Deathmatch, or
DM, is a type of
gameplay mode found in
first-person-shooter
games. The objective of a deathmatch is to
frag as many players in
the game as possible while keeping yourself from being fragged. When the game
ends either by gamers reaching the end of the
level or a preset time or frag
count limit, the
gamer who accumulated the most frags in the DM
game is the winner of the deathmatch.
Multiplayer games may also contain a
single player game of deathmatch where the gamer plays against intelligent
bots
in the game locally, rather than against other gamers over the
Internet. DM can also be set to a "teamplay deathmatch" mode where teams (called
clans) work together to obtain a higher combined frag count than the opposing
teams in the game.
The term deathmatch was coined by legendary game programmer
John Romero while developing the popular FPS game DOOM.
Also see
All About Multiplayer PC Gaming in Webopedia's "Did
You Know...?" section.
