Melee - Use in Gaming

Use in Gaming

"Melee" has been adopted and popularized as a term in war-gaming, board games, tabletop role-playing games and video games to encompass all close-quarter fighting and directly striking an opponent at ranges generally less than a few feet with, but not only, fists, feet, knives, rifle-butts or any other melee weapon or special spells or tactics with the intention of causing harm.

The term was first applied to games in H.G. Wells's 1913 Little Wars, where the author develops a "melee rule" in his war game. It was later popularized by Dungeons and Dragons, which featured a "melee phase" to represent the fighting of characters outside of bows and magic.

This term still applies to most role-playing games, but is often used in the context of first-person shooter video games to specify a non-ranged attack. This began with the 1992 game, Wolfenstein 3D, which featured a knife that could be selected from the inventory, just like a gun. Because of the risk involved in using a melee weapon, they were typically the most powerful weapons available, in terms of damage. Later, Duke Nukem 3D would include a button that allowed the character to kick enemies while still wielding a gun.