The death match is the oldest and simplest from of multi-player fps gaming. You drop X number of people into a pit, and first one to Y points wins. It’s fun, it’s a classic, and it works. However as teamwork based games become more popular the classic free for all is beginning to disappear.

If we look at some of the biggest first person shooters of last year, games like Call of Duty 5 and Farcry 2. While they both feature death match, they have a much larger popularity in in team death match and other team based game modes. Other games from last year, like Gears of War 2, Army of Two, and Left 4 Dead don’t even have it as an option. If we look back into the year before, we had Team Fortress 2, Call of duty 4, and Halo 3. Two of witch are still big in on-line gaming, and of them, Team Fortress 2 is strictly team based. Now the fact that there might be a trend is great, but what does it mean?

On the most basic level, it means gamers like working with other people more, and from there, I can come up with two ideas for what this trend could signify, one interesting and the other, more likely. The first being that gamers like working together more because it is more rewarding, and fosters more of a community. Many people I know enjoy fragging their friends, but they say it’s so much more satisfying when you and your friend save the day together. I second this opinion whole heartedly. Team fortress 2 is one of my favorite games because of the times when I’m forced to work with my team mates to progress. Team matches also reward people who play together more often as they work more and more cohesively as a team, and since your friends are not on all the time, you start to make connections with other gamers as you work together, and a solid community is formed. This community then adds to the staying power of a game, which would hopefully lead to gaming companies spending more time on games that have already been released, to keep the community at that game instead of moving to a new one.

The second more likely option, is that gamers like team play more because their allies make great meat shields. As my friend said, “I love team play because I can have some idiot run out, take all the sniper fire, and let me get the kill.” In death match, you’re running blind most of the time, there usually isn’t a mini map to help you find the fighting, the only hints are dropped weapons and the sound of combat. Then, when you find it, it’s quickly resolved, and if you’re lucky enough to survive, the whole cycle repeats again. Also, if you’re especially unlucky, in death match you can spawn in combat, essentially doubling your respawn time from your last death as you catch a glimpse of a rocket hitting your face. Many find this style of play tiring, as certain elements boil down to luck. You either spawned close to the shot gun or you didn’t. Many gamers detest games that have a large luck based portion of it. Thus, they turn to team play, where a team usually provides a safe spawn area, consistent information about the location of the enemy(with either their voices or their corpses) and a chance for some one else to take your bullet. Most of the luck is removed, and you can still be the one man mowing machine you where in deathmatch, for most, there is no downside, unless you planned on any idea of teamwork.

Death match is on the decline, there is no doubt about it, it is one of the least popular modes in the games that do have it, and there has been a move toward co-operative play only games. The only question left is where gamers will go with it. Does it portend a move toward a more mature community based association of gamers? Or is it a way for players to try stacking the odds in their favor, splintering the community even more? Either way, the free for all is on it’s last legs.