Once there was a dream, a dream that turned into an idea… That idea became a reality and thus the world of MOBAs was created.
There will always be conflict between the fans of games of the same genres, and in this case, The MOBA Case, the fight between the communities of LoL and DOTA was inevitable to begin with. The games share similarities and yet they are so different from each other. But what really is behind their creation, and which one really set the standards, so the next in line MOBA could be born?
I myself have spend my fair share of time in both games and this is what I have to offer to you regarding their “powers” and flaws, in the treatise that follows.
The Beginning:
Much have been said by both sides on how the idea of the MOBA genre begun, but facts throughout the web and by the creator’s own statements, have the MOBA idea, first captured by a man nicknamed as Aion64.
In 1998 Blizzard Entertainment, along with their newest by time title Starcraft, release a suite of game editing tools called StarEdit. A tool that was meant for modders to explore and create upon, and so did Aion64. He tinkered with the suite and created the first version of our modern MOBAs. It was named Aeon of Strife.
He took the default models of Starcraft and converted their stats,abilities and sometimes looks, so he could breathe life to new heroes!
The idea ofcourse, as you well know, was for us to control one of these new heroes into battle with four other allies against five enemies and crush them into pulp, along with their base, so victory could be obtained.
Aion of Strife did not have the response expected by it’s creator and was left to it’s fate, up until Warcraft III, the newest game by Blizzard was released with it’s own suite of game editing tools.
The Many-Fathered Child:
Euls, was the man who took the idea behind Aeon of Strife and converted it, to the all new Warcraft III engine. And thus the first version of Defence of the Ancients (DOTA) was born. He improved the game overall, from it’s complexity to the mechanics, even the way heroes would act and feel, but he too would eventually leave the modding scene.
And so, yet another time, the genre of MOBA was yet to be trully nourished into the giant it is today. It was left with none to fix the large amounts of bugs and tweaks it needed. Many modders tried to create their own versions of the map, with different heroes for each one, but only one truly understood what really what had to be done.
Meian, yet another modder, recreated a map closest to Euls, but this time he took heroes from many different versions of maps that other modders crafted, and combined them into one, giving it a new name as well; Dota: Allstars.
A short time after a new modder came into the fray and took over DOTA Allstars. Steve “Guinsoo” Feak. He was the one who took DOTA to a whole new level and made his map the one to rule them all.
Everyone was now playing Dota: Allstars, with all the new changes and Guinsoo’s guidance, for over a year, it was something never seen before.
Alas, as with many modders before him, he too left Dota’s development behind and at the hands of a partner to release his last update for Dota at the time. Fortunately, this was not the final update nor Dota’s fate as some months later it was handed by Guinsoo to the final and up until now modder responsible for the game. Icefrog.
Icefrog, the youngest “founding father” of Dota, introduced a massive number of changes to the game. Mechanics were tweaked, heroes were scrapped, while the already introduced heroes were modded to resemble what Icefrog had in mind for his version of DOTA.
Although many things might sound scary, since change is one thing that gamers do not take lightly, the game was astoundingly well-received by the community and henceforth only grew in fame and number of players.
Euls Strikes Back:
Aside the Star Wars reference, indeed Euls did not turn his back to the moba genre. Not only he understood it’s potential but he had plans for creating a spin-off, at the time, himself! He took all the knowledge he had gathered of all the years of modding and with the help of the newly formed team called, Riot Games, created his own child. A child he would name League of Legends.
And a Legend it became indeed. Given the acronym LoL, League became a people’s favorite faster than anyone would expect or imagine. A new engine, simpler yet nigh accessible by all, with preety landscape and colourful heroes and spells it took the scene of MOBAS by the end of the first year of it’s release. It’s numbers rose rapidly and Euls, now with Guinsoo at his side created many new heroes, items and mechanics that drew more and more players to their wonderful new game.
In Conclusion:
All that’s left to be answered now are a couple of questions..
First of all…
- Why? Why did League had such a hit, and is beloved by such a wide audience, regardless of age?
- And what is that which makes people drawn to it like flies even to this present day?
- Why did it surpass Dota in a whim by the first year, even though Dota was there already with a greater number of content to begin with?
- What really makes these games different? And what are it’s respective audiences like?
I can’t answer those questions for you, but I will share my personal opinion and experience with both games in the next article to come.
Thanks for reading!
-Val
AFK vault 