attendance means comprises a biological sensor, disposed closed to a door of respective guest room, for detecting biological characteristics information of a door entrance

9 The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of member hotels is equipped with a hotel server electrically connected to said multiple client computers and said registration computer, wherein said hotel server communicates with said system server through Internet