Application sessions are marshaled and launched from a staging area. One player creates a staging area and waits for other players to join it. A player can set the properties of the application session to be created through the IDirectPlay3::SetGroupConnectionSettings method. Other players who are considering joining the group can find out what the application session properties are by calling the IDirectPlay3::GetGroupConnectionSettings method. Once enough players have joined the staging area, any player can call the IDirectPlay3::StartSession method to initiate the synchronized launch sequence. Every player in the staging area groups receives a DPMSG_STARTSESSION system message with a DPLCONNECTION structure. If the player is using an external lobby client, it can launch the application using the IDirectPlayLobby2::RunApplication method. If the player is using an internal lobby, the application can use the information to establish a connection to the appropriate session by calling IDirectPlayLobby2::Connect.