What is a MOBA and why is it so successful?

Preamble

When it comes to the most popular games of all time, there will certainly be no less than one name on the list that belongs to the MOBA genre. Currently, there are many MOBA games that are too familiar to us gamers, such as: League of Legends, Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm, etc.

With objectives ranging from killing soldiers to destroying enemy bases, MOBAs are unlike any other game on the market today, there are also “hybrids” from MOBAs and other genres. . You may have played MOBA at least once, but do you know how MOBA was born and developed?

With MOBAs slowly becoming the most popular esports on the planet, understanding the origins of how the genre got its start is crucial. To find out why MOBAs are so popular, we must first look at the history of MOBAs and how it started.

What does MOBA stand for?

If you don’t know, MOBA stands for: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. But this genre is also known as Real Time Action Strategy.

These two phrases describe this game genre quite fully, but still quite confusing for many people. Is this “online arena” different from the arena in World of Warcraft or shooting games like Counter-Strike?

What is a MOBA game, how does it work?

By definition, a MOBA is a subgenre of the Strategy game genre that includes games like StarCraft, Command & Conquer, and Warcraft. However, unlike games of the real-time strategy genre, players enter a certain area as a team and face off against another team.

The rules of the game are quite simple and easy to understand, destroy the opponent’s main house before they can destroy your main house. Only one of the two teams will win by taking down the other main house, whether it takes 10 minutes or 2 hours.

How did MOBAs start?

The ancestors of MOBA

The first signs of the MOBA series can be traced back to 1989 with the game Herzog Zwei on the Sega Genesis system. But MOBA really started to receive attention in 1998 with a game called Aeon of Strife, which is a custom map created from the famous game at that time StarCraft. In Aeon of Strife, four players control a unit with the goal of destroying an opponent’s base controlled by a computer. Despite its similarities to today’s MOBA, that game still had many key elements that were very different.

Warcraft 3

When Warcraft 3 came out in 2002, another version of Aeon of Strife was created as a mod for this game. A person calling himself “Eul” used this mod as inspiration and created the first part of DotA. Although Eul was the first to create the mod, there were many people who later created various versions. Among those people was a person who called himself “Guinsoo“. He created a version for himself called Dota Allstars, which later became a phenomenon and is the most played version. In 2005, Guinsoo left the Dota Allstars development team and someone else named “IceFrog” stepped in to take his place.

Riot Games

Although Guinsoo has stopped developing Dota, he is still not finished with game making. Guinsoo eventually joined a company called Riot Games, and there he created another masterpiece. Of course that game is League of Legends, released in 2009. This game is based on the Dota mod, but a lot of people are still interested in participating because of the free model of the game. League can be downloaded and fought instantly without paying a dime, which attracts a huge number of players.

Heroes of Newerth

In 2010, the company S2 released a game called Heroes of Newerth (HoN) and this game is also based on the old Dota mod. This game has graphics and control mechanism quite similar to Dota than League of Legends, for those who used to like Dota but did not play League. HoN had to pay a fee to buy the game in the early stages, so it didn’t have much success and by the time the game was about to be released for free, the Dota 2 Open Beta was very close. That’s why HoN was never really successful.

IceFrog joins Valve

The same year League of Legends launched, Valve, the company that created Half-Life, announced that IceFrog had joined Valve. The goal of this was to create Dota 2, the successor to the original success of that Dota mod. Dota 2 has attracted almost everyone who has ever played Dota and the majority of people who are playing Heroes of Newerth. Launched after League of Legends, the number of players today is still less than that of League although the game still has a very high popularity and is by far the game with the tournament with the largest prize money.

Which MOBA game became an eSports game?

Today there are a few successful MOBA games that have their own professional competition. League and Dota 2 are by far the two most powerful giants, but Heroes of the Storm, Smite and Vainglory are also examples of MOBA games that have been brought to pro competition, featuring tournaments with real money prizes. held all over the world.

League of Legends (League of Legends)

League of Legends is currently the leader of the eSports industry, with a monthly player count of more than 100 million. This MOBA game features over 130 characters with over 200 items that the characters can own to aid them in combat.

Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2)

Dota 2 When compared to League it may seem small at first with a monthly player count of 13 million, but you shouldn’t judge a game by player count alone. The International, which is an annual Dota 2 tournament, has a total prize value of more than 20 million dollars, which is larger than many regular sports tournaments such as the Super Bowl or NBA, and 5 times more than that. when compared to the largest prize pool of the League of Legends tournament. With over 116 unique heroes and over 157 in-game items, this MOBA legend has more complex features and mechanics than League, thereby pushing the limits of skills in the game.

Heroes of the Storm (HoTS)

Heroes of the Storm There is still a long way to go to the success of the two big brothers above, the game was released in June 2015. The tournament has the current largest prize pool of 1 million dollars. HoTS is different in that there are no items like other MOBAs.

Smite

Smite is a unique MOBA game, you will control the champion from a third person perspective, unlike other MOBA games that are usually viewed from the sky. All the characters in the game are gods, which angered the Hindu leaders because they disagreed seeing that Hindu gods could be “controlled”. Smite doesn’t have too many professional tournaments, but the 2015 world tournament brought in a pretty high prize pool: $2.6 million.

Vainglory

Vainglory is a MOBA game that started on mobile platforms (iOS/Android). Although the top prize value is still quite modest at 120,000 USD, this game has shown us the limits of MOBAs that can still become an eSports game on mobile platforms. Vainglory currently has more than 40 generals with more than 70 items in the game.

Arena of valor Considered one of the most popular games on Smartphone at the moment, this strategy game has the same gameplay as League of Legends on PC, players will have many single, team and win modes. victory, along with 77 generals for you to choose from.

In addition to the games above, gamers can also find other moba games that have very unique gameplay such as Strife, Hero of Newerths, Battleborn, etc. This is enough evidence to show you why. Moba genre is so successful. What do you think is the best moba game?

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