About

17th Sep, 2013By Softmints

Lane-Pushing Games is a project to document the rich and versatile history of the MOBA genre of video games.

Rather than focus on the biggest and most popular titles, this site aims to cover a broad range of games: particularly in the era before they reached commercial success.

Articles are not published often, but each is an important piece of the site. If you're new here, the older writing still makes very relevant reading. A good starting point is the Reading List.

Here you can find:

The Game Directory, a richly tagged index of all lane-pushing games to date.
Reviews of some of Warcraft's finest and most memorable AoS maps, intended an open reference for designers who didn't experience them first-hand, or anyone who wants to take a walk down memory lane.
Game Design Articles, offering a critical analysis of the features, mechanics, and open issues seen in lane-pushing games today.
Interviews with notable contributors to the space of lane-pushing games.
A curated list of Resources relating to game design and the industry.
A list of publicly available Market Information about the lane-pushing game audience.

FAQ

What is a Lane-Pushing Game?

A lane-pushing game is a session-based multiplayer game, which has tactical team-based combat happening inside a longer-term strategic framework.

Usually, you play as one of five heroes leading an army into battle. The computer controls all the rank-and-file troops, while you and your fellow players roam around the battlefield: securing resources, taking advantage of opportunities, and claiming objectives.

All this happens while fighting and outmanoeuvring the five heroes on the enemy team — who are also trying to help their army win!

A more detailed explanation for game designers is offered in this article.

What about "MOBA"s?

This is a less specific term, which also includes "arena" games. An arena is any real-time combat happening in a fixed space... think back to the 'arena' of the Roman Colosseum.

Examples include Warlock, Battlerite, Splatoon!, and Gigantic. While great games, this site is not dedicated to them!

A simple rule of thumb is:

MOBAs = Lane-Pushing Games + Arenas

For brevity, I use "MOBA" and "Lane-Pushing Game" interchangeably most of the time. I am almost always talking about games with lanes.

You can read more about this topic in the article: The Lane-Pushing Name.

How did the Lane-Pushing Games project start?

Back in 2013, I was thinking about an old game. Before the term "MOBA" was popularised, the genre was known as "AoS maps" after one very influential game called Aeon of Strife.

Despite having enjoyed the genre for many years, I had never played Aeon of Strife myself. I decided to try it out!

First, I needed to download the map... and that proved unexpectedly difficult. After 30 pages of search results and trawling ancient wiki sites to find copy after machine-translated copy of the same wikipedia article... I felt something was out of place.

If the game that had named its genre could almost completely vanish in 10 years, I didn't see much hope for all the other AoS maps I grew up playing. I decided to start writing to document their history, and the project grew from there.

Why haven't you reviewed <this game>?

Probably because it's not dead.

I don't like to write about games which are being actively updated, because the articles lose accuracy over time, and there is already a community discussing each patch at length.

If a game has ended development and you don't see it here, consider emailing me in case I don't have it on my list yet. Bonus points if you have time to share your experiences with the game or had a role in its development! I love these conversations.

Can I republish this material?

Only if you have contacted me and received written permission.

In general it is okay to cite/quote portions for the purposes of discussion, but please link back to the article in question so readers can get full context. Don't claim the material as your own.

Can I make a new game using some of the ideas on this site?

Yes please; it's a resource encouraging precisely that! Do feel free to get in touch if you'd like to discuss your project as well; I am happy to share pro-bono time with early teams.

What is your position on web3 games?

Most of them seem predatory and best avoided, but that does not rule out the possibility of design innovation or a respectful approach. The revenue model for each game is tagged and readers can decide what to engage with.

It is nice that we had a window where some industry talent gained experience developing in the genre due to web3 funding sources. I'd like to think that downstream, we might get some novel games as a result.

It is worth noting League of Legends revolutionised user acquisition with the free-to-play model for PC. Dota 2 revolutionised retention by inventing the battle pass. So if there is any genre with players demanding enough to push a publisher to innovate, perhaps it will be a lane-pushing game!