Just like role-playing games, MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) will ignite the imagination and launch the player into a detailed world. This time, however, it’s online. The world is now not only populated by some possibly detailed NPCs, but also by other human players at the same time.
It originally started in the 1970s with the release of Mazewar for computers. Players could navigate mazes, shooting each other in the Internet’s predecessors. Game developer Richard Garriott, (creator of the Ultima RPG series), later described these types of games as MMOs, which then lead to MMORPGs.
Games like EverQuest, Anarchy Online, and Ultima Online were incredible milestones in the genre. Playstyles are tailored to a player’s style of play. Servers can be specified to be PvE (player versus environment) or PvP (player versus player), depending on whether you want to avoid more competitive game scenarios.
In 2004, Blizzard, never satisfied with the near-perfect games it created, dropped a bombshell on the gaming world. They developed an RTS, Warcraft, into an MMORPG: World of Warcraft.
Online Multiplayer Battle Arena Online
gaming has become more popular than ever in the last decade. Esports, in particular, has grown tenfold since the early 2000s to become a legitimate sport and source of revenue for gamers.
You’ll often see a team of battle-tested players lined up in a row with powerful PCs, fighting an equally experienced opposing team for all the money, sponsorships, and bragging rights involved in the tournament. This is where MOBAs come in.
Online multiplayer Battle Arena games are something of an offshoot of MMOs as they focus only on competitive play between teams and players. MOBAs are an interesting combination of different genres, namely RTS and RPG. Matches between teams can last from 30 minutes to an hour and more, depending on the skill levels and maps of the players.
MOBAs really hit the gaming scene with a mod for StarCraft: Aeon of Strife. In the game, each player had their own base to defend, a quick game to defeat the other team and reduce their resources to zero. This further evolved into the widely popular Defense of the Ancients spin-off, (DotA), in 2003.
And guess what? We’re just warming up.
These days we’re extremely lucky to have the cornucopia of games that we make. Not only is the quality of the titles excellent, but the variation in game genres is extensive. We have its basic genres along with its extensive subgenres. We’re going to take a quick look at all of these and see some of the best genre-defining titles.
At the 2018 League of Legends World Championship, the overall prize pool was $6.45 million split between 24 different teams.
Gold and $2.4 million went to the extremely talented Invictus Gaming team, led by Luo “Ferrari_430” Feichi from China.
If competition runs in your blood, or you lean towards faster games, MOBAs will certainly satisfy that hunger.
I hope this guide has given you a good idea of what each listed genre can provide for your unique style of play. Be it FPS, RPG, MMORPG, RTS or MOBA games, there is no shortage of options to choose from. The only hard decision now is which great game you will choose.
