While deathmatch may sound a bit dramatic, it’s a fun game mode combining relaxation with excitement. Once you understand what the term means, you might even want to try it yourself!
Deathmatch Meaning in Games
Deathmatch, also known as Player-Versus-Everyone, Free For All, or Player vs. All, is a game mode present in multiplayer games, real-time strategy titles, or first-person shooters. Its goal is simple – to kill (frag) as many other players as possible within the scheduled frag limit or match time limit.
What is Deathmatch in Gaming?
It can have various objectives depending on the video game. Usually, the goal is to eliminate as many other players as possible within the match time or frag limit. The player with the most eliminations at the end of the match wins! Sometimes, players can also respawn mid-game to continue the competition.
Another variant of this mode involves team-based competition, where members of teams or factions cooperate to collect as many frags as possible. Depending on the mode’s rules, friendly fire may or may not deal damage to allies. With friendly fire enabled, such an action usually results in a loss of points by the team that dealt damage to their teammates.
Although extremely popular today, the term has immense nostalgic value for the gaming community since John Romero (game designer) coined it during the development of the legendary Doom. As he said back then, “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!”