Warcraft DotA – A Revolutionary Multiplayer Game

Defense of the Ancients or commonly known as DotA is a real time strategy game which is a part of the expansion pack of the game Warcraft III-Reign of Chaos-Warcraft :The Frozen Throne.It includes a map editor which enables players to create their own scenarios.This can be used to create maps or scenarios and distribute it to the other players so others can play your map too.One day out of nowhere a programmer studying I think in California or something like that,created this “thing” called DotA and had a basic idea of 2 teams battling out each other.

The Sentinel-The good forces,friendly to earth and nature and The Scourge-The Bad(dark) forces,abuse the earth and nature.There is one map, divided into three lanes where creeps (creatures) automatically spawn. At the heart each base is an ancient; the world tree for the sentinel, and the frozen throne for the scourge. In each lane there are 3 towers protecting the ancient, as well as creep producing buildings (raxes). Not only do players have to focus on defending or killing the ancients, but DotA also focuses on team play to kill enemy heroes.

The map(v 1.0) was created around the summer 2003. It was created by a person known only as “Eul”, he continued development until 2005, when Steven Feak, better known as “Guinsoo” took over the reins of development. Guinsoo developed the map until 2005, and from then onwards until present, another developer called “Icefrog” took over. Whoever that might be,he or she surely took the world by storm and the map spread over the internet wide around the globe to all those who play Warcraft III. Anyways despite the widespread of DotA,there were a lot of game-bugs discovered by the players and ruined the game completely and had to fix it.So He launched a site exclusive for his previous and latest DotA maps,a hundred percent free- www.getdota.com

The DotA maps were thoroughly checked and all the bugs were fixed and launched seamless without bugs in the upcoming versions.Soon,by the year 2005 DotA evolved into a world wide multiplayer online game and was at par with other big-wind games such as Counter Strike and Starcraft etc.In the year 2007 Dota beat Counter Strike with the highest number of players as claimed by Garena a gaming client software, created by tech students in Singapore to take International Gaming to the next level.

The game has become a hit in many parts of the world, especially in the Philippines, where it has replaced Counter-Strike as the most-played game. It is also popular in Sweden and other Northern European countries, where the DotA  song “Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA” by Swedish singer Basshunter reached the European  charts at #116 and cracked the top ten Singles Charts in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The popularity of the song popularized the song to new heights, with non-gaming European publications writing stories about the game. Fans also created the artwork displayed on the load-screen most of them done by Kunkka at www.deviantart.com

DotA offers a variety of game modes, allrandom(-ar), allpick(-ap), random draft(-rd),captains mode(-cm),capture points(-cp), league mode, and many others. Competitive play started off with standard league mode; sentinel could only pick sentinel heroes and scourge could only pick scourge heroes. Since then, league play has changed drastically. Extended League mode (XL) is now the most consistently used mode in league play where teams are not only picking heroes, but eliminating them as well. This opened up a new era for competitive DotA, forcing teams to rework their strategies, and learn how to counter others.DotA has something that is not frequently seen in other games; strategies and counter strategies with items. It is occasionally seen in WC3; buying healing scrolls to counter mass AoE (Area of Effect) damage. However, in DotA it plays a major part in the game.

Strategies are constantly destroyed, reworked and countered solely because of items. Many teams have focused their strategies on mass AoE spell damage, picking heroes like Queen of Pain, Sand King and Zeus,Tidehunter and more. The focus on spell damage has drifted since teams have found many ways to counter it; mekansm (healing), black king bar (magic immune), diffusal blade (purges spell buffs), hood of defiance (magic damage reduction) , pipe (Barrier) and blink daggers (teleportation). One thing that is noticeable in the DotA community is the popularity of new replays. Fans eagerly wait for the  Tournament replays featuring their favorite team to see what hero lineups they used, what item builds they went and how they countered the enemy team.Unfortunately, DotA has one major flaw; length. When competitive play revolved around standard league mode, games could last up to two hours.

Since then IceFrog has made many balance attempts like removing Aegis (preventing heroes from dying) which made drastic changes to game lengths. Now, it is common for DotA games to only last 30-45 minutes. Still people question the audience value of the game, it is widely accepted that RTS games are harder to follow without a basic understanding of the game.

The game was featured by Computer Gaming World in a review of new maps and modifications and fixes in Warcraft III.DotA has also become recognized at tournaments, becoming an independent tournament item at the debut of  BlizzCon convention in 2005. DoTA All stars was also featured in the Malaysia and Singapore World Cyber Games 2005, 2006, and the World Cyber Games (WCG) Asian Championships 2006.

The Game  was included in the internationally-recognized Cyberathlete Amateur League and CyberEvolution leagues. DotA was introduced in ESWC 2008, one of the most prestigious gaming events in electronic sports. LAN tournaments are a major part of competitive DotA play around the world, including Dreamhack in Sweden and ASUS in Russia. DotA still remains unbeaten in the gaming industry. With millions playing DoTA all over the world at almost any time of the day, it’s one of the world’s largest player communities, so go on, be a part of it.