Text/Isaac

Grape Jun is a staunch MOBA mobile game player, and he has basically played large and small products, and he will definitely pay attention to and try which manufacturer launches a new product. This habit has probably lasted from the time I was in college to the present.

But in the past two years, I have gradually come to feel that for 99% of the team, there is no dream in the MOBA category.

All new products that try to enter the MOBA track are facing a more severe dilemma than most categories. Even large manufacturers with strength and cost may not dare to guarantee to make stable long-term hits.

The new two-dimensional MOBA mobile game "Reconstruction: Atadis", which was launched a while ago, can reflect this trend to a certain extent. The producer of this game has participated in the development of "Xiaomi Super God" and "Speed Smash Bros.", and the developer Vermilion Network has also received investment from Tencent, which seems to be quite powerful.

In fact, I can also feel that the project team is a little enthusiastic about this game, such as the character models, movements, and close-ups, which can be regarded as having some qualities; In terms of content, it can be clearly seen that it wants to make a two-dimensional style similar to "Ark of Tomorrow", and there is a special plot line; In terms of gameplay, its hands-on experience is also quite passable, at least reaching the MOBA passing level.

But after a while, you will find that the current stage of Refactoring: Atatis is a bit unsatisfactory in every way.

For example, in terms of basic game elements, the scenes, equipment systems, and combat ideas in the game are not much different from other MOBAs. While there are some strategic elements such as waypoints, the overall impact is not significant.

On top of that, the slightly stiff feel, out-of-control character balance, poor matchmaking environment, low-level storytelling, controversial card pools (including characters that can only be drawn by gacha), and a UI interface with frequent problems such as mistouches and unknown hierarchies all make Refactoring: Atatis seem too short and not long.

On the whole, in the case that the head and waist products have already cultivated the taste of Diao players, such a product still has a long way to go.

In the half month since it was launched, it doesn't seem to be a big publicity, and the results of the list seem to be a little cold, and it has not yet entered the best-selling list of iOS games since its launch, and the best result is the second place on the free list of games on the second day after its launch, and it has been declining all the way since then.

The game's rating on TapTap, Haoyou Kuaibang

It's not easy to talk about this game either. After the first test, it first went through a long version number approval, and then the information of the operating unit changed, and the original agent B station handed over the operation right to the Vermilion Bird Network.

We have no way of knowing the process, but in terms of the results, such a MOBA mobile game is indeed not competitive enough at this stage.

Why does this product make me emotional, because I remember that everyone used to say: under "Honor of Kings", all MOBA mobile games are only worthy of drinking soup. Now, it seems that the situation is not so extreme - after all, there are special cases such as "LOLM", which is often at the top of the best-selling charts, and "MLBB (Mobile Legends: Bang Bang)", which is quite popular in some parts of the country.

But the truth is that for the other ninety percent of MOBA mobile games, being able to drink a sip of soup alive and maintain stable operation is already the best result.

Why did the world's hottest and most profitable game category come to this point? There are a few important reasons that I want to give you a closer look.

(Don't worry, this article does not include commercial cooperation, purely from the perspective of players.) In addition, products that have not been launched, and controversial products such as "300 Operations" are not within the scope of discussion)

01

The bar is too high

In these years, to make a MOBA mobile game, you have to pass five levels and kill six generals. Regardless of the theme and gameplay innovation, the basic quality of the first level is the biggest problem. In this level alone, you can get together six generals: quality, optimization, and feel; Play environment, balance, matchmaking.

The first three generals are a test of the hard power of R&D, and this part of the difficulty lies in the fact that various R&D thresholds have been raised too high by the products of the first echelon.

According to the pyramid shape, the bottom layer must be the fluency, stability, and performance adaptation of low-end machines in the game, which is almost the lifeblood of the game experience; The middle layer is the visual performance of scenes, characters, special effects, etc., because appearance is the largest payment point, which is directly related to the upper and lower limits of revenue; The top layer is the feel emphasized by the core players, which involves a lot of details, including the movement swinging back and forth, the logic of attacking and seeking the enemy, and even the coordination of audio and sound effects, which are not done well, and the game will be labeled as "cheap".

The thresholds at these three levels put forward extremely high requirements for programming, art, and planning respectively, which means that the team is not very able to have obvious shortcomings. But nowadays, there are few MOBA projects, and it is difficult to imagine the difficulty of recruiting such a mature team, or relying on the grass platform team to build the wheel from scratch, in either case.

And the last three generals, even those who are really powerful and cost-effective head manufacturers, may not be able to cut off the horse. These three factors are entangled with each other, and if one is not done well, it may also indirectly affect other factors, and eventually form a vicious circle.

Take the most criticized matchmaking mechanism by players, whether it's called the ELO scoring system or the MMR matchmaking system, this mechanism is like a Pandora's box. In order to improve user retention, activity and socialization, MOBA mobile games take this rule to the extreme. This part doesn't need to be an example, because as far as I've played mobile games, there are hardly any games that haven't used similar rules.

Similar reviews are not uncommon in all products

Of course, sometimes this is also for the sake of user experience, such as sending warmth to players who are not very good at technology, or who are not very active, and often encourage them to continue playing. But the trade-off is that some players who practice hard and want to score on their own will be forced to be stuffed with teammates or stuck in hell. As a result, their activity is increased, and their win rate and scoring speed are reduced. To a certain extent, this set of rules makes the game more "equal", but it is even less "fair".

The end result of such people may be either forced to find someone to open the black, or forced to retreat, or go in the direction of rotten, performing, or "developing" tricky and winning routines. Over time, the game environment will take a turn for the worse.

But then again, as a mobile game without this mechanism, how can you ensure a long-term active and relatively normal matching ecosystem? This is the current situation of MOBA mobile games - once you open the box, there is hardly a better way. If you want to change it, you have to hurt your muscles and bones, so you can only be patient and think of a better way.

Not to mention that the vast majority of teams can't even reach the level of thinking of this method, so they can only imitate the practices of the head product.

02

The innovation dilemma

The second level is the question of whether to innovate in all aspects such as game architecture, mode, and gameplay.

This leads to a dilemma: if you don't innovate, you can't get ahead, and with "Honor of Kings", why should players play a flat replacement that is neither innovative, nor can the quality be compared? Even if the picture is fresh, it is probably difficult to stay for a long time; However, to innovate, the intensity is not easy to grasp, and the uncertainty is too strong. Sometimes when you are aggressive, players will be unfamiliar and unacceptable.

There are ready-made examples of both. The former can refer to "Heroes of the Dawn", which was popular for a while in August 2023, when it rushed to the first place on the iOS overall list and dominated the list for several days, and the highest best-selling list of the game also reached 15th in the flying list, and millions of players blew up the server.

But judging from the long-term results, the increase that this wave of outbreak really brought to "Heroes of the Dawn" is not much. Because under the premise of similar themes and backgrounds, its basic quality really can't compete with the head product.

For the latter example, you can refer to "Pokémon Gathering". Compared with the MOBA mobile games on the market, this game really innovates the gameplay, overthrowing the old troop lines, defense towers, and equipment mechanisms, and replacing them with the rules of monster farming and scoring. In the national server version, TiMi has also made changes in the game structure, incorporating more casual competitive gameplay, which means that the game positioning is very different, and perhaps it is not suitable for comparison with MOBA mobile games.

This also means that for core MOBA players, "Pokémon Gathering" is likely to not meet their psychological expectations, coupled with some restrictions brought about by the particularity of the IP, this game is inevitably a little unsuitable.

Of course, I have to admit that a lot of innovative products are fun. But as I always joke with my colleagues – "If it had been fun and useful, Heroes of the Storm would have been a hit." ”

03

Design fatigue

In such an innovation dilemma, most of the MOBA mobile games at this stage are based on overall imitation, making some micro-innovations in the game rules, or differentiation in the theme. The former is similar to the star-swallowing mechanism in "Marvel Super War" to accumulate points and fight the opponent's defense towers;

A special animation triggered by destroying the base in full rage

The latter is very simple, like "Inhuman Academy" and "Decisive Battle!" Heiankyo, a mobile game MOBA with a two-dimensional theme, is the most typical example.

But that doesn't solve all the problems. When it comes to R&D, there are countless challenges. For example, a very typical problem is the design dilemma of character skills.

The character skill design of MOBA mobile games is also a dilemma. First of all, the limitations of the operation mode of the mobile terminal itself determine that its design ceiling is unlikely to be higher than that of PC games, and at the same time, because the product needs to take the route of big DAU and popularity, players also need heroes with a low threshold for getting started. So in the early stages, you'll see that most MOBA mobile games have a very common phenomenon of referencing archetypes from other games.

I'll stack my armor first: this link is definitely not plagiarism - plagiarism shouldn't be discussed here. Just play a few more MOBAs, and you can definitely feel that each game has several characters that are very similar.

For example, in the elements of "using a bow and arrow as a weapon", "shooting multiple arrows", "the ultimate is a huge arrow", "taking basic attack as the main attack method", "slowing down as the main limiting method", and "lack of displacement self-protection ability", which meet multiple elements at the same time, are called Hou Yi and Jia Luo in "Glory of Kings", and in "Decisive Battle! Heiankyo is called White Wolf, Taibai in "Inhuman Academy", Ash in "LOL", and Drow Ranger in "Dota 2......

Of course, this phenomenon is becoming less and less, and families are also deliberately redoing those characters that are too old and creating more creative ones. But this brings out two other phenomena:

One is a relatively controllable innovation, which brings design fatigue - stacking, displacement, shield/healing on top of a character setting...... These deterministic skill elements are combined to piece together a role that is positioned standardly. But if there are many such characters, players will feel that it is really not interesting to engage in this set repeatedly.

The other is over-innovation, which brings more uncertainty and imbalance - every game has no shortage of characters with complex mechanics and high-end techniques, and these characters tend to be more topical, and there is no shortage of players and streamers to challenge.

There are too many such characters in NetEase's MOBA mobile games, such as Asteria in "Inhuman Academy", she is characterized by three planetary rings around her, and her skills are flexibly selected and released among six stars. Because each star has a different orbiting speed and skill effects, you have to judge the situation and hand-eye coordination, but also take into account the movement and skill effects of each star...... I'd like to call it the most difficult character in "Inhuman Academy".

Other songs such as "Glory of Kings", "Decisive Battle! Characters such as Yamafeng in "Heiankyo" and Mikasa in "Decisive Victory" also have a lot of intensity. But after a long time, you will find that the characters with innovative mechanics have become the "three-body people" in the eyes of players, and those who have not had time to redo the mechanics have become the so-called "primitive people". The serious imbalance between the two will also affect the game's gameplay experience, and even cause serious dissatisfaction among players.

If you really want to compete for creativity, there is absolutely no shortage of talents in the industry. Even the discontinued "Marvel Super War" has a lot of bright designs. But at the same time, it's polarizing – some characters are almost archetypal, while others are bold enough to develop new ways of operating. This also makes its problems particularly prominent.

In view of the chaotic situation of MOBA mobile games, the only solution may be to redo the balance while groping for a controllable and innovative scale. If it's not done well, innovation can sometimes become a sin.

04

Commercialization is difficult

Compared with other categories, the commercialization of MOBA mobile games is also a classic problem. Because competitive games are the first to promote fairness, the numerical route will definitely not go far, and no matter how many payment points such as monthly cards and passes are made, appearance will always be the biggest source of revenue.

Therefore, the combination of direct purchase of appearance + season pass with free appearance + high-end appearance lottery has become the most classic paid framework of MOBA mobile games.

But it's not so easy to make the appearance up. Each character is guaranteed 1-2 companion skins, 1-3 season skins per season, new character skins that continue to be produced with the version, high-end skins of different grades, with special effects and special elements, Valentine's Day, Spring Festival, festival skins of this and that festival, as well as irregular activity skins, 6 yuan people-friendly skins...... To keep up with this capacity, the team had to plan a 6-8 month schedule in advance, to say the least.

With such production capacity and production mode, it's a pity not to use it to draw cards. But at this stage, MOBA mobile game players can almost only accept high-end looking lotteries. Other second-game modes such as character lottery, constellation, and dog food mixing pool will attract considerable negative public opinion when placed here.

One of the major controversies of Refactoring: Atatis is that its gacha pool contains a character that can only be obtained by gacha in addition to regular characters and skins. In addition, the other rewards are various materials, which will be converted into friendship materials if you draw a duplicate character.

In this kind of big idea, it seems that it is actually a good choice to take the route of the two-dimensional theme. Because the appearance of the character is the biggest payment point, then I let players have a deeper emotional connection to the character, wouldn't it be better to drive revenue?

But "Decisive Battle! Heiankyo and "Inhuman Academy" may have long proved that the two-dimensional route is also a double-edged sword for MOBA mobile games. While players have feelings for the characters, they will also have higher requirements for balance, paid design, appearance productivity and quality control. Without diamonds, you really can't do this porcelain work.

05

There are many alternatives

Not only internal worries, but also external troubles in MOBA mobile games. Players now have too many options.

When we play MOBA, what exactly are we playing? Team competition, fine operation, strategic operation, or social black? If you take it apart, these "six roots of the Great Sage" have been scattered all over the place, shining in different categories.

If you want to play team sports, there are more choices for shooting products such as Valorant and Peace Elite; If you want to play the operation, there are fighting games like Naruto, and the skill design and MOBA have a similar experience; If you want to play strategy operation, auto chess is fully capable of replacing it, and it does not need to be too high; If you want to socialize, then there are more options......

All in all, for players, there are now a lot of products that are cooler and more exciting, and at the same time the content and ecology are also better. Therefore, those MOBA players who are not determined have already migrated in a big way, and they are scattered with stars in various products.

From another point of view, for R&D, MOBA mobile games also have too many problems and contradictions to consider and solve than other categories. Small factories don't have the strength to enter the threshold at all, while large factories might as well do those categories that have their own accumulation, a clearer direction, and market vacancies or potential. In the past two years, the hero shooting that has gradually emerged is such an example.

In this context, only the teams with the deepest accumulation and obvious differences can still try to get a piece of the pie.

Having said all this, is MOBA mobile games really hopeless?

I still prefer to be optimistic that MOBA mobile games have a strong vitality. The products that are still in operation must also have the opportunity to become bigger and stronger - but to create another "Glory of Kings" may be a bit too dreamy.

But as long as it can cross the threshold, MOBA mobile games cannot be said to be hopeless. Looking at those products that have been operating stably, no matter what the situation is, as long as they enter the market and gain a foothold and develop a certain scale of e-sports ecology, they can maintain a good operating situation.

And at this stage in 2025, a product like "Refactoring: Atatis" will be launched while it is hot and slowly improved, which must be better than continuing to polish the project for two years and dragging it out.

The game's community is not low

What's more, no matter how the needs of this category are replaced, when they are combined, you will find that the needs of that group of die-hard MOBA players are always irreplaceable.

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