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 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 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 players. 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. 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 Value of Effort and Team Balance negatively. Persistent Game Worlds, which by their structure have to be shared between several players and support Late Arriving Players, represent one way to achieve Multiplayer Games with a potentially limitless number of participating players.

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 also make use of Teams, as in Battlefield 1942 and Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, which can be combined with PvE gameplay as in Defense of the Ancients or World of Warcraft. To encourage Cooperation in games with Teams, Asymmetric Abilities and Privileged Abilities can either suggest or require Functional Roles through a use of Orthogonal Unit Differentiation of abilities. 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 Asymmetrical 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. 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 have events leading to the destruction of players' Avatars needs to consider how to handle Early Elimination, both in the form of Player Elimination and Team Elimination, or how to introduce them again through Spawning.

Since it is important to be able to identify which other player is which, making Avatars unique through attaching Handles or allowing Avatar Personalization may also be necessary. 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 allows supports this, and can be encouraged by Non-Diegetic Elements to locate each other (as done in the Left 4 Dead Series), Outstanding Features in Game Worlds to provide common points of reference, the 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, Negotiation, and Trading including those related to Player-Decided Distribution of Rewards & Penalties 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.

Many design choices are unique to Multiplayer Games or are significantly modified by the presence of other players: Smooth Learning Curves and providing the Right Level of Difficulty can be more difficult to achieve, although Balancing Effects can help. Player Balance and Team Balance can be achieved not only through Balancing Effects but also through Handicaps such as differences in Asymmetric Resource Distribution, Skills, or Tools, the former of which 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.

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 Diegetic 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 diegesis dictated by the game if not acting according to their characters' personalities.

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 gives players a Freedom of Choice to have Social Organizations and Identification within groups. The freedom of choice players have in acting can provide Creative Control in Roleplaying and add additional levels of Social Interaction, but may also allow players to break the Deigetic Consistency of the game setting.

Looking at more gameplay specific aspects ,having several players in a game allows the game design to have Alliances or Teams and modulates 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. As with any other situation with many people, Multiplayer Games can also lead to Excluding Groups.

Multiplayer Games often give players Limited Planning Ability, as the goals and plans may be difficult to deduce and they can significantly affect future game states. 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 any Turn-Based Games causes Downtime and may be regarded as Analysis Paralysis to the others. Multiplayer Games with PvP make other players into Enemies.

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

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. Group Belonging also follows for games with PvE or Teams, and sometimes even without those since all players of a game instance can be seen as a group. This may be in the form of Team Accomplishments, Mutual FUBAR Enjoyment, or simply Team Strategy Identification.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Alliances, Analysis Paralysis, Bragging, Challenging Gameplay, Competence Areas, Coordination, Downtime, Enemies, Excluding Groups, Extra-Game Actions, Freedom of Choice, Game Mastery, Group Belonging, Identification, Limited Planning Ability, Mutual Enemies, Mutual Experiences, Mutual FUBAR Enjoyment, Negotiation, Social Interaction, Social Organizations, Team Accomplishments, Team Strategy Identification, Trading

Can Modulate

Game Mastery, Roleplaying, Single-Player Games, Smooth Learning Curves, Right Level of Difficulty

with Roleplaying

Social Interaction

Can Be Instantiated By

Agents, AI Players, Ghosts, High Score Lists, Meta Games, Persistent Game Worlds, Synchronous Games, Tournaments, Trans-Game Information

Can Be Modulated By

Asymmetric Abilities, Asymmetrical Roles, Avatar Personalization, Balancing Effects, Bidding, Characters, Communication Channels, Community Functionality, Cooperation, Drop-In/Drop-Out, Early Elimination, Friend Lists, Game Lobbies, Game-Defined Vocabulary, Game Masters, Game State Overviews, Handicaps, Handles, Heterogeneous Game Element Ownership, Inherent Mistrust, Late Arriving Players, Massively Multiplayer Online Games, Meta Games, Mini-maps, Negotiation, Orthogonal Unit Differentiation, Persistent Game Worlds, Player-Decided Distribution of Rewards & Penalties, Player Decided Results, Player Elimination, Privileged Abilities, PvE, PvP, Sabotage, Functional Roles, Selectable Social Roles, Social Dilemmas, Spawning, Team Elimination, Teams, [[Tiebreakers], Tournaments, Trading, Unmediated Social Interaction, Virtual Co-Presences

Potentially Conflicting With

Diegetic Consistency, Save-Load Cycles, Team Balance, Value of Effort

History

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