Multiplayer Piano
| File:Multiplayer Piano in 2019.webp Screenshot of Multiplayer Piano in 2020 | |
| Created by | Brandon Lockaby |
|---|---|
| Website | multiplayerpiano |
| Launched | February 18, 2012 |
| Current status | Active |
Content license | GNU General Public License[1] |
| Written in | JavaScript[2] |
Multiplayer Piano is a website that allows users to play a virtual piano with others through the internet. It was published by Brandon Lockaby as a Google Chrome Experiment[2] in 2012. Users can communicate through text-based chat, use physical MIDI devices to play music, and record their performances with a built-in MP3 recording interface.
History
Creation
Multiplayer Piano was created and published by Brandon Lockaby in 2012 and offered a piano that could be played and heard by other users. Later in development, numerous features were added including a text-based chat box, a synthesizer, a sound selector, the ability to record in MP3 format, and the ability to browse and create new rooms.[3][4]
The website initially used socket.io to power its multiplayer component before switching to WebSockets[2] for more flexibility.
Sale of Multiplayer Piano
On October 24, 2020, Brandon Lockaby sold Multiplayer Piano for $6,500 USD.[5] In early 2021, the site degraded in performance due to a lack of maintenance and payments for the server software. This caused the site's reputation to plummet among its users, many of whom had migrated to a community-driven site then known as MPPClone (later MultiplayerPiano.net). The new owner of Multiplayer Piano threatened to take legal action against the owners of MPPClone[6], while the original site began mirroring MPPClone using an iframe element overlayed with ads and a custom stylesheet.
The site mirror persisted until October 2023, when the original server was brought online with drastic changes to the chat features, which now censor messages that include the terms "multiplayer piano", "mppclone", "clone", and "mpp". These measures dropped their reputation with the community even further.
Structure
Upon visiting the site, the user is placed in a lobby. Lobbies are limited to 20 players. Once the limit is reached, a new lobby (lobbyN, where N represents the lobby number) is created. This process repeats as more users join. Outside of lobbies, users can browse a list of public rooms that have no player limit.[4] Users can also create and privately share rooms hidden from the room list, otherwise leaving a one-in-a-trillion chance that someone will join that same room ID.[7]
Community
Multiplayer Piano is home to a sizable community, notably attracting computer programmers and various web enthusiasts.
In January 2013, Vsauce3 uploaded a video to YouTube featuring Multiplayer Piano in its infancy, which caused a mass influx of users to join the site.[8]
In 2017, Multiplayer Piano was featured alongside other Google Chrome Experiments in a YouTube video published by popular French video creator Squeezie, resulting in an influx of French users on the website.[9]. A YouTube video by Vsauce spin-off D!NG featured the website in September 2017.[10]
At its peak in 2020, the site had over 1500 frequent visitors over the course of a few days showing on its now-unreachable Google Analytics dashboard.
References
- ↑ "mpp-frontend-v1/LICENSE at master · multiplayerpiano/mpp-frontend-v1". GitHub. February 25, 2022. Archived from the original on August 8, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Multiplayer Piano by Brandon Lockaby". Google Chrome Experiments. February 2012. Archived from the original on January 10, 2024. Retrieved February 28, 2024. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ ""Multiplayer Piano Provides a Beautifully Insane Soundscape". The Mary Sue. 26 March 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "'Multiplayer Piano' lets you make music with strangers over the web". The Verge. 26 March 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
- ↑ "Multiplayer Piano - Website sold on Flippa". Flippa. October 2020. Archived from the original on December 20, 2022. Retrieved February 28, 2024. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The Recent MPP Switcharoo Situation". Multiplayer Piano Community Forum. 2023-10-24. Retrieved 2024-08-08.
- ↑ ""Multiplayer Piano, script.js (JavaScript)". Multiplayer Piano. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
- ↑ "E-mail Racing? and MORE DONGs!!" Check
|url=value (help). YouTube. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2025. - ↑ "LES NOUVEAUX SITES WEB DU FUTUR". YouTube. 3 June 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
- ↑ "Do You Work Well With Others?". YouTube. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
External link
This article "Multiplayer Piano" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Multiplayer Piano. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
