Multiplayer

Multiplayer refers to software and games that enable more than one participant to interact within a shared environment. In video games, multiplayer can be cooperative, where players work together, or competitive, where players oppose one another. It can operate online over the internet or locally on a single system or local area network, and it may support a few players or thousands.

Multiplayer modes include couch co-op on the same device, online co-op through servers, competitive modes such as team-based or free-for-all, and massively multiplayer online games that sustain large persistent worlds. Some titles support cross-platform play across different hardware.

Technical models include client-server architectures, where a central server maintains game state, and peer-to-peer systems, where clients synchronize state. Client-server is common for online play due to authoritative state and anti-cheat controls, while peer-to-peer can reduce server costs but raises trust and security concerns. Latency and bandwidth influence responsiveness, with matchmaking, lobbies, and regional servers helping optimize performance.

Social features include voice chat, clans or guilds, and in-game economies or progression systems. Matchmaking systems assign players based on skill or preferences, and persistence varies in scope from short sessions to persistent universes in MMOs.

History and evolution: early text-based MUDs in the 1970s introduced multi-user interaction, followed by graphical online games in the 1990s, with MMOs and competitive platforms expanding in the 2000s and beyond. Current trends include cross-platform play, cloud gaming, dedicated servers, and anti-cheat measures.