Multiplayer Activity (MPA) feature overview
This topic describes how the Multiplayer Activity (MPA) feature simplifies Xbox services integration for player activities (joins), invites, and recent players. MPA also enables players to launch into your game from their social graph, even if the title itself isn't running.
Terminology
The following four terms are frequently used in the context of MPA.
Connection string: A string that's created and understood only by the title, which contains information that's required for one player to connect to another. This often contains a server IP address but is left freeform to allow titles flexibility. This string is opaque to MPA—it simply passes this string from one player to another to enable players to join each other.
Activity: Represents an advertisement that the player is in a multiplayer experience. This contains a connection string and a small set of properties to restrict who can join the experience. Activities enable the shell to display this information, including its joinability. An activity should always be present when a player is in a multiplayer experience.
Invite: Represents a request for a player to join a multiplayer experience. This also contains a connection string. In general, a player should have created an activity before sending invites to other players.
Recent player: Someone who has had a meaningful interaction with a player. Recent players are stored by MPA in a list. A player can use them to form friend relationships, send messages and invites, or report feedback after a game is played.
Using MPA
Client flow
A title should have the following flow for handling multiplayer experiences.
- When player A starts or joins a multiplayer experience, the title should set an
activity to represent
this.
- Other players in the title and Xbox services can retrieve this activity. Depending on their relationship to player A, the activity they receive can also include a connection string. They can use it to join the game in progress.
- Player A can send Invites to other players, actively requesting that they join the game.
- As players join and leave, the title should update the number of players in the activity by setting it again with updated information.
- The title should update the player's recent players list with any players with whom they've had meaningful interactions.
- When player A ends or leaves the multiplayer experience, the title should delete the activity.
External server flow
A server can act on behalf of clients for any of the previously mentioned items. In addition, a server can:
- Record bidirectional lists of recent players.
- Send an invite on behalf of a player.
- Retrieve activities for multiple players at the same time, as opposed to one at a time.
For more information, see Xbox services RESTful reference.