dota-allstars posts

A few weeks after its official reveal, Valve has now launched its official web site for DOTA 2. There's still no official screenshots of this upcoming remake of the Defense of the Ancients mod but the site does feature a Q&A with answers provided by the mysterious "IceFrog."

Some of the questions deal with spectating in matches, how the new game will handle online lag, if there will be a beta test (in short, yes) and more. One question that Valve has yet to address publicly is the issue of the company trying to secure the trademark for DOTA 2 which is an issue of contention with former Defense of the Ancients developers as well as Blizzard who made the game (Warcraft III) which was used as the basis of the original DOTA game.

Even thought their day job is working on Riot Games' League of Legends title, ex-DotA All Stars developers Steve "Guinsoo" Feak and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon are apparently so concerned about Valve's recent trademark filing of "DOTA" that the duo have now decided to do some counter-trademarking. As reported by PC Gamer, the term "Defense of the Ancients" now has a US Trademark filing from "DotA All-Stars LLC" (a company owned by Mescom.

Even though Valve still hasn't even announced a "DOTA" game, much less its plans for it, Feak and Mescom feel that Valve's trademarking move hurts the spirit of DotA with Mescom saying he and Feak "had hoped that the DotA name would live on in perpetuity as a community project that is both free to play and free to modify and expand." He adds, "If we were to obtain the trademark, we would keep the game and the DotA name freely available to the mod community. That way the game can continue to be worked on and enjoyed by the independent community. We want to ensure that the DotA name remains in the hands of the community and that it is free for all to use."

Last week we reported that Valve has applied for a trademark for "DOTA" suggesting strongly that the long standing rumors of the developer making a Defense of the Ancients game are indeed true. Now a couple of former developers of the popular WarCraft III action-RTS mod have expressed concerns about Valve's actions.

Our sister site Joystiq states that Steve "Pendragon" Mescon and Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, who worked on Dota-All Stars, (and now work at Riot Games on the DotA-inspired title League of Legends) stated that they believes the "DotA name should remain the property of the community at-large, as it always has." Mescon believes that Valve's trademarking of the "DotA" name suggests that the developer is "exercising control over its future."

It should be noted that Valve has yet to even announce a DotA game, much less its plans for the franchise. Also Valve is perhaps one of the most open developers out there, issuing mod tools, supporting mod teams and even releasing free stand alone games such as the recent Alien Swarm.

Technically S2 Games' upcoming multiplayer action-RTS game Heroes of Newerth has been in closed beta for quite some time. However today the developer has decided to open the flood gates and let anyone sign up to play their game, which is blatantly inspired by Defense of the Ancients.

The open beta registration has a small catch. It's only available to the public until the end of the day on Christmas Day. While the web site is also taking both gift and personal purchases of the full game for $30, there's still no word on when Heroes of Newerth will come out of its beta state and actually become a commercial title.

[Via Blue's News]

The battle for the Defense of the Ancients players has begun as developer Riot Games has officially launched their online multiplayer action-RTS game League of Legends. With a development team that includes some folks who worked on the popular Warcraft III mod it should be interesting to see how this stand alone game fares.

While the game is free to play, Riot Games is also selling a $29.99 Collector's Pack via download and in retail stores that adds some extra content including 20 of the game's Champions. However they have decided to give all players access to all 40 available Champions "for a limited time". In addition owners of the Collector's Pack will get a chance to get more of an experience boost than a normal player during this launch time period.

The current lead developer behind the popular Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients has made the suprising announcement that he is "now leading a team at Valve". Presumably he means the same Valve that has mostly worked on first person shooter game titles like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead. In his announcement on the official DotA page "IceFrog" (that's the only name he goes by) he stats that now he has "all the resources needed to do some very exciting stuff that you guys will love. I look forward to revealing more specific details when the time is right."

This would certainly be a change of pace for Valve if they decide to develop a DotA-like game. The mod has become an inspiration for a number of current and upcoming commercial games including Demigod, Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends (who have former DotA team members as part of their dev team).

[Via Shacknews]

The quest to attain the title of "most popular mod" is a difficult and arguably meaningless one. Ask the devotees in any mod's camp, and they're sure to tell you that their mod of choice is the only correct answer. What mod, then, is the most popular mod in the world? Counter-Strike is a possibility. First released in 1999, Counter-Strike has ten years of experience behind it, and an exponentially larger fan base. Team Fortress boasts just as many dedicated gamers, if not more.

These and other mods are undoubtedly popular, but according to an analysis on Gamasutra written in June 2008, Defense of the Ancients, a strategy-RPG hybrid fittingly developed for Blizzard Entertainment's strategy-RPG WarCraft III, is the most popular "free, non-supported game mod in the world."

The new Los Angeles based game developer Riot Games made a big splash a few weeks ago when they first announced their plans for League of Legends. Their fantasy based PC action-strategy game is in a way a stand alone extension of the popular Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients.

Big Download wanted to get some more info about both Riot Games and their plans for League of Legends. We sent a number of questions for the team to answer and they responded in kind (we were told that more than one person answered the questions so the credit for the answers will be given to Riot Games).