I saw this article of a moba in development showing the similarities to league and others. Do they expect to be successful without originality to set them apart from the rest? Or just riding the success of other moba developers for a short while to get in on what is popular? Do you think that the author is wrong and just reading into it too much? Discuss.
Hmm, I'll have t old my end-all opinion until I get more info on the game itself, but as far as the general idea of a new MOBA I agree with the article. It's a crowded field, and League's breakthrough success (also Dota's, with Smite getting a few scraps) had a large factor of originality behind it. MOBA was new and exciting, with a lot of creative space and possibilities to work with. With Blizzard coming into the mix as well I doubt any other MOBA's will attract a large enough audience to put a dent in the other AAA MOBA's that we see today. Now, I'm not saying it's impossible, there could be a stroke of absolute genius to really have AoF or others shine through, but it'll be something close to a miracle to get out of of LoL, Dota, Heroes of the Storm, Dawngate and Smite's collective shadow.
Honestly, it completely depends on the game. LoL and DOTA are in essence the same genre but, things work differently in both. There are only 3 other MOBA games that I would consider as competitors to these two; SMITE, Dawngate and Heroes of the Storm.
It is naive to say that they aren't just jumping on the MOBA-bandwagon and hoping for success, everyone is doing it or has tried. While it is fair for the author to draw similarities, the subject matter that has been chosen for comparison is ludicrous. He chose to criticize design of all things. Guess what, you know why the design is similar? It isn't a mystery; colours, shapes, character archetypes; themes have rules, designers abide by conventions, there is a known formula for things that look good/badass/cool/etc. So there are bound to be similarities. SMITE has Anubis, LoL has Nasus; LoL has Annie, DOTA has Lina; Guess what, they are similar because they are based on the same things. Inspiration is drawn from a limited amount of human sources.
If the author wanted the article to be taken a little more seriously, a comparison should have been drawn toward other elements instead. What does this Crytek game do differently? What sets it apart besides the theme? Infinite Crisis has absolutely nothing going for it except for the fact that you can use DC heroes. They slightly modified the Dominion and SR maps? Big deal, in essence it is just LoL with DC characters. They have modified version of the rune system? Why? So you can customize your hero/experience? What a load of crap. It is forgettable.
DOTA has STR/INT/AGI + a whole bunch of mechanics; Dawngate has the role system and a rune system that allows you to get passive abilities; SMITE has a different POV and item system; Heroes of the Storm has team levels and no rune system; these are all things that help define their game as its own thing. This Crytek MOBA will succeed or fail based on the developer's decisions. If they are making a MOBA just to get a piece of the pie, chances are it will fail. If they are out to make a game that is fun first, successful second, they might have a shot.
The author is particularly wrong with his comparisons. A sample size of n = 2 comparing 2 MOBAs is not nearly enough to cry that they're identical. If you compare LoL's wolfman champion (Warwick) to Fenrir, you notice serious differences in theme (chemistry v. god-slayer), playstyle (drain tank v. bruiser) and aesthetics (fire + chains v. fur). Beyond light + blond girls, Joan of Arc and Lux share almost nothing. One is a spammy sniper mage with huge burst, and the other appears to be a melee brawler with healing powers. I would say she's better as Leona, but then no one could write a snippy one-liner about "blond hair and breast plates omgwtf!" The only legit comparison he makes is Fenrir from AoF and Fenrir from Smite and that's because they're the same freaking character. They literally draw identical inspiration, so of course they're going to have the same theme.
Aside from that, let's talk about the actual stuff in the game. Most of the game is not splash pictures and lore snippets, but actual gameplay. One reason Dawngate and Infinite Crisis aren't doing so hot is because they're obvious LoL knockoffs, and when players have to choose between "playing LoL" or "playing LoL but memorizing another 20 champs", they usually just go for the former. Honestly, I think all games could use the fighting polygon team as long as each one had legitimately different mechanics. DotA / DotA 2 is a great example of this, because the game is so incredibly different from LoL that you can hardly claim one is a clone of the other (aside from the really obvious art knockoffs like Corki).
The similarities look extremely superficial. It's not like "werewolf" and "little girl" are crazy concepts, and the Joan of Arc one only appears to have Boob Armor and Blonde Hair in common with Lux.
It seems a little shallow to look at three champions and just decide that it's a knockoff. It might well be, but nothing in that article is particularly convincing. Now, if you show me "fish child with trident" or "be-tentacled eye that shoots death rays" then maybe I'll listen.
Thanks for the comments so I didnt have to bother reading the artcle
