Defense of the Ancients
Defense of the Ancients | |
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Multiplayer |
Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a
DotA has its roots in the "
DotA became a feature at several worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard Entertainment's BlizzCon and the World Cyber Games. Critical reception to DotA was positive, and it has been called one of the most popular mods of any game. DotA is largely attributed as being the most significant inspiration for the MOBA genre. American video game developer Valve acquired the intellectual property rights to DotA in 2009 to develop a franchise, beginning with Dota 2 in 2013.
Gameplay
Defense of the Ancients pits two teams of players against each other. Players on the Sentinel team are based at the southwest corner of the map, and those on the Scourge team are based in the northeast. Each base is defended by towers and waves of units which guard the main paths leading to their base. In the center of each base is the Ancient, the building that must be destroyed to win the game.[1][2]
Each player controls one hero, a powerful unit with unique abilities. In DotA, players on each side can choose one of more than a hundred heroes, each with different abilities and tactical advantages. The scenario is highly team-oriented; it is difficult for one player to carry the team to victory alone. DotA allows up to ten players in a five-versus-five format.[3][4] DotA offers a variety of game modes, selected by the game host at the beginning of the match. The game modes dictate the difficulty of the scenario, as well as whether players can choose their hero or are assigned one randomly. Many game modes can be combined, allowing more flexible options.[5]
Because the gameplay revolves around strengthening individual heroes, it does not require the focus on resource management and base-building found in most traditional
Development
Blizzard Entertainment's 1998 real-time strategy game StarCraft shipped with a campaign editor that allowed players to create custom levels, complete with scripted triggers.[10] One such custom map was "Aeon of Strife". Instead of controlling multiple units and managing buildings, players controlled a single hero unit as they fought against waves of enemies.[5][11][12]
Blizzard followed StarCraft with the real-time strategy game
Feak used a Battle.net chat channel as a place for DotA players to congregate, but DotA Allstars had no official site for discussions and hosting. Subsequently, the leaders of the DotA Allstars
Towards the end of Feak's association with the map in 2005, development of the map changed hands to Neichus and then IceFrog.[11][17] The new author, IceFrog, added new features, heroes, and fixes.[12] IceFrog was at one time highly reclusive, refusing to give interviews; the only evidence of his authorship was the map maker's email account on the official website and the name branded on the game's loading screen.[18] Defense of the Ancients was maintained via official forums. Users posted ideas for new heroes or items, some of which were added to the map. IceFrog would quickly update the map in response to feedback.[18] Mescon maintained dota-allstars.com, which by May 2009 had over 1,500,000 registered users and received over one million unique visitors every month.[19] Mescon's sale of the domain to Riot Games split the DotA community,[4] and IceFrog announced a new official site, playdota.com, while continuing game development.[20]
Because Warcraft III custom games have none of the features designed to improve game quality (matchmaking players based on connection speed, etc.), various programs were used to maintain Defense of the Ancients. External tools pinged player's locations, and games could be named to exclude geographic regions.[18] Clans and committees such as TDA maintained their own official list of rules and regulations, and players could be kicked from matches by being placed on "banlists".[18] While increasingly popular, DotA Allstars remained limited as a custom map in Warcraft III, relying on manual matchmaking, updates, and containing no tutorials.[11]
Reception and legacy
The scenario was extremely popular in many parts of the world, especially in Europe and Asia.[4] In the Philippines and Thailand, it was played as much as the game Counter-Strike.[29][30] It was also popular in Sweden and other Northern European countries, where the Defense of the Ancients-inspired song "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" by Swedish musician Basshunter cracked the top ten singles charts in Sweden, Norway, and Finland.[31][32] LAN tournaments were a major part of worldwide play,[27] including tournaments in Sweden and Russia; however, due to a lack of LAN tournaments and championships in North America, several teams disbanded.[29]
Michael Walbridge, writing for
Defense of the Ancients helped spur the development of the
Franchise
In October 2009,
References
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- ^ Nair, Neha (October 30, 2007). "Why Defense of the Ancients? (Pg. 1)". GotFrag. Archived from the original on June 24, 2009. Retrieved November 1, 2007.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4422-7815-8.
- ^ a b Tok, Kevin (January 25, 2006). "Defense of the Ancients 101". GotFrag. Archived from the original on June 24, 2009. Retrieved August 4, 2007.
- ^ Tok, Kevin (January 25, 2006). "Defense of the Ancients 101, Page 2". GotFrag. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved August 4, 2007.
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- ^ Lo, Jaclyn (April 3, 2008). "DotA 101: The Killing Blow". GotFrag. Archived from the original on June 30, 2009. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
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- ^ Sharkey, Mike (August 11, 2010). "Evidence Mounting for a Valve Defense of the Ancients Game". GameSpy. Archived from the original on August 18, 2010. Retrieved November 17, 2010.
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- ^ O'Conner, Alice (October 5, 2009). "DotA Dev Joins Valve, Hints at Future Game". Shacknews. Archived from the original on April 14, 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
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External links
- DotA-Allstars (dota-allstars.com, 2004-2009) at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
- PlayDotA (playdota.com, 2009-2016) at the Wayback Machine (archive index)