Having recently finished a two-player tank game that's played on a single computer (WASD vs arrow keys), I started to wonder about the history of multiplayer games. "Multiplayer" often makes us think "online" nowadays, but I doubt that was always the case. It started, of course, with arcade games–namely Pong. Released in 1972, it featured simultaneous play (pretty necessary for a ping pong game), unlike most of the turn-based games released later, such as Space Invaders (1978) and Pacman (1980). Most if not all of these turn-based games did not require more than one player–they simple had the option. Two players was the maximum, a measly number nowadays compared to the thousands one might see in an MMORPG. Speaking of which: Island of Kesmai, a PC game released in 1985, is considered the forerunner to said MMORPGs. It was run by CompuServe for $12 an hour, supporting 100 players tops. It's often classified in the roguelike genre. In 1990 came the release of the controversial Doom, another PC game and one of the original first-person shooters. It supported up to four players via LAN. A year later game Warcraft, allowing two-player contests via LAN or modem. In 1997, GoldenEye 007 came out on the Nintendo 64, supporting 2-4 players split-screen. Several other games following this format came out in the 1990s, including Mario Kart 64, Sonic and Knuckles, and Half Life. As the Internet developed to what we know it as today, online play became more popular. Nowadays we can jump into other people's game worlds to play as NPCs (such as in Watch Dogs), or encounter other players in a single world everyone logs into (such as in Destiny). Most of these feature some kind of chat system nowadays. The success of games like the Halo series or World of Warcraft stands testament to the enormity of online play, and in fact, this may become the norm for multiplayer. Split-screen is resource intensive, and is no longer viable on most consoles while keeping the level of graphics we've come to expect. Ironically, we're perhaps less connected that way; it's not quite the same playing with a bunch of strangers. Looks like it might be time once again to break out the single-computer games like the one I just finished–or maybe even (gasp!) the board games. So, to summarize:
Citations:
“Evolution of Multiplayer.” Ohio State, Ohio State, web.cse.ohio-state.edu/~crawfis.3/cse786/ReferenceMaterial/TechTeams/2014/EvolutioMultiplayer.pdf Gartenberg, Chaim. “The Future of Gaming Is Lonely (and Online Only).” The Verge, The Verge, 25 June 2015, www.theverge.com/2015/6/25/8844073/goodbye-local-multiplayer-we-will-miss-you-and-the-goldeneye-days-of-yore.
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AuthorI'm moving on to my 4th (and final) year as a Game Art & Design student at Durham School of the Arts. I'd like to call myself an artist, but I'm a programmer at heart. Archives
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