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Sometimes people prefer to label dota as an ARTS: Action Real Time Strategy.

Some people dislike the MOBA nomenclature because it comes from Riot (maker of League of Legends; a clone of dota). In addition the term is pretty vague. Call of Duty, Starcraft, and DotA could all technically be “MOBAS”.

ARTS describes it a little better but I don’t think that term is great either.

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In my opinion ARTS doesn't describe it better but introduces confusion since it implies these games have something in common with real time strategy games. I don't think they really have anything to do with RTS despite being originally conceived on the Warcraft 3 engine and assets. At least MOBA makes it clear that it's an entirely separate category.

> anything to do with RTS

Managing farming times and item spikes is part of the strategy. Of course it's not a true RTS, but I think that term is a bit better than MOBA; I'm also biased against Riot.

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