Hello and welcome to the continuation of my debate series of Sir ArmaMalum's Let's Talk. If this is your first time, welcome! The idea here is for me to present and outline a certain topic, complete with my own bit at the end, for the sole intent of talking about it. I tend to stick to out of game subjects like ethics, behavior and other such things but that doesn't mean I won't do gameplay related areas of I think I can do it justice.

#Note: You can vote on next week's topic in the poll below!

Quick Guidelines on replies:

• Be constructive
• Ask questions wherever you can
• Be willing to be questioned yourself

What is a MOBA?

Real quick, if you don’t know what a MOBA is don’t worry, you’re not the only one. It stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. That means a game like Dota, LoL, Smite, all of those kinds of games that pit small teams against each other in a relatively small area (an Arena) and battle it out.

To be clear, these games are MOBA’s:

• LoL
• Smite
• Dota (2)
• Heroes of the Storm
• Dawngate

#Emotional Investment in a Game

This term means, broadly, how much you care. You can be emotionally invested in a book series for example, and shed a tear when a favorite character dies (Dobby anyone?). Or you can be emotionally invested in a sports game and scream your head off during a touchdown. (As a Hokie, this cannot be understated more)

If you’ve played a game long enough, or are just a passionate gamer, chances are you’ve already seen what happens when a player gets invested in a game. Don’t get me wrong, that’s awesome and something that game developers strive to achieve every day, a game that players not only enjoy, but care about. But as any League player can tell you, this can also extend just as much (if not more, because we humans instinctively focus on negatives) towards emotions like anger and hate.

MOBA’s Amplification

Here’s a theory:

MOBA’s mechanics and layout actually increase the average player’s emotional investment than other genres

In other words, MOBA’s require more emotional investment than other games like shooters, puzzles, RTS and I’ll even venture to say a vast majority of other game genres. Keep in mind that this will get somewhat more subjective/bias than my usual SALT’s because I’m theorizing. Here’s my logic:

#High team reliance

MOBA’s usually work with about five people, it’s a nice number of people for teamwork while still allowing individual contribution to have a high impact in the game’s outcome. In a MOBA there are four people on your team that are relying on your individual performance. There’s no hiding in the mass of a 15-20 person team (like CoD) or escaping a team entirely in 1v1 games (like Starcraft). To some this may not matter too much, but to others this can be a large emotional investment.

In summary, a single player in a team is in command of a significant (there’s the keyword) portion of their entire team’s performance. A single player can still make or break a game for all five people

#Momentum strategies

MOBA’s have a defining characteristic that play a very large part in why they’re so nail-biting for players. The nature of the nice combination of lane pressure, levels, gold and map control allow MOBA’s to make losing an advantage hurt, and keeping an advantage in play a high priority, and also a high risk (lane pushing, roaming, etc). An advantage equates to the hope of winning, and losing it is a blow to an emotional investment, a loss of hope. Inversely, it also means an equivalent gain to the other team.

In summary, plays and decisions made at any time in the game are significant in one way or another.

#High Tempo

There’s always something to do in a league game. Whether it be last hitting, warding, roaming or taking objectives one thing everyone learns pretty quickly is that there are few times where you’re just standing around (waiting in spawn for a bit of gold doesn’t count :P). While this strays a little away from emotional investment it is still a factor in my eyes. Most games have downtime of some kind, where the player can take a quick breath and jump back in. League and other MOBA’s however don’t have that luxury. Even when you’re dead, I’m betting most of you keep an eye on your team or quickly look at your items to plan out your next buy.

If you don’t believe me when I say this can be legitimately exhausting, try grabbing a few friends and entering a tournament, this factor is amplified a lot when there are prizes at stake. I’ve played in two and I can tell you it’s damn tiring after the third game in a row.

There are plenty more I’m sure, but the ones I primarily think about.

#The Question(s)

You are, of course, not limited to just these questions.

• Do you feel a MOBA in general is a more emotionally taxing genre than other games? If yes, What do you think you can take away from that? Is this a good or bad thing?

• Are there any other factors that make MOBA’s more of an emotional investment than other online games?

• Does League have anything unique about it to make it more of an emotional investment than other MOBA’s? Do other MOBA’s?

#Addendum

Very sorry for the delay all, I’ve been having severe ISP issues and have only been able to chip at these SALT posts when I’m on campus instead of back at my apartment. Sadly, until am3 gets their collective asses in gear I will be unbearably slow with these T_T

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######Don't forget! You can visit my All Topics post above and suggest as many topics as you'd like, if I think I can do it justice I'll happily put it up in the next poll!