Explain MOBA Games to me

[mikegg]

How do MOBA games play?

Why are they so addicting to people?

What separates a decent player from a PRO?

 

[Snock514]

At the start of every game each player is level 1 (for most game modes) and you start off with a small amount of gold that you use to buy items/consumables that increase your stats or give you a cast-able ability. During the game players farm gold from killing minions (creeps) or other players. More gold -> more items -> stronger characters. Every game is different, thousands of match ups and possibilities lead to lots of replay-ability. It takes a long time to learn everything about MOBA's and a big part about becoming better is learning every spell and combo. The hardest part about a MOBA is usually team work, one person can not win the game for their team at the highest level.

 

[mikegg]

I never understood why MOBA games are so addicting to people and why so many people play it.

When I watch streams on twitch.tv, I think it's boring.

 

[gorobei]

moba is a variant of tower defense games. in normal tower defense you set up defenses to stop an onslaught of enemy units. so you only defend against bots.

in moba there are 2 teams defending against the other's stream of enemy bots/minions. so you set up a defense and escort your waves of bots. the main team players use resources to upgrade playable characters to help their team's bots and attack the enemy bots/towers/players.

 

[Dankk]

Actually, I felt the same way about MOBAs literally just a few weeks ago - I saw their popularity, but didn't really understand why. That changed very quickly when me and a couple of friends decided to start playing Dota 2. I've now logged a modest 30 hours or so in the game. It's fun.

One of my friends who started playing at the same time as me (who also has a lot more free time than me) has racked up a whopping ~200 hours already in Dota 2. Keep in mind this was literally just over the past month or two. Once you start, the game hooks you in.

As mentioned above, the the game is popular for many reasons; for one, the gameplay itself is very addictive; two, there's room for dozens of different playstyles, with dozens of different characters (or "heroes"). There's a lot of skill involved in knowing what abilities to use and when, what items to buy, etc, etc. There's a whole lot of depth.

Watching videos isn't going to give you an accurate impression of how enjoyable MOBAs actually are. Maybe you should download the game and play it for yourself?

 

[Zeze]

MOBA is a perfect hybrid mix between RTS & RPG.

MOBA is fun and addictive because:

1. You generally control 1 hero only rather than 100+ units + base management of RTS. Much easier for noobs. Both DOTA and LOL came from Warcraft 3 custom map Dota 1. Tons of people played Dota 1 rather than WC3 ladder game because of this reason. 1 hero to buff up only.

2. There is an RPG element of getting gold & exp and buying items that bring tons of different strategy for one hero. And you still have 100 other heroes to master. Tons of replay value.

3. MOBA is a teamgame. You know that satisfying feeling when you pull off an amazing teamwork in CounterStrike? Same logic and fun applies here. MOBA is generally 5v5 and requires TON of teamwork and the reward is absolutely amazing.

 

[blackwhiskers]

if a traditional e-sports shooter has fairly rigid rules, making it sorta similar to traditional sports games, like soccer or whatever, then mobas (or, more accurately, dota-likes, they're all following in dota's footsteps, moba is just a term to avoid calling most of them for what they are - dota's clones) have so many little mechanics, rules and exceptions at play that it's actually a great wonder that it works at all. but it does! and the complex character interactions in fights, team compositions and depth and knowledge of the single playfield of dota makes it an amazing spectacle to anyone who understands what's going on there.

even more, pulling off an awesome kill/teamwipe/roshan/push etc. feels massively rewarding for yourself. so, dota is very much a modern e-sports game, you play it yourself with other amateurs, showing off and honing your individual skill. you watch PROs do it for some mind-blowingly amazing "mad plays" that one didn't even think was possible in the game.

at least, I do.

 

[Maximilian]

I never understand these "explain X game" threads...

Go play a MOBA, most are free! Explaining any game will make it sound pretty fookin boring.

 

[imaheadcase]

Explaining and playing this is pretty fookin boring.

 

[Red Storm]

I don't think I will ever get into these games. I think tower defense games are dumb and I also felt Warcraft 3 was a terrible RTS lol.

 

[Juddog]

MOBA is a perfect hybrid mix between RTS & RPG.

MOBA is fun and addictive because:

1. You generally control 1 hero only rather than 100+ units + base management of RTS. Much easier for noobs. Both DOTA and LOL came from Warcraft 3 custom map Dota 1. Tons of people played Dota 1 rather than WC3 ladder game because of this reason. 1 hero to buff up only.

2. There is an RPG element of getting gold & exp and buying items that bring tons of different strategy for one hero. And you still have 100 other heroes to master. Tons of replay value.

3. MOBA is a teamgame. You know that satisfying feeling when you pull off an amazing teamwork in CounterStrike? Same logic and fun applies here. MOBA is generally 5v5 and requires TON of teamwork and the reward is absolutely amazing.

Technically there were MOBA games before DOTA1 came out; I had actually written a custom MOBA-styled map that was similar to DOTA1 before DOTA1 became popular, and there were a bunch of competing MOBA-style maps at that time, around 2002-2003. Eventually DOTA1 began to gain more and more popularity, and soon it was the reigning champion of MOBA style games, probably because the developers working on it did some amazing things with the custom scripting of the Warcraft3 engine.

The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[Zeze]

Well technically they're all part of what Dota 1 came to be (Aeon of Strife).

Unless you are saying there were other legit MOBA games prior to AoS/Dota 1.

 

[pontifex]

not a fan of tower defense, except for the Orcs Must Die games.

Tried DOTA 2 and couldn't figure out how to be successful at it (against bots). didn't give it much time though because it didn't make sense. You use a single hero who can't really do shit...can't take down defenses because you die like immediately. trying to help the bot minions or whetever seemed pointless as they died easily also.

 

[Juddog]

not a fan of tower defense, except for the Orcs Must Die games.

Tried DOTA 2 and couldn't figure out how to be successful at it (against bots). didn't give it much time though because it didn't make sense. You use a single hero who can't really do shit...can't take down defenses because you die like immediately. trying to help the bot minions or whetever seemed pointless as they died easily also.

It's meant to be brutally hard - even at 200 hours played, you're still a noob.

If you play through the walk-through, it explains all the basic mechanics.

 

[Juddog]

Well technically they're all part of what Dota 1 came to be (Aeon of Strife).

Unless you are saying there were other legit MOBA games prior to AoS/Dota 1.

There were other community-made MOBA-type maps at around that time frame; DOTA1 is really what emerged from all of the custom maps as the best of breed. I actually wrote a MOBA style map myself, before DOTA came out, back when people were still experimenting around with the MOBA format.

For instance one map I remember was way bigger of a map than DOTA, so combat was more slow paced, and it had a big city in the middle where the creeps fought, with 5 lanes of creeps instead of 3. Ultimately these non-DOTA style maps weren't as fun or as popular as DOTA was; DOTA was more of an extraction of the best of these maps and making it more fun by being more fast paced, more balanced, etc. (for example by shrinking the map down so that combat was quicker and more forced).

I have no idea what any of these old maps were called off the top of my head as that was over a decade ago, and once DOTA became the most popular map, people stopped playing these variants for the most part.

 

[SunnyD]

MOBA games to me remind me of "Real-Time CCG" basically.

 

[crownjules]

People shouldn't even make the tower defense comparison because most MOBAs really have no gameplay in common with TDs. The only thing similar is that you have computer controlled waves of minions following paths. That's it. There just happen to be "towers" along those paths.

 

[Wardawg1001]

They are addictive because its a competitive genre. Playing MOBA's is all about the competition, testing your skills and knowledge against others. Its also because there is so much replayability. Even though every game starts the same way (level 1 heroes, 5v5 teams, end goal is to destroy the enemy base), every match develops differently from the last because thats just the nature of the game. The huge number of heroes and items creates so many different scenarios, and the way the early parts of the game determine how the later parts of the game play out.

But really it comes down to the competition.

 

[Wardawg1001]

People shouldn't even make the tower defense comparison because most MOBAs really have no gameplay in common with TDs. The only thing similar is that you have computer controlled waves of minions following paths. That's it. There just happen to be "towers" along those paths.

This is very true. On a very basic level there is some comparison to TD games - there are auto-spawning AI controlled monsters and towers in their path. But thats really where the comparison ends. They don't play the same at all, and whether you like TD games or not really is not any indication of whether or not you would like a MOBA.

 

[Saffron]

They are addictive because its a competitive genre. Playing MOBA's is all about the competition, testing your skills and knowledge against others. Its also because there is so much replayability. Even though every game starts the same way (level 1 heroes, 5v5 teams, end goal is to destroy the enemy base), every match develops differently from the last because thats just the nature of the game. The huge number of heroes and items creates so many different scenarios, and the way the early parts of the game determine how the later parts of the game play out.

But really it comes down to the competition.

^You said it^ -- Replayability and the sheer competition makes it what it is.

I have the luxury of 5v5 in house games on a weekend basis. That's 10 of us crammed into my family room having a blast.

I started playing MOBA games back in 2004, I think it was, with 5.84b DOTA 1. Ever since then I've been addicted to them. I played that until Heroes of Newerth was released for beta and kept with it for a long time until the community overall turned into crap. Delved into LoL for a bit, absolutely hated it. Now I am a level 1 DOTA2 noob.

I will never put down a MOBA game again until I die, it's as simple as that.

 

[ImpulsE69]

^You said it^ -- Replayability and the sheer competition makes it what it is.

I have the luxury of 5v5 in house games on a weekend basis. That's 10 of us crammed into my family room having a blast.

I started playing MOBA games back in 2004, I think it was, with 5.84b DOTA 1. Ever since then I've been addicted to them. I played that until Heroes of Newerth was released for beta and kept with it for a long time until the community overall turned into crap. Delved into LoL for a bit, absolutely hated it. Now I am a level 1 DOTA2 noob.

I will never put down a MOBA game again until I die, it's as simple as that.

I could see that being fun. Too bad I'm about the only MOBA player I know, in the small group I know that PC game.

 

[clok1966]

MOBA= way to get mercilessly shit on via voice, chat by your own teammates if you are new, so if you have played ANY XBOX live game, you should know that part.

As a NEW DOTA2 player- my very NOOB advice, watch a metric TON of games.. understand the game is way more complex then it appears, listen to the teammate who doesn't give advice that starts with a swear word or how dumb you are. LEARN how to make gold/exp and DEFEND.. you can figure all the extra crap out later.. and there is alot. You earn gold (exp) to level so you wont get steamrolled.. the DEFEND part is simply so you are as little liability to better players as you can be to start (hence less annoying insults about your play so you can improve).


it is really a great game with so many ways to win/lose/play and as said above, the reason so many love it. But as a NOOB its a bit ugly getting into it, if you make some effort to learn as much as you can (watching and reading some general strat guides) you will do ok.. it is a twitch game..so practice is the way to get better. Again, just a TRUE noobs advice.. might even be bad..

 

[CPA]

I played LOL for a bit until I couldn't take my teenage son yelling at me every time I did something or didn't do something.

 

[EDUSAN]

if you like FPS or 3rd person games... you will probably find MOBA games boring

if you, on the other hand, like RTS/Isometric/strategy games, you will probably like MOBA games

if you like single player games you wont like it, if you like online games, you will.

there is not much more to say about it

 

[Juddog]

I could see that being fun. Too bad I'm about the only MOBA player I know, in the small group I know that PC game.

Yeah same here; almost nobody I know plays MOBA games.