Amazon.com, Inc.
Video game waiting queue and audience interaction

Abstract:

Live camera video of video game players may be captured. Portions of the live video that include the player's faces may be inserted into the faces of characters that are controlled by the players and displayed in real-time. The players may stream video output from the video game to respective groups of spectators. The game video output may include a competition area and a competition audience that includes audience portions based on the groups of spectators that receive the game video output from the players. An audience member may be associated with a spectator, and the spectator's username, profile picture, chat messages and other spectator input may be displayed adjacent to the audience member. A queue of waiting players may be displayed simultaneously with current gameplay in the competition area, and a queued character may move to the competition area when an open competition slot becomes available.