MOBA SMOBA

Friday! Now didn't that jsut come out of no where. It is always better though when a Friday sneaks up on you rather than a Monday. Being Friday does mean Reader Post time and one submission in particular by NOSA2 contained something I have been saying forever about Heroes of the Storm. The game even in alpha wants to not jsut be part of the rest of the MOBA crowd. It wants to be its own game within the genre it doesn't want to have concepts, which to me are outdated and silly. It wants to have a game that is attractive to the new and casual player but yet also to be played at the top level will need quite a lot of skill. Almost exactly the way Starcraft II works except maybe even easier to get into playing. With that in mind here is the submission

From what I've seen from Heroes of the Storm (not in alpha). The point of this game isn't to replicate the current MOBA genre but to give an option that is different while still maintaining the play style. 

Current MOBA options are all very alike but are also plagued by the same issues.

• Kill ninja's
• Running back and forth for a new piece of gear/item
• A very intense learning curve including what classes/characters should be in which lane, what gear you need to buy and in what order to buy it. As well as loads of other really trivial side things that can drive a person to just hate them.

Blizzard is doing the right thing by not directly competing with these other titles by changing the game to suit a more casual player. The challenge of HOTS looks to be directly in how well you play your character and not whether you are tagging killing blows, buying the right pieces or in the lane you have to be in. Blizzard seems to be heading this way with a lot of their games now and from a business perspective it's the correct way. Broader audience means a larger player base which in turn equals more money spent. 

If you watch any of the current streamers vids, then you will know this game is not likely nor does it aim to steal people away from LOL or DOTA. It will develop it's own separate player base and the only players that would consider switching to this over those are the ones that like the differences (not many). That just doesn't matter though. Do MOBA players really need 5 different MOBA games all with the same rules and same play styles... change is good!

Why would they try for a piece of the current MOBA pie when they can bake their own pie? They have the power behind their name and the money to do what they want.

So there you have it this week's Reader Post. Thank you as always to all of your submissions it would not be possible to do this without any of you participating.