1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network game in which a plurality of players participate to progress with the game, and, more particularly, to execution of an event in which a plurality of players participate.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent advancement on the network technology has made network games (online games) vivid in each of which a plurality of players participate to progress with the game. A system that executes a network game includes a server apparatus which is managed by one who runs the network game, and client devices of individual players which are connectable to the server apparatus over a network such as the Internet.
An RPG (Role Playing Game) among the network games progresses as multiple players participate in the game at the same time so that their player characters cooperate with one another to battle with an opponent character, or the players make their player characters battle with one another. Recently, in particular, an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online RPG) which permits participation of more players is becoming popular. A network game such as an MMORPG requires that the movements of the player characters of all the participating players should be transmitted to the client devices manipulated by the players without contradiction.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-99906 discloses a technique of allowing a server apparatus to centralize management on the timings for the actions and processing of the player characters, and periodically synchronize with the timing of progressing the game. The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-99906 prevents the individual client devices from processing time-sequential information with some delays which would bring about inconsistency on the progress of the game. This scheme can be adapted to processing of an event in which a plurality of players participate in a network game.
When an event occurs in a network game, a movie may be played back on the individual client devices as a previous step to the event so that the individual players watch the movie at the same time. In a network game such as an MMORPG in which multiple players participate, however, there are a variety of players including skilled or experienced players and beginners. In a case where experienced players and beginners participate in the same event, is likely that the experienced players have already seen such a movie so that they may feel tedious about being tied on watching the movie for a long time whereas the beginners are apt to see it for the first time.
From the viewpoint of just playing back a movie, the each client device may be permitted to freely skip the movie as each player is likely to skip some scenes in progressing with a stand-alone game, so that the player is relieved of a long tie-up. When an event such as a battle immediately follows the end of a movie, however, the timing for a process related to the event in the progress of the game may vary among the individual client devices. From the viewpoint of playing an event such as a battle with a plurality of players in cooperation, it is not desirable that while some players are watching a movie, the other players freely start the battle.