MOBA Gamers

There was a time, son, when this map was just as popular as DOTA.

The MOBA, or “Multiplayer Online Battle Arena” genre, up until very recently only existed in the Warcraft 3 custom map environment. Titles like Aeon of Strife, Tides of Blood, Battleships, and of course DotA created what is poised to be an explosive stand-alone genre in the very near future. So what have some of these upcoming titles, such as League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth, brought to the table in terms of real development?

Probably the most important issue is the disconnect recovery feature. On Battle.net, if your Comcastic internet connection decides to burp, you've just turned a 5v5 into a game not worth playing. Disconnect recovery allows players whose game crashes or internet blips to get back into the game quickly and seamlessly, and should bring smiles to gamers everywhere as the frustration of random disconnects goes the way of the dodo.

And what about the players who disconnect on purpose? You know, leavers. The ones who think its hilarious to ruin games by running into the enemy base a few times and then running off and hiding in the deep anonymity of the internet's deepest caves, free from any kind of penalty or repercussion. Those days are over, as it seems that “leaver-busting” methods are now in full swing, from displaying your percentage of games left to putting “locks” on created games, keeping people with high leave rates shut out completely. Basically, the leavers will only be able to play with leavers, which undoubtedly create some hilarious situations.

Along the same lines comes stat tracking – whether this is a good thing or a bad thing has yet to be truly seen. On one hand, it gives a decent indicator of the skill level of the people you're going to be playing with. On the other hand, people have taken the statwhoring to a whole new level, to the point of playing the game... Incorrectly, to say the least. Who wants to play a support hero when your stats will go way higher if you play a ganking stealther? Then you get a whole team with this mentality, and you don't have to be a genius to figure out that the impact that stat tracking is going to have is still highly questionable. Games have been won and lost because someone didn't want to suicide to kill a barracks, because that would have hurt his Kill-Death ratio.

Options, options, options – If the game is over and the other team is just farming and refuses to finish, the forfeit option lets the losing team just move on with their lives instead of being forced into some kind of sadomasochistic griefer's dream where there is no hope of winning. Playing a game 4v4 and 2 of your buddies show up to fill teams but the game has already started? No problem, use the remake option. And last but not least, the kick option – for when Johnny McStupid joins your game, doesn't plan on leaving, and does nothing put make beelines for the opponent's base at level 1.

Finally, there's the community. The new incarnations of the MOBA genre all include some form accountability tied to the account – a far cry from Battle.net's wild west atmosphere where you can make a hundred different names and accounts everyday if you feel like it. The DOTA crowd especially has been regarded as one of the most immature and nasty communities out there, and hopefully a little more personal responsibility goes a long way in this area and will encourage new players rather than burn them at the stake.

There's no doubt about it – MOBA's have come a long way since playing Uther Party in your basement.