Defense of the Ancients was a multiplayer online battle arena mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and its expansion Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It was made using the “World Editor” feature of Reign of Chaos and was originally based on the “Aeon of Strife” map from StarCraft.
The object of the game was for players to destroy the opposing team’s Ancient, which is a giant, heavily fortified structure on opposite corners of the map. Ever since Defense of the Ancients was first released, it has been popular among the online gaming community and has been featured in many different gaming tournaments all over the world–including the World Cyber Games and Blizzard Entertainment’s BlizzCon.
In 2008, the editor of the gaming website Gamasutra called Defense of the Ancients the most popular mod in the world and one of the most popular competitive titles. The Valve Corporation eventually acquired the intellectual property rights to Defense of the Ancients and in July of this year they released a stand-alone sequel called Dota 2.
Dota 2 is immensely popular.
It is already beginning to replace Defense of the Ancients at gaming tournaments across the globe, with some competitions putting up prizes worth over a million dollars.
The appeal for Dota 2 comes from its team-based gameplay and high level of difficulty. There are over one hundred characters that are playable in the game, and all have different talents and abilities and serve different roles.
In order for a team to reach its full potential, each player has to pick characters that complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. If your team doesn’t have strong enough synergy, you will undoubtedly fail. The game is extremely difficult and has such a high learning curve that the first week of Dota 2 will make you feel pretty inadequate. New players will have trouble adjusting to all the intricacies and details. Some of the more advanced strategies will be lost on players until they have put a significant amount of time into the game. This helps weed out bad players and only leaves a strong, dedicated fanbase. Matches areintense affairs and only those who truly deserve to win ever do.
Adding to the appeal of Dota 2 is that it is entirely free to play. There are no fees of any kind. Anyone can try it out to see if it is the game for them. Simply download it on Steam and join the phenomenon.
