
There are two types of massively-multiplayer game genres these are MMORPG and MMORTS. Other network games in which players don’t need to be simultaneously online are called ‘Play-by-post gaming’ and ‘Play-by- Internet’ games.Īnother kind of network game which is played by a huge number of gamers at once (Massively multiplayer). Some multi-player games use email for the communication between multiple computers these are called ‘Play-by-email’ games. Networked games using LAN for the connection do not have the problem of Lag, which can be mortally frustrating. The next game which has to be mentioned as a pioneer of network play is Doom, which was released in 1993 and its first version allowed four players to play on a network simultaneously.

The first video game to offer a LAN mode was released in 1991, it was Spectre and was designed and developed for Apple’s Macintosh. Games with modes for networked gaming or as they are popularly known as ‘Netplay’, came much later, after the internet boom. Moreover, the famous and popular games developed on this system were ‘Empire’, which came out in 1973 and the first-person shooter ‘Spasim’ in 1974.

The earliest two-player video games were predominantly sports games like Tennis and Pong after that shooter games like ‘Spacewar!’ were introduced. In 1973, the first platform on which real-time multiplayer games were developed was the PLATO system. When these multi-player games came into existence, all were non-networked games played on a single system by two or more players. These games usually require all the players in the game to share a game system, with the advancement in technology and networking, players can now play the same game at the same time over long distances. This allows the players to have a kind of social communication which is completely absent in the games designed for single player. To create a better playing experience for gamers, multiplayer games were introduced which allow the players to interact with each other these interactions may involve inter-player partnership or rivalry depending on the game. Still, these opponents do lack the kind of flexibility in thought that humans have. They involve the pitting of a player against some pre-programmed and also pre-defined challenges, or they come with computer-generated opponents with Artificial Intelligence. Generally, video games are designed for singular play. Multiplayer video games enable more than one user to play the same game in the very same environment at the same time.

A brief overview and history of Multiplayer GamesĪ brief overview and history of Multiplayer Games.
