Why Is The MOBA Genre Still Lacking Character Creation & Customization?
The MOBA genre is one of the fastest growing areas in gaming today. Titles like DotA, SMITE and League of Legends paved the way for the competitive scene, even going as far as getting eSports participants recognized as actual athletes. It's only natural that other developers attempt to cash in on this incredibly lucrative genre but other than a couple of exceptions, most MOBA games change very little outside of the textures and characters. There's two ways to look at the lack of drive within the genre. The first is that developers don't want to take the risk. They've seen the successful formula and they're merely attempting to emulate the same success, this quite often leads to saturation within a genre that restricts future times from evolving. The second, and slightly less likely, is that developers just don't know how to improve on the MOBA recipe. My biggest pet peeve with the currently available MOBA genre is the lack of customization and progression. I realize the main appeal of the genre is the easily accessible short match-ups and the difficult to master mechanics, but why can't they take an element from the RPG genre and add a little spice to the MOBA world? The ability to create a character and actually progress with that character is unheard of in the MOBA space. Most of today's more popular ones don't even really reward progression, not in the same expansive way as the traditional RPG titles. I'm not denying that the foundations of the MOBA are almost alien when compared to any other free online MMO game genre but with a few tweaks and the right restrictions, it could work. Even a rather simple customization system could help bring a whole new level of depth to the MOBA genre. Simple things like purchasing different weapons and items for your character that change individual elements of their appearance, such as a new weapon or haircut. This would give players more incentive to progress thanks to visual changes and rewards, and would also help the player bring a unique flair to each match type. Deeper options are also available, but would cause far more problems. Half the battle of any MOBA game is knowing the characters, in both offensive and defensive roles. Giving single players too much freedom will drastically alter a vital part of the MOBA skillset. However, they could limit players to choosing a single role (ADC, Support etc) and then deliver a selection of skills within that role. I think the latter idea is probably far more difficult to execute but every MOBA around releases skins on a very regular basis, why not take the visual customization to the next level? What do you think? Would you be happy to unlock individual items and pieces of equipment for your MOBA character if there was no physical advantage?
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I believe that dota 2 offers all that