

Even if the gameplay similarities are superficial. However, MOBAs as a genre is an ever-changing thing, and a lot of games now bear the MOBA subgenre. Without those three and IceFrog, we wouldn’t have the MOBA genre as it stands today. Guinsoo and Pendragon even made League of Legends thanks to their experience with DotA. The game became a massive inspiration to other MOBAs and formed the foundation of the genre.Įul, Guinsoo, and Pendragon gave their contributions, don’t get us wrong. However, it’s these constant updates and contributions that gave us the DotA we know and love today. IceFrog was an absolute beast of a developer, though very reclusive. A map that added many popular heroes, items, and other things from different DotA iterations into a single, awesome map.Īll things would come to an end, however, as Guinsoo would eventually stop developing the map, giving the reins to IceFrog. Eventually, it came to Guinsoo, who co-developed it with Pendragon to create DotA Allstars. However, he made it open-source, so a lot of developers added their versions of DotA. That map, called Defense of the Ancients, was one of, if not the most popular map ever made on Warcraft 3, spawning many iterations and versions. After all, if you don’t work together, your team is sure to lose.

Teamwork is necessary, and very much encouraged. To win, they need to destroy the enemy Ancient located on their team’s base. Take some of the units from the base game, give them abilities, get 2 teams of 5, and make them fight to the death on a 3-lane map. However, the real start of MOBAs began on Warcraft 3, because when that game came out, someone had a pretty awesome idea. Mostly because the genre was created from a strategy game, specifically Starcraft 1’s Aeon of Strife. They’re kind of, sort of, a subgenre to strategy games. MOBAs, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas.
