What makes a good MOBA?

League of Legends. DOTA 2. Heroes of Newerth. The list goes on and on. Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, aka MOBAs, are the gaming industry’s hottest genre. But like the outburst of first person shooters during this console cycle, some MOBAs are a step above, and others fall of a cliff. But why is this? And what makes a good MOBA and what makes a bad one? Lets dive right in.

But first we need to understand what a MOBA is. The basic principle is simple, two opposing teams whose collective goal is to destroy their enemy's base to win, but defensive structures are in place to prevent this. A player controls a single in-game unit generally called a “hero” or “champion”. This is where it gets a little bit tricky. Weak CPU controlled units periodically spawn at each base and travel down predefined paths toward the opposing team's base. These are usually referred to as creeps. When a player kills or stands near a killed enemy unit/creep, 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. Each player receives a gold per second from their base, and can receive larger amounts by killing creeps/players, or by taking objectives/defensive structures around the map. Gold is used by heroes to buy a variety of different items that differ in price and impact, ranging for increased armor/health, damage, or other types of effects.

The genre was started as a custom map on Starcraft: Brood War called Aeon of Strife (AoS). That opened up a remake of AoS for Warcraft 3 called Defense of the Ancients, better known as DOTA. Once the Warcraft 3 pro scene died down, the game was kept alive singlehandedly by DOTA. This continued until 2009, when League of Legends (LoL) was released as a stand alone MOBA. Once LoL showed the genre could be successful, Heroes of Newerth (HoN) and DOTA 2 were released and the 3 games became formed the centerpiece of the genre. This continued with Smite, Guardians of Middle-Earth, and as of late Infinite Crisis.

So lets now break down the 3 points of a good/bad MOBA.

The first topic, as with most games, is what is the hook? The look or feel of the game, the style of the world. Most of them choose to go with an organic, creative look. The heroes/champions are diverse and interesting, and all have unique back stories that fit into the lore of the game. LoL is the perfect example of this. No champion looks or plays like on another, and the animations are clean and voice actors give them all life. The game is just fun and interesting to look at and the soundtrack fits into each piece beautifully. While most take this approach, some work from established properties, such as Guardians of Middle-Earth, using Lord of the Rings, or Infinite Crisis, using the DC Comics Universe.

Second topic is what is going to keep you playing, and that is the game play. The controls, the game balance, and the overall fun. This is where Guardians of Middle-Earth takes the cake as an utter failure. The game was designed to be on a console, meaning of course, it is made to be played on a controller. However the game gets this very wrong. It functions in the same sense that Halo Wars did for RTS on a console. It could be that the genre just doesn't work without a keyboard mouse, or that the game just executes it poorly. LoL, HoN, and DoTA 2 are the cream of the crop in this regard. All 3 games have perfect mechanics, and are relentlessly balanced and changed by the dev teams to keep them competitive and fun. And of course there is the wild card. Smite takes the regular top down camera, and moves it down to a third person shooter style camera.

And finally the third part will turn the game into a lifestyle, and that is the community. Each community has a different feel and personality that can affect the way you enjoy the experience. The ones that really tend to take off are the ones that have an established professional scene. Once the game steps into the world of eSports, the fan base really takes off. Now some people enjoy watching the game just as much as playing it. This fuels the discussion of game balance and then adversely affects the game play.

All of these parts combined make a great MOBA, but then again there is no saying that one is better than another. And as we are starting to see more and more games pop up in the genre, it is becoming more important to pick and choose which one we spend our time with. So please when you are looking for a new MOBA to start playing, take these into account.