Multiplayer video game

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Multiplayer online game
)
"Multiplayer" redirects here. For other multiplayer games, see Game § Multiplayer.

A multiplayer video game is a

networking technology to play together over a greater distance; players may compete against one or more human contestants, work cooperatively with a human partner to achieve a common goal, or supervise
other players' activity. Due to multiplayer games allowing players to interact with other individuals, they provide an element of social communication absent from single-player games.

The history of multiplayer video games extends over several decades, tracing back to the emergence of electronic gaming in the mid-20th century. One of the earliest instances of multiplayer interaction was witnessed with the development of Spacewar! in 1962 for the DEC PDP-1 computer by Steve Russell and colleagues at the MIT. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, multiplayer gaming gained momentum within the arcade scene with classics like Pong and Tank. The transition to home gaming consoles in the 1980s further popularized multiplayer gaming. Titles like Super Mario Bros. for the NES and Golden Axe for the Sega Genesis introduced cooperative and competitive gameplay. Additionally, LAN gaming emerged in the late 1980s, enabling players to connect multiple computers for multiplayer gameplay, popularized by titles like Doom and Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

Non-networked

Some of the earliest video games were two-player games, including early

life). All players' scores are often displayed onscreen so players can see their relative standing. Danielle Bunten Berry created some of the first multiplayer video games, such as her debut, Wheeler Dealers (1978) and her most notable work, M.U.L.E.
(1983).

Gauntlet (1985) and Quartet (1986) introduced co-operative 4-player gaming to the arcades. The games had broader consoles to allow for four sets of controls.

Networked

Ken Wasserman and Tim Stryker identified three factors which make networked computer games appealing:[3]

  1. Multiple humans competing with each other instead of a computer
  2. Incomplete information
    resulting in suspense and risk-taking
  3. Real-time play requiring quick reaction

John G. Kemeny wrote in 1972 that software running on the Dartmouth Time Sharing System (DTSS) had recently gained the ability to support multiple simultaneous users, and that games were the first use of the functionality. DTSS's popular American football game, he said, now supported head-to-head play by two humans.[4]

The first large-scale serial sessions using a single computer[

shared memory (known as the "high segment" in the OS TOPS-10). The games became popular, and the university often banned them because of their RAM use. STAR was based on 1974's single-user, turn-oriented BASIC
program STAR, written by Michael O'Shaughnessy at UNH.

Wasserman and Stryker in 1980 described in

-20s using VT100-series graphics. "VTtrek" pitted four Federation players against four Klingons
in a three-dimensional universe.

Flight Simulator II, released in 1986 for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga, allowed two players to connect via modem or serial cable and fly together in a shared environment.

MIDI Maze, an early first-person shooter released in 1987 for the Atari ST, featured network multiplay through a MIDI interface before Ethernet and Internet play became common. It is considered[by whom?] the first multiplayer 3D shooter on a mainstream system, and the first network multiplayer action-game (with support for up to 16 players). There followed ports to a number of platforms (including Game Boy and Super NES) in 1991 under the title Faceball 2000, making it one of the first handheld, multi-platform first-person shooters and an early console example of the genre.[5]

Networked multiplayer gaming modes are known as "netplay". The first popular video-game title with a Local Area Network(LAN) version, 1991's Spectre for the Apple Macintosh, featured AppleTalk support for up to eight players. Spectre's popularity was partially attributed[by whom?] to the display of a player's name above their cybertank. There followed 1993's Doom, whose first network version allowed four simultaneous players.[6]

massively multiplayer", with many players participating simultaneously. Two massively multiplayer genres are MMORPG (such as World of Warcraft or EverQuest) and MMORTS
.

First-person shooters have become popular multiplayer games;

OMGPOP's library included multiplayer Flash games for the casual player until it was shut down in 2013. Some networked multiplayer games, including MUDs and massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) such as RuneScape, omit a single-player mode. The largest MMO in 2008 was World of Warcraft, with over 10 million registered players worldwide. World of Warcraft would hit its peak at 12 million players two years later in 2010, and in 2020 earned the Guinness World Record for best selling MMO video game.[7]
This category of games requires multiple machines to connect via the Internet; before the Internet became popular, MUDs were played on time-sharing computer systems and games like Doom were played on a LAN.

Beginning with the

handheld consoles also offer wireless gaming with Bluetooth (or similar) technology. By the early 2010s online gaming had become a mainstay of console platforms such as Xbox and PlayStation.[citation needed] During the 2010s, as the number of Internet users increased, two new video game genres rapidly gained worldwide popularity – multiplayer online battle arena and battle royale game
, both designed exclusively for multiplayer gameplay over the Internet.

Over time the number of people playing video games has increased. In 2020, the majority of households in the United States have an occupant that plays video games, and 65% of gamers play multiplayer games with others either online or in person.[8]

Local multiplayer

A LAN party

For some games, "multiplayer" implies that players are playing on the same gaming system or network. This applies to all

racing video games) Nearly all multiplayer modes on beat 'em up
games have a single-system option, but racing games have started to abandon split-screen in favor of a multiple-system, multiplayer mode. Turn-based games such as chess also lend themselves to single system single screen and even to a single controller.

Multiple types of games allow players to use local multiplayer. The term "local co-op" or "couch co-op" refers to local multiplayer games played in a cooperative manner on the same system; these may use split-screen or some other display method. Another option is hot-seat games. Hot-seat games are typically turn-based games with only one controller or input set – such as a single keyboard/mouse on the system. Players rotate using the input device to perform their turn such that each is taking a turn on the "hot-seat".

Not all local multiplayer games are played on the same console or personal computer. Some local multiplayer games are played over a LAN. This involves multiple devices using one local network to play together. Networked multiplayer games on LAN eliminate common problems faced when playing online such as lag and anonymity. Games played on a LAN network are the focus of LAN parties. While local co-op and LAN parties still take place, there has been a decrease in both due to an increasing number of players and games utilizing online multiplayer gaming.[9]

Online multiplayer

Online multiplayer games connect players over a wide area network (a common example being the Internet). Unlike local multiplayer, players playing online multiplayer are not restricted to the same local network. This allows players to interact with others from a much greater distance.

Playing multiplayer online offers the benefits of distance, but it also comes with its own unique challenges. Gamers refer to latency using the term "ping", after a utility which measures round-trip network communication delays (by the use of ICMP packets). A player on a DSL connection with a 50-ms ping can react faster than a modem user with a 350-ms average latency. Other problems include packet loss and choke, which can prevent a player from "registering" their actions with a server. In first-person shooters, this problem appears when bullets hit the enemy without damage. The player's connection is not the only factor; some servers are slower than others.

Asymmetrical gameplay

Asymmetrical multiplayer is a type of gameplay in which players can have significantly different roles or abilities from each other – enough to provide a significantly different experience of the game.

Left 4 Dead.[10]

Asynchronous multiplayer

Asynchronous multiplayer is a form of multiplayer gameplay where players do not have to be playing at the same time.

postal mail to a game master, who then would compile and send out results for the next turn. Play-by-mail games transitioned to electronic form as play-by-email games.[12] Similar games were developed for bulletin board systems, such as Trade Wars, where the turn structure may not be as rigorous and allow players to take actions at any time in a persistence space alongside all other players, a concept known as sporadic play.[13]

These types of asynchronous multiplayer games waned with the widespread availability of the Internet which allowed players to play against each other simultaneously, but remains an option in many strategy-related games, such as the Civilization series. Coordination of turns are subsequently managed by one computer or a centralized server. Further, many mobile games are based on sporadic play and use social interactions with other players, lacking direct player versus player game modes but allowing players to influence other players' games, coordinated through central game servers, another facet of asynchronous play.[13]

Online cheating

Main article: Cheating in online games

Online cheating (in gaming) usually refers to modifying the game experience to give one player an advantage over others, such as using an "

aimbot" – a program which automatically locks the player's crosshairs onto a target – in shooting games.[14][15][16] This is also known as "hacking" or "glitching" ("glitching" refers to using a glitch, or a mistake in the code of a game, whereas "hacking" is manipulating the code of a game). Cheating in video games is often done via a third-party program that modifies the game's code at runtime to give one or more players an advantage. In other situations, it is frequently done by changing the game's files to change the game's mechanics.[17]

See also

References

  1. Imagine Media
    . July 1996. p. 29. There have been multiplayer electronic games since the dawn of computing. Space War!, the first real videogame, programmed by Steve Russell on the PDP-1, was an exclusive two-player game. So was Nolan Bushnell's pioneering coin-op Pong.
  2. Killer List of Videogames
  3. ^ a b Wasserman, Ken; Stryker, Tim (December 1980). "Multimachine Games". BYTE. p. 24. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  4. LCCN 72-1176
    .
  5. ^ Parish, Jeremy, The Essential 50: Faceball 2000 Archived 2004-08-20 at the Wayback Machine, 1UP, Accessed April 24, 2009
  6. ^ "Doom - electronic game".
  7. ^ "Best-selling MMO videogame". Guinness World Records. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  8. ^ Fitzgerald, Dylan (15 July 2020). "2020 Essential Facts About the Video Game Industry". Entertainment Software Association. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  9. ^ "Why Couch Co-Op Games Are Dying Out". CBR. 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  10. ^ a b Bycer, Josh (2019-02-25). "Asymmetrical Game Design". Medium. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  11. ^ Kelly, Tadhg (9 August 2011). "Opinion: Synchronous or Asynchronous Gameplay". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  12. ^ Nicolau, Gaspar Pujol (2010). "Enriching online board games: an anthropological perspective". Videogame Cultures and the Future of Interactive Entertainment. Brill. pp. 1–10.
  13. ^ a b Cash, Bryan; Gibson, Jeremy (October 5–8, 2010). Sporadic-Play Game Update. 2010 Game Developers Conference. Game Developers Conference.
  14. ^ "Cheating". Dictionary.com. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  15. ^ Thompson, Clive (December 19, 2012). "What Type of Game Cheater Are You?". Wired.com. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
  16. ^ "How To Hurt The Hackers". Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  17. ^ Carter, M. & Gibbs, M. (2013) "eSports in EVE Online: Skullduggery, Fair Play and Acceptability in an Unbounded Competition." In Proceedings of FDG'13. ACM
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