A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Video games are often single-player activities, pitting the player against preprogrammed challenges or AI-controlled opponents (which lack the flexibility of human thought). Multiplayer games allow players interaction with other individuals in partnership, competition or rivalry, providing them with social communication absent from single-player games. In multiplayer games, players may compete against two (or more) human contestants, work cooperatively with a human partner to achieve a common goal, supervise other players' activity or e), co-op and objective-based modes assaulting (or defending) a control point. Multiplayer games typically require players to share the resources of a single game system or use networking technology to play together over a greater distance.

History

Non-networked

Some of the earliest video games were two-player games, including early sports games (such as 1958's Tennis For Two and 1972's Pong), early shooter games such as Spacewar! (1962) and early racing video games such as Astro Race (1973). The first examples of multiplayer real-time games were developed on the PLATO system about 1973. Multi-user games developed on this system included 1973's Empire and 1974's Spasim; the latter was an early first-person shooter. Other early video games included turn-based multiplayer modes, popular in tabletop arcade machines. In such games, play is alternated at some point (often after the loss of a life). All players' scores are often displayed onscreen so players can see their relative standing.

A multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which can be played via a game server over the internet, with other players around the world. Some prominent examples of this include fighting games (e.g. Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3), sports games (e.g. NHL 14), older online games (e.g. Sega Meganet titles), first-person shooters (Battlefield 2, Resistance 3, Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty), strategy video games (e.g. Warcraft 3 and StarCraft or II), and a subgenre of strategy games called multiplayer online battle arena (e.g. Defense of the Ancients, Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends, Dota 2).

These games differ from massively multiplayer online game (MMOGs) in that they do not create a persistent world, but create a playing arena for the purpose of a single game or round. In other words, they rely on a game listen server used only for that round, and there can be numerous servers all around the world. MMOGs on the other hand, rely on dedicated servers, as these games must be running continuously.