Level Up.pdf

382 LEVEL 14 Multiplayer—the More the Merrier
Head - to - head: two or more players compete against each other in real time
on the same game system. Most sports, action, and some FPS games
allow for head - to - head play.
Network/peer- to - peer: two or more play with and against each other in
real time on machines connected via LAN or wide area network (WAN, aka
“ the Internet ” ). The difference between the two is proximity: WAN extends
past a room, office, or campus. LAN parties (where everyone brings their
computer over to someone ’ s house to play a FPS) are still quite popular
social events. Or they can be wireless as with the Nintendo DS.
Client server LAN: a computer that is big and fast enough to handle
multiple users at once. Some MMO games and MMORPGs use client
servers to handle the enormous
traffic, and have many LANs to
handle the user demand.
Once you ’ ve decided how your player
is going to connect, you have to
determine what they are going to
play. There are broadly three different
styles of play found in multiplayer
games:
In competitive games, players have the same objective but work against
each other — often fighting to the “ death ” to complete an objective first or
achieve the highest score.
Cooperative games give players the same objective while (in theory)
working together to achieve them. After playing Gauntlet with my stupid
friends, I realized even a cooperative game can easily dissolve into a
competitive one.
Conjugate gameplay has players sharing the same gameplay space but
not the same goals. With the rise of massively multiplayer online games
(MMOs) and massively multiplayer online role - playing games
(MMORPGs), conjugate gameplay has become increasingly frequent as
dozens if not hundreds of players dash around the game world at the same
time, each with their own agendas and motivations.
So just what are these motivations? Well, I ’ m glad you asked, otherwise I
wouldn ’ t have had anything to write about for the next few pages. Look at all
of these game modes found in multiplayer games; some unique to the
genre. You can easily combine these modes to create conjugate gameplay
scenarios: