Avatar integrated shared media experience

摘要

A method and system are disclosed in which a group of people are able to replicate the physical world experience of going with a group of friends to pick a movie, watch the movie together, and provide commentary on the movie itself in the virtual world on a virtual couch while each user is sitting in different physical locations. Additionally, the virtual representation of the destination that the group of people are watching the movie together in can be themed to allow users to watch movies in different locations pivoting on special events or by the users choice.

主权项

1. A method for providing a shared media experience in a group comprising two or more users associated with respective computing devices communicatively coupled via a network, the method comprising:
establishing membership in the group substantially in real time by allowing, in real time, users that are previously unassociated as a group to form an ad hoc group for the shared media experience; and executing a nomination process for selecting a media entity of a plurality of media entities to be concurrently rendered by the group, the nomination process comprising:
sending, concurrently to the users, data indicative of the plurality of media entities that are selectable by the users;receiving data indicative of nominated media entities and causing the nominated media entities to be indicated concurrently to the users in the group via respective computing devices, wherein a nominated media entity is a media entity that is selected by one of the users and indicated to other users as a proposed media entity for voting;effectuating a process for selecting one of the nominated media entities to be shared by the group, wherein the process includes receiving indications from the users as to which of the nominated media entities are selected for voting;receiving indication of the media entity selected via the nomination process to be shared by the group and rendering a representation of the selected media entity on one of the computing devices; andreceiving data for rendering the selected media entity and rendering the received data on a user interface device coupled to said one of the computing devices substantially simultaneously with other computing devices associated with members of the group.