Episode 14 - Multplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA)

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Mark is spending some quality time with his family this week so Peter is bringing on his brother Matthew, to talk about his bread and butter genre, the MOBA.  They discuss the ins and outs of gameplay as well as some of the features of three of the main entires, League of Legends (LoL), Defense of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2) and Heroes of the Storm (HotS).

Mark is spending some quality time with his family this week so Peter is bringing on his brother Matthew, to talk about his bread and butter genre, the MOBA.  They discuss the ins and outs of gameplay as well as some of the features of three of the main entires, League of Legends (LoL), Defense of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2) and Heroes of the Storm (HotS).

eXn Casual Corner

Episode 9 - MOBA Gaming

Intro 

  • Introduce Guests

    • Matthew Zinn - DotA 2 Expert

  • Introduce news topic at hand

    • MOBA Genre Spotlight

      • What constitutes a MOBA?

      • MOBA History

      • What are some of the main franchises?

Talking Point 1 - What is MOBA?

  • MOBA - Multiplayer Online Battle Arena

    • Teams of approximately 5 players travel along pre-designated lanes to destroy opposing structures before destroying the opponents “nexus”

Talking Point 2 - MOBA History

  • DotA as a custom game type on Warcraft 3 shows roots in RTS genre

    • Blizzard actually instituted a rights clause with WC3: Reforged to prevent another DotA event happening

  • 2010s saw the emergence of the genre in the 2010s with titles such as Heroes of Newerth, DotA2, LoL, Smite and many more

  • Rising eSports presence

Talking Point 3 - What are some main MOBA franchises?

  • League of Legends

    • Designed by one of the DotA Allstars creators, Steve Feak

    • Highest viewer numbers for an eSports contest

    • Describe Gameplay - Mark

  • DotA 2

    • Secured IP rights in 2010 and 2012 (beat out Riot and settled with Blizzard per DotA TM)

    • Largest eSports prize pool in a single tournament (The International)

    • Describe Gameplay - Matthew

  • Heroes of the Storm

    • Blizzard calls it a “Hero Brawler”

    • Result of lost trademark battle with Valve

    • Unique entry to genre given multiple maps with objectives as well as shared experience pool rather than individual

    • Viewed as most accessible in the genre

Outro

  • Recap Headers

    • What is MOBA

    • MOBA History

    • MOBA franchises

  • Mark delivers an encouraging and uplifting speech about loving your fellow gamer

  • Canned “this has been an econnxn production, find more at…

Referenced Articles:


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