@nintendoeats: Hard to say for me, I haven't got my hands on it. From some of my friends at blizzcon, they said it was the most fun thing they got to play there, and they just spent all their time doing laps on the blizzard dota line. The fact that it seemed really popular there is pretty encouraging to me.

@Addfwyn: Hmm, the people that decided to go to Blizzcon really liked that new Blizzard game...curious :)

Seriously though, I am just speculating about these mechanics. This could be awesome.

Hoping there's a ton more heroes than that, i mean, i guess it's be fine if there were only a handful of heroes, but i love having huge amounts of choice when it comes to my champion in a MOBA.

@nintendoeats: Touché, though the people that decided to go to blizzcon liked it more than the OTHER blizzard games, which says something. As I imagine there aren't fans dedicated enough to pay that much just to see blizzard dota (though I could be wrong).

Yeah, it remains to be seen. I'm not sure if it's something that'd seriously take my playtime from other mobas (Currently LoL is my poison of choice) but it seems like they are putting way more effort into it than I initially thought they would. I was kinda expecting something just like the original dota, with a handful of blizzard heroes instead.

Im just asking.

Who the fuck is brian leahy?

@Jethuty said:

Im just asking.

Who the fuck is brian leahy?

He was a long time writer for shacknews.

@Addfwyn: I don't think that Blizzard will ever release anything that isn't phenomenally polished. It would ruin the mystique.

That would be awesome if this whole thing was one massive joke

Well I'll be damned if that doesn't look like a Starcraft II mod.

@Cloudenvy said:

@Morningstar said:

Blizzard is quality. Nuff said ^^

Valve isn't? : (

yeah no kidding, weird thing to say.

Also League of Legends is pretty high quality already and easy to get into. Not sure there is any good reason to wait.

Hearing that they're very much going for a "My First Moba" approach gives me so much more hope for this game. I know the hardcore players would rather that they just make Blizzard Dota exactly like all the others, but that super deep and complex style is covered in two other games with a slightly less complex one being covered as well. Furthermore, I think people need a much better entry point into the genre. I'm sure a fair number of people will play Blizzard Dota, get introduced to the genre, and then move on to the more complex versions as they see fit, and those that don't want the super serious and deep versions can stay out of the way of all of the incredibly intense people that treat Moba games like the most important thing in the world. It also gives me slightly more hope for the community around the game. I mean, not MUCH more hope, I still imagine it will be a rage filled pit of the worst people on the internet, but, hey, even just a tiny bit more of hope that it might be slightly less terrible is nice all the same.

I read this whole article and I still don't know what DOTA is, nor what it means. Lame. Thank you, Addfwyn.

God fucking damn it Ice Frog...Do you see what you've created?

@Buzzkill said:

I don't want to play a Blizzard version of DTOA because Blizzard has sodomized their lore enough.

You live up to your username

Shouldn't there be a page on the site when you try to search just "DOTA?" For the longest time I couldn't figure out what the heck it was until I found out it was a Warcraft III mod. And then there's Dota 2, Blizzard DOTA, etc. etc. It's awfully confusing, and it's a gameplay style that I just don't understand all the hype about. It's kinda simplistic, if you ask me. Whatever.

this is stupid.

So many MOBAs!

I will definitely give this a shot, I play a fair amount of LoL, so I will most likely enjoy this. Getting to play as real Blizzard characters is pretty sweet imo.

@TobbRobb said:

What the hell is up with some people's fetish for denying? It's just busywork which gives an advantage to fast players instead of tactical ones. I really don't see how it's good for anything other than APM practice.

It's mechanic which rewards skilled players and punishes unskilled players giving you more control over your own destiny.

Now I can't help but imagine:

Konami DOTA

Bandai Namco DOTA

PopCap DOTA

DoubleFine DOTA

DOTA is a stupid word, yet everyone seems to love using it.

So are DOTA, MOBA and LoL abbreviations that I need to learn now?

If I ever play this game, all I would want to play as is Lich King...

Happy to see last hitting go away. Lamest part of DOTA, IMO.

@Trylks:

not sure about moba but dota is defence of the ancients

@theveej:

ok this article is terrible it doesn't tell peolpe whats happening... there is last hitting its just that instead of it being gold, its HEALTH. In other words you can hear and get mana back for getting a last kill. The reason gold has been removed is because as any dota player would know, ranged heroes had a massive advantage for gold accumulation in the begining.

@Trylks said:

Just... what the hell does DOTA and MOBA stand for/mean?

"The article! it does nothing!" (to clarify this)

MOBA is hi-lighted in the article. Click on it, and it takes you to the wiki page explaining it in further detail including what it stands for. I would tell you what they stand for, but somebody already did.

Mmmmoba.

Heheheh.

This is such a weird thing. 
 
 
Anyway, an evenmore casual MOBA than League? Didn't think it could be done.

I do hope that there is a way to play this without owning all of the Starcraft II chapters. (I only own the first and have absolutely no intention of purchasing the next two.) I'm one of those rare individuals that for some reason never clicked with SC, even though I did finish the original's three campaigns and played some PvP matches.

Most importantly, I want their playable character roster to include some of Blizzard's "abandoned" franchises such as The Lost Vikings, Blackthorne and Rock 'n Roll Racing.

I think that with the removal of last hitting and denial, along with such changes as how towers work, they are trying to make a game that is more focused on directly battling other players the whole game, and I am all for that. In fact, that is kind of exactly what I was hoping they would do. They are still making creeps important, though, maybe even more important, by letting people get better ones via fighting the neutral creeps. So I don't think the game will have a lower skill ceiling. I think that it will just be about a different skill set.

The impression I get is that it's going to be more about map control (via the creep camps) and killing enemies even early on in the game than creep farming. The "last hit" system has always mostly favored ranged heroes as far as farming goes, anyway, a fact which I'm not too keen on. I'm also not too big on the one-or-two-characters-become-Superman-while-the-rest-are-there-to-support-them thing that some of these games have going on, so I'm glad to see that go. With a seemingly lower focus on (in lane) creep killing, I think that there will also be a greater breadth of strategy in terms of what everyone is doing in the first half of the game, rather than how rote and repetitive overall strategy in these games usually is. I think, "Where should everyone be?" will probably be more of an open question in this game. The addition of mounts also certainly pushes the game in that direction.

How good this game will be is mostly contingent upon whether Blizzard is really determined to focus on it as a full-fledged thing that they keep seriously supporting after launch or if it's just a bit of a side project. I'm inclined to assume that it's the former.

Valve seems to be taking more of a, "Let's not change anything at all," attitude with their offering, which, I have to say, is pretty disappointing. I expect more from them. Successful or not, I think DotA has some major design issues that generally go with the territory of being more or less (yes, I know about Aeon of Strife) the first to do something new. I often wonder if they are simply giving too much control of the project to "IceFrog".

Am I the only person who hasn't got a clue what DOTA is? Every article I've read just assumes I've heard of it. Is it a PC thing?

On another note, glad to see Leahy writing stuff again and not on terrible other websites.

Lets get everyone to make a dota GB DOTAAAA

I sure wish LoL had better bot support and more maps with bot support. I hope blizz adds it fully.

I really wanna get into this MOBA craze, but I don't think I have a good enough computer to run one. I should download League of Legends and give it a try.

@ImperiousRix said:

I really wanna get into this MOBA craze, but I don't think I have a good enough computer to run one. I should download League of Legends and give it a try.

If you can run Warcraft 3 you could always try DotA.

@Buzzkill said:

I don't want to play a Blizzard version of DTOA because Blizzard has sodomized their lore enough.

You live up to your username

@ImperiousRix: League of Legends ran on my laptop with integrated Sandy Bridge graphics so it should run on your PC fine as long as you have a dedicated graphics card

@phrosnite said:

What the hell is Blizzard DOTA? It's a joke. Decent at best.

Well...Blizzard kinda does have a right to make a DOTA style game...considering their warcraft 3 editor pretty much spawned the genre :)

@aermeus said:

@phrosnite said:

What the hell is Blizzard DOTA? It's a joke. Decent at best.

Well...Blizzard kinda does have a right to make a DOTA style game...considering their warcraft 3 editor pretty much spawned the genre :)

Oh really? I didn't know that. /sarcasm

It's funny that Valve is making a game called DOTA2 with no real DOTA1, and then Blizzard comes in and says, "We'll make DOTA1!"

I hope this game focuses on combat more than anything else. I don't give a shit about the logistical side of things, with denying and all that, I just want the combat to be awesome with great skills and diversity. That's what I liked about LoL and hated about HoN. HoN felt more like a strategy game and less like a rpg-like-tactical-combat game. You can go too far with the combat though, and then you end up with Bloodline Champions.

@MysteriousBob:

Thats what google is for. Use it.

@MysteriousBob: You could just click on the bright yellow MOBA link. Here ya go. http://www.giantbomb.com/multiplayer-online-battle-arena/92-6598/

the animation seem really honky 

@Forum_User said:

I think that with the removal of last hitting and denial, along with such changes as how towers work, they are trying to make a game that is more focused on directly battling other players the whole game, and I am all for that. In fact, that is kind of exactly what I was hoping they would do. They are still making creeps important, though, maybe even more important, by letting people get better ones via fighting the neutral creeps. So I don't think the game will have a lower skill ceiling. I think that it will just be about a different skill set.

More brawling, less metagame sounds about right. Maybe that means the game won't have the lasting appeal of the established MOBA brands, but if it allows me to enjoy a game or two without having to do homework on my character, I'm all fer it.

I am going team Valve with this one.

"Lay-heeee.... What's he gonna say-heeeee... on the front pay-heeeeee-gh..." -Jeff Kannata

Seems silly that this is where the market has lead. Why aren't we all just playing this game through the Starcraft 2 map editor?