iRok2 live multiplayer now available

iRok2 is all about connecting people with the music they love. It’s also about connecting players with each other. Waxing philosophical: one of the best ways to grow within is to look outside - at our friends, families and even complete strangers for new perspectives. If you’re as passionate about music as we are then consider exploring the tunes that matter most to the people you know. You may learn something - about them and yourself. iRok2 makes this easy: you can gift your favorite tracks and albums to other iRok2 members and even invite newcomers to play your songs. But as of today, we’ve stepped it up a notch by adding a couple “sporting” options for sharing your music: Challenges and Multiplayer.

Challenges

A challenge is a modern day duel but instead of pistols, paces and a desire to kill you use a guitar, email and your overinflated rok ego. It starts, innocently enough, with an email that we send on your behalf to the individual who took your girl, stole your money, or smack talked your last Taylor Swift rok-out. Sending a challenge is like a white-gloved backhand to the face of your adversary, and it demands a response. But it’s up to the challengee to give in to your provocation and face the very real possibility of public disgrace. Challenges don’t have to be this confrontational, of course. They’re also a great way to share your music with a friend. Any track in your album can be used as the “challenge” and this gives your friend the opportunity to play something they normally wouldn’t have access to. Have you found a great new song that others should know about? Share it with a friend as a challenge. It works like this:

• Click on a song from your album and then hit the Challenge button on the track page
• Enter the name of an iRok2 member or the email address of someone who is new to iRok2
• Rok with everything you’ve got to achieve a mighty score on the selected song
• Wait for the player you challenged to do the same

Issue your challenge

The player you challenge will receive an email and, if they accept, be able to watch your score in the head-to-head display as they play through your track. The winner takes the glory. The loser, well… not so much. The results of the challenge are available in a permanent link for you to share or bury.

Multiplayer

We’re also happy to announce that, as of today, a new live multiplayer capability will be available in iRok2. If you’ve been itching to battle your friends right now in a ruckus of real-time rok rhythms then you should give the multiplayer mode a try. Now you and a bevy of your merciless friends can rok-out to the same song at the same time in a battle to the grizzly … uh, until the end of the song. How does it work?

• Click on a song from your album, then click the Multiplayer button on the track page
• Click the Create Game menu option and wait for your friends to join OR just jump into an available game
• Wait for the game to start, then rok your heart out. Leave your friends in the dust (optional, kinda).
• Laugh giddily at the unimpressive final scores of your friends

Join/Create a multiplayer game

Now hold on. Wasn’t this post about how iRok2 connects people in a way that supports musical discovery? How does multiplayer do this? When you start your journey with iRok2 there are only a few songs in your album. As you practice these songs and learn new ones (like the Daily Track and tracks you receive from friends) you begin to open up new album slots and fill them with your favorites. But now there’s another way to find great tracks: when you join a multiplayer game, you can rok to any track that the game creator makes available. This is a cool way to explore a variety of tracks that you might normally pass over. You can even arrange to share tracks with other multiplayer participants who have music you like. Plus, each multiplayer rok session earns your band bonus cash and fans.

Multiplayer game is complete

So take the new multiplayer feature for a test drive. We want to hear from you: what do you like, what should we improve? Help us make this another killer addition to iRok2!