Deathmatch (gaming)

Deathmatch, or more appropriately, Free-For-All (FFA, also called DM or Player vs All) is a widely used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy (RTS) video games. Normally 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 the player that accumulated the greatest number of frags. It is an evolution of the competitive multiplayer modes found in genres such as fighting games and racing video games.

In a typical first-person shooter (FPS) deathmatch session, players connect individual computers together via a computer network in a peer-to-peer model or a client–server model, either locally or over the Internet. Each individual computer generates the first person view that the computer character sees in the virtual world, hence the player sees through the eyes of the computer character.

Players are able to control their characters and interact with the virtual world by using various controller systems. When using a PC, a typical example of a games control system would be the use of a mouse and keyboard combined. For example, the movement of the mouse could provide control of the players viewpoint from the character and the mouse buttons may be used for weapon trigger control. Certain keys on the keyboard would control movement around the virtual scenery and also often add possible additional functions. Games consoles however, use hand held 'control pads' which normally have a number of buttons and joysticks (or 'thumbsticks') which provide the same functions as the mouse and keyboard. Players often have the option to communicate with each other during the game by using microphones and speakers, headsets or by 'instant chat' messages if using a PC.

Every computer or console in the game renders the virtual world and characters in realtime sufficiently fast enough that the number of frames per second makes the visual simulation seem like standard full motion video or better. Manufacturers of games consoles use different hardware in their products which means that quality and performance of the games vary.

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