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 pit the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or AI-controlled opponents, which often lack the flexibility and ingenuity of regular human thinking. 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.

History

The 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 multiuser 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 Kenny) 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-11s 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 Decwars though not featuring real-time screen updating. Decwars was widely distributed to universities with DECsystem-10s.