ARTICLE
SMITE: RISE OF THE
ACTION-MOBA
By Johnathan Burgoyne
Hello readers, my name is Johnathan and I’ll be your tour guide for the day. Or rather,
I’ll be taking a look at how much SMITE has grown since the beta days.
Before it was a badass
SMITE was first introduced at PAX
genre. After a few months of
battleground of the gods, it was
East in 2011, and immediately
closed alpha, a closed beta was
a game based on the Global
gained a fair amount of attention
announced to start on May 31st,
Agenda universe. Hi-Rez Studios
due to its fresh take on the MOBA
2012. A fair number of things were
(the creators of Tribes: Ascend,
genre. The aspects of gods
different in the earlier days of
and Global Agenda) was toying
and goddesses from varying
the closed beta. At the time, the
around with ideas for a new
pantheons, third person view,
god roster at the time consisted
tower defense/MOBA-style game,
WASD key movement and aimed
of only 17 gods. There were a
eventually scrapping the sci-fi
skillshots are what set it aside
few buffs that are no longer in
in favor of a mythology theme.
from other games within the
play; a cooldown reduction buff,
Guan Yu was given a
significant remodel
in August 2013
52
The SMITE Community Magazine Issue #4
The GameOn Magazine