The short answer to the article title is: yeah, kinda. The longer answer requires some exploration.
Shooter aficionados are pretty familiar with genre blurring. For a long time now, role playing game (RPG) mechanics have been a staple of the shooter experience, if only in terms of multiplayer. Character, kit and weapon customisation; progression systems; and even loot drops have become standard tropes in the shooter space for aiding players in role-playing their somewhat personalised shooter experience.
But lately a new shooter subgenre has emerged – the so-called ‘hero-shooter’ – which seeks to delve even further into RPG mechanics. While the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA for shortsies) is, itself, a subgenre born of the real time strategy (RTS) space, it’s more accurately a fusing of RPG standards with strategy principles. The MOBA digs deeper into RPG territory than the RPG-lite mechanics of your average mainstream shooter (first-person looters notwithstanding).
Continue reading…
Continue reading...
Shooter aficionados are pretty familiar with genre blurring. For a long time now, role playing game (RPG) mechanics have been a staple of the shooter experience, if only in terms of multiplayer. Character, kit and weapon customisation; progression systems; and even loot drops have become standard tropes in the shooter space for aiding players in role-playing their somewhat personalised shooter experience.
But lately a new shooter subgenre has emerged – the so-called ‘hero-shooter’ – which seeks to delve even further into RPG mechanics. While the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA for shortsies) is, itself, a subgenre born of the real time strategy (RTS) space, it’s more accurately a fusing of RPG standards with strategy principles. The MOBA digs deeper into RPG territory than the RPG-lite mechanics of your average mainstream shooter (first-person looters notwithstanding).
Continue reading…
Continue reading...