Blizzard DOTA unveiled at BlizzCon 2011
We knew Blizzard had a DotA custom game in the works for Starcraft II. At BlizzCon 2011 the publisher took the wraps off Blizzard DOTA with a great video, screens, and the first details on the game.
We've known Blizzard had its own Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) inspired custom game in the works for Starcraft II. At BlizzCon 2011, the wraps came off to reveal the game now to be known as Blizzard DOTA. The trailer below offers a good first look at the game in action and some of the heroes. We also got a massive drop of screens that show off heroes, map lanes, and more. And to go with them, Blizzard supplied a number of answers to some of the questions you're sure to asking. We've got those details below but to answer one of the top priorities; Blizzard says it plans to offer a number of ways to Blizzard DOTA for free, but the specifics aren't set as yet. It could be part of the Starcraft II: Starter Edition, with some sort of content restrictions. Another possibility under consideration is to give exclusive content to owners of games such as Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm.
Blizzard promises its take on DotA will be based on the company's "easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master" design philosophy. A twist on how towers work was given as an example of this approach in action. In Blizzard DOTA towers have a limited supply of energy that recharges over time. This means that an attacker making a push can more easily overwhelm the tower by effectively running it out of ammo. The middle ground of maps, known as the "jungle," also sees some changes. As opposed to clearing out creeps to earn power-ups for individual heroes, there are power nodes to capture that boost the strength of your team's attacking creatures out in the lanes.
As the title implies, the setup for the game takes full advantage of the Blizzard catalog. The basic idea is that two gods (the players) battle for fun and ladder points in a transdimensional pocket universe by pulling in heroes from the great Blizzard franchises. Twelve of them are on display at Blizzcon, including Witchdoctor, Nova, Thrall, Arthas, Queen of Blades, Muradin, Za'gara, Stitches, Zeratul, and Sylvanis. Plans call for more to be in the game before it officially releases, but Blizzard advises that it intends to go for quality over quantity. Every hero will have a role to play, and not all of them will be killing machines.
Yes, a beta is planned for some time in the next few months. Until then we'll have to be content with this video and the screenshots.
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replyGarnett Lee posted a new article, Blizzard DOTA unveiled at BlizzCon 2011.
We knew Blizzard had a DotA custom game in the works for Starcraft II. At BlizzCon 2011 the publisher took the wraps off Blizzard DOTA with a great video, screens, and the first details on the game.-
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Hahahaha oh jesus, Blizzard has some gorilla-sized balls to actually call it "Blizzard DOTA"
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Because of DOTA2, obviously.
I mean they're basically saying "Oh you like DOTA2 huh? Come try BLIZZARD's DOTA instead!"
I mean hell they might have well called it "The better DOTA game"-
And what was Valve saying when they called it DOTA 2?
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I also thought it was pretty pretentious for them to call it DOTA2 when they didn't make DotA in the first place! But that was like a billion years ago in Internet time
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Haha yes! I can't wait to see Valve's Superheroes 2
Except that couldn't happen because "Superhero" is actually a joint trademark between Marvel and DC -
All the original Team Fortress devs went to work for Valve, though.
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'Cause of this: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4010:89rq9o.2.1
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I completely agree. I wouldn't necessarily have agreed before this announcement, but now that two competing major companies are both calling their game "DOTA", it's destined to just become the name of the genre.
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It's not really misleading because, as s2jason said above, "dota" is becoming more and more synonymous with "dota-inspired game", which this most definitely is.
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The term MOBA was pushed by Riot - it was never a commonly accepted industry term. Meaning, I don't think I've heard another company use that term besides Riot.
DOTA has way better name recognition with gamers.-
MOBA is such a dumb name. Multiplayer Online Battle Arena could just as well mean a game like Quake.
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Let's hope not
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m0rfus, I feel your pain. It would be fun with a pre-made team of 5 all the time, but you cannot play that mode in a pick up group.
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no, it has a "Man Up you god damn hippy" mode
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Now this looks good! The Valve Dota is missing the boat with the generic same old characters in my opinion.
Valve characters would of made all the difference, along with art direction.
My best analogy: If this were competing bowling alleys, Valve Dota looks like a warehouse with a lane a ball and ten pins.
HON,LOL, and Blizzards Dota, not only have lanes, pins and balls, but snack bars, arcades, and fancy carpet on the walls.-
Lets take this wacky analogy a step further. Compared to dota, LoL is like those crazy bowling lanes seen in games like Monkey Ball where they are all curvy or indented in some wacky way (because it adds new dynamics to the gameplay being runes, masteries and summoner spells).
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I actually have no idea how that analogy fits. Like I have absolutely no idea what each object in your analogy is supposed to repsent. It makes no sense!
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Valve Dota looks stripped down, feature free, and the others look great and fun?
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I did give examples, that no one understood. Without playing them first hand and only having the media that's out there to base my opinion on, I feel Valves Dota is not very good looking graphically.
That's my opinion, not a troll.
I love valve too, just think they have missed the mark so far.-
"not very good looking graphically" is a completely different claim than "stripped down, feature free [and unfun]"
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DOTA 2 looks beautiful. Not to mention the animations and the whole painterly look Valve is doing with it. It moves tons better than this one and the other MOBA titles on the market now.
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You need some classes in analogies
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This won't be able to compete with my recently announced DOTA 3 game.
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My new game is called MW4. Realistic military FPS- not to be confused with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
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After DOTA3 I am going to be making "Modern War 7 DOTA: The authentic DOTA"
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After that "League of DOTA Legends" and "Heroes of DOTA"
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Lol. I wonder who approved the V.O. fired
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzWIFX8M-Y (warning: terrible)
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I wish this were a joke.
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icefrog doesn't own dota, he didn't even invent it. DOTA is a rip off of Aeon of Strife, a custom map for SC1 and icefrog actually took the dota project off of the guy who started it (Guinsoo)
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I find it odd that Blizzard is struggling with DOTA. The original was made from their game, and then took off with LOL and HON. Blizzard was lagging for the first time. Then they came out with their DOTA map and it failed, forcing them to relaunch it.
Why is it so hard for them?
I sense a lack of true Blizzard attention to this. When Blizzard puts their mind to it, they can take any genre and crush it. I agree this video and narration feels half-hearted...phoned in maybe...even mocking the audience they are going for "No purpose except ladder points."
It's like they don't understand why DOTA is successful and have no real love for MOBA itself. Sort of like they looked at the market and said..oh this is happening...I guess we should throw our hat in or something...-
I feel they're trying to relaunch the same game/mode/gameplay on an already saturated market. Having LoL, HoN and soon DOTA2 in this market (a very small market since MOBA games are a very small gametype actually) and for sure 2 of those (probably dota2 as well) free to play is a stupid marketing move.
I feel they could spend the resources better on making Titan, WoW, SCII expansions, WCIV (would be sweet).
It's not worth investing into an already saturated market with no new gameplay, making the exact same game as DOTA2/LoL/HON will not attract any new customers since they can just stick to their MOBA game and get the same blizzard DOTA offers.
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