Brawlstars: How Unique Is It From Other MOBA Games?

Brawlstars is a MOBA game created by the company Supercell which has also developed and published the famous RTS base defense game Clash of Clans. Supercell is a Finland-based company headquartered in Helsinki and is known for its vibrant set of graphics and designs present in its games. They are known for creating games that last for many years. Such is the case with Clash of  Clans which was released in 2012 and still has active players to date. The various other games developed by them are Clash Royale (RTS tower defense), Boom beach (RTS base defense), Hayday  (farm simulation), Clash Mini (strategic board - auto chess), and Everdale (society building – simulation), and some more games on their way. Brawlstars was released in the year 2017 and had a very basic look but the intense matches and a massive community made it a very popular game. 

Comparison to other MOBAs:

Unlike the other MOBA genre games such as League of Legends(LoL) and Mobile Legends(ML) which have a typical map and game mode of five versus five players wandering into the forest and destroying enemies and their towers (arcane of the ancients with a beam/laser throwing crystal on it is top) which is the only goal to the standing victors, Brawlstars has a variety of iconic game modes ranging from Showdown (duo/solo battle royale), Gem Grab, Brawl ball (football), Bounty, Heist  (destroy enemy heist and protect heist), Robo Rumble (enemy robot waves) and many more temporary fun-to-play modes.  

Even though LoL and ML share a lot of similarities in their characters and game modes (with ML  copying a lot of LoL’s assets and thereafter getting sued in court by LoL’s developers Riot games), Brawlstars does have some characters with slight similarities but with improvised mechanics. The  other differences between LoL/ML and Brawlstars are that; 

• They require heavy strategizing and cooperation from all five teammates or one to two can carry forward for the entire team to win the match. 
• In Brawlstars, cooperative strategizing happens in game modes that support Duos and  Trios (no squads in Brawlstars). Brawlstars does not tag itself as a Strategy Game as they do know that even a skilled player matched with random teammates and no strategy can still be victorious. Maybe the developers support the fact that it’s much better to let the players decide for themselves either to devise strategies and play with cautious plans or to play freely for entertainment purposes. 
• They do not have proper aiming mechanisms and exact impact outcomes, while brawlstars do take into consideration these features. Eg. If a champion shoots another enemy champion and within that split second the enemy champion can dodge the shot,  he/she is unharmed. Such is the case with brawlstars and not in LoL and ML. Your dodge ability even when you are targeted won’t do any good in those games. 
• That is because this game mode itself has a lot of objectives to gain the upper hand in the war. One has to wander in the jungle and hunt down mysterious monsters to gain some strengths/powers and switch back to the lanes to destroy the towers, while some have to loot some money from the war minions. Brawlstars does have a game mode called Siege in which you have to call upon your friendly giant robot and defeat the enemy Siege on the other side of the map. LoL and ML to have such a situation where you defeat a Giant titan/monster and summon it to fight to destroy the enemy base. Brawlstars has some game mode elements in common but is separated into different game modes. That is how  Brawlstars maintains its simplistic and genius design. 

Experience:

At reaching a decent amount of experience level and trophies, the gameplay starts getting tougher and tougher. Each Brawler indicates to you the number of trophies you have earned whilst playing with them, which then adds up all your other brawlers’ trophies to give you a total. Over time you are matched with enemies and teammates at your current level. The game will bring you to different moments, maybe a victory can be a piece of cake or a sweat-drenching experience, or defeat could leave you begrudged about an enemy’s skills and strategy or maybe leaving you in a mood to curse your unskilled, lagging teammates or a state of regret or who knows a comical defeat. Some hilarious moments in-game are what keep a player hooked to playing Brawlstars.  

Why Brawlstars is getting popular? 

• The game also has a big community where screen recordings are edited and published on various platforms like Youtube, and Tiktok, memes are made, artists portray their art, gamers stream live, and many more activities that promote the game’s culture. You could earn playing brawlstars in various ways. 
• Being in a gaming club and participating in tournaments. 
• Participating in the Brawler skin campaign held by Supercell Make wherein you come up and draw or sculpt your ideas on 3D computer graphics software such as Blender, such that it relates to the concerned brawler. 
• Making videos, posting on Youtube, and earning on each video depending on the number of views and the Youtube policy of how much you will likely earn. 
• Using platforms or apps that reward you after completing quests in the game. 5. Sending videos to editors who will pay you an amount, then makes a compilation of many other videos and earns through the views on his channel. Eg. Tim Brawl is one such channel that makes a compilation of funny moments sent by players. He then selects the videos and compiles them and edits them with meme voice lines and sound effects at precise moments to make them look funny and presentable to the crowd and to gain more views thereby making it possible to earn money. 

Emergence of initiatives:

Now it is possible to earn money in these ways and some other ways which aren’t mentioned here but have become possible. Out of these five, the fifth way is very much possible to be initiated.

At the moment, Tim Brawl is a person who is based in the USA, it is possible to have Indians who are skilled at video editing to divert/her time in editing and making wholesome content, earning through a lot of views and likes, and then distributing the money to the concerned gamers who have sent their videos.

An advantage for India is that we have a lot of gamers gaming on devices ranging from budget to high-end performance phones and having Brawlstars installed, playing it, viewing famous content creators on Youtube, editing screen recorded funny, clutch, troll moments, and earning money through views and likes can do the trick.

Written by: Kirsten Kenneth