Defense of the Ancients

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Defense of the Ancients
Studio Owl, Guinsoo, IceFrog
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 2003
platform Windows , macOS , Linux
genre Action Real Time Strategy Game (ARTS), Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA)
control Keyboard and mouse
system advantages
preconditions		 CPU with 600 MHz, 128 MB RAM , 3D graphics card , Internet access or LAN , installed and updated full version of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos incl. Add-on
medium Download
language multilingual

Defense of the Ancients (short DotA ) is a multiplayer online battle arena ( "MOBA") or an action real-time strategy (Engl. Action real-time strategy , "ARTS"). It is a map developed over time by various amateur programmers for the real-time strategy game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos , its expansion The Frozen Throne and for StarCraft II . A developer under the pseudonym Icefrog has been driving the development of DotA since 2005 . There are several DotA variants, but DotA Allstars is by far the most developed and most popular. In July 2013, the successor Dota 2 appeared as an independent game.

The origins of DotA are roughly based on the gameplay of the StarCraft map Aeon of Strife . The goal of the players is the destruction of the main building of the enemy, the heavily guarded ancients . Two teams play against each other, each player controls a powerful hero unit and is supported in this task by AI- controlled units, the so-called creeps . Similar to role-playing games , the player equips his hero with items in the course of the game and collects experience points so that his hero can go up one level , with a maximum of level 30.

Defense of the Ancients is considered to be the founder of the MOBA genre, the German print magazine PC Games described DotA as "the most famous [and] one of the most popular strategy game mods in the world".

Gameplay

In Defense of the Ancients , two teams of up to five players with optionally two observers compete against each other: the Sentinel and the Scourge. Players on the Sentinel team start in the southwest area of ​​the map and players from the Scourge team in the northeast area in their respective bases. Each base is defended by towers and waves of units that patrol the main routes. In the middle of each base is the Ancient , a main building whose aim is to destroy.

Each player controls a hero, a powerful unit with unique abilities. In Allstars there are 112 heroes available, each with different skills and tactical advantages over other heroes. The style of play is very team-oriented, so it is very difficult for a single player to bring victory to his own team on his own. Nevertheless, there are some heroes who, with enough time, become strong enough to decide the outcome of a battle with the heroes of the opposing team for their own benefit.

Since the gameplay focuses on strengthening individual heroes, it is not necessary to focus on the basic structure as in most conventional real-time strategy games . By defeating computer-controlled or neutral units, the player earns experience points through which his hero can rise to a level above a certain level . Moving up to a higher level improves the hero's characteristics and the damage he inflicts, as well as allowing players to improve their spells or skills. In addition to the experience gained, players also have to manage another resource: gold. The typical resource gathering of Warcraft III is being replaced by a more combat-oriented resource system; In addition to a small regular income, heroes earn gold by defeating enemy and neutral units, buildings and opposing heroes. With gold, players can buy items to empower their heroes. Certain items can be combined with recipes to create more powerful items. Acquiring suitable items for one's hero to adapt to the situation is an important tactical element of the game.

Allstars provides the game master with a variety of game modes to choose from at the beginning of the game . The game modes specify the difficulty of the scenario, as well as the decision whether the players can choose their heroes or have a hero assigned at random. Many game modes can be combined (example: simple level of difficulty with random hero selection), which gives more and more flexible options.

development

In 2002, Blizzard Entertainment released the third installment in the Warcraft universe, a real-time strategy game entitled Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos . The world editor map editor was also supplied with the computer game . Players could use the world editor to construct their own custom maps. Starting with small changes such as a changed landscape or newly added objects, you could also make a completely new structure compared to conventional maps. As a result of hobby projects, popular cards such as different versions of the Tower Defense and DotA games emerged .

The first versions of Defense of the Ancients were released in 2003 by a player named Eul based on the Aeon of Strife map for StarCraft . However, Eul only looked after the map during Reign of Chaos and later stopped development at DotA due to lack of time . Parallel to his resignation, he took the modification protection from DotA and made it possible for other players to design new versions according to their individual ideas. In the meantime other different DotA versions appeared, which competed for the successor in the time after Eul's resignation. In 2016, a replica of the original Eul maps was released for Dota 2 .

Finally, the Allstars version from developer Steve Feak alias Guinsoo prevailed. DotA Allstars contained a compilation of the most popular heroes from most of the previous DotA variants and set themselves apart from the competition with striking innovations. Thus, Defense of the Ancients Feak thanks to the introduction of the important recipes and the powerful boss character Roshan. From this point, you could DotA but only about the expansion The Frozen Throne play because Allstars with the new enhanced world editor of The Frozen Throne was created and it is not able to create cards on both Warcraft III Parts are playable. Guinsoo developed DotA Allstars up to version 6.01, but then gave up the position as developer of Allstars for personal reasons.

On March 18, 2005 the first version was published by the current developer Icefrog. With Icefrog, more professionalism came into the development and objectives of DotA . He pays particular attention to making DotA e-sports- friendly. Under him, the prerequisites for fair gaming were created and the playing time was reduced through changes such as weaker defense buildings. He thus contributed to DotA's niche existence becoming one of the most popular multiplayer games in the world. On October 5th, 2009 IceFrog announced the collaboration with Valve Corporation .

The further development of Defense of the Ancients is still managed via the official forums. DotA is characterized by a strong community ; Players can suggest ideas for new heroes or items, some of which will be added to the map. Some even contributed pictures and hero descriptions to the game and created the drawing that can be seen during game set-up.

Success and legacy

Defense of the Ancients' popularity rose over time. Thus, Allstars slowly became an important tournament game, beginning with its appearance at the premiere of Blizzard's BlizzCon in 2005. DotA has also been played in Malaysia and Singapore at the World Cyber ​​Games since 2005 and the World Cyber ​​Games Asian Championships since the 2006 season. Defense of the Ancients is featured in the internationally recognized Cyberathlete Amateur League and the CyberEvolution Leagues. In addition, the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) added the game DotA to its program for 2008 and 2010; ESWC's competition director Oliver Paradis pointed out that the high level of support from the community and its worldwide recognition were among the selection criteria.

The modification is popular in many parts of the world, e.g. B. in the Philippines and Thailand, where it has the same status as Counter-Strike . Allstars is also very popular in Sweden and the other Northern European countries, where the DotA- inspired song Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA by the Swedish musician Basshunter cracked the top ten singles charts in Sweden, Norway and Finland and entered the European charts in 2006 116 reached. LAN tournaments are an important part of international competition, including tournaments in Sweden and Russia, but due to the lack of LAN tournaments and championships in North America, several teams have also been disbanded. Blizzard cites DotA as an example of what committed hobby developers can achieve with just a few resources.

Due to its success, more and more similar games have recently been developed. The first known implementation was Demigod , for which John Comes, Lead Designer of Gas Powered Games , named Defense of the Ancients as one of the sources of inspiration. Former Allstars Forum administrator Steve "Pendragon" Mescon and former Allstars developer Steve Feak were hired by Riot Games to work on League of Legends . On the other hand, the development team S2 Games took a different approach : Their game Heroes of Newerth took over the complete game mechanics and most of the game content from DotA. In recent years a new computer game genre has emerged , which has broken away from real-time strategy games and, shaped by DotA, has become known to a wider audience.

On October 13, 2010, Valve announced that it would work with DotA developer IceFrog on Dota 2 , the official successor to the game. The game was released in mid-2013.

Even Blizzard Entertainment , the developer of the computer game series Warcraft , StarCraft and Diablo , published on 2 June 2015 in accordance with a 55-month development Heroes of the Storm . The game was formerly called Blizzard DotA and Blizzard All-Stars .

Problems and limits

Defense of the Ancients is generally considered to be an entry-level unfriendly game. Because of the high level of complexity, newcomers need a lot of time just for the basics. However, there are special maps (so-called AI maps) on which you can compete against computer-controlled bots in order to learn the game. Another allegation that is often made is the behavior of fellow players in public games. A newcomer is rarely given help - and on the contrary, he is often defamed by his own teammates because of his poor performance, as he is perceived as a burden for the team and is often the cause of defeat.

In public games, too, players often leave the game prematurely. This is particularly difficult in DotA , since the corresponding team with the dropout has to get along without him until the end of the game (whereby the character remains controllable by the remaining players). In addition, DotA is limited in its technical development.

Others use community platforms to bring players together and, if rules are violated, to temporarily or permanently exclude the user from their own community. The rules vary in severity. Some only punish leaving the game, others also punish verbal attacks or establish more complicated regulations for the course of the game, as can be found in some DotA leagues.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MOBA on the advance: From mod to successful genre - great history and game overview. In: PC Games. March 23, 2013, accessed May 3, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Kevin Tok: Defense of the Ancients 101, page 2 . In: GotFrag.com . January 25, 2006. Archived from the original on August 2, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 3, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gotfrag.com
  3. ↑ http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Valve-Blizzard-DotA-Trademark-Agreement,15688.html
  4. ↑ Sebastian Thöing: DotA: One map, two teams, three famous developers and four clones · Probably the most famous strategy mod . In: PC Games . April 28, 2010. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  5. ↑ Punit Lodaya: DotA: AllStars Part 1 . In: TechTree.com . February 9, 2006. Archived from the original on June 25, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 18, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.techtree.com
  6. ↑ Hero Database . In: PlayDotA.com . Archived from the original on January 24, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 3, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.playdota.com
  7. ^ Neha Nair: Why Defense of the Ancients? (Pg. 1) . In: GotFrag.com . October 30, 2007. Archived from the original on June 24, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 3, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gotfrag.com
  8. ↑ Lodaya, Punit: DotA: AllStars Part 2: What Do I Do? . TechTree.com. February 9, 2006. Archived from the original on May 22, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 3, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.techtree.com
  9. ↑ PlayDotA.com Items Database . PlayDotA.com. Archived from the original on January 2, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 3, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.playdota.com
  10. ^ Tok, Kevin: Defense of the Ancients 101 . GotFrag.com. January 25, 2006. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  11. ↑ Eul (23 September 2004): Official farewell thread Eul ( memento from February 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), TheWarCenter.net, accessed on June 20, 2010.
  12. ↑ Max Doll: Classic Dota card ported for successors . In: computerbase.de . September 6, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  13. ↑ Icefrog (October 5, 2009): Announcement ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , PlayDota.com, accessed May 18, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.playdota.com
  14. ↑ Cp6uja_: List of Implemented Suggestions . In: PlayDotA.com . July 29, 2009. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
  15. ↑ Neha Nair: ESWC interview: Why DotA? . In: GotFrag.com . January 18, 2008. Archived from the original on June 24, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 9, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gotfrag.com
  16. ↑ Dahmen, Lennart: A Demigod talking ... . In: eXp.de . March 25, 2008. Accessed on June 20, 2010.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.exp.de  
  17. ^ DotA & LoL . In: LeagueOfLegends.com . Archived from the original on April 24, 2010. Retrieved June 20, 2010.
  18. ↑ Heroes of Newerth: DotA clone is ready . In: Computer Picture Games . May 12, 2010. Retrieved June 20, 2010.
  19. ^ Alfred Franz (September 19, 2005): DotA Leaver Statistics (PDF; 185 kB), accessed on May 9, 2010.