Evolution and natural selection are both concepts that people are extremely familiar with; as time goes on, entropy causes all things to change their form. From species to structures to ideas, all things gain complexity. In natural selection, the change best fit to the situation is the one that stays alive, and thus prospers. This can lead to some extremely strange evolutions in certain circumstances, and as time goes on those can become commonplace.

This principle stays true in the evolution of games over time; one could posit the idea that a game like Starcraft 2 is the evolution of Starcraft, which takes ideas from Westwood Studio’s Dune 2, which takes ideas from Herzog Zwei, and so on, until we get back to games like Chess and Go. From Starcraft, however, we also get potential mutations in the form of custom maps, such as Aeon of Strife, mutating again in Warcraft 3’s custom game creator into DotA, evolving into Dota 2 while at the same time mutating into different versions like League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, and Smite, all entirely different takes on the MOBA genre. Again, however, natural selection plays a part, and Dota 2 and League are currently the most popular models. And indeed these “mutations” have become extremely commonplace, with Dota and League both dragging in new players and new interest in an (arguably) far greater magnitude than Starcraft 2. Read More…