Ever since the announcement that DotA 2 would be releasing “as soon as possible” Valve has been leaking beta keys to various websites for giveaways and to fuel the hype machine. A site called Gamersbook got in touch with me because they thought you guys might be interested in their giveaway and, frankly, I agree.
They have 4 keys, all set to release over the course of the upcoming week. One key will go out on each of the following days: Sunday October 9th, Tuesday October 11th, Friday October 14th and Sunday October 16th, all at 18:00 CET (Central European Time).
The rules for entry are simple enough. You have to make an account at Gamersbook.com and add DotA 2 to your list of played games in the player profile. You’ll also need to hook up with Gamersbook on Facebook or Twitter and do some sharing, liking, or retweeting. Last, you need to suggest a new feature for Gamersbook.com related to DotA 2 or come up with a new slogan for the site.
For the complete set of rules, head over to the Gamersbook contest page. Like I said, the rules for entry are simple enough. If you’re serious about DotA, I’m sure you’re willing to spend the 5 minutes it might take to get a shot at a beta key.
The release of League of Legends: Dominion made me wonder what the other big players in the MOBA world have been up to, particularly the good people at Valve. Valve has always been known for the glacial pace of its development, but the word on the street was that DotA 2 would be out this year. Apparently that was never Valve’s plan.
According to an official blog post made late last week, DotA 2 was originally slated for a year-long beta, beginning this fall. During that time, Valve was planning to slowly increase the number of available heroes until it matched the original title and only then would the game be released.
It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which releasing DotA 2 a year from now would make any kind of sense. Granted, DotA players are a loyal breed, but the options for filling the MOBA need are ever-increasing. As Dominion has shown us, there are also emerging models for arena-style gameplay that stray from conventional base-killing. Also, why hold a high profile tournament for a game that won’t release for a full year? In short, DotA can’t keep MOBA players interested forever. Pushing that interest for another 12 months seems like a surefire way to kill the game.
Luckily, Valve has changed its plans. The new schedule has DotA 2 coming out as soon as possible with the set of heroes that were playable in the International tourney. From there, Valve will be rolling out updates with more heroes along the way.
Weirdly enough, I think their terrible initial plan will turn into a really smart release cycle. DotA 2 will be a tough change of pace for players who never played the original. Even veteran DotA players, like myself, might have trouble adjusting after being away from the game so long. That adjustment period is only compounded by the number of new champions and mechanics a player has to learn. By launching with a limited set of champions, DotA 2 will probably be much more approachable than the version we would otherwise see a year from now.
With Gamescom up and running, the DotA 2 International tournament is in full swing, with teams competing for the first place purse of $1,000,000. This is also the first time the world at large has seen DotA 2, a game that, in my opinion, looks fantastic. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed DotA on a very visceral level. It was somewhere in the back of my mind, but as soon as I saw Valve’s take on some of my favorite champions – Windrunner, Beastmaster, Dark Seer, Night Stalker – I felt the excitement of playing the game again.
I think Valve has done a really nice job with the graphics. Honestly, with as good as DotA 2 looks, I don’t think HoN really stands a chance. HoN’s big selling point up to this point was that it was DotA with “better” graphics. For some reason, though, they changed the names of the items and the champions and made the graphics look all sorts of crazy. DotA 2 actually is DotA with better graphics and, from the looks of things, everything is still the same. I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing on the whole, but I’m willing to say it’s a bad thing for HoN
I think the key to quick success is for Valve to release at the right time and the right price. No doubt there will be plenty of current DotA players making the switch. According to the livestreams today, some 1.5 million people were watching the International tournament. But I would like to see a vibrant DotA 2 community, including newplayers. I know a few friends who will be playing DotA for the first time in DotA 2, and it is a very different game. Without a fresh community, those newer players will have a frustrating time getting acclimated to the game.
With the beta just getting started, I could see a DotA 2 launch as late as the end of November. As for price, I’m hoping it’s free-ninety-free, but I also wouldn’t mind seeing a buy-in price. It would hopefully keep smurfs from being too much of an issue and encourage players to be a bit more careful with their accounts. I’m also not sure if Valve is planning any sort of skin system or microtransaction model. If interest is high enough around the game, it makes plenty of sense to do a box cost and then follow it up with microtransactions down the road. Valve could easily make back development costs and then look for more ways to turn the game into a mint.
Did you watch any of the footage? Are you excited for DotA 2 or content to chug along in LoL? Think you’ll be playing both? Let me know in the comments.
This isn’t exactly fresh news, but I do think it’s interesting to see some of the tactics employed to unseat League of Legends as king of the MOBA world. As you probably heard, Heroes of Newerth went free-to-play over the weekend. The rollout included some interesting ads on various gaming sites. One such ad encourages players to “stop laughing” and “get serious.” I can only imagine that’s a dig at the LoL acronym everyone is using for League of Legends.
The more serious threat is obviously Valve and DotA 2. I wasn’t surprised to hear that the game would be unveiled at Gamescom – there had been rumors about the tournament for weeks – but the prize purse for the tournament shocked me. For those who aren’t up to speed, Valve is flying the top 16 DotA teams to Germany to compete for a $1 million prize purse. Yes, again, a million bucks. That’s not buy-a-new-computer-and-pay-for-college-supplies money. That is life-changing money, money that could support a professional gaming career into the forseeable future. The benefit to Valve for making that commitment is obvious – they want every competitive team to come play DotA 2.
Will it work? Absolutely. I cannot imagine any of the top teams in competitive strategy games not taking a crack at DotA 2 with that kind of prize purse available. As for HoN, well, I think the game has enough barriers to entry that players entrenched in other games are unlikely to leave.
I don’t know how many of you are on Twitter, but the Riot staff has been teasing its followers this week with the promise of amazing content. If Dark Shurelia is to be believed, we may see Magma Chamber as early as this week.
The forums have been abuzz as well. RiotMontag said the amazing content we’ve been waiting for his coming “Not Soon. This Week.” I’m curious what that means, though. Are we going to see another Friday patch day like we did with Leona? For the Rioters’ sakes I hope that’s not the case – I would imagine the servers are going to need some attention over the weekend and no one likes working on the weekend.
This is the most buzz we’ve had surrounding League of Legends since Dreamhack, which I take as a truly positive sign. It seems like good timing, too. Valve just announced the first public showing of DotA 2 at a Gamescom tournament later this month. Oh, did I not mention that the purse for first prize in the tourney is a million bucks, USD? Yeah, you read that right. One million dollars cash to the first place team. Dreamhack was cool, but Valve is definitely sending a message to competitive players in just about every strategy game on the market. Can Riot’s news this week keep up?
