Deathmatch (gaming)
Encyclopedia
Deathmatch or Player vs All (PvA, also called DM or free-for-all) is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter
and real-time strategy
(RTS) computer games. Normally the goal of a deathmatch game is to kill (or "frag
", from the military term
) as many other players as possible until a certain condition or limit is reached, commonly being a frag limit or time limit. Once one of these conditions is met, the match is over and the winner is the player that accumulated the greatest number of frags.
in a peer-to-peer model or a client–server model, either locally or over the Internet. Each individual computer generates the first person view that the computer character sees in the virtual world, hence the player sees through the eyes of the computer character.
Players are able to control their characters and interact with the virtual world by using various controller systems. When using a PC, a typical example of a games control system would be the use of a mouse and keyboard combined. For example, the movement of the mouse could provide control of the players viewpoint from the character and the mouse buttons may be used for weapon trigger control. Certain keys on the keyboard would control movement around the virtual scenery and also often add possible additional functions. Games consoles however, use hand held 'control pads' which normally have a number of buttons and joysticks (or 'thumbsticks') which provide the same functions as the mouse and keyboard. Players often have the option to communicate with each other during the game by using microphones and speakers, headsets or by 'instant chat' messages if using a PC.
Every computer or console in the game renders the virtual world and characters in realtime sufficiently fast enough that the number of frames per second makes the visual simulation seem like standard full motion video or better. Manufacturers of games consoles use different hardware in their products which means that quality and performance of the games vary. This is even more apparent for PC users who are able to improve the specifications of the computer by upgrading parts such as the graphics card, processor unit and RAM modules.
Deathmatches have different rules and goals depending on the game, but an example of a typical FPS-deathmatch session is where every player is versus every other player. The game begins with each player being spawned (starting) at random locations—picked from a fixed predefined set. Being spawned entails having the score, health, armor and equipment reset to default values which usually is 0 score, full (100%) health, no armour and a basic firearm
and a melee weapon
. After a session has commenced, arbitrary players may join and leave the game on an ad hoc basis.
In this context a player is a term that can mean a human operated character in the game or a character operated by a computer software AI
-- a bot
(see Reaper bot for example). Both the human and computer operated character do have the same basic visual appearance but will in most modern games be able to select a skin which is an arbitrary graphics model but that operates on the same set of movements as the base model. A human player's character and computer bot's character features the same set of physical properties, initial health, initial armour, weapon capabilities, the same available character maneuvers and speed—i.e. they are equally matched except for the actual controlling part. For a novice player the difference (i.e. experience, not taking into account the actual skill) between a human opponent and a computer controlled opponent may be near nil, however for a skilled player the lack of human intelligence is usually easily noticed in most bot implementations; regardless of the actual skill of the bot—which lack of intelligence can be at least somewhat compensated for in terms of e.g. extreme (superhuman) accuracy and aim. However, some systems deliberately inform the player when inspecting the score list which player(s) are bots and which are human (e.g. OpenArena). In the event that the player is aware of the nature of the opponent it will affect the cognitive process of the player regardless of the player's skill.
All normal maps will contain various power-ups; i.a. extra health, armor, ammunition and other (more powerful than default) weapons. Once collected by a player the power-up will respawn after a defined time at the same location, the time for an item to respawn depends upon the game mode and the type of the item. In some deathmatch modes power-ups will not respawn at all. Certain power-ups are especially powerful, which can often lead to the game rotating around controlling power-ups -- i.e. assuming ceteris paribus, the player who controls the [most powerful] power-ups (namely collect the item most often) is the one that will have the best potential for making the best score.
The goal for each player is killing the other players by any means possible which counts as a frag, either by direct assault or manipulating the map, the latter counts as a frag in some games, some not; in either case—to attain the highest score—this process should be repeated as many times as possible, with each iteration performed as quickly as possible. The session may have a time limit, a frag limit, or no limit at all. If there is a limit then the player with the most frags will eventually win when the session ends. See frag
for more information about the usual score system.
The health variable will determine if a player is wounded; however, a wounded player does not entail reduced mobility or functionality in most games, and in most games a player will not bleed to death. A player will die when the health value reaches equal to or less than 0, if the value is reduced to a very low negative value, the result may be gibbing depending upon the game.
In most games, when a player dies (i.e. is fragged), the player will lose all equipment gained and the screen will continue to display the visible (still animated) scene that the player normally sees, and the score list is usually displayed—the frags. The display does not go black when the player dies. Usually the player can choose to instantly respawn or remain dead.
The armor variable affects the health variable by reducing the damage taken, the reduction in health is in concept inversely proportional to the value of the armor times the actual damage caused; with the obvious differences in various implementations. Some games may account for the location of the body injured when the damage is deduced, while many—especially older implementations—do not. In most games, no amount of armor causes any reduced mobility—i.e. is never experienced as a weight issue by the player.
Newtonian physics are often only somewhat accurately simulated, common in many games is the ability of the player to modify the player's own vector to some degree while airborne, e.g. by retarding a forward airborne flight by moving backwards, or even jumping around a corner. Other notable concepts derived from the physics of FPS game engines are i.a. at least bunny-hopping
, strafe-jumping
and rocket-jumping -- in all of which the player exploits the particular characteristics of the physics engine in question to obtain a high speed and/or height, or other attribute(s); e.g. with rocket-jumping the player will jump and fire at rocket at the floor area immediately under the feet of the same player, which will cause the player to jump higher compared to a regular jump as a result of the rocket blast (at the obvious expense of the health variable being somewhat reduced from self-inflicted injury). The types of techniques available and how the techniques may be performed by the player differs from the physics implementation as is as such also game dependent.
The lost equipment (usually not including the armor) of a dead player can usually be picked up by any player (even the fragged player, respawned) who gets to it first.
Modern implementations allow for new players to join after the game has started, the maximum number of players that can join is arbitrary for each game, map and rules and can be selected by the server. Some maps are suitable for small numbers of players, some are suitable for larger numbers.
If the session does have a frag or time limit a new session will start briefly after the current session has been concluded, during the respite the players will be allowed to observe the score list, chat and will usually see an animated pseudo
overview display of the map as background for the score list. Some games have a system to allow each player to announce they are now ready to being the new session, some do not. The new sessions might be on a different map—based on a map list kept on the server—or it might always be on the same map if there is no such rotating map list.
Common in many games is some form of message broadcast and private message system; the broadcast message system announces public events, e.g. if a player died it will often be informed who died and how, if fragged, then often by what weapon; the same system will also often announce if a player joins or leaves the game, and may announce how many frags are left in total and other important messages, including errors or warnings from the game; instant text messages from other players are also displayed with this system. The private message system, in contrast, only prints messages for individual players, e.g. if player A picks up a weapon, player A will get a message to confirm that the weapon was picked up.
Most modern deathmatch games features a high level of graphic violence
; a normal modern implementation will contain high quality human characters being killed, e.g. moderate amounts of blood, screams of pain and death, exploding bodies with associated gibs are common. Some games feature a way to disable and/or reduce the level of gore. However, the setting of the game is usually that of a fictional world, the player may resurrect in the form of mentioned respawning and the characters will usually have superhuman abilities, e.g. able to tolerate numerous point blank hits from a machine gun directly to the head without any armour, jumping extreme inhuman distances and falling extreme distances to mention a few things. These factors together may make the player experience the game less real as the game contains highly unreal and unrealistic elements.
The description depicts a typical deathmatch based on major titles such as Quake, Doom, Unreal Tournament and others, the purpose served is to give a basic idea of the concept; however, given the many variations that exist and the manner that options and rules may be manipulated literally everything mentioned could be different to a minor or major degree in other games.
while he and lead programmer John Carmack were developing the LAN
multiplayer mode for the computer game Doom, another source to investigate is the fighting game World Heroes 2
, also developed and released in the early 1990s as an early use of the term. However, the latter's usage was different as it referred to the players' environment (arenas which housed dangerous hazards) rather than to the game itself. Both of these claims are controversial as the term's common definition as used by gamers (to describe a video game match in which players kill each other over and over, respawning after each time they die) predates both titles by over a decade. Romero commented on the birth of the FPS deathmatch:
Games that had such gameplay features beforehand did not use the term, but later it gained mainstream popularity with the Quake and Unreal Tournament
series of games.
Some games give a different name to these types of matches, while still using the same underlying concept. For example, deathmatch in the Halo
series of games is named "Slayer", and in Perfect Dark
the name "Combat Simulator" is used.
An early example of a deathmatch mode in a first-person shooter was Taito
's 1992 arcade game Gun Buster. It allowed two-player cooperative gameplay
for the mission mode, and featured an early deathmatch mode, where either two players could compete against each other or up to four players could compete in a team deathmatch, consisting of two teams with two players each competing against each other.
, although multiplayer games spread across multiple screens predate that title by at least 9 years in the form of Spasim
and Maze War
.
Early evidence of the term's application to graphical video games exists. On August 6, 1982, Intellivision
game developers Russ Haft and Steve Montero challenged each other to a game of Bi-Planes, a 1981 Intellivision release in which multiple players control fighter planes with the primary purpose of repeatedly killing each other until a limit is reached. Once killed, a player would be respawned in a fixed location, enjoying a short period of protection from attacks. The contest was referred to, at that time, as a deathmatch.
may or may not cause damage, depending on the game and the rules used — if it does, players that kill a teammate (called a team kill) usually decrease their own score and the team's score by one point; in certain games, they may also themselves be killed as punishment, and/or may be removed from the game for repeat offenses. The team with the highest frag-count at the end wins.
In a last man standing deathmatch, players start with a certain number of lives, and lose these as they die. The player who remains in the game when all other players lost all their lives is declared a winner. See section "Fundamental changes" for more insight.
Any arbitrary multiplayer game with the goal for each player to kill every other player(s) as many times as possible can be considered to be a form of deathmatch.
In real time strategy games, deathmatch can refer to a game mode where all players begin their empires with large amounts of resources. This saves them the time of accumulation and lets hostilities commence much faster and with greater force. Destroying all the enemies is the only way to win, while in other modes some other victory conditions may be used (king of the hill, building a wonder...)
, had a set of unmodifiable rules concerning weapons, equipment and scoring, known as "Deathmatch 1.0".
Within months, these rules were modified into "Deathmatch 2.0" rules (included in Doom v1.2 patch). These rules were optional, the administrator of the game could decide on using DM 1.0 or DM 2.0 rules.
The changes were:
Notable power-ups that are featured in most consecutive games include the soul spheres. Although the name and/or graphics may be different in other games the concept and feature of the power-up remains the same in other games.
was first released as shareware in 1994 by Apogee Software Ltd. and honed an expansive multiplayer mode that pioneered a variety of deathmatch features.
Notable power-ups that are featured in most consecutive games are i.a. the quad damage. Although the name and/or graphics may be different in other games the concept and feature of the power-up remains the same in other games.
(1998, by Epic
), the rules were enhanced with some widely accepted improvements:
Shooter game
Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common...
and real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
(RTS) computer games. Normally the goal of a deathmatch game is to kill (or "frag
Frag (video gaming)
Frag is a computer and video game term originating from the word fragging, a term indicating to kill an unpopular superior officer with a fragmentation grenade. A frag is roughly equivalent to "kill", with the typical main difference that the player being "fragged" can instantly respawn in most...
", from the military term
Frag (military)
In the U.S. military, fragging refers to the act of attacking a superior officer in one's chain of command with the intent to kill that officer. The term originated during the Vietnam War and was most commonly used to mean the assassination of an unpopular officer of one's own fighting unit...
) as many other players as possible until a certain condition or limit is reached, commonly being a frag limit or time limit. Once one of these conditions is met, the match is over and the winner is the player that accumulated the greatest number of frags.
Description
In a typical first-person shooter (FPS) deathmatch session, players connect individual computers together via a computer networkComputer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
in a peer-to-peer model or a client–server model, either locally or over the Internet. Each individual computer generates the first person view that the computer character sees in the virtual world, hence the player sees through the eyes of the computer character.
Players are able to control their characters and interact with the virtual world by using various controller systems. When using a PC, a typical example of a games control system would be the use of a mouse and keyboard combined. For example, the movement of the mouse could provide control of the players viewpoint from the character and the mouse buttons may be used for weapon trigger control. Certain keys on the keyboard would control movement around the virtual scenery and also often add possible additional functions. Games consoles however, use hand held 'control pads' which normally have a number of buttons and joysticks (or 'thumbsticks') which provide the same functions as the mouse and keyboard. Players often have the option to communicate with each other during the game by using microphones and speakers, headsets or by 'instant chat' messages if using a PC.
Every computer or console in the game renders the virtual world and characters in realtime sufficiently fast enough that the number of frames per second makes the visual simulation seem like standard full motion video or better. Manufacturers of games consoles use different hardware in their products which means that quality and performance of the games vary. This is even more apparent for PC users who are able to improve the specifications of the computer by upgrading parts such as the graphics card, processor unit and RAM modules.
Deathmatches have different rules and goals depending on the game, but an example of a typical FPS-deathmatch session is where every player is versus every other player. The game begins with each player being spawned (starting) at random locations—picked from a fixed predefined set. Being spawned entails having the score, health, armor and equipment reset to default values which usually is 0 score, full (100%) health, no armour and a basic firearm
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
and a melee weapon
Mêlée weapon
A melee weapon is any weapon that does not involve a projectile — that is, both the user and target of the weapon are in contact with it simultaneously in normal use...
. After a session has commenced, arbitrary players may join and leave the game on an ad hoc basis.
In this context a player is a term that can mean a human operated character in the game or a character operated by a computer software AI
Ai
AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...
-- a bot
Computer game bot
A bot, most prominently in the first-person shooter types , is a type of weak AI expert system software which for each instance of the program controls a player in deathmatch, team deathmatch and/or cooperative human player. Computer bots may play against other bots and/or human players in unison,...
(see Reaper bot for example). Both the human and computer operated character do have the same basic visual appearance but will in most modern games be able to select a skin which is an arbitrary graphics model but that operates on the same set of movements as the base model. A human player's character and computer bot's character features the same set of physical properties, initial health, initial armour, weapon capabilities, the same available character maneuvers and speed—i.e. they are equally matched except for the actual controlling part. For a novice player the difference (i.e. experience, not taking into account the actual skill) between a human opponent and a computer controlled opponent may be near nil, however for a skilled player the lack of human intelligence is usually easily noticed in most bot implementations; regardless of the actual skill of the bot—which lack of intelligence can be at least somewhat compensated for in terms of e.g. extreme (superhuman) accuracy and aim. However, some systems deliberately inform the player when inspecting the score list which player(s) are bots and which are human (e.g. OpenArena). In the event that the player is aware of the nature of the opponent it will affect the cognitive process of the player regardless of the player's skill.
All normal maps will contain various power-ups; i.a. extra health, armor, ammunition and other (more powerful than default) weapons. Once collected by a player the power-up will respawn after a defined time at the same location, the time for an item to respawn depends upon the game mode and the type of the item. In some deathmatch modes power-ups will not respawn at all. Certain power-ups are especially powerful, which can often lead to the game rotating around controlling power-ups -- i.e. assuming ceteris paribus, the player who controls the [most powerful] power-ups (namely collect the item most often) is the one that will have the best potential for making the best score.
The goal for each player is killing the other players by any means possible which counts as a frag, either by direct assault or manipulating the map, the latter counts as a frag in some games, some not; in either case—to attain the highest score—this process should be repeated as many times as possible, with each iteration performed as quickly as possible. The session may have a time limit, a frag limit, or no limit at all. If there is a limit then the player with the most frags will eventually win when the session ends. See frag
Frag (video gaming)
Frag is a computer and video game term originating from the word fragging, a term indicating to kill an unpopular superior officer with a fragmentation grenade. A frag is roughly equivalent to "kill", with the typical main difference that the player being "fragged" can instantly respawn in most...
for more information about the usual score system.
The health variable will determine if a player is wounded; however, a wounded player does not entail reduced mobility or functionality in most games, and in most games a player will not bleed to death. A player will die when the health value reaches equal to or less than 0, if the value is reduced to a very low negative value, the result may be gibbing depending upon the game.
In most games, when a player dies (i.e. is fragged), the player will lose all equipment gained and the screen will continue to display the visible (still animated) scene that the player normally sees, and the score list is usually displayed—the frags. The display does not go black when the player dies. Usually the player can choose to instantly respawn or remain dead.
The armor variable affects the health variable by reducing the damage taken, the reduction in health is in concept inversely proportional to the value of the armor times the actual damage caused; with the obvious differences in various implementations. Some games may account for the location of the body injured when the damage is deduced, while many—especially older implementations—do not. In most games, no amount of armor causes any reduced mobility—i.e. is never experienced as a weight issue by the player.
Newtonian physics are often only somewhat accurately simulated, common in many games is the ability of the player to modify the player's own vector to some degree while airborne, e.g. by retarding a forward airborne flight by moving backwards, or even jumping around a corner. Other notable concepts derived from the physics of FPS game engines are i.a. at least bunny-hopping
Bunny hopping
Bunny hopping, or bunny jumping, is a term used in video games to describe the basic movement technique in which a player jumps repeatedly, instead of running, in order to move faster.-Concept:...
, strafe-jumping
Strafe-jumping
Strafe-jumping is a form of trickjump used to increase a player's speed in computer games based on the Quake engine and now the Doom 3 engine...
and rocket-jumping -- in all of which the player exploits the particular characteristics of the physics engine in question to obtain a high speed and/or height, or other attribute(s); e.g. with rocket-jumping the player will jump and fire at rocket at the floor area immediately under the feet of the same player, which will cause the player to jump higher compared to a regular jump as a result of the rocket blast (at the obvious expense of the health variable being somewhat reduced from self-inflicted injury). The types of techniques available and how the techniques may be performed by the player differs from the physics implementation as is as such also game dependent.
The lost equipment (usually not including the armor) of a dead player can usually be picked up by any player (even the fragged player, respawned) who gets to it first.
Modern implementations allow for new players to join after the game has started, the maximum number of players that can join is arbitrary for each game, map and rules and can be selected by the server. Some maps are suitable for small numbers of players, some are suitable for larger numbers.
If the session does have a frag or time limit a new session will start briefly after the current session has been concluded, during the respite the players will be allowed to observe the score list, chat and will usually see an animated pseudo
Pseudo
The prefix pseudo- is used to mark something as false, fraudulent, or pretending to be something it is not.-See also:*Falsehood*Pseudorealism*Deception*Mimicry*Pseudo.com*Pseudo: Blood of Our Own...
overview display of the map as background for the score list. Some games have a system to allow each player to announce they are now ready to being the new session, some do not. The new sessions might be on a different map—based on a map list kept on the server—or it might always be on the same map if there is no such rotating map list.
Common in many games is some form of message broadcast and private message system; the broadcast message system announces public events, e.g. if a player died it will often be informed who died and how, if fragged, then often by what weapon; the same system will also often announce if a player joins or leaves the game, and may announce how many frags are left in total and other important messages, including errors or warnings from the game; instant text messages from other players are also displayed with this system. The private message system, in contrast, only prints messages for individual players, e.g. if player A picks up a weapon, player A will get a message to confirm that the weapon was picked up.
Most modern deathmatch games features a high level of graphic violence
Graphic violence
Graphic violence is the depiction of especially vivid, brutal and realistic acts of violence in visual media such as literature, film, television, and video games...
; a normal modern implementation will contain high quality human characters being killed, e.g. moderate amounts of blood, screams of pain and death, exploding bodies with associated gibs are common. Some games feature a way to disable and/or reduce the level of gore. However, the setting of the game is usually that of a fictional world, the player may resurrect in the form of mentioned respawning and the characters will usually have superhuman abilities, e.g. able to tolerate numerous point blank hits from a machine gun directly to the head without any armour, jumping extreme inhuman distances and falling extreme distances to mention a few things. These factors together may make the player experience the game less real as the game contains highly unreal and unrealistic elements.
The description depicts a typical deathmatch based on major titles such as Quake, Doom, Unreal Tournament and others, the purpose served is to give a basic idea of the concept; however, given the many variations that exist and the manner that options and rules may be manipulated literally everything mentioned could be different to a minor or major degree in other games.
History
The origin of the term deathmatch in the context of video games is disputed, especially as it is not well-defined; for pointers, the term might have been coined by game designer John RomeroJohn Romero
Alfonso John Romero is a game designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. He is best known as a co-founder of id Software and was a designer for many of their games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, Doom and Quake...
while he and lead programmer John Carmack were developing the LAN
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
multiplayer mode for the computer game Doom, another source to investigate is the fighting game World Heroes 2
World Heroes 2
is a fighting arcade game developed and published by ADK with the assistance of SNK . It was originally released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinet on April 28, 1993...
, also developed and released in the early 1990s as an early use of the term. However, the latter's usage was different as it referred to the players' environment (arenas which housed dangerous hazards) rather than to the game itself. Both of these claims are controversial as the term's common definition as used by gamers (to describe a video game match in which players kill each other over and over, respawning after each time they die) predates both titles by over a decade. Romero commented on the birth of the FPS deathmatch:
- "Sure, it was fun to shoot monsters, but ultimately these were soulless creatures controlled by a computer. Now gamers could play against spontaneous human beings—opponents who could think and strategize and scream. We can kill each other!' If we can get this done, this is going to be the fucking coolest game that the planet Earth has ever fucking seen in its entire history!'"
Games that had such gameplay features beforehand did not use the term, but later it gained mainstream popularity with the Quake and Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament is a futuristic first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels...
series of games.
Some games give a different name to these types of matches, while still using the same underlying concept. For example, deathmatch in the Halo
Halo (series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
series of games is named "Slayer", and in Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is considered the spiritual successor to Rare's earlier first-person shooter GoldenEye 007, with which it shares many gameplay features...
the name "Combat Simulator" is used.
An early example of a deathmatch mode in a first-person shooter was Taito
Taito
Taito may mean:*Taito Corporation, a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware*Taito, Tokyo, a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan*Taito, also known as matai, paramount chiefs according to Fa'a Samoa...
's 1992 arcade game Gun Buster. It allowed two-player cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates. It is distinct from other multiplayer modes, such as competitive multiplayer modes like player versus player or deathmatch...
for the mission mode, and featured an early deathmatch mode, where either two players could compete against each other or up to four players could compete in a team deathmatch, consisting of two teams with two players each competing against each other.
Background
It has been suggested that in 1983, Drew Major and Kyle Powell probably played the world's first deathmatch with Snipes, a text-mode game that was later credited with being the inspiration behind Novell NetWareNovell NetWare
NetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, with network protocols based on the archetypal Xerox Network Systems stack....
, although multiplayer games spread across multiple screens predate that title by at least 9 years in the form of Spasim
Spasim
Spasim was a 32-player 3D networked computer game by Jim Bowery involving 4 planetary systems with up to 8 players per planetary system, released in March 1974...
and Maze War
Maze War
Maze War is a video game.Maze War originated or disseminated a number of concepts used in thousands of games to follow, and is considered one of the earliest examples of, or progenitor of, a first-person shooter...
.
Early evidence of the term's application to graphical video games exists. On August 6, 1982, Intellivision
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1979. Development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. The word intellivision is a portmanteau of "intelligent television"...
game developers Russ Haft and Steve Montero challenged each other to a game of Bi-Planes, a 1981 Intellivision release in which multiple players control fighter planes with the primary purpose of repeatedly killing each other until a limit is reached. Once killed, a player would be respawned in a fixed location, enjoying a short period of protection from attacks. The contest was referred to, at that time, as a deathmatch.
Variations
In a team deathmatch, the players are organized into two or more teams, with each team having its own frag count. Friendly fireFriendly fire
Friendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...
may or may not cause damage, depending on the game and the rules used — if it does, players that kill a teammate (called a team kill) usually decrease their own score and the team's score by one point; in certain games, they may also themselves be killed as punishment, and/or may be removed from the game for repeat offenses. The team with the highest frag-count at the end wins.
In a last man standing deathmatch, players start with a certain number of lives, and lose these as they die. The player who remains in the game when all other players lost all their lives is declared a winner. See section "Fundamental changes" for more insight.
Any arbitrary multiplayer game with the goal for each player to kill every other player(s) as many times as possible can be considered to be a form of deathmatch.
In real time strategy games, deathmatch can refer to a game mode where all players begin their empires with large amounts of resources. This saves them the time of accumulation and lets hostilities commence much faster and with greater force. Destroying all the enemies is the only way to win, while in other modes some other victory conditions may be used (king of the hill, building a wonder...)
Doom
The first-person shooter version of deathmatch, originating in Doom by id SoftwareId Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
, had a set of unmodifiable rules concerning weapons, equipment and scoring, known as "Deathmatch 1.0".
- Items do not respawn, e.g. health, armour, ammunition; however weapons had a fixed status as available to any arbitrary player except the player who acquired the weapon — i.e. the weapon did not in fact disappear as items do when picked up. The player who acquires the weapon can only collect it anew after respawning (this sometimes leads to lack of ammunition if a player survives long enough, eventually leading to one's death due to being unable to fight back)
- Suicide (such as falling into lava or causing an explosion too close to the player, or getting crushed by a crushing ceiling etc.) did not entail negative score points.
Within months, these rules were modified into "Deathmatch 2.0" rules (included in Doom v1.2 patch). These rules were optional, the administrator of the game could decide on using DM 1.0 or DM 2.0 rules.
The changes were:
- Picking up an object removes it from the map.
- Objects re-appear 30 seconds after being picked up and can be picked up by anyone; bonus objects which provide significant advantages (invisibility power-up etc.) re-appear after much longer delay, some of them may not reappear at all.
- Suicide counts as −1 frag.
Notable power-ups that are featured in most consecutive games include the soul spheres. Although the name and/or graphics may be different in other games the concept and feature of the power-up remains the same in other games.
Rise of the Triad
Rise of the TriadRise of the Triad
Rise of the Triad: Dark War is a first-person shooter video game that was first released on February 17, 1995 and developed by Apogee Software . The members of the development team involved referred to themselves as "The Developers of Incredible Power"...
was first released as shareware in 1994 by Apogee Software Ltd. and honed an expansive multiplayer mode that pioneered a variety of deathmatch features.
- It was the first game to feature deathmatch with more than four people (Dooms player limit) simultaneously playing.
- It introduced the Capture the FlagCapture the flagCapture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...
mode to the first-person-shooter genre as Capture the Triad. - It was the first FPS to carry a wealth of maps specifically designed for deathmatch, offering 30 maps in its 1995 commercial release.
- It was the first FPS to have an in-game scoreboard.
- It was the first FPS to deliver its level of multiplayer customization through a plethora of options affecting aspects of the level played like gravity or weapon persistence.
- It was the first FPS to have voice macros and the ability to talk to players via microphone.
- It introduced a unique point system that awards different amounts of points for different kills (for instance, a missile kill is worth a point more than a bullet kill).
Quake
- Quake was the first FPS deathmatch game to feature in-game joining.
- Quake was the first FPS deathmatch game to feature AI operated deathmatch players (bots), although not as a feature of the released product, but rather in the form of a community created content.
- Quake popularized rocket-jumping, even though it was already possible in Rise of the TriadRise of the TriadRise of the Triad: Dark War is a first-person shooter video game that was first released on February 17, 1995 and developed by Apogee Software . The members of the development team involved referred to themselves as "The Developers of Incredible Power"...
.
Notable power-ups that are featured in most consecutive games are i.a. the quad damage. Although the name and/or graphics may be different in other games the concept and feature of the power-up remains the same in other games.
Unreal
With the game UnrealUnreal
Unreal is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes and published by GT Interactive in May 1998...
(1998, by Epic
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
), the rules were enhanced with some widely accepted improvements:
- spawn protection (usually 2–4 seconds), which is a period of invulnerability after a player (re)enters combat (such as after being killed and respawning); spawn protection was automatically terminated when the player used a weapon (including non-attack usage, such as zooming the sniper rifle). Spawn protection prevents "easy frags" — killing a player which just spawned and is slightly disoriented and almost unarmed.
- "suicide-cause tracking" – if a player dies by "suicide" that was caused by some other player's action, such as knocking him off the cliff or triggering a crusher or gas chamber, the player that caused such death is credited the kill and the killed player does not lose a frag (it's not counted as a suicide). This concept increases the entertainment potential of the game (as it gives players options to be "cunning"), but it at the same time adds complexity, which may be the reason why Epic's main competitor, Id software, did not implement this concept into Quake III ArenaQuake III ArenaQuake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...
(just as they did not implement spawn protection).
Unreal Tournament
- "combat achievements tracking" – Unreal TournamentUnreal TournamentUnreal Tournament is a futuristic first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels...
(2000, by EpicEpic GamesEpic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
) added statistics tracking. The range of statistics being tracked is very wide, such as:- precision of fire with each weapon (percentage of hits to fired ammunition)
- kills with each weapon, being killed by particular weapon, and being killed when holding particular weapon.
- headshots (lethal hits of enemy heads with sniper rifles and some other powerful weapons)
- killing sprees: Killing 5, 10, 15, 20 ... enemies without dying is called a killing spree, each greater kill count being considered more valuable and having a unique title. The game tracked how many times has the player achieved each of these titles.
- consecutive kills: when a player kills an opponent within 5 seconds after a previous kill, a consecutive kill occurs. The timer starts ticking anew, allowing a third kill, a fourth kill etc. Alternatively, killing several enemies with a mega weapon (such as the Redeemer, which resembles a nuclear rocket) also counts as consecutive kill. The titles of these kills are: Double Kill (2), Multi kill (3), Ultra kill (4), Megakill (5), MONSTERKILL (6; 5 in the original Unreal Tournament). For comparison, id Software's "Quake III Arena" tracks double kills, but a third kill soon after results in another double kill award.
Quake III Arena
This game's approach to combat achievements tracking is different from Unreal Tournament. In deathmatch, the player might be rewarded with awards for the following tricks:- "perfect!" – winning a round of deathmatch without getting killed
- "impressive!" – hitting with two consecutive shots or hitting two enemies with one shot from the railgun (a powerful, long-range hitscanHitscanHitscan is a term that is used mainly in computer games. It is a test to find out what can be hit by an in-game weapon...
weapon with a slow rate of fire) - "humiliation!" – killing an opponent with the melee razor-like gauntlet (the killed player hears the announcement too, but the fact of being humiliated is not tracked for him).
- "accuracy" – having over 50% of hits-to-shots ratio.
Last Man Standing
The Last Man Standing (LMS) version of deathmatch is fundamentally different from deathmatch. In deathmatch, it doesn't matter how many times the player dies, only how many times the player kills. In LMS, it is the exact opposite — the important task is "not to die". Because of this, two activities that are not specifically addressed in deathmatch have to be controlled in LMS.- "Camping", which is a widely recognized expression for staying in one location (usually somewhat protected or with only one access route) and eventually using long range weapons, such as a sniper rifle, from that location. In standard deathmatch, camping is not that much of an issue, as in most maps, fierce close range combat generates frags faster than sniping from afar. In LMS, however, camping increases the average lifespan. Unreal Tournament 2003Unreal Tournament 2003Unreal Tournament 2003 or UT2003 is a first-person shooter video game designed mainly for multiplayer gaming. The game is part of the Unreal franchise's series of games, and is a sequel to Unreal Tournament ....
addresses this unfairness by indicating players who are camping and providing other players with navigation to campers. - "Staying dead" – after dying, player representations lie on the ground (where applicable) and are shown the results of the game in progress. They have to perform some action, usually click the "Fire" key or button, to respawn and reenter combat. This principle prevents players who might have been forced by real world situations (be it a sudden cough or a door ring) to leave the computer from dying over and over. In standard deathmatch, a player who stays dead is not a problem, as the goal is to score the most frags, not die the least times. In LMS, however, a player that would be allowed to stay dead after being killed for the first time might wait through most of the fight and respawn when there's only one opponent remaining. Because of this, Unreal Tournament 2003 automatically respawns a player immediately after being killed.
See also
- Frag (video gaming)Frag (video gaming)Frag is a computer and video game term originating from the word fragging, a term indicating to kill an unpopular superior officer with a fragmentation grenade. A frag is roughly equivalent to "kill", with the typical main difference that the player being "fragged" can instantly respawn in most...
- Respawn
- Game mechanics
- Computer game
- Computer game botComputer game botA bot, most prominently in the first-person shooter types , is a type of weak AI expert system software which for each instance of the program controls a player in deathmatch, team deathmatch and/or cooperative human player. Computer bots may play against other bots and/or human players in unison,...
- Reaper bot
- Power-ups