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Anyone else think the genre is being saturated by MOBAs?
Razeekster
Member UncommonPosts: 2,591
I just can't see it going very well for all these MOBAs being made right now. There are just so many of them being made and I honestly think that there isn't really that huge of a playerbase for MOBAs. LoL was sort of a one time thing the same as WoW and Dota 2 is a sequel of a much loved game... Maybe I'm wrong but I can see a lot of these games closing down rather fast in the future.
Smile
Comments
MOBA is just a buzz word, like Sandbox or Innovation.
I play MMOs for the Forum PVP
I never understood why themepark games never capitalized on the MOBA thing.
If I were in charge over at Blizzard, I would have popped out a 10 person Battleground that looks and plays like DotA. It's like adding a full mini-game that people would love and it's just a map!
Rift could do it, WAR could do it, and so on. SMITE and Forge obviously show that people do like 3D MOBA's, silly MMO developers.
More is good. They are all F2P so you can just try them out.
Personally i don't play MOBA, but i think they are already more popular than MMOs.
I agree, MMORPGs and MOBAs are effectively two separate genres.
In the long run, I think LoL will continue to dominate, with Dota2 holding a solid second place; LoL will be the "casual-friendly" (and hence larger) game, Dota2 the "hardcore" (and hence smaller) game. I just don't think there's that much room for smaller players, other than maybe a FPS-MOBA hybrid, since some players prefer the first-person perspective.
There could be gameplay value for a rare MOBA like attack on one player town from another player town in a MMO setting.
ex.
Players in the Happyhammer guild start building a huge temple that will give all of their priests extra power.
Consequently, the RudeRampager guild petitons and is awarded a temporary "AttackYourNeighbor" writ, from the emperor, that allows them a chance to stop develpment of Happyhammer's temple.
The next day, the 1 hour writ activates, and their forces attack the Happyhammers and attempt to destroy the new temple before its built. Luckily, the Happyhammers heard about the writ, and gathered their forces ahead of time.
The historical conflict between Happyhammers and the RudeRampagers still stirs men's hearts to this day.
-WL
Werewolf Online(R) - Lead Developer
I think you're right. Unless they start evolving the gameplay of the MOBA, they're going to start having a lot of problems with retention. They're repeating the cycle of MMOs, at least in the West, where you have one game that dominates the genre, two or three very successful ones in a distant second place, and everything else just kind of coasting along or closing up.
My guess is that is one of the reasons we are seeing more and more TCGs in development now. They've been catching on over the past year or so and there are now several major ones in development. If we see one of the new ones blow up like WoW or LoL, expect to see a lot more TCGs announced in 2014.
The Online FPS seems to be the sleeper hit that gets very little mention, and if they change significantly, they might start becoming even more common (if that's at all possible) than they already are. AVA, Wolf Team, Combat Arms and several others have been doing very well for the past four or five years, but you hear very little about them.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
It always baffled me too. I had visions of games having different pvp moba modes akin to smites modes with a real big rpg/mmorpg around it and you get benefits from playing the moba modes and the mmorpg parts.
MOBA combat mechanics is much closer to MMORPGs, than that of FPS. Plus the small group pvp is more like an arena fight.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Nope. But they are not MOBAs. At least the combat mechanics is different enough for me to classify, in my mind, differently.
In fact, i like WoT much better than MOBAs (LOL). I am very much looking forward to WoWS.
a new game to play
when the night is young and cold
i'll play if it's good
give us something new
we demand innovation;
this is not the same
I used to play DoTa and Aeon of Strife in Wc3 it was fun then, then i was invited into LoL beta, played 3 months and lost interest, never touched Dota 2 or any other moba title like HoN or Smite.
i would say no, the market ain't saturated yet, as long as the big dogs don't pull the plug at least on 1 (LoL, Dota 2 and HoN) there will be other companies that want a piece of the pie.
Smile
Like Monday Night Combat, LoCO and Smite.
But publishers would rather just clone the original DotA to attract that playerbase. Because copying something is much easier than creating something original.
Like Monday Night Combat, LoCO and Smite.
But publishers would rather just clone the original DotA to attract that playerbase. Because copying something is much easier than creating something original.
Copying happens because people are reluctant to change. Look at the uproar over EQ Next, if the transition is ever so slight then your more likely to get the attention of people that like that style game. Eqnext and larger franchises are willing to take a risk with big changes because they already know they wilk have enough backers to get thier money back. Look at WoW, they change the game all the time people cry but they still play, yes numbers ddwindling, but next gen is upon us and WoW is not next gen.I can see why you would say that, but at the same time the gameplay in most MOBAs was inherited from Warcraft 3. Not a particularly fitting UI, I must say. Smite is much more in tune with how MOBAs should play, but sadly its not nearly as good as LoL or Dota 2 in other aspects. It doesn't even make full use of the 3rd dimension which makes the 3rd person view kinda gimmicky.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
You mean 80% of everything sucks? Why are we fixated on MOBAs, when the same holds true for just about every product made?
There are some good MOBAs out there (Smite is my favorite non-LoL one) but yeah...80% of them will suck. Welcome to life.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
You are not responding to his comparison to FPS. What he means by that is the limited amount of players, such as in the sense of counter strike match ups, not gameplay. You know, few guys, quick game, then done. Also the game play highly resembles that of a RTS, maybe like the one the genre was created out of? A little title called Warcraft 3? Maybe?
In that case MOBA resembles MMO arenas. Small number of players, quick game. So now we have resemblence in BOTH gameplay, and number of players.
BTW, i didn't say MOBA does not resemble RTS. It can resemble more than one type of games, you know. It is a false dichotomy to assume if A resemble B, it cannot resemble C.
Note that while MOBA also resemble RTS to some extend, it has leveling mechanics, and the control of only ONE toon ... and this is closer to MMO arena combat, than RTS.