I quickly become responsible for electricity and military management, the pacifist among us takes care of the breeding and taming of animals, while a third takes care of construction and research. Each player controls a specific character with their own specializations, so distinct roles naturally evolve. Importantly, there is nothing in the UI to indicate what other players are doing, which means you will have to talk constantly to stay in sync and not step on each other’s toes. The principle is simple: each player has equal control over the colony, and you only see the faded mouse cursors of other players moving around the screen. The game that recently introduced me to the joys – and even the frustrations – of team multiplayer is Rimworld, or more specifically Zetrith’s multiplayer mod for that. This type of unguided, unguided co-op play would force players to communicate and self-manage all the time – much like Overcooked, but instead of juggling tomatoes and dirty dishes, you’re dealing with entire empires. Imagine it: a married couple arguing over children’s rights in Crusader Kings 3 players controlling different states or regions within the same empire in Civilization or divide players into farming, construction and military tasks in Age of Empires.

These streaks have always allowed you to form alliances, but if they allowed you to control multiple players exactly the same team. In 1995, CivNet laid the foundation for multiplayer in Civilization, which remains virtually unchanged even to this day, while the original Command & Conquer came with two copies of the game to facilitate LAN play. Strategy games were once at the forefront of multiplayer PC games.

Civilization 6 multiplayer lagging out