Smite - Third-person MOBA

[spoodie]

https://account.hirezstudios.com/smitegame/

I've had a few games of Smite this morning, after receiving a beta invite at the weekend, and I'm quite impressed. It's much the same as other MOBAs, but the third-person view means you obviously can't see behind you, so need to keep an eye on the map and check your surroundings more carefully. Also there's no target lock, so you must aim accurately with your ranged attacks and obviously be facing melee targets. The rest is fairly standard as far as I can tell.

It all seems to work pretty well, looks nice and the perspective may make it more palatable to players new to the genre. I think I prefer it.

How many haven't tried a MOBA yet or don't care to?

[bomberesque]

I'd never even heard of MOBA until you mentioned it. sounds like an interesting mash-up of genres

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I had to look MOBA up.

[Dog Pants]

I've got a beta invite somewhere. The combination of third person action and MOBA kind of put me off; I have first person MOBA in MNC and top down MOBA in pretty much everything else. I'd give it a go though. I was playing a sort of MOBA RTS-light this weekend called Starvoid, which was okay but nothing to write home about. I have a free pre-release key for that if anyone wants it (it's free anyway but it gets you early access presumably).

[HereComesPete]

I had to look MOBA up.

Museum of bad art?

[spoodie]

I had to look MOBA up.

Yeah, I suppose that's understandable. We have had a discussion on here about another one called League of Legends (the thread helpfully titled "League of Bellends"), but it's still a niche game type.

Both Valve and Blizzard have their own games on the way, so perhaps it'll become more mainstream when companies that people care about get products released. They're inspiringly named DOTA 2 and the Blizzard DOTA (DOTA being the first of this type as I understand it, and that just a mod for Warcraft 3). And apparently there's also a Lord of the Rings one coming.

I'd put the Monday Night Combat series in a MOBA-like category. It has some important elements, especially the Super MNC, but they're not traditional. The gameplay feels different, to me at least.

If you think you like the idea of a PvP arena type game, it's worth learning the basics of the gameplay and language used. It's really not that complicated on the surface and also has some depth. If you are interested LoL is probably the best place to start, it's free and has some tutorial stuff.

[Joose]

If you are interested LoL is probably the best place to start, it's free and has some tutorial stuff.

Entirely this.

I've played quite a bit of LoL, due largely to the fact that its an "easy to learn, hard to master" kind of game. This meant I got into it pretty quickly, but there is enough depth to keep me interested. The valve DOTA game, on the other hand, is more of a "hard to learn, hard to master, and seems to attract the worst kind of online gamer" deal.

[Dog Pants]

Demigod can be played single player or in challenge mode with humans and bots, and is pretty basic compared to other MOBA. That's not a bad starting point, although I was fine with LoL.

[FatherJack]

I thought a MOBA meant 'a DOTA' (meaning a DOTA-style game) after viewing the info on Smite. MOBAs exist which aren't DOTA-style, so I don't think that definition is that helpful in this case. MOBAs can be anything from FPS deathmatch games to MMO battlegrounds. I guess calling it a DOTA might put people off, though. It would me.

[spoodie]

MOBAs exist which aren't DOTA-style

This is true and I'm obviously thinking about it the wrong way. MOBA is a broad term, like you say, and many of the examples are DOTA-like, this game included.

I don't know why being DOTA-like would put people off though, but then I've never played the original. I'm guessing the seriousness community.

[Joose]

I'm guessing the seriousness community.

I'm guessing this is the case a lot of the time, but it really shouldn't put you off the whole genre. Like I've said before, my experience with randoms in LoL has been far more positive than negative. Its a shame that an entire style of game has been tarred with the dickhole brush just because its first couple of iterations had some of the worst gaming elitists ever.

[FatherJack]

I'm guessing the seriousness community.

I'm guessing this is the case a lot of the time, but it really shouldn't put you off the whole genre. Like I've said before, my experience with randoms in LoL has been far more positive than negative. Its a shame that an entire style of game has been tarred with the dickhole brush just because its first couple of iterations had some of the worst gaming elitists ever.

It's partly this for me, reinforced by the rather snooty tutorial in one of them, which told me off when I went for a shit halfway through it.

Also though - and I appreciate rage-quitting part-way through the tutorial hasn't given me the fullest understanding of the genre - it looks on the surface to be rather dull.

While I see other famous Warcraft mods like Tower Defense keep introducing fresh new twists, I don't really know enough about DOTA-style games to be able to tell why they bothered making another one. They just look like a linear plod towards each other down iteratively prettier paths.


I'm not saying I won't try one (I did play the original for a time) just that I'm not that interested in the genre, and bewildered by the seemingly endless number of remakes.

[Dog Pants]

I think the remakes are down to MOBAs being seen as a cash cow. Nothing more. The appeal to me is the same as dungeons had in WoW - knowing my character well enough to succeed. When you click and suddenly become effective with a character you thought was pants. I'm with Joose on the community too, I've not seen a lot of bad behaviour in LoL. I stick to the co-op vs not games though. The stigma isn't unfounded, but playing with five 5punkers is only like playing L4D or SMNC.

[spoodie]

It's partly this for me, reinforced by the rather snooty tutorial in one of them, which told me off when I went for a shit halfway through it.

Committing to 30-60 minutes of playtime is one of the things that needs to be accepted in the DOTA-likes, if you want to play. If you go AFK or leave you're spoiling the game for those remaining. Also not dying is extremely important, as it gives your opponents a significant boast.

[Joose]

Also not dying is extremely important, as it gives your opponents a significant boast.

It is important to try not to die, but even the best players croak occasionally. It really highlights the difference between LoL and DOTA2 playerbase with the reactions when you do that though:

LoL: Generally no reaction, occasionally "bad luck!" messages, very rarely someone will call you a noob, followed by everyone else telling them to shut up.
DOTA: Your computer explodes through the sheer horse of hate screaming its way down your internet pipes.