With Dota Auto Chess by Drodo Studio we are witnessing a completely new genre. As for now, it is called Autobattler. However, professional players who are streaming and playing in a ranked mode are already down for changing the name.
Savjs, a popular streamer, has run a questionnaire suggesting the following names for the genre:
- Multiplayer Online Chess Arena (MOCA);
- Multiplayer Automatic Chess Arena (MACA);
- Multiplayer Automatic Battle Arena (MABA).
Tastes differ. Nevertheless, most players have voted for the third name. Considering numerous comments, needless to say, that people like the name.
We have been playing such games since the original StarCraft released in 1998. Originally, these maps were called – UMS (Use Map Settings). Actually, Auto Chess is an alternation of UMS or, to be exact, of PvP-oriented Tower Defence (TD) where you send a crowd of units to attack the enemy.
Meanwhile, players have already created a bunch of popular UMS for StarCraft, such as:
- Magic: The Gathering
- Golem Wars
- Zergling Blood
- Marine Wars
- Evolves
- Bunker Wars
Warcraft 3 continued this tendency and added flexibility option for map creating (thanks to heroes and items). This allowed creating various unique maps, including Dota. Then we got StarCraft 2 and Dota 2 with copies of all the best custom maps of Warcraft 3.
Unit combination strategy is very similar to the popular Poker TD or Gem TD modes. The pvp-oriented strategy is similar to Direct strike or other custom maps where you choose those units who fight enemies automatically. Many TD maps have similar features. All these characteristics were wisely combined in Auto Chess.
Loose Streak, a very good old strategy missing in most PvP-oriented TD maps, has been also revived. It lets you earn extra gold after losing the game after the game.
No matter how you call it: Autobattler or Multiplayer Automatic Chess Arena, gaming communities will be ready to accept the new genre created by mods. Auto Chess once again proves that mods are an important part of the gaming industry.
Other genres, such as Round FPS (Counter-Strike) were also born this way, needless to say, that Battle Royal has been the hottest release until now. We can call 2019 the year of Auto Chess and Autobattler.
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