Multiplayer Games

Games that have more than one player.

Most games let several players participate in the gameplay, either against each other or working together towards a common goal. Before the emergence of video games basically only puzzles were not multiplayer games, and even so many single-player video games also have multiplayer support. With the advent of the internet it became practical to create Multiplayer Games with hundreds or thousands of players, first in MUDs and later in MMORPGs.

Besides giving people other humans to compete or cooperate with, Multiplayer Games let people have social interaction before, during, and after play sessions.

Examples

Chess has two players competing against one another by taking turns. The board games Space Alert and Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game let players compete against the game system, while tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons and GURPS allow players to fight enemies controlled by a game master.

Computer and console games such as the Quake series or the Need for Speed series allow players to compete against each other in combat or races. The Quake series also offers team-based variants where groups of players fight each other, and the Counter-Strike series and games such as Battlefield 1942 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory are dedicated to this type of gameplay. The Left 4 Dead series is structured to let a 4-person team struggle against people turned murderous by an infection. The Lego Star Wars series is optionally a Multiplayer Game in that a second player can jump in and out of gameplay as wanted. Even single-player computer games can be considered as multiplayer games on one level if they make use of high score lists, as for example Asteroids, Pac-Man, and Icy Tower.

MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and Eve Online can have thousands of players playing the same game instance simultaneously and tens or even hundreds of thousands of players participating in the game instance asynchronously.

Games such as Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Magic: The Gathering are Multiplayer Games where every player own parts of the set of allowed game elements, and when some players wish to play each of these build and bring collections which adhere to agreed upon construction rules.

Using the pattern

For Multiplayer Games to be played, players need to be able to organize themselves to participate together in the activity. In most cases this needs to be done by the players themselves but online games can support it through the design of Friend Lists and Game Lobbies, including providing Selectable Social Roles. When one considers players, it is most common to think about humans. However, any type of Agent can be a player so AI Players can be used to simulate other players to allow Multiplayer Games to be played alone (this is for example done in the Left 4 Dead series). If this is experienced as a Multiplayer Game or a Single-Player Game is however dependent on the human player's ability to notice their behavior as well as focus upon Social Interaction. For added flexibility, games may allow Late Arriving Players or Drop-In/Drop-Out functionality to let human players and AI Players switch control of who is playing, but this risk affecting Player Balance, Team Balance, and Value of Effort negatively, and may lead to specific instances to feel like Single-Player Games. Supporting very many players, as Massively Multiplayer Online Games do, have additional challenges and needs.

Given that Asymmetric Starting Conditions may more or less be impossible to avoid (especially if Late Arriving Players are allowed), designers of Multiplayer Games need to consider how much this should be allowed to affect the overall gameplay, and how to achieve the wanted level of asymmetry.

A basic decision regarding Multiplayer Games is if the primary gameplay resolves around PvE (Players vs. Environments) as in Space Alert and Left 4 Dead series or PvP (Players vs. Players) as in Chess, Go, and Quake series. PvP games can make use of Teams, as in Battlefield 1942 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, which can be combined with PvE gameplay as in Defense of the Ancients or World of Warcraft. Alliances, Guilds, and Parties can also be used to support PvP gameplay but can equally well support PvE. In both cases, they support Coordination and Cooperation and by that also Stimulated Planning. To encourage Cooperation further in these types of games, Asymmetric Abilities and Privileged Abilities can either suggest or require Functional Roles through a use of Orthogonal Differentiation of abilities to enable Team Combos. These may be of a more permanent nature through the use of Characters (possibly influenced over time through Character Development) or more context-dependent. A specific example of the latter is Asymmetric Roles in Vehicles, e.g. the division between driving vehicles and manning the weapons mounted on them in the Battlefield series. Teams may also allow for Game Mastery by allowing Team Development as well as individual Competence Areas to develop over time. When the games also have Meta Games such as Tournaments or Massively Multiplayer Online Games with Persistent Game Worlds, Community Functionality supports Strategic Planning and Group Belonging. Friendly Fire, Inherent Mistrust, and the possibility of Sabotage can be used when making games where one wishes to limit the amount of Cooperation or make it more difficult within Teams. Any Multiplayer Game with Eliminate goals or having events leading to the destruction of players' Avatars or other types of Player Killing needs to consider if Early Elimination is wanted or how this should be avoided by inserting players' Avatars again through Spawning. One reason why Early Elimination, which can be both in the form of Player Elimination and Team Elimination, can be wanted is that one wants to use the Last Man Standing goal so that the last player(s) having Lives left wins. For PvP games which aim at Competition rather than Conflict, Private Game Spaces offers one design possibility.

Unless a Possibility of Anonymity is aimed for, it is important for Multiplayer Games to help players identify each other, e.g. making Avatars unique through attaching Handles or allowing Avatar Personalization. One reason for this is that players typically need to engage in Extra-Game Actions such as Coordination in Multiplayer Games with Teams or other types of Cooperation, and Bragging, Negotiation, and Trading even in those where there is no Cooperation. While games played with the players located in immediate proximity of each other can make use of Unmediated Social Interaction, online games typically achieved this through providing the possibility of different types of Communication Channels, e.g. Game-Defined Vocabulary. Game State Overviews makes Coordination easier regardless of players' actual location, and can be achieved either through Mini-maps found in games such as the Civilization series or World of Warcraft. Virtual Co-Presences also supports this, and can be encouraged by Geospatial Game Widgets to locate each other (as done in the Left 4 Dead series). Having Diegetically Outstanding Features in Game Worlds can help provide common points of reference to help Coordination, point out potential rewards of Team Combos, and the risks of Helplessness. In contrast, the ESP Game relies on players not being able to directly communicate with each other so it takes precautions to not match players together with network addresses which may indicate close proximity to each other.

Multiplayer Games opens up the possibility for Bidding, Delayed Reciprocity, Negotiation, and Trading including those related to Player-Decided Distributions and Player Decided Results. This can easily led to Social Dilemmas in games with Teams but some PvE games intentionally introduce this, e.g. Republic of Rome that pit players individual goals against that of the group or Intrigue and So Long Sucker which more or less force players to betray each other. In Multiplayer Games with Helplessness, similar effects can arise if players have the possibility of rescuing each other.

In games with large Game Worlds, players may not encounter each other unless the design of the Game Worlds promotes this. Examples of features that can be used to herd players together are Arenas, Choke Points, and (quite naturally) Goal Points.

Many design choices are unique to Multiplayer Games or are significantly modified by the presence of other players: Smooth Learning Curves and providing Player and Team Balance can be more difficult to achieve, especially when Game Mastery is possible, although Balancing Effects (e.g. Killcams) and systems for Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment can help. These issues, and in general having the Right Level of Difficulty, can be achieved not only through Balancing Effects but also through Handicap Systems such as Asymmetric Resource Distribution and differences in Skills, Vehicles, and Tools (although these can also be the original source of the imbalances). Game Masters can be used and can allow the other players greater Freedom of Choice and Exaggerated Perception of Influence. Tiebreakers may be required to determine winners of Overcome goals unless Tied Results are to be possible. If gameplay can continue without some players, this may make the players Always Vulnerable.

Multiplayer Games have the possibility of using Heterogeneous Game Element Ownership, as for example done by Warhammer Fantasy Battle or Magic: The Gathering. This is typically combined with Construction to allow Strategic Planning and setting up for Combos, and leads to Game Element Trading and that players share Strategic Knowledge as a form of Trans-Game Information.

Although it may seem that the main requirement for Multiplayer Games is that the game supports several players, even Single-Player Games can be a possible foundation for making Multiplayer Games. This can be accomplished through Meta Games such as organizing players in Tournaments. Another form of Meta Games that make Single-Player Games into Multiplayer Games are those that share Trans-Game Information, e.g. High Score Lists or Ghosts. Finally, many Single-Player Games are packaged together with Multiplayer Games (it can be argued if they are single games or not), making use of the same game elements, rules, interface, and skill sets required.

Diegetic Aspects

From a pure game mechanic point of view, games allowing Late Arriving Players or Drop-In/Drop-Out gameplay can provide difficulties maintaining Thematic Consistency, especially if Spawning is used. One possible solution is the use of AI Players of take players' roles when they leave and that new players take over AI Players positions. Another problem regarding this occurs if Roleplaying is present, since players may break the theme dictated by the game if not acting according to their characters' personalities, and in this case players may even break Diegetic Consistency by describing or enacting things that do not exist or take place in the Game Worlds.

Synchronous Games are by their nature also Multiplayer Games, as there must be several players sharing the same game situation.

Interface Aspects

Most Multiplayer Games need additional interfaces to provide the Communication Channels needed for Coordination or Social Interaction, e.g. voice chats to give near Unmediated Social Interaction or quick message systems of Game-Defined Vocabulary to control what information is passed.

Save-Load Cycles are more cumbersome to use in Multiplayer Games, since players must negotiate when to load previous game states.

Narrative Aspects

For Multiplayer Games with Narration Structures there lies a risk of some players Value of Effort regarding how the narration progresses may be less than others.

Consequences

Multiplayer Games provide a focus point for Social Interaction between the players and lets them experience Togetherness in the activity of gaming. Many more specific experiences and activities are provide by Multiplayer Games as well, but then typically depend on if the games make use of Collaboration, Betrayal, Parties, PvP, Teams, etc. They however give players a Freedom of Choice to have Social Organizations and Identification within the gaming groups (the Social Interaction, and Negotiation if it exists, becomes more structured if Turn Taking exists). By doing so they often give rise to Extra-Game Actions and Extra-Game Consequences without any special attention to these features by designers (designers that wish to avoid this may explicitly design for Enforced Player Anonymity). One example of this can be the trading of Strategic Knowledge before, during, and after game sessions. The Freedom of Choice players have in acting can provide Creative Control in games that support Roleplaying, and this Roleplaying can add additional levels to Negotiation and Social Interaction but may also allow players to break the Thematic Consistency of the game setting.

Looking at more gameplay specific aspects, having several players in a game allows the game design to have Alliances, Guilds, Parties, and Teams - while Teams have Mutual Goals to motivate players supporting each other, Alliances and Guilds can give rise to Loyalty goals. These all modulate Game Mastery by making it possible for players to develop specific Competence Areas for their Characters. Multiplayer Games also provide some forms of Game Mastery, some which are not applicable in other games, for example Social Skills related to Negotiation, Roleplaying, or Storytelling. The possibility of Social Interaction and use of Social Skills also provide a platform to creating gameplay focused on Delayed Reciprocity, and when this occurs it can give entrusted players an Exaggerated Perception of Influence. Similarly, Multiplayer Games where players can rescue other players from Helplessness can give the potential rescuers an Exaggerated Perception of Influence. Delayed Reciprocity also force players to make Risk/Reward considerations regarding the trust and possibility to fulfill obligations, as does other pattern such as Betrayal and Uncommitted Alliances which depend on social agreements. Player Killing creates Risk/Reward situations as well but here because the players are both threats and potential victims to each other. As with any other situation with many people, Multiplayer Games can also lead to Excluding Groups and this may be more likely in games where the gameplay allows or promotes unsocial behavior or ganging up.

Multiplayer Games requires players to engage in Tactical Planning, taking into account the possible future behaviors of the other players, but depending on the number of actions and their predictability this may also modulate how easy it is to do the Tactical Planning. Since this may not be possible to do with high certainty, the pattern often instantiates Limited Planning Ability. For the same reason, Multiplayer Games are one of the simplest way of providing Challenging Gameplay in games with Competition under the assumption that skilled opponents can be found. However, the time spent by players planning in Turn-Based Games may cause a lessening of players' Freedom of Choice due to enforced Downtime and some instances of this may be regarded as Analysis Paralysis - this is especially likely in games with Turn Taking. Multiplayer Games with PvP make other players into Enemies, and this is magnified in games with Permadeath or Player Elimination since this can terminate gameplay or force Downtime for some players until the next game begins (as is the typical case in Counter-Strike). Viewing other players as Enemies is also likely in those games that have Ephemeral Goals since these allow Preventing Goals to emerge for the other players when they themselves appear.

The gameplay in Multiplayer Games naturally provide Mutual Experiences as long as the players have some direct interaction with each other, and often make individual Enemies into Mutual Enemies. Team Accomplishments, Mutual FUBAR Enjoyment, or simply Team Strategy Identification follows for Multiplayer Games with Parties, PvE, or Teams. Group Belonging is also likely to be experienced, and this may sometimes occur anyway since all players of a game instance can be seen as a group. When some players of Multiplayer Games misbehave or simply the players cannot find common ground on how the games should be played, the use of Player Kicking can let the activity continue after removing some players. All of these effects of Multiplayer Games also work towards making watching gameplay more interesting for Spectators.

It can be difficult to have Extra Chances in Multiplayer Games since letting one player undo an effect in a game easily disrupts the other players gameplay experience and may ruin their Value of Effort.

In Multiplayer Games with Functional Roles, players can have Varied Gameplay between game instances by switch roles - something that provides Replayability - but if roles are limited in number this can lead to Internal Rivalry.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Bragging, Challenging Gameplay, Competence Areas, Coordination, Delayed Reciprocity, Enemies, Excluding Groups, Extra-Game Actions, Extra-Game Consequences, Freedom of Choice, Game Mastery, Group Belonging, Identification, Limited Planning Ability, Mutual Enemies, Mutual Experiences, Negotiation, Social Interaction, Social Organizations, Tactical Planning, Togetherness, Trading

with Alliances, Guilds or Parties

Loyalty, Stimulated Planning

with Balancing Effects, Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment or Killcams

Player Balance

with Betrayal, Delayed Reciprocity, Uncommitted Alliances, or Player Killing

Risk/Reward

with Delayed Reciprocity or Helplessness

Exaggerated Perception of Influence

with Ephemeral Goals

Preventing Goals

with Functional Roles

Internal Rivalry, Replayability, Varied Gameplay

with Lives

Last Man Standing

with Permadeath or Player Elimination

Downtime

with Teams and Balancing Effects or Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment

Team Balance

with Turn Taking or Turn-Based Games

Analysis Paralysis, Downtime

Can Modulate

Game Mastery, Helplessness, Roleplaying, Smooth Learning Curves, Spectators, Strategic Knowledge, Right Level of Difficulty, Tactical Planning

with Roleplaying or Turn Taking

Negotiation, Social Interaction

Can Be Instantiated By

Agents, AI Players, Ghosts, High Score Lists, Synchronous Games, Trans-Game Information

Single-Player Games together with Meta Games or Tournaments

Can Be Modulated By

Alliances, Always Vulnerable, Arenas, Asymmetric Abilities, Asymmetric Roles, Asymmetric Starting Conditions, Avatar Personalization, Balancing Effects, Bidding, Characters, Choke Points, Communication Channels, Community Functionality, Cooperation, Drop-In/Drop-Out, Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, Early Elimination, Enforced Player Anonymity, Friend Lists, Functional Roles, Game Lobbies, Game-Defined Vocabulary, Game Masters, Game State Overviews, Goal Points, Guilds, Handicap Systems, Handles, Heterogeneous Game Element Ownership, Inherent Mistrust, Late Arriving Players, Massively Multiplayer Online Games, Meta Games, Mini-maps, Negotiation, Parties, Persistent Game Worlds, Player-Decided Distributions, Player Decided Results, Player Elimination, Player Kicking, Player Killing, Possibility of Anonymity, Privileged Abilities, PvE, PvP, Private Game Spaces, Sabotage, Selectable Social Roles, Social Dilemmas, Spawning, Team Elimination, Team Combos, Teams, Tiebreakers, Tournaments, Trading, Unmediated Social Interaction, Virtual Co-Presences

Friendly Fire in games with Teams

Possible Closure Effects

-

Potentially Conflicting With

Thematic Consistency, Extra Chances, Player Balance, Save-Load Cycles, Team Balance, Value of Effort

Freedom of Choice when Multiplayer Games are also Turn-Based Games

with Game Mastery, Skills, Tools, or Vehicles

Player Balance

History

An updated version of the pattern Multiplayer Games that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.