Today, we proudly present our new MatchUp feature where we will put up some of our and your favourite MMOs against each other to make the comparison tregarding their differences and similarities. Each time a new title is launched, people quickly tag it as a clone of a certain other similarly themed game. Our new MatchUp will allow us to see just how similar these games actually are.
This information is provided in form of a write-up acompanied by a streamlined infographic to give an overview of our investigation. Once you're through the entire article, please share your own opinion of it with us. And in case there are any games you think we should do the MatchUp of, just leave us a message in the comments!
To open up our new match up feature, we decided to take a closer look at two massive MOBO competitors: DOTA 2 & League of Legends (LoL). Due to various similarities regarding gameplay and genre, it’s obvious why both titles are always compared to each other and their rivalry is everlasting. We were interested in what was on offer in both MMOs when it comes to features, as well as in what unites and what divides them. Apart from the actual games as such, we also had a look at facts, figures and stats.
For those unfamiliar with DOTA 2 and LoL, their major premise is having their players work cooperatively in teams in player vs. player combat (even if there are also AI Bot matches, they are far from representing the main game mode). Players may pick from a wide range of different playable characters, each with their own abilities and skills, to participate in competitive battles aiming at destroying the enemy base.
We therefore thought it would make sense to first of all compare the playable characters in each of these MOBAs. Regarding the total amount of available characters, there’s very little difference between both of them, with DOTA 2 sporting a massive number of 107 "Heroes" and only being narrowly overtaken by LoL which has 118 "Champions" to offer in total. However, only 10 of these champions, which rotate on a weekly basis, are playable for free in League of Legends; additional ones have to be bought with in-game currency or real-world money while DOTA 2 players have access to each and every hero right from the start.
When it comes to game maps, it once more seems that LoL has more on offer, featuring 4 different combat maps opposed to one single map in DOTA 2. Yet, these different maps in League of Legends are also linked to entirely different game modes and layouts, which offer something different from the traditional MOBA combat on 3 lanes. DOTA 2 on the other hand advertises itself to have a total of 11 game modes, though for this article’s purpose we felt the necessity to set apart game modes and rule set variations for character picks (a feature both titles offer).
"Picks" determine how characters can be picked depending on the chosen setting (respectively game mode in DOTA 2), restricting pick order, available characters, as well as many other different features that indeed alter the overall strategy. In conclusion, it actually isn’t as it seems with 4 game modes in LoL in comparison to 1 mode in DOTA 2; there’s quite a larger gap between them when considering their "Pick" variants: This time DOTA 2 takes the victory offering 11 pick options whereas LoL only provides players with 4 different options.
There are loads of things to be found that make both MMOs quite similar: jungles, camps, minions, towers, etc. However, there’s also at least as much that separates them, though in a particularly subtler way. While especially to gamers who haven’t advanced much yet in both titles their gameplay may seem pretty similar on the surface, LoL and DOTA 2 actually differ quite tremendously regarding the strategy required to succeed.
So, let’s see which one is the most successful. When only taking into account sheer figures, then LoL with its 67 million active users each month and 7.5 million gamers at peak times each day is extraordinarily more frequented that DOTA with its 700,000 users at daily peak times. However, DOTA 2 players never have a hard time to find a match and lots of members from both factions will agree that the DOTA 2 learning curve is more elevated than the one in LoL. Yet, both games are aiming at different audiences.
In any case, LoL is the world’s most played MMO and together with DOTA 2 particularly contributed to eSports becoming much more mainstream. The online eSports game with the largest overall prize pool for their tournaments in 2013 was DOTA 2 ($ 2,874,407 for The International 2013), directly followed by League of Legends ($ 2,050,000 for the LoL Season 3 World Championship). There are huge amounts of money within the genre itself and especially in these 2 competitors, not only for developer but for pro gamers who contributed to turning computer gaming into a spectator sport that huge audiences tune in to observe live games or even fill large arenas to watch the event happen live.
Deja tu comentario
You must be logged in to post a comment.