Introduction

Today's multiplayer experiences fall into two main categories: real-time online and asynchronous online play. Gone are the days of sitting on the couch with your friends as you beat each other up on screen. This statement isn't entirely accurate with games, such as Super Smash Bros, which proves the exception to the rule, but there is an obvious trend toward an online play. Many primarily single-player games are being augmented with multiplayer game modes, while many others, such as multiplayer online battle arena games, for example, League of Legends, are strictly online multiplayer games with no single-player campaigns. To give you some idea of where this trend is going, Riot Games (whose only developed games as of 2015 is League of Legends) generated $624 million USD in 2013 and was poised to break the $1 billion (with a "B") USD mark in 2014. This is solely from micro transactions, as the game is primarily free to play. Clearly, having online gameplay makes up for a lot...