Thursday, May 30, 2013

IdleThumbs Launches New Podcast, Ends Use of Term MOBA

Today in Gaming: DotA Today is a new video game podcast for fans of the on-line third-person, demigod-smiting video game DotA 2 -- developed by Valve.

The podcast features two members of the illustrious IdleThumbs team -- Nick Breckon and Sean Vanaman -- discussing strategy within the world of DotA 2, their personal obsessions with bottling Tinker, and various upcoming marital milestones. The inaugural episode is poignantly entitled, "QOP top and POTM bottom".

I spoke with Sean Vanaman -- a video game designer, writer, and developer from San Francisco, Ca, co-founder of Idle Thumbs, and funnier of the two -- about the most recent developments in the DotA community. Specifically, we talked at length about the (some would say) unsettling announcement that the term MOBA (which stands for multiplayer online battle arena) is no long acceptable when describing DotA, League of Legends, or any other present or future title from the same genre.

It's hard to determine from what source of authority Vanaman and Breckon draw upon to officially change the moniker, however, the term has changed nonetheless. The new title of the DotA/LOL genre will henceforth be the more-accurate LOMA -- an acronym for "lords management".

I have confirmed that searching for "lords management" in Google's search engine will take you to content about DotA. So the conversion has already begun -- though it could be decades before the standard is fully adopted.

I also contacted the United States Department of the Interior to find out what if any financial effect this will have on the pro-gaming industry or on the entertainment industry as a whole. As this announcement is "hot off the presses", they have not had the time to crunch the numbers and declined speculation.

Vanaman also went on to refer to their newest podcast as "the future of content" -- a slogan that is unclear as to whether the podcast will be the future of all content or only DotA content.

Be sure to stop by Today in Gaming regularly and I will keep you abreast of any and all backlash from the LOMA community against this new development. Just to clarify, it's important to note that any and all backlash should be reported to me, but directed at Idle Thumbs.

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