Multiplayer game
Encyclopedia
A multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Unlike most other games, computer and video games are often single-player activities that put the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or AI-controlled opponents
, which often lack the flexibility and ingenuity of regular human thinking.
Fantge has members and non mebers
Multiplayer components allow players to enjoy interaction with other individuals, be it in the form of partnership, competition or rivalry, and provide them with a form of social communication that is almost always missing in single-player oriented games. In a variety of different multiplayer game types, players may individually compete against two or more human contestants, work cooperatively
with a human partner(s) in order to achieve a common goal, supervise
activities of other players, or engage in a game type that incorporates any possible combination of the above. Examples of better-known multiplayer gametypes include deathmatch
and team deathmatch, MMORPG
-associated forms of PvP
and Team PvE
, capture the flag, domination (competition over control of resources), co-op
, and various objective-based modes, often expressed in terms of "assault/defend a control point". Multiplayer games typically require the players to share resources of a single game system or use networking technologies
that allow players to play together over greater distances.
s like Tennis For Two
(1958) and Pong
(1972), early shooter game
s like Spacewar! (1962), and early racing video games like Astro Race (1973).
First known examples of massively multi-player
real time games based around real time networking were developed on the PLATO system starting around 1973. Important multi-user games developed on this system included Empire from 1973 and Spasim
from 1974. The latter was a pioneering first-person shooter
.
The first large scale serial sessions based around a single computer were STAR (based on the series Star Trek
), OCEAN (a battle of ships, submarines and helicopters with multiple players divided up between the two combating cities) and CAVE (based on Dungeons and Dragons), created by Christopher Caldwell (with art work and suggestions by Roger Long and some assembly coding by Robert Kenney) in 1975 on the University of New Hampshire
's DECsystem-1090. The University's computer system had hundreds of terminals connected via serial lines through cluster PDP-11
s for student, teacher and staff access. The games worked by having one instance of the program running on each terminal (for each player), sharing a segment of shared memory
(known as the "High segment" in the OS TOPS-10). Due to their popularity, the games were frequently banned by the University's Computer Services since they could easily take up all available RAM and cycles. STAR was based on the original single-user turn oriented BASIC
program STAR written by Michael O'Shaughnessy at UNH in 1974.
Digital Equipment Corporation
soon distributed another multi-user version of Star Trek
called Decwar
s though not featuring real-time screen updating. Decwar
s was widely distributed to universities with DECsystem-10s. In 1981, Cliff Zimmerman wrote a more detailed homage to Star Trek
in Macro-10 for DECsystem-10s and -20
s using VT100 series graphics. "VTtrek" pitted 4 Federation
players against 4 Klingon
s in a three dimensional universe.
MIDI Maze
was an early first-person shooter released in 1987 for the Atari ST
. It was unique in featuring network multiplayer through the MIDI interface long before mainstream Ethernet
and Internet
play became commonplace. It is considered the first multiplayer 3D shooter on a mainstream system and the first major network multiplayer action game, with support for as many as 16 players. It was followed up by ports to various platforms in 1991 under the title Faceball 2000, including the Game Boy
and Super NES
, making it possibly the first handheld and multiplatform first-person shooter and an early console example of the genre.
Called "netplay" to refine the meaning. The first popular videogaming title to release a LAN version was Spectre in 1991 for the Apple Macintosh, featuring AppleTalk
support for up to eight game players. Spectre's multiplayer popularity was attributed in part by the display of a player's name above their cyber tank vehicle. This was followed by Doom in 1993, when the first network version of the game allowed a total of four simultaneous gamers.
Playing networked multiplayer games via LAN often eliminates problems common in Internet play, such as lag
and anonymity of players. As a result, multiplayer games usually are the focus of LAN parties
. Play-by-email
games are multiplayer games that use email as the method of communication between computers. Other turn-based variations which do not require players to be online at the same time are Play-by-post gaming
and Play-by-Internet. Some online games are "massively multiplayer" games, which means that a large number of players participate simultaneously. The two major genres are MMORPG
(massively multiplayer online role-playing game
) such as World of Warcraft
or EverQuest
and MMORTS (massively multiplayer online real-time strategy
).
Some networked multiplayer games do not even feature a single-player mode. For example, MUD
s and massively multiplayer online games, such as RuneScape
are multiplayer games by definition. First-person shooter
s have become very popular multiplayer games and games like Battlefield 1942
and Counter-Strike
gained their fame despite not featuring extensive (or any) single-player plot or gameplay. Casual gaming has also seen an emergence in networked multiplayer games as shown by developer and gaming site OMGPOP
, whose library of offerings only include multiplayer flash games. The biggest MMOG in the world is Lineage out of South Korea with 14 million registered gamers which is played in several mostly Asian countries. The biggest Western MMOG in 2008 is World of Warcraft with over 10 million registered gamers worldwide. This category of games currently requires multiple machines to connect to each other over the Internet, but before the Internet became popular, MUDs were played on time-sharing computer systems, and games such as Doom were played on a LAN
.
Gamers often refer to latency by the term ping
, which measures round-trip network
communication delays (by the use of ICMP
packets). For example, a player on a DSL
connection with a 50 ms "ping" will be able to react faster to game events than a modem user with 350 ms average latency. Another popular complaint is packet loss and choke, which can render a player unable to "register" their actions with the server. In first-person shooters, this problem usually manifests itself in the problem of bullets appearing to hit the enemy, but the enemy taking no damage. Note that the player's connection is not the only factor; the entire network path to the server is relevant, and some servers are slower than others. While latency is frequently complained about, many players believe a lack of finesse and decent tactics is more damaging than a slow connection in most games. Major and frequent variations in latency, however, can be another story; these can make it very difficult to properly play the game.
Starting with the Sega NetLink
in 1996, Game.com
in 1997 and Dreamcast in 2000, game consoles have also begun to support network gaming, over both the internet and LANs. Many mobile phone
s and handheld consoles also offer wireless gaming through Bluetooth
or similar technologies.
s, arcade game
s, and personal computer game
s, multiplayer usually implies that the players play together by using several controllers plugged into the same game system. Home console games often use split-screen
so that each player has an individual view of the action (important for genres such as first person shooter and racing video games), although most arcade games and some console games (ranging from Pong
) do not.
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
, which often lack the flexibility and ingenuity of regular human thinking.
Fantge has members and non mebers
Multiplayer components allow players to enjoy interaction with other individuals, be it in the form of partnership, competition or rivalry, and provide them with a form of social communication that is almost always missing in single-player oriented games. In a variety of different multiplayer game types, players may individually compete against two or more human contestants, work cooperatively
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...
with a human partner(s) in order to achieve a common goal, supervise
Gamemaster
A gamemaster is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for questions regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer game...
activities of other players, or engage in a game type that incorporates any possible combination of the above. Examples of better-known multiplayer gametypes include deathmatch
Deathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
and team deathmatch, MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
-associated forms of PvP
Player versus player
Player versus player, or PvP, is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between two or more live participants. This is in contrast to games where players compete against computer controlled opponents, which is correspondingly referred to as player versus environment...
and Team PvE
Player versus environment
Player versus environment, or PvE , is a term used in online games, particularly MMORPGs, CORPGs, MUDs, and other online role-playing video games, to refer to fighting computer-controlled enemies—in contrast to PvP .Usually a PvE mode can be played either alone, with human...
, capture the flag, domination (competition over control of resources), co-op
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...
, and various objective-based modes, often expressed in terms of "assault/defend a control point". Multiplayer games typically require the players to share resources of a single game system or use networking technologies
Computer 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....
that allow players to play together over greater distances.
History
Some of the earliest known video games were two-player games, including early sports gameSports game
A sports game is a computer or video game that simulates the practice of traditional sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, athletics and extreme sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport , whilst others emphasize strategy and organization...
s like Tennis For Two
Tennis for Two
Tennis for Two was a game developed in 1958 on an analog computer, which simulates a game of tennis or ping pong on an oscilloscope. Created by American physicist William Higinbotham, it is important in the history of video games as one of the first electronic games to use a graphical...
(1958) and Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
(1972), early shooter game
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...
s like Spacewar! (1962), and early racing video games like Astro Race (1973).
First known examples of massively multi-player
Multiplayer online game
A Multiplayer Online Game is a multiplayer video game which can be played via a game server over the internet, with other players around the world...
real time games based around real time networking were developed on the PLATO system starting around 1973. Important multi-user games developed on this system included Empire from 1973 and 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...
from 1974. The latter was a pioneering first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
.
The first large scale serial sessions based around a single computer were STAR (based on the series Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
), OCEAN (a battle of ships, submarines and helicopters with multiple players divided up between the two combating cities) and CAVE (based on Dungeons and Dragons), created by Christopher Caldwell (with art work and suggestions by Roger Long and some assembly coding by Robert Kenney) in 1975 on the University of New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...
's DECsystem-1090. The University's computer system had hundreds of terminals connected via serial lines through cluster PDP-11
PDP-11
The PDP-11 was a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1970 into the 1990s, one of a succession of products in the PDP series. The PDP-11 replaced the PDP-8 in many real-time applications, although both product lines lived in parallel for more than 10 years...
s for student, teacher and staff access. The games worked by having one instance of the program running on each terminal (for each player), sharing a segment of shared memory
Shared memory
In computing, shared memory is memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies. Depending on context, programs may run on a single processor or on multiple separate processors...
(known as the "High segment" in the OS TOPS-10). Due to their popularity, the games were frequently banned by the University's Computer Services since they could easily take up all available RAM and cycles. STAR was based on the original single-user turn oriented BASIC
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
program STAR written by Michael O'Shaughnessy at UNH in 1974.
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
soon distributed another multi-user version of Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
called Decwar
Decwar
DECWAR is a multiplayer computer game first written in 1978 at the University of Texas at Austin for the PDP-10. It was developed from an earlier two-player version, WAR, adding multi-terminal support for between one and eighteen players. WAR and DECWAR are essentially multiplayer versions of the...
s though not featuring real-time screen updating. Decwar
Decwar
DECWAR is a multiplayer computer game first written in 1978 at the University of Texas at Austin for the PDP-10. It was developed from an earlier two-player version, WAR, adding multi-terminal support for between one and eighteen players. WAR and DECWAR are essentially multiplayer versions of the...
s was widely distributed to universities with DECsystem-10s. In 1981, Cliff Zimmerman wrote a more detailed homage to Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
in Macro-10 for DECsystem-10s and -20
DECSYSTEM-20
The DECSYSTEM-20 was a 36-bit Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-10 mainframe computer running the TOPS-20 operating system.PDP-10 computers running the TOPS-10 operating system were labeled DECsystem-10 as a way of differentiating them from the PDP-11...
s using VT100 series graphics. "VTtrek" pitted 4 Federation
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
players against 4 Klingon
Klingon
Klingons are a fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe.Klingons are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and eight feature films...
s in a three dimensional universe.
MIDI Maze
MIDI Maze
MIDI Maze is an early first person shooter maze video game for the Atari ST developed by Xanth Software F/X, published by Hybrid Arts, and released around 1987. It owes a significant debt to what may be the first of its genre, Maze War...
was an early first-person shooter released in 1987 for the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
. It was unique in featuring network multiplayer through the MIDI interface long before mainstream Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
and Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
play became commonplace. It is considered the first multiplayer 3D shooter on a mainstream system and the first major network multiplayer action game, with support for as many as 16 players. It was followed up by ports to various platforms in 1991 under the title Faceball 2000, including the Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
and Super NES
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, making it possibly the first handheld and multiplatform first-person shooter and an early console example of the genre.
Called "netplay" to refine the meaning. The first popular videogaming title to release a LAN version was Spectre in 1991 for the Apple Macintosh, featuring AppleTalk
AppleTalk
AppleTalk is a proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Inc. for networking computers. It was included in the original Macintosh released in 1984, but is now unsupported as of the release of Mac OS X v10.6 in 2009 in favor of TCP/IP networking...
support for up to eight game players. Spectre's multiplayer popularity was attributed in part by the display of a player's name above their cyber tank vehicle. This was followed by Doom in 1993, when the first network version of the game allowed a total of four simultaneous gamers.
Playing networked multiplayer games via LAN often eliminates problems common in Internet play, such as lag
Lag
Lag is a common word meaning to fail to keep up or to fall behind. In real-time applications, the term is used when the application fails to respond in a timely fashion to inputs...
and anonymity of players. As a result, multiplayer games usually are the focus of LAN parties
LAN party
A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people with computers, between which they establish a local area network , primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. The size of these networks may vary from the very small to very large installations...
. Play-by-email
Play-by-mail game
Play-by-mail games, sometimes known as "Play-by-post", are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. One example, chess, has been played by mail for centuries . Another example, Diplomacy, has been played by mail since the 1960s, starting with a printed newsletter written by John...
games are multiplayer games that use email as the method of communication between computers. Other turn-based variations which do not require players to be online at the same time are Play-by-post gaming
Play-by-post gaming
A play-by-post game is an online text-based role-playing game. This is a niche area of the online roleplaying community which caters to both gamers and creative writers. PbP games are often based on other role-playing games, non-game fiction, or original settings...
and Play-by-Internet. Some online games are "massively multiplayer" games, which means that a large number of players participate simultaneously. The two major genres are MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
(massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
) such as World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
or EverQuest
EverQuest
EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost...
and MMORTS (massively multiplayer online 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....
).
Some networked multiplayer games do not even feature a single-player mode. For example, MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
s and massively multiplayer online games, such as RuneScape
RuneScape
RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in January 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower, and developed and published by Jagex Games Studio. It is a graphical browser game implemented on the client-side in Java, and incorporates 3D rendering...
are multiplayer games by definition. First-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
s have become very popular multiplayer games and games like Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 1942 is a 3D World War II first-person shooter computer game developed by Swedish company Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh . The game can be played in singleplayer mode against the computer game AI or in multiplayer mode...
and Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe...
gained their fame despite not featuring extensive (or any) single-player plot or gameplay. Casual gaming has also seen an emergence in networked multiplayer games as shown by developer and gaming site OMGPOP
Omgpop
Omgpop is a casual online multiplayer gaming website built entirely in Flash. Omgpop states on its homepage that it is "a place to hang out, play free online multiplayer games, and make friends....
, whose library of offerings only include multiplayer flash games. The biggest MMOG in the world is Lineage out of South Korea with 14 million registered gamers which is played in several mostly Asian countries. The biggest Western MMOG in 2008 is World of Warcraft with over 10 million registered gamers worldwide. This category of games currently requires multiple machines to connect to each other over the Internet, but before the Internet became popular, MUDs were played on time-sharing computer systems, and games such as Doom were played on a 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...
.
Gamers often refer to latency by the term ping
Ping
Ping is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer...
, which measures round-trip network
Computer 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....
communication delays (by the use of ICMP
Internet Control Message Protocol
The Internet Control Message Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. It is chiefly used by the operating systems of networked computers to send error messages indicating, for example, that a requested service is not available or that a host or router could not be...
packets). For example, a player on a DSL
Digital Subscriber Line
Digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. DSL originally stood for digital subscriber loop. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ,...
connection with a 50 ms "ping" will be able to react faster to game events than a modem user with 350 ms average latency. Another popular complaint is packet loss and choke, which can render a player unable to "register" their actions with the server. In first-person shooters, this problem usually manifests itself in the problem of bullets appearing to hit the enemy, but the enemy taking no damage. Note that the player's connection is not the only factor; the entire network path to the server is relevant, and some servers are slower than others. While latency is frequently complained about, many players believe a lack of finesse and decent tactics is more damaging than a slow connection in most games. Major and frequent variations in latency, however, can be another story; these can make it very difficult to properly play the game.
Starting with the Sega NetLink
Sega NetLink
Sega NetLink was an attachment for the Sega Saturn game console to provide Saturn users with internet access, a web browser, and access to email through their console. NetLink consisted of a 28.8 kbit/s modem that fits into the Sega Saturn cartridge port, although there was a cheaper version that...
in 1996, Game.com
Game.com
The Game.com is a handheld game console released by Tiger Electronics in September 1997. It featured many new ideas for handheld consoles and was aimed at an older target audience, sporting PDA-style features and functions such as a touch screen and stylus...
in 1997 and Dreamcast in 2000, game consoles have also begun to support network gaming, over both the internet and LANs. Many mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s and handheld consoles also offer wireless gaming through Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
or similar technologies.
Turn-based multiplayer
Other early video games sometimes included turn-based multiplayer modes, popular in tabletop arcade machines. In such games play is alternated at convenient points, often after the loss of a life. Scores of all players are often retained onscreen in order that players can gauge their relative standing.Single-system
In modern console gameConsole game
A console game is a form of interactive multimedia used for entertainment. The game consists of manipulable images generated by a video game console, and displayed on a television or similar audio-video system. The game itself is usually controlled and manipulated using a handheld device connected...
s, arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
s, and personal computer game
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
s, multiplayer usually implies that the players play together by using several controllers plugged into the same game system. Home console games often use split-screen
Split screen (computer graphics)
Split screen is a display technique in computer graphics that consists of dividing graphics and/or text into non-movable adjacent parts, typically two or four rectangular areas. This is done in order to allow the simultaneous presentation of related graphical and textual information on a computer...
so that each player has an individual view of the action (important for genres such as first person shooter and racing video games), although most arcade games and some console games (ranging from Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
) do not.
See also
- Cooperative gameplayCooperative gameplayCooperative 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...
- Dedicated Game ServerGame serverA game server is a remotely or locally run server used by game clients to play multiplayer video games. Most video games played over the Internet operate via a connection to a game server...
- Multiplayer online gameMultiplayer online gameA Multiplayer Online Game is a multiplayer video game which can be played via a game server over the internet, with other players around the world...
- Online gameOnline gameAn online game is a game played over some form of computer network. This almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems...
- Spawn installationSpawn installationIn personal computer games, a spawn installation is an installed copy of a game that may only be used to play in multiplayer mode, or otherwise limits the amount of single-player content accessible to the user. Additionally, some spawn implementations only allow the user to join games hosted by the...
- Video game centerLAN Gaming CenterA LAN Gaming Center is a business where one can use a computer connected over a LAN to other computers, primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. Use of these computers or game consoles costs a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a...