Unconventional Multiplayer
I’d like to brainstorm a bit about asynchronous multiplayer. I’ll suggest a few definitions here:
- Multiplayer: an aspect of a game that allows one player’s game experience to be affected by another player’s in-game actions. (Is this flexible enough? Should Achievements count? Should the actions have to be in the same game, or can it work across games?)
- Synchronous multiplayer: a multiplayer element that relies on the players being in the same instance of the game at the same time. Multiplayer Starcraft and Halo, for example, are primarily synchronous. Meeting up with your friends and killing helpless animals in World of Warcraft is synchronous.
- Asynchronous multiplayer: multiplayer elements that can occur between two players who aren’t playing at the same time, or connected via a network connection at the same time, are asynchronous. Geometry Wars’ high score list is asynchronous (but is it really multiplayer?). Sending mail to someone in World of Warcraft is asynchronous.
Asynchronous multiplayer is pretty cool. It requires less commitment from the players, who don’t have to play at the same time as their friends, or stay at the computer for long periods of time. It also doesn’t require the same development resources as synchronous multiplayer: a client-server architecture, elaborate matchmaking systems, and so on. It’s also much less discussed than synchronous multiplayer, so let’s get started.
Some types of asynchronous multiplayer:
- Play By E-mail: for naturally asynchronous games like Civilization, X-Com, and Chess, there’s no need to keep two people confined to the same time or place. Just alert them when it’s time for them to play their next turn! This is well-suited to games that require a lot of thought each turn. This game type need not be restricted to just e-mail: instant messenger or a custom client work well, too.
- High Score Lists: simple and old-school. Geometry Wars, with its high score lists restricted to only your friends, has come a long way from the anonymous 3-letter score chart on the video games at your local arcade. Are these multiplayer? They don’t actually impact a player’s game– just a list that’s kept outside of the game.
- Achievements: Another border case. Achievements have surprised me with their success: I hear lots of gamers comparing their achievement points, or talking about the challenge getting the last few points from game X. But they also don’t really impact another player’s game.
- Stand-ins: This PDF about asynchronous multiplayer, from the developer of several political games includling Activism, pointed me towards a game for the Palm called The One (based on the Jet Li movie). Palm to Palm communication could only occur when the device was docked, so the game would devise an AI version of the player based on stats and such. Players could then fight on their own Palms against other players’ avatars.
- Visitors: Bits from one player’s game move to another player’s game. For example, in Animal Crossing: Wild World, some characters leave one player’s town and show up in another’s.
- Player-Generated Content: (This category needs a better name.) Through gaming, one player causes content to appear in another player’s game. Will Wright has suggested that Spore may have content like this: players’ planets will be make an appearance in other players’ universes. Nethack bones files are created when one player dies; then, when a new dungeon is created for a player on the same server, it may incorporate the bones file, making it possible for one player to stumble across another player’s remains (and loot).
- Item trading: Items can be traded asynchronously, whether in the same game like in World of Warcraft (via auction hall or just mail), or across games (need an example).
Okay, that’s a lot to cover, and I’m sure I’m missing plenty! I’ll be coming back to this topic later. It’s on my mind a lot recently, because I’m trying to devise multiplayer aspects to fit into my current in-development game. I’d love to hear if anyone has more types of novel multiplayer, favorite types, great experiences, or just any other thoughts.