The first large-scale serial sessions using a single computer[citation needed] were STAR (based on Star Trek), OCEAN (a battle using 💱 ships, submarines and helicopters, with players divided between two combating cities) and 1975's CAVE (based on Dungeons & Dragons), created 💱 by Christopher Caldwell (with artwork and suggestions by Roger Long and assembly coding by Robert Kenney) on the University of 💱 New Hampshire's DECsystem-1090. The university's computer system had hundreds of terminals, connected (via serial lines) through cluster PDP-11s for student, 💱 teacher, and staff access. The games had a program running on each terminal (for each player), sharing a segment of 💱 shared memory (known as the "high segment" in the OS TOPS-10). The games became popular, and the university often banned 💱 them because of their RAM use. STAR was based on 1974's single-user, turn-oriented BASIC program STAR, written by Michael O'Shaughnessy 💱 at UNH.

Networked multiplayer gaming modes are known as "netplay". The first popular video-game title with a Local Area Network(LAN) version, 💱 1991's Spectre for the Apple Macintosh, featured AppleTalk support for up to eight players. Spectre's popularity was partially attributed[by whom?] 💱 to the display of a player's name above their cybertank. There followed 1993's Doom, whose first network version allowed four 💱 simultaneous players.[6]

Asymmetrical multiplayer is a type of gameplay in which players can have significantly different roles or abilities from each 💱 other – enough to provide a significantly different experience of the game.[10] In games with light asymmetry, the players share 💱 some of the same basic mechanics (such as movement and death), yet have different roles in the game; this is 💱 a common feature of the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre such as League of Legends and Dota 2, and 💱 in hero shooters such as Overwatch and Apex Legends. In games with stronger elements of asymmetry, one player/team may have 💱 one gameplay experience (or be in softly asymmetric roles) while the other player or team play in a drastically different 💱 way, with different mechanics, a different type of objective, or both. Examples of games with strong asymmetry include Dead by 💱 Daylight, Evolve, and Left 4 Dead.[10]

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