Number 1, multiplayer

Shakin' and Quakin'

You couldn't get a more predictable answer on FiringSquad for the Number One Multiplayer Game of All Time than Quake. Quake was a revolution like no other game before or since. For the first time, a first-person shooter had true 3D graphics with all the standard bells and whistles. Internet multiplayer was a reality, no longer did players have to fake IPX connections with Kali, or connect through clumsy proprietary gaming services like DWANGO.

The addition of a real third dimension, unlike the "2.5D" of Doom or Duke Nukem, opened up a whole new world of possibilities. The intricate levels permitted two entities to be right over each other, or overhanging ledges - two things that couldn't be done in 2.5D. Aim became a much bigger deal as you had to compensate for the vertical axis. And let's not forget the speed - the game is ruthless. Air maneuvering, incredibly fast runs, instant weapon switching (for that boomstick and shaft combo) and the almost complete lack of sounds made for a vicious mind game.

A better way to measure Quake's contribution is to look at the media attention that focused on it and even the media that sprang up because of Quake. For how many years after did magazines and developers dub games "Quake killers"? Not to mention the sites and businesses that sprang up because of the game. Other than porn, Quake may be the single biggest reason the internet is as popular as it is. It introduced people to a whole new world of possibilities, and this created a market for information, mods and utilities to improve the game. Without Quake we wouldn't have GameSpy (and its competitors like All Seeing Eye), Blue's News, PlanetQuake and the Planet series of sites, Shacknews and mods like Team Fortress or CTF.

Caryn "Hellchick" Law, formerly of PlanetQuake and now working for Activision thanks to her involvement with the game, had this to say:

The beauty of Quake was that it was so many things in one package. Technologically, it was an incredible advancement in game engines. Sure, games had been inching up to real 3D capabilities and pretty hardware rendering, but do you remember the first time you loaded GLQuake and your jaw dropped? I remember it. And what makes Quake deserving of the #1 slot was that it had even more to offer. Quake completely changed the way we played online with its client/server architecture, and enhancements to the netcode meant we could play fast, furious, and bloody deathmatches with our friends that were nothing like what we'd played even in DOOM. And finally, when a GAME can rip someone like myself from a science career and make me say, "I want to work with that for a living," yeah, it deserves the #1 slot.

What science career did Caryn leave behind? She was in grad school, working on a Ph.D. in astrophysics. Yeah, you read that right, and she's damn happy with her choice.

Hence, it is without reservation that we annoint Quake as the Best Multiplayer Game of All Time.