I was looking for the DOTA page on the gb wiki couldn't find it and instead found this 

Multi Online Battle Arena page
 
when and where did this term come from? I have never heard it before (obviously) despite playing Warcraft III Dota for about 4-5 years. Seems like  a goofy name.  Wikipedia seems to suggest Riot games came up with term when they launched League of Legends but that doesn't mean we should just call it whatever they say we should call it. Blizzard and Valve certainly don't seem to be embracing the term. And I haven't seen it associated with Heroes of Newerth. And for the record Wikipedia doesn't either. That to me at least suggests that term is not popularly embraced (at least yet). So why should GB call it something different than perhaps most of its' players do?
 
I can guess why Riot game would prefer the term MObA, cause I'm sure Valve or Blizzard (probably valve) has trademarked the term DOTA (and thus Riot can't use the term w/o copyright infringement issues and also probably wouldn't anyway as they wouldn't want to give free advertising to their competitors anyway). But I'm not really sure why that matters in the long run, i.e. do many game retail packages proclaim what genre it is on the box that you are holding?  Or in their tv or magazine ad spots?
 
Do Mario games call themselves platformers, or James Bond games proclaim that they are first persons hooters? I've never noticed any ads for them to that effect.
 
What's the harm in calling this first wave DOTA clone games, DOTA games or DOTAlike games (ala roguelike) ? What am I missing here?
 
I think most gamers are more likely to know what "DOTAlike" means than MOBA.
 
I realize games usually  have acronym template names for  genres (SHMUPS, FPS, RTS, MMORPG, JPRG, etc all come to mind) but I dunno MOBA seems kinda silly to me. I think the birth of a new genre deserves better, Just my 2  cents

I was looking for the DOTA page on the gb wiki couldn't find it and instead found this 

Multi Online Battle Arena page
 
when and where did this term come from? I have never heard it before (obviously) despite playing Warcraft III Dota for about 4-5 years. Seems like  a goofy name.  Wikipedia seems to suggest Riot games came up with term when they launched League of Legends but that doesn't mean we should just call it whatever they say we should call it. Blizzard and Valve certainly don't seem to be embracing the term. And I haven't seen it associated with Heroes of Newerth. And for the record Wikipedia doesn't either. That to me at least suggests that term is not popularly embraced (at least yet). So why should GB call it something different than perhaps most of its' players do?
 
I can guess why Riot game would prefer the term MObA, cause I'm sure Valve or Blizzard (probably valve) has trademarked the term DOTA (and thus Riot can't use the term w/o copyright infringement issues and also probably wouldn't anyway as they wouldn't want to give free advertising to their competitors anyway). But I'm not really sure why that matters in the long run, i.e. do many game retail packages proclaim what genre it is on the box that you are holding?  Or in their tv or magazine ad spots?
 
Do Mario games call themselves platformers, or James Bond games proclaim that they are first persons hooters? I've never noticed any ads for them to that effect.
 
What's the harm in calling this first wave DOTA clone games, DOTA games or DOTAlike games (ala roguelike) ? What am I missing here?
 
I think most gamers are more likely to know what "DOTAlike" means than MOBA.
 
I realize games usually  have acronym template names for  genres (SHMUPS, FPS, RTS, MMORPG, JPRG, etc all come to mind) but I dunno MOBA seems kinda silly to me. I think the birth of a new genre deserves better, Just my 2  cents

It is an attempt at a term to describe what you call a new genre. . I have nothing against that, or 'DOTA-like' as you propose. The term could become mainstream accepted or disappear tomorrow. I probably would not notice. That's pretty much what happens either way when consensus or mass adoption occurs or not, with or without a logic sometimes even. I mean after all, Defense of the Ancients really doesn't mean much in itself...

It is an attempt at a term to describe what you call a new genre. . I have nothing against that, or 'DOTA-like' as you propose. The term could become mainstream accepted or disappear tomorrow. I probably would not notice. That's pretty much what happens either way when consensus or mass adoption occurs or not, with or without a logic sometimes even.

I mean after all, Defense of the Ancients really doesn't mean much in itself...

They were known as DotA-clones, until Riot coined "MOBA." For some reason mainstream seems to be embracing that more, probably because League is vastly more popular than any other game in the genre (probably barring DotA).

No, I still call them AOSs, but that doesn't mean anything unless you have been playing sc and wc3 ums games for a long time. MOBA sounds dumb, but its what has stuck I guess.

Because Defense of the Ancients confers absoluitely zero meaning about what that game is.
 
If you tell a new player that a game is DotA-like they aren't going to understand what that means or why they should care, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena at least gives someone a basic idea of what that game is about.

They were known as DotA-clones, until Riot coined "MOBA." For some reason mainstream seems to be embracing that more, probably because League is vastly more popular than any other game in the genre (probably barring DotA).

No, I still call them AOSs, but that doesn't mean anything unless you have been playing sc and wc3 ums games for a long time. MOBA sounds dumb, but its what has stuck I guess.

MOBA makes sense. Gives a meaning to what the game type is.

The term MOBA came from Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends. The reason for the terminology is because many of the games that have taken elements of what DOTA is - a top down RTS set in an arena where you play as an individual character with abilities mixed with tower defense elements - has become more than what DOTA does. Look at something like Bloodline Champions. It has no tower defense. It's 3v3 in an arena battle to the death. What would you classify it as otherwise? It's not anything like DOTA at all beyond the top-down view and using individual champions with abilities. There is no tower defense, lane pushing, creep score, etc.

Personally, everyone I know uses the term "MOBA" when referring to this genre of games, namely because DOTA becomes a bit confusing I think. There's DOTA the Mod, DOTA 2, Blizzard DOTA...but when it comes down to it, there's only one true Defense of the Ancients. In turn, why aren't they calling it Blizzard MOBA? The main reason is because there is this elitest divide: those playing DOTA and HoN think "MOBA" is some kind of casual bullshit term. It's not. It's exactly what the games are: multiplayer battle arena games.

I think it's time that we all started moving away from calling this genre "DOTA games" and instead start using "MOBA games" since it is a far more accurate descriptor.

thanks for the insight guys. I've spent most of the past year away from the scene and it's amazing how much it's changed
I'll probably always call it DoTa , but I do like MOBA better than ARTS
 
looks like I'm not alone in still calling it DoTA saw this poll/discussion over on team liquid's site when looking into what y'all said.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=261996 
 
seems to be a hotly contested topic in general

The term MOBA came from Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends. The reason for the terminology is because many of the games that have taken elements of what DOTA is - a top down RTS set in an arena where you play as an individual character with abilities mixed with tower defense elements - has become more than what DOTA does. Look at something like Bloodline Champions. It has no tower defense. It's 3v3 in an arena battle to the death. What would you classify it as otherwise? It's not anything like DOTA at all beyond the top-down view and using individual champions with abilities. There is no tower defense, lane pushing, creep score, etc.

Personally, everyone I know uses the term "MOBA" when referring to this genre of games, namely because DOTA becomes a bit confusing I think. There's DOTA the Mod, DOTA 2, Blizzard DOTA...but when it comes down to it, there's only one true Defense of the Ancients. In turn, why aren't they calling it Blizzard MOBA? The main reason is because there is this elitest divide: those playing DOTA and HoN think "MOBA" is some kind of casual bullshit term. It's not. It's exactly what the games are: multiplayer battle arena games.

I think it's time that we all started moving away from calling this genre "DOTA games" and instead start using "MOBA games" since it is a far more accurate descriptor.

@Slag: Yeah, the introduction of stuff like Bloodline Champions and Monday Night Combat is what really helped give MOBA a much stronger definition, as they held all the trappings of what you would find in a DotA-styled game but didn't follow the standard formulas. Smite is another game that looks to break the mold a bit more, which I'm pretty damn excited about.

MOBA is not a good descriptor. Quake is a game where multiple players battle in an online arena, yet we don't call that a MOBA. Personally, Valve's term ARTS seems the best so far, as these games came from the RTS genre but focused more on action rather than strategy, much like from RPG to action RPG.

As with any new genre, games cease being "-like" or "clones" when enough development has occurred to create a genre. The same thing happened with FPS games (Doom clones) and open world action games (GTA clones).

People who call it a "DoTA" are saying it incorrectly whether people want to agree with them or not. "DoTA" is a MOBA much like Halo is an FPS. We do not run around calling every FPS on the planet a Halo so why on earth would we do that for any other game? I am not going to sit here and say MOBA is the best term to be used, seeing as many games before it can be moved into this cateogory, but DoTA definitely doesn't fit the part any better. Valve playing around with ARTS seemed better, but in the end, a better category needs to form.

There is a very popular website called moba-fire, so I don't see the term going away. people were also calling them "Hero Action Games" for a while.

RE: this discussion

I like Ryan and Brad's comments @6:45 in the Super Monday Night Combat quick look

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-ex-super-monday-night-combat/17-5421/