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Generic map of a MOBA style game, based on the format established in earlier AoS-style maps. The tan spaces represent the "lanes"; the blue dots the "towers"; the brown spaces the team bases, and the blue quarter-circles in each corner the main structure to be destroyed to claim victory.

Awesomenauts is a MOBA game that incorporates action platformer gameplay

Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), also known as action real-time strategy (ARTS), is a sub-genre of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, in which often two teams of players compete with each other in discrete games, with each player controlling a single character through an RTS-style interface. It differs from traditional RTS games in that there is no unit construction and players control just one character. In this sense, it is a fusion of action games and real-time strategy games. The genre emphasizes cooperative team-play; players select and control one "hero", a powerful unit with various abilities and advantages to form a team's overall strategy. The objective is to destroy the opponents' main structure with the assistance of periodically spawned computer-controlled units that march towards the enemy's main structure via paths referred to as "lanes".

The genre traces its roots to Aeon of Strife (AoS), a custom map for StarCraft.^[1] Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a map based on Aeon of Strife for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne, was one of the first major MOBA titles.

History [edit]

The custom map Aeon of Strife for the real-time strategy game Starcraft is one of the earliest examples of the modern genre. It was followed by Defense of the Ancients (DotA) a custom scenario for Warcraft 3 that was partially inspired from Aeon of Strife. The growing popularity of Defense of the Ancients led to the development of further custom maps as well as full stand-alone games.^[2] These games are usually referred to as "an AoS", "DotA-style", "DotA-esque", "DotA-clone" or "DotA-based".^[3][4]

Minions was a game by The Casual Collective released in 2008 as a Web game using Flash.^[5]

Demigod, a video game developed by Gas Powered Games was the first released stand-alone title in the genre.^[6][7]

This was followed by Riot Games' League of Legends released in October 2009.^[8][9] Riot Games attempted to break away from the genre being known as "Dota" by coining its own marketing term, "Multiplayer Online Battle Arena" (MOBA).^{[citation needed]}

In May 2010, S2 Games released Heroes of Newerth.^[10][11]

On 13 October 2010, Valve Corporation announced its official entry to the genre with a sequel to Defense of the Ancients titled Dota 2.^[12][13] Valve referred to Dota 2 and similar games as "Action Real-Time Strategy" games.^[14]

At BlizzCon 2010, Activision Blizzard announced their entry to the genre with their Blizzard DOTA map for StarCraft II.^[15][16] Chris Sigaty, lead producer of Starcraft II, stated that Blizzard DOTA "is a take on the DOTA genre if you will. It gives you the opportunity to see some of the heroes we've made, we've made some heroes that are cross genre. Not just SC2 heroes, we've got some Diablo characters in the works, we've some Warcraft characters and StarCraft characters and they're fighting together."^[17] On 11 May 2012, Blizzard announced that the map would be named "Blizzard All-Stars", after settling a trademark dispute with Valve over the usage of the DOTA trademark.^[18]

Currently Realm of the Titans another addition to the genre is looking to be picked up by publishers in North America.^[19][20] On February 2011, Petroglyph Games announced Rise of Immortals, which was added as a free-to-play game on Steam on 29 September 2011.^[21] On April 2011, Hi-Rez Studios announced SMITE.^[22] Although the majority of the released games in the genre employ a top-down perspective, Uber Entertainment's Crossfire mode of Monday Night Combat and Hi-Rez Studios' Smite listed above breaks away from the trend by introducing a third person shooter spin to the concept.^[23]

Gameplay [edit]

There are two opposing teams whose goal collectively as a team is to destroy their enemy's base to win.^[24] Typically, there is one main structure which must be destroyed to win, though destroying other structures within the opposing team's base may confer other benefits. Defensive structures are in place to prevent this, as well as relatively weak computer-controlled units which periodically spawn at each base and travel down predefined paths toward the opposing team's base.^[25]

A player controls a single powerful in-game unit generally called a 'hero' or 'champion'. When a hero stands near a killed enemy unit or kills an enemy unit, it gains experience points which allow the hero to level up. When a hero levels up, they have the ability to learn more powerful skills and abilities. When a hero dies, they have to wait a designated time, which generally increases as they level up, until they revive at their base.^[26]

Each player receives a small amount of gold per second from their base. Moderate amounts of gold are rewarded for killing hostile computer-controlled units and larger amounts are rewarded for killing enemy heroes. Gold is used by heroes to buy a variety of different items that range in price and impact. For the most part, this involves improving the combat viability of the hero, although there may be other items that support the hero or team as a whole in different ways.^[27]

Members of the genre do not feature several other elements traditionally found in real-time strategy games, notably base management, and army building. The RPG genre has a much closer resemblance to the gameplay, only limited to an arena.

See also [edit]

• Herzog Zwei

References [edit]