Moba is a stupid term

[Duster]

The genre should actually be called ARTS, for action real time strategy, just like you could call diablo 2 an ARPG.

Multiplayer online battle arena describes nearly all online video games ever.

>but who cares?
I do, and i'm going to launch a crusade to rename the genre to arts, even if that means I have commit eomniocide.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Is it really an RTS though? I mean, you're only controlling a single unit, your champion/god/whatever, so it's not really a strategy game.

An action real time strategy game would be something more like Brutal Legend.

 

[sanquin]

As said above. You aren't in command of an entire army's strategy. You instead synchronize your strategy with others, which you do in any online game if you want to be good. The "arena" part of "moba" might not be 100% accurate, but it's the closest thing we have.

 

[Rayce Archer]

MOBAS have nothing to do with RTSs beyond stemming from an RTS mod. They're just PVP Hack'n'Slash RPGs. If anybody remembers Nox, its PVP was a MOBA before there were MOBAs.

So I'd call 'em hack'n'slash ____ where ____ is the gametype, such as domination, or whatever you want to call minion escort. Defense, maybe?

 

[The Lunatic]

I just tend to call them "Dota-likes" honestly.

 

[Rayce Archer]

I just tend to call them "Dota-likes" honestly.

I think sounding enough like DOTA to remind people of it without risk of lawsuits is probably where MOBA mostly comes from.

 

[Salsajoe]

I would say the MOBAs you are referring to (LoL, DotA, HoN and probably Smite as well), are not RTSs but they do have a few RTS elements, like the topdown view (some of them at least). But what does that make smite? It does not have a topdown view like we know from other RTS games.
Honestly I cannot see the other elements of RTS the MOBAs have (whatever that term means). The term MOBA, aggravating as you might find it, is something "everybody" knows exactly what you are talking about when you mention it. If I say "X is a MOBA." people will generally accept, that it is like DotA, and if I wanted to specify, for instance, with Smite I would say it is a MOBA with a 3rd person camera.

I have no better term, but I do not think it should be ARTS, it has too much of the word ART in it. Plus it rhymes with farts.

 

[The Wykydtron]

You ain't the first one who's tried to stop it but MOBA, while being a bit nonsensical if you think about what the words mean, MOBA is the one that caught on for whatever reason so it's the one people use. You kind of have to give up when you have people like lead figures of the SMITE dev team throwing the word out there all casual like in every other video they do.

minion escort.

As someone who plays a lot of League, a decent amount of SMITE, occasionally the Strife Beta and one game of DOTA 2 every once in a while when I forget to take my brain medication and actually run feedingrussians/cykablyat.exe, Minion Escort is the perfect name for the genre. Forget ARTS, if we want to start a rebrand of the genre can we make it Minion Escort?

 

[thatonedude11]

Eh, MOBA is no worse than the term Fighting Game, and as others have said, RTS doesn't really describe the way these games are played. I also don't like the term "DotA-like," as several games (such as Heroes of the Storm and Awesomenauts) bear such little resemblance to DotA that the comparison doesn't seem fair. MOBA may not be a great term, but it seems to have stuck, and I have no issue with that.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Is it really an RTS though? I mean, you're only controlling a single unit, your champion/god/whatever, so it's not really a strategy game.

An action real time strategy game would be something more like Brutal Legend.

Then you have games like Smite, which controls like a third person action game, Super Monday night combat, which is also a third person shooter, and Awesomenauts, which is also a platformer.

Dota (and the games that followed directly in it's footsteps) controls like a RTS because it was built from the engine of an RTS. That doesn't mean all MOBA's are RTSs.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Is it really an RTS though? I mean, you're only controlling a single unit, your champion/god/whatever, so it's not really a strategy game.

Agreed.

It also doesn't work for the non-RTS-inspired MOBA style games, like GoD Factory (which is space-combat rather than strategy.)

MOBA is needlessly broad, but it's the best we've got so far. :s

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Can't be as bad as " You Try Hard! "

 

[Ender910_v1legacy]

I just tend to dislike the genre in general, personally. I'm not sure that ARTS is an especially good alternative name though. It implies that a normal rts somehow lacks action. Arcadey might fit for ARTS though (I kid, I kid)