Well, I played my first bit of multi-player last night in Call of Duty. It went about as I expected and I'm considering changing my handle to "FragMagnet".

The hardest thing with Multi-Player is figuring out where to start if you don't know anyone else who plays. I don't know what the customary rules are for joining a server, or whether you're allowed to just jump in or if you can just spectator. Password-protected servers are obviously off-limits but most of the rest of the servers seem to be fine with non-clan players.

Side note: Regular players of online multi-player games are often members of a "clan" (FPS terminology) or "guild" (EverQuest terminology). It can be anything from a group of friends who get together and sponsor a server, to a hundred players who are organized into squads and battalions with a defined chain-of-command. You can usually tell clan members by the prefix that they'll put onto their handle (e.g. "[Foozers]Playername" means that Playername belongs to the Foozers clan).

A technical issue is that a lot of servers require custom mods (modifications to the game) to be installed. There's a good bit of variation in which mods you'll need, and not every server allows you to auto-download any needed mods. Which means you'll either need to get the mod files from another server or find a website where you can download them. The easiest way to get the mods is to find an empty (0 players playing) server and connect to one that looks like it might have the mod you need. Servers that require special mods (e.g. "Revolt", "CoDaM", "PaM") often say so in the server name, or you can look at the server information dialog.

You should also familiarize yourself with the maps in Call of Duty. One way to do this is to look at the Warlords of Earth listing, or login to an empty server that has the map already loaded. This will let you run around the map without getting shot at so you can familiarize yourself. Another way is to join a semi-populated server where a match is already in progress and use the "spectator" mode to watch the game and fly around to learn the lay of the land.

To learn about the different multi-player game types, check out CallOfDuty.org and look for the "Game Types" link. "Team Death Match (TDM)" and "Headquarters (HQ)" are probably good ones to start with as you get to re-spawn after about 40 seconds. "Search and Destroy (SD)", OTOH, you only get one life per round... so you might be stuck in spectator-mode for a while.

So how bad was my playtime last night? Well, the first map that I joined was 2 on 2 Headquarters and I was teamed up with a clan member who knew their stuff. It was a town setting, but I don't remember the name. We won a round, lost a round, and I pretty much managed to kill about as often as I died. However, once the map changed to Stalingrad and it was only 1 on 1, I got myself fragged repeatedly. My opponent killed me half a dozen times by simply sneaking up on me from behind. Sometimes, I suspect they were following me for a bit before putting me out of my misery. That got old quick and I logged after the end of the round.

Later, I joined a busier server (7 on 7, Headquarters) after spectating for a while. That was crazy, almost a 100% SMG-fest, where I never lasted for more then a minute before getting fragged. Small, close quarters maps tend to be that way however.