Talk:Multiplayer online battle arena

Strategy?

I'm not sure I understand why this 'genre' is lumped in with Strategy games, other than the origins as a Starcraft mod/scenario. By all accounts, this genre is more in the style of ARPGs than ARTS, just with interface holdovers from their ARTS roots.

I would think if you can call MOBAs and their ilk Strategy games, might as well call Battlefield and Tribes series games (or really any similar FPS/TPS with a focus on teamwork and taking out or over bases) by the same label, since they involve just as much strategic or tactical thinking and coordination with teammates.

How exactly does this sort of thing work, exactly? I mean, yeah, the genre spawned as a Strategy game mod, but the play style and mechanics seem more in line with other genres. I feel like this isn't the only instance of mods playing very differently from their host game, just a rare instance where such spawned a separate genre beyond the host game. What's the logic and methodology for classification and categorization in this case? 71.121.252.207 (talk) 02:02, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

MOBA games are not RTS, but they are strategy games. Strategy is much wider term than RTS. MOBA genre only originated as a subgenre of real-time strategy, but now is completely separate genre. 178.223.136.199 (talk)

I agree with the point that if we call MOBA Strategy games then why won't we call Battlefield strategy games too. The root of considering MOBA as Strategy lies in the fact that most known games of this genre are RTS (League of legends, DOTA etc) and so MOBA became associated with Strategy games. But now we can see it more clear that MOBA is separated from Strategy because we have a few examples of MOBA games that are more likely considered ARPG than Strategy (Smite, Paragon). I think categorization MOBA as Strategy should be reconsidered. QueenToF7 (talk) 06:52, 19 March 2019 (UTC)

From the Strategy game wiki article: ″A strategy game or strategic game is a game (e.g. a board game) in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decision tree style thinking, and typically very high situational awareness." Sounds like a MOBA/ARTS to me. Aozf05 (talk) 19:59, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

Can we find reliable sources for these two claims?

It's about MOBA origins so we talk about very old game. Problem is that Future Cop: LAPD is one of the originators of the genre so it's not the best idea to remove information about it from the article. EchoBlu (talk) 11:28, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

"... making Future Cop: LAPD the first MOBA game released as, unlike Herzog Zwei, it meets the criteria of an online battle arena."

•  Comment: Any reliable reference about why is Future Cop: LAPD a (first) multiplayer online battle arena game is welcome. EchoBlu (talk)
•  Comment: That's my contribution claiming FC LAPD to be the first ever MOBA. The reason for this is because it was the first MOBA type gameplay to include the 'Online' component (multiplayer *online* battle arena). This is certainly the case. Reference this summary from 1999: Link, as well as the box art which states also that it's competitive (Precinct Assault) mode includes online multiplayer: Link. DylanDesign

"Aeon64 stated that he was attempting to create gameplay similar to that of Future Cop: LAPD's Precinct Assault mode."

•  Comment: This statement will be removed if reference can't be found, but it will be interesting if this claim is true. EchoBlu (talk)

I'm not convinced either claim is perfectly accurate. Herzog Zwei has been cited as an early MOBA(-esque) game, as the article attests. Furthermore:

Technically, ​Aeon of Strife​ itself wasn't the first example of this [MOBA] gameplay exactly, that honor would go to either Technosoft's ​Herzog Zwei​ (1989), quoted as directly inspiring the original WarCraft​, or EA Redwood Shores's ​Future Cop: L.A.P.D. ​'s (1998) 'Precinct Assault' mode depending on your definition of the genre ...

• Lopuszanski, Stefan (4 July 2019). "It's Mods All The Way Down". University of Connecticut. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.25818.08644. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

As for the claim that Aeon of Strife was modeled after Future Cop, USgamer notes that:

Eventually a mapmaker even created a custom map for StarCraft that was rumored to have been inspired heavily by Future Cop 's own Precinct Assault called Aeon of Strife.

(emphasis added)

• McCarthy, Caty (19 October 2017). "The Rise and Fall of Visceral Games". USgamer.

I could find no reliable sources that confirm either claim, rather speak against them. Another good source I found on the topic in general:

• Minotti, Mike (1 September 2014). "The history of MOBAs: From mod to sensation". VentureBeat.

Regards, IceWelder [✉] 12:30, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

Related to this type of claim, I was thinking of making a table at video game genre to list, where we can, the first known and the "accepted" defining game of each major genre. Some genres, like adventure games this would be one and the same (arguably Colossal Cave Adventure, but I'd have to check), but you get to these more advanced genres and you have cases like MOBA where here, Aeon of Strife is recognized as the defining game, but you have one or two examples of games that may have proceeded it but didn't define it. Same with roguelikes; Rogue's the defining game (dur), but there's a few known preceeding games that got lost to time. Anyone see an issue with this? --Masem (t) 15:36, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

section "Resemblance to other genres"

i am most certainly not an expert, but looking from the sidelines, MOBAs always reminded me primarily of old tower defense games. is that just a fluke on my side? i didn't just want to add it to the section, but its absence was odd to me. Opinions? --91.64.58.74 (talk) 13:41, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

We'd need to have sources that they are related. The closest similarity is that they both have towers. Otherwise I don't consider them at all related myself. -- ferret (talk) 14:20, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

MLBB is not a MOBA?

I've read the history of this article and I didn't see Mobile Legends in the mainstream popularity part. 49.145.57.216 (talk) 15:39, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

Are there sources that discuss its mainstream popularity? The article isn't meant to hold a list of every popular game. -- ferret (talk) 15:41, 29 December 2023 (UTC)