Multiplayer video game
A multiplayer video game is a
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
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]
- Multiple humans competing with each other instead of a computer
- Incomplete informationresulting in suspense and risk-taking
- 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[ program STAR, written by Michael O'Shaughnessy at UNH.
Wasserman and Stryker in 1980 described in
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]
First-person shooters have become popular multiplayer games;
Beginning with the
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
For some games, "multiplayer" implies that players are playing on the same gaming system or network. This applies to all
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
This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. (October 2021) |
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.
Asynchronous multiplayer
Asynchronous multiplayer is a form of multiplayer gameplay where players do not have to be playing at the same time.
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
Online cheating (in gaming) usually refers to modifying the game experience to give one player an advantage over others, such as using an "
See also
- Game server
- LAN gaming center
- Massively multiplayer online game
- Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
- Matchmaking (video games)
- Online game
- Spawn installation
References
- 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.
- Killer List of Videogames
- ^ a b Wasserman, Ken; Stryker, Tim (December 1980). "Multimachine Games". BYTE. p. 24. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- LCCN 72-1176.
- ^ Parish, Jeremy, The Essential 50: Faceball 2000 Archived 2004-08-20 at the Wayback Machine, 1UP, Accessed April 24, 2009
- ^ "Doom - electronic game".
- ^ "Best-selling MMO videogame". Guinness World Records. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
- ^ Fitzgerald, Dylan (15 July 2020). "2020 Essential Facts About the Video Game Industry". Entertainment Software Association. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
- ^ "Why Couch Co-Op Games Are Dying Out". CBR. 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
- ^ a b Bycer, Josh (2019-02-25). "Asymmetrical Game Design". Medium. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
- ^ Kelly, Tadhg (9 August 2011). "Opinion: Synchronous or Asynchronous Gameplay". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
- ^ Nicolau, Gaspar Pujol (2010). "Enriching online board games: an anthropological perspective". Videogame Cultures and the Future of Interactive Entertainment. Brill. pp. 1–10.
- ^ a b Cash, Bryan; Gibson, Jeremy (October 5–8, 2010). Sporadic-Play Game Update. 2010 Game Developers Conference. Game Developers Conference.
- ^ "Cheating". Dictionary.com. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
- ^ Thompson, Clive (December 19, 2012). "What Type of Game Cheater Are You?". Wired.com. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
- ^ "How To Hurt The Hackers". Retrieved June 1, 2017.
- ^ Carter, M. & Gibbs, M. (2013) "eSports in EVE Online: Skullduggery, Fair Play and Acceptability in an Unbounded Competition." In Proceedings of FDG'13. ACM