How Many Is the Right Number?
You may be wondering how many players multiplayer systems should support. Take, for example, a melee-based fighting game like Street Fighter. If this type of game had more than two players, there would be all types of problems. Players would bunch up as they fought, making it hard to see individual players. Collision detection would be problematic, and it would all just devolve into mob warfare rather than a contest of skills that makes a good fighting game. On the other hand, an MMORPG like World of Warcraft would feel empty if it allowed only a few hundred players to roam around at the same time. So, how many players should there be? Let’s look at the numbers:
- Fighting game (Street Fighter) = 2 players
- Fighting game (Power Stone) = 4 players
- Social games (Uno) = 4 players
- Action platformers (LittleBigPlanet) = 4 players
- Driving (Burnout Paradise) = 8 players
- FPS (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) = 16 players
- FPS (MAG) = 64, 128, or 256 players (depending...