I personally think MOBA should be used to broadly describe a style of game rather than what’s done while playing it. I know that when Riot coined the term, they were referring to games like DotA, LoL, etc.; to me the whole approach to a match’s flow is echoed similarly enough throughout multiple games, that applying the term MOBA to other games is a logical extension.

To me a game is a MOBA if:

• The way to interact with it is primarily designed around playing with other players online (the M and O of MOBA.)
• The goals of the players are against the goals of other players — ie. it’s competitive rather than cooperative (the B of MOBA.)
• Any player at the beginning of a match has access to all the same options as any other player. This one is a little more vague, but as the A in MOBA stands for arena, I imagine it like a group of gladiators standing before a communal weapon rack that they’ll all pick from; no one has any options that the others don’t have access to.

Following these criteria, something like Overwatch is a MOBA, as is DotA, and ironically LoL isn’t as you have to unlock options meaning you don’t satisfy the arena condition. To differentiate games like DotA, Smite, Awesomenauts, Deadlock, etc., I prefer the term lane-pusher as that’s a lot more specific and understandable.

Does it really matter what it’s called? Not really. I mostly just do it so I can feel superior to Riot for coming up with a vague term that is applied, how I deem, incorrectly, while also excluding their own game from the term that they made to describe it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7haqnQvrYfI

I feel like I’m the only one who prefers the original, gamecube controls. Playing through the switch remake, I played with the new controls for, like, 10 minutes before switching to the original control scheme and playing the rest of the game with it.

The Finals has been my default game — if none of my friends are playing anything else — since it launched

The UI on the left isn’t labeled, so it’s hard to tell what any joke could be if you don’t know what it is

The ellipsis

Awesomenauts

It’s a 3v3 2D platformer lane-pusher with an art style reminiscent of a saturday-morning cartoon. The upgrade system is very simple compared to other lane-pushers, and the games tend to go a lot quicker (15-25 minutes.) It’s very intuitive to get into, but still has room for a lot of expression of skill.

Unfortunately Ronimo (the company who made it) went bankrupt in late August, so the matchmaking server went down in September; but recently Atari bought the rights to the IP, so it’s possible it will come back soon.

This is how I approach these: that square only has a single traffic light, not multiple traffic lights like the prompt is asking for