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Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a type of custom map created for the game Warcraft III (by Blizzard Entertainment). DotA can be played as a multiplayer game, either on Battle.net, private servers or local area networks. AI "bots" are available for the DotA Allstars variant. The original map has spawned several variants, including DotA Allstars. DotA Allstars v5.84c was featured in the Malaysian and Singaporean World Cyber Games 2005 national finals and the Cyberathlete Amateur League now runs both Open and Main divisions using DotA Allstars v6.37.

Gameplay

Defense of the Ancients is a team game, with two opposing sides. Unlike regular Warcraft III games, in which many units are controlled by the player, in DotA, each player must choose a single hero - with its own skills, strengths, and weaknesses - and control only this hero in order to achieve victory. The objective for each team is to destroy the opposing teams' main structure (the "Ancient"), thus giving rise to the game name. To reach the Ancient, each hero must defeat waves of units, structures and enemy heroes. Along the way, the player may upgrade his or her hero, by defeating enemies in combat, thus gaining spendable "experience", and/or by buying items that add to the abilities of their hero.

Heroes can gain up to 25 levels in the newest and most played versions of DotA. Each hero can learn three "standard" abilities, upgradeable four times each, and a special "ultimate" ability, upgradeable three times with the exception of a small group of select heroes that are able to upgrade their ultimate ability one more time by buying a special item. The heroes are divided into three groups which emphasize one of the three hero attributes: strength, agility, or intelligence.

Development

DotA has been developed by many different authors. The original DotA map was created by a player named Eul. There is an item in the current DotA Allstars tributing Eul (Eul's Scepter of Divinity). Eul has since abandoned DotA, and his original map has inspired many variants, including the well known DotA Allstars. At one point Guinsoo (who is also tributed by a game item item, "Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse") worked on it; however, later on another team member from Clan Kali, Buriza, worked on it as well (there exists an item, Buriza-do Kyanon, which refers to an item from Diablo II, in which the item description speaks of its imbalance). Currently IceFrog is the one who is leading the team of DotA Allstars. There has been controversy over Allstars concerning the extent to which it used the original map's contents and the changes it made to the map's game play.

Defense of the Ancients variants

Throughout the history of the Defense of the Ancients map development, various DotA map titles were created by map developers, either successors or spin-offs of the original version. These include:

• DotA Allstars
• Gamebox DotA
• DotA Outland
• DotA Darkness Falls
• DotA Classic
• DotA Rumble
• DotA OUTCAST
  • A variant of DotA with only one lane (through the middle), with towers scattered throughout.
• DotA: Danite's Hell
  • A variant of DotA in which each hero is missing its normal magic abilities. Instead, abilities are randomly assigned from the pool of all possible abilities for heroes on the team (that is, the Scourge or Sentinel).
• DotA SC (alternatively, DSC or AoS II)
  • A Starcraft-themed variant of DotA, with the fantasy themed heroes of regular DotA variants replaced with heroes representative of units from Starcraft and its expansion. Heroes are easier to kill, games are finished quicker, and there is the use of "Comsat Buildings" to sweep for cloaked or camping players.

Controversy

There are Warcraft III players who oppose DotA, due to the number of DotA games on Battle.Net, where often a third or more of the custom games being played at any one time are DotA variants. In addition to these concerns, there are DotA players who do not play the regular Warcraft III games; therefore, other players believe that DotA is destroying Warcraft III as a whole. Several clans (groups of players who have joined to make a club) have been formed as anti-DotA clans. Also, the linear gameplay of DotA itself encourages some to brand it as 'boring' and rigged.

See also

• Warcraft III
• DotA Allstars
• Hero (Warcraft)
• Creep (Warcraft)
• Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA by Basshunter

References

1. "Warcraft III DotA league news". Cyberathlete Amateur League. Retrieved September 19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
2. "DotA map posting by Eul". warcraft.org. Retrieved Aug 23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
3. "Hey Now, You're an All-Star..." starcade.com. Retrieved August 23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
4. "The true history of "dota"". thewarcenter.com. Retrieved August 23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
5. "An example of an anti-DotA thread". worldofwar.net. Retrieved September 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

• Warcraft custom games