General: MOBAs and MMORPG.com

SBFord

One of the things that we are often asked here at MMORPG.com is why we cover this game or why we don't cover that game. As the genre of online MMOGs grows, so grows our coverage. In his latest column, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Bill Murphy examines the growing "MOBA" movement and how coverage of MOBAs actually fits within the scope of what we cover at the site. Check it out and then leave us a thought or two in the comments.

In short, we’re just treating MOBAs like any other game at MMORPG.com. You may see an entry on the Game List one day that denotes these games as a “MOBA”, but by and large they’ll be getting features, news, interviews, and the like just as any other game at the site would. We’ll be reviewing them, critiquing them and chatting about them on the forums just as any other game. So basically, if you don’t care about League of Legends or any game of its ilk, then it will still be up to you to avoid that coverage. In no way, shape or form are we going to stop covering the other “true” MMORPGs we already cover. This is just a logical step for us as the MMORPG genre continues to spider-web out into a million different subgenres.

Read more of Bill Murphy's MOBAs and MMORPG.com.

mCalvert

WTF is a MOBA? But heres a thought. Why not just drop whatever they are and all the other non MMORPG coverage and spend more time on MMORPGs? There are quite a lot of ones out there that have no coverage whatsoever, like Arch Age and Dawntide.

Kyleran

Originally posted by mCalvert

WTF is a MOBA? But heres a thought. Why not just drop whatever they are and all the other non MMORPG coverage and spend more time on MMORPGs? There are quite a lot of ones out there that have no coverage whatsoever, like Arch Age and Dawntide.

LOL, yeah, I wondered why they thought I was nerd enough to know what MOBA stood for and didn't bother to include the definition in the article, had to look it up in the Urban Dictionary.  (Multi-player Online Battle Arena it seems)

Just more chaffe for me to ignore, which I do with their two sister sites.  I'm here to read about MMORPGs and only MMORPG's, but it's their site and they can cater to who they wish.

Wonder if they'll toss in sports games like soccer if those get popular at PAX?

cheggelund

I still consider DOTA (for classic Warcraft 3) the best and the original MOBA. Simple, but much depth in strategy.

 

--Chegg

BillMurphy

Actually, the only reason we don't have more coverage for Archeage and Dawntide is because both companies aren't exactly sharing a lot yet. That said Archeage has an interview with Jake Song going up next week, and we are working stuff out for Dawntide.

That said, feel free to avoid MOBA coverage if its not your cup of tea. That doesn't mean our other more MMORPG stuff is.going by the wayside. We are just expanding so to speak.

Senadina

Thanks for the definition. Definite oversight Bill. I am not at all interested in these games either, but that article was pretty declarative. Whether we like it or not, MMORPG is gonna cover them. So there.

erictlewis

So I guess that is why we cover WOT Word of tanks.  It sure is not an mmo,  I think its more of a co-op as most of these games are.  I actually do play wot some, but I still respectfully disagree that these moba's need to be covered, but then that's my honest opinion and we know the joke that goes with that.

At lease we can agree to disagree without being mean.

 

Paragus1

Whether or not they belong here is up to the staff to decide.  I will say this though,  the last few years this genre has been riddled with bombs and botched games.    I started playing League of Legends a little over a year ago with my guild and it has outlasted every MMO we have tried playing in the last 5 or 6 years.  The game is free to play which makes it highly accessible, competitive, and growing at a stunning rate.  Having done 2 interviews with Riot so far, I can say that as a company they are hyper active with communicating with their community.   MOBA games as a genre will be one to watch in the next few years, and League of Legends specifically is well on its way to achieving World of Warcraft level status in terms of popularity.

aspekx

don't forget if you feel an mmo is not being covered you can always apply to do the coverage yourself:

http://www.mmorpg.com/opportunities.cfm

Vyeth

Since they, themselves, have become a full blown genre (which does not make them MMORPG's, as the name of the site suggests) the developers of this site should do what they have done for other genre's and make a site seperate from this with nothing but news and information about those games..

OR, they could even include them on RTSGuru.com, being that they resemble those a little more closely than mmorpg's.. (With the exception of ones that do not have the traditional control, like LOCO online)

astoria

Originally posted by mCalvert

WTF is a MOBA? 

 No clue.

Multiplayer, Online, Beatem, Arena?

astoria

eh finally found it on urban dictionary - Battle Arena.

took more than one google.

zeowyrm

Originally posted by Vyeth

Since they, themselves, have become a full blown genre (which does not make them MMORPG's, as the name of the site suggests) the developers of this site should do what they have done for other genre's and make a site seperate from this with nothing but news and information about those games..

OR, they could even include them on RTSGuru.com, being that they resemble those a little more closely than mmorpg's.. (With the exception of ones that do not have the traditional control, like LOCO online)

This is definitely the best suggestion here.

travamars

Seems to me since this site is called mmorpg you would only cover mmorpg's. Maybe spend more time covering the real mmorpg's and giving better reviews .

Kuinn

Originally posted by Vyeth

Since they, themselves, have become a full blown genre (which does not make them MMORPG's, as the name of the site suggests) the developers of this site should do what they have done for other genre's and make a site seperate from this with nothing but news and information about those games..

OR, they could even include them on RTSGuru.com, being that they resemble those a little more closely than mmorpg's.. (With the exception of ones that do not have the traditional control, like LOCO online)

 

Yes this. I come to MMORPG.com for MMOG's, like the site name suggests, everything else really is not much more worth than a sigh when I read non-mmorpg articles and think they could have made a mmorpg article instead. A sister site something like multiplayerguru.com would be great to cover all the non mmorpg multiplayer stuff imo, or something like that.

 

It's not really a big deal, it's just a bit confusing when articles pop up from titles you know nothing and assume they are mmorpgs, and then they are not, but they are in mmorpg.com. It will be big deal though if they start showing more and in large numbers and you really need to start working to find out in which genre some title actually belongs, I hope it wont come to that.

gaeanprayer

Why are these not on RTS Guru instead? There closer to that genre than they are to any MMO.

My guess is that RTS Guru doesn't carry the same interest (ad revenue) that MMORPG.com does. They are after all a 'business and a publication'.

Kyleran

Originally posted by zeowyrm

Originally posted by Vyeth

Since they, themselves, have become a full blown genre (which does not make them MMORPG's, as the name of the site suggests) the developers of this site should do what they have done for other genre's and make a site seperate from this with nothing but news and information about those games..

OR, they could even include them on RTSGuru.com, being that they resemble those a little more closely than mmorpg's.. (With the exception of ones that do not have the traditional control, like LOCO online)

This is definitely the best suggestion here.

Well, I think the problem is advertisers can't afford to pay additional fees for different sites unless they feel the focus will draw in a certain type of player that another site won't reach.

While its probably not too hard to convince people that those interestedin FPS'ers might not be terribly interested in MMORPG's, the MOBA category isn't standardized enough (look how many of us didn't know what it meant) to convince advertisers it needs its unique website.

If they grow as much as predicted, one day I'm sure a new website will be formed that focuses strictly on those types of games.

Robbgobb

I am a player that has played a lot of MMOs and still looking for one that I enjoy playing for long periods. I have to say enjoy Rift because of how can change up a few things and your character is different than what it was. That adds to playing the PvP aspect. I have played the social games like Farmville. I have tried to enjoy a few games that I liked but had too many issues to keep playing but I enjoyed that offered me some of what I enjoyed. The story is what interests me in the Old Republic but figure it will be a short time as well. I know some companies are working on games that sound more interesting to me that has social aspects of games like Farmville and MMO aspects of what I really enjoy playing.

That said, I am glad to see the MOBA games here. I play LoL and look at others. I was part of the viewers who was up in the early AM to watch the matches happen. NA teams lost as I felt they would but greatly enjoyed seeing the games though sometimes I think Phreak needs to not be doing the commentating. These games make me think of the time I use to spend in MMOs up to DAoC. Since then there has not been a game that I enjoyed enough to want to keep playing past a certain point. I disagree with the RTS as most are small groups and generally only controlling one person then I am fine with it being here.

Thank you for covering these games.

wfSeg

Thank you for covering MOBAs. There are a few up and coming ones and some still in beta that I'm interested in.

k11keeper

I'm glad I'm not alone here when I ask. Why aren't these games covered on RTSguru instead? The original MOBA as you call it is DOTA which is a mod of Warcraft which is an RTS game. So can anyone give a legitimate reason why these games aren't on that site instead of this one? If it's really about advertising dollars and not what actually makes sense then that's kind a sad reason.

BattleM99

Count me in the group that didn't know what a MOBA was, and doesn't really care.

 

Perhaps you should start a MOBA site, if they are so popular.

daeandor

I agree with the plan.  Many of the mmorpg focused players have been exposed to arena play in WoW, GW or DAOC or whatever, for some time now and many loved that aspect of mmorpgs.  So it fits that a section of our favorite mmorpgs that has it's own niche game should be allowed.

Paragus1

There seems to be a lot of people who either are not familiar with LoL HoN nd the like, or don't really know what MOBA's are.  They really are a hybrid of RTS and RPG so there is probably a case to be made for both ways.   If you are not familiar with them, I'd definitely recommend trying one to see what the appeal is for gamers who play MMOs to help better understand.   LoL is free so can try it without making any financial investment.   You might be surprised.

Larsa

And another one who had no idea what a MOBA is, not that I have now but I'm not interested anyway. 

I hope the general forums stay MMORPG centric though.

mCalvert

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Actually, the only reason we don't have more coverage for Archeage and Dawntide is because both companies aren't exactly sharing a lot yet. That said Archeage has an interview with Jake Song going up next week, and we are working stuff out for Dawntide.



That said, feel free to avoid MOBA coverage if its not your cup of tea. That doesn't mean our other more MMORPG stuff is.going by the wayside. We are just expanding so to speak.

 Those were just 2 examples. Im sure I can come up with more. You dont have to wait for them to share with you. Just go out and get the info. I would imagine the MMORPG world is busy enough to keep you busy. I dont mind if you report them here, it just seems like it takes way from actuall MMOs

Grunty

What you cover is up to you. How you cover it also matters. What the fuck is a MOBA?

Y'all might want to invest in a manual of style for writing. As an example from the wikipedia coverage of Manual of Style on abbreviations

"Abbreviations

Main page: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (abbreviations)

See also: Wikipedia:Edit summary legend

Write out both the full version and the abbreviation at first occurrence

When introducing a new name or term in an article, use the full name or term on its first occurrence, followed by the abbreviated form in round brackets. "