Deathmatch (gaming)

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Deathmatch (abbreviated DM) is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy (RTS) computer games. The goal of a deathmatch game is to kill (or "frag", from the military term) as many other players as possible until a certain condition or limit is reached, commonly being a frag limit or time limit. Once one of these conditions is met, the match is over, and the winner is whoever has accumulated the most frags. It is based around the idea of player spawns, and weapon/item/pickup spawns in one play session.

The term "Deathmatch" was coined by game designer John Romero while he and lead programmer John Carmack were developing the LAN multiplayer mode for the computer game Doom. Romero commented on the birth of the deathmatch:

"Sure, it was fun to shoot monsters, but ultimately these were soulless creatures controlled by a computer. Now gamers could play against spontaneous human beings--opponents who could think and strategize and scream. We can kill each other!' If we can get this done, this is going to be the f--ing coolest game that the planet Earth has ever f--ing seen in its entire history!'"^[1]

Games that had such gameplay features beforehand did not use the term, but later it gained mainstream popularity with the Quake and Unreal Tournament series of games.

Some games give a different name to these types of matches. For example, deathmatch in Halo games is named "Slayer", and in Perfect Dark it's called "Combat Simulator". However, the underlying concepts are identical.

[edit] Background

It has been suggested that in 1983, Drew Major and Kyle Powell probably played the world's first deathmatch with Snipes^{[citation needed]}, a text-mode game that was later credited with being the inspiration behind Novell NetWare, although multiplayer games spread across multiple screens predate that title by at least 9 years in the form of Spasim and Maze War.

[edit] Other forms of deathmatch

In a team deathmatch, the players are organised into two or more teams, with each team having its own frag-count. Friendly fire may or may not cause damage, depending on the game and the rules used — if it does, players that kill a teammate (called a team kill) usually decrease their own score and the team's score by one point; in certain games, they may also themselves be killed as punishment. The team with the highest frag-count at the end wins.

Other forms of deathmatch, though not necessarily for a first person shooter, include the Super Smash Bros. series' timed multiplayer mode.

The 1977 Atari game Combat also fits the spirit of the deathmatch with players trying to frag (kill) each other as many times as possible within a certain time limit.