Defence of the Ancients: A New Genre?

TheGameReviews writes: "Have you played Defence of the Ancients? As the mod phenomenon for Blizzard's classic strategy game Warcraft III continues to gain momentum, it's clear that a huge, ever-growing number of people have. DotA provides a unique gaming experience, fusing real-time strategy with role-playing, and transplanting the resulting hybrid into the competitive, team-based multiplayer arena. It pits two teams of players against each other, tasking each team with the destruction of the opposition's base structure. Players fight each other and AI "creep" units to accumulate the experience, cash and items needed to secure victory. Despite its mod origins, some of its fans regard DoTA as so innovative and distinctive that they refer to it not only as a game scenario, but as the vanguard and chief representative of a new gaming genre. This concept has been strengthened by the emergence of commercial games featuring very similar gameplay. But does DotA actually represent a new genre? The claim is so lofty that it deserves examination. After all, if it were true then the industry repercussions would be vast."

[tehk1w1]

I dunno about new genre, but if there's a real pop music video for it, it must be the most awesome thing ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Disciplyne]

Fembot zerg attack in DotA!!! For the Win?

[RememberThe357]

Oh man, the hours I waited on this game...

I think I'll go play right now actually.

[SlamVanderhuge]

Wish consoles were open to such mods...today's engines would be great building blocks to start with.

[Perjoss]

never tried it myself, but apparently Halo3 had a great editor called Forge. I heard that Farcry2 also had a very powerful editor, and last but not least king of all console 'DIY' games Little Big Planet.

These games prove that you can mod on consoles, maybe not to the extent of pc games (editing and adding totally new assets etc) but there is certainly room for modders to create stuff like this.

[RememberThe357]

What exactly is that telling you?

[Haly]

I'd love to use some of the Fallout 3 PC mods on the console, some of them are brilliant

[iTZKooPA]

With so many companies trying to clone the success of DotA - Demigod, League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth - I think it's safe to consider it a new genre.

[STK026]

well, not really. They still all class under the "strategy" genre don't you think? just like TDs. I would also like to point out this : I've tried most TD games on PSN, XBLA and many on iPhone, and for some reason, they can't get it right. Many are fun, but none come even close to the simple concept of the Maul or many other TDs in Wc3 actually.

The same can pretty much be said about DOTA clones, the best ones are actually in Wc3 with mods like ToB. So, after so many years, I find it kinda sad to see games ranging from 1 to 20$, specialising into taking a very small part of the Wc3 package and actually failing to make it any better, don't you?

[Handhelds_FTW]

It's a tower defense variant.

[SirLarr]

Lots of new genres start off as variations of existing ones until they develop fully enough to become their own.

First-person views in games were first seen in dungeon crawlers - Ultima and the like - until later games added guns and took out turn-based systems. Suddenly the FPS is born out of an RPG.

DotA and its ilk are the beginnings of a new genre, but that won't become apparent until someone really nails it.

[meetajhu]

Best Multiplayer game in the world! Nothing can ever beat this weather its CS,COD or Quake. DOTA demolishes everything.