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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.

A typical FPS-deathmatch session ^{[1] [2] [3]} where every player fights every other player starts with each player being spawned (starting) at random locations -- picked from a fixed predefined set. Being spawned entails having the health, armor and equipment reset to default values which usually is full health, no armor and a basic weapon.

All normal maps will contain various power-ups; i.a. extra health, armor, ammunition and other (more powerful than default) weapons. Once collected by a player the power-up will respawn after a defined time at the same location, the time for an item to respawn depends upon the game mode and the type of the item. In some deathmatch modes power-ups will not respawn at all.

The goal for each player is killing the other players by any means possible which counts as a frag, either by direct assault or manipulating the map, the latter counts as a frag in some games, some not. The session may have a time limit, a frag limit, or no limit at all. If there is a limit then the player with the most frags will eventually win when the session ends. See frag for more information about the usual score system.

A player will die when the health value reaches equal to or less than 0, if the value is reduced to a very low negative value, the result may be gibbing depending upon the game. In most games, when a player is fragged, the player will lose all equipment gained and the screen will continue to display the visible (still animated) scene that the player normally sees, and the score list is usually displayed -- the frags. The display does not go black when the player dies. Usually the player can choose to instantly respawn or remain dead.

The lost equipment (usually not including the armor) of a dead player can usually be picked up by any player (even the fragged player, respawned) who gets to it first.

The description depicts a typical deathmatch based on the games that were used as references and gives a basic idea of the concept; however, given the many variations that exist literally everything mentioned could be different to a minor or major degree in other games.

The term "Deathmatch" is considered coined by game designer John Romero while he and lead programmer John Carmack were developing the LAN multiplayer mode for the computer game Doom. This is partially correct, since the beat'em up World Heroes II by SNK already used the term (although referring to a game mode where arenas had dangerous hazards). Romero commented on the birth of the FPS 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 fucking coolest game that the planet Earth has ever fucking seen in its entire history!'"^[4]

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, while still using the same underlying concept. For example, deathmatch in the Halo series of games is named "Slayer", and in Perfect Dark the name"Combat Simulator" is used.

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.

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, and/or may be removed from the game for repeat offenses. The team with the highest frag-count at the end wins.

Any arbitrary multiplayer game with the goal for each player to kill every other player(s) as many times as possible can be considered to be a form of deathmatch.

1. ^ Quake
2. ^ Unreal Tournament
3. ^ Doom 2
4. ^ Kushner, David (2004), Masters of Doom, pp. 149, ISBN 978-0812972153, <http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/305yuvkp.asp?pg=2>