The World of MOBA: Defense of the Ancients 2
by: John Patrick Pueyo & Novy John Albancia
Dota (Defense of the Ancients) 2 a game created by Valve on the Source Engine and today’s 2nd most popular MOBA game with almost 330,000 simultaneous players around the world, falls far short of League of Legends, Dota 2’s biggest competitor, which was able to boast five million concurrent players earlier in the year. Dota 2 a lot has been changed in the game were it was based on the original Dota which was released last 2003. The scenario was developed with the “World Editor” of Reign of Chaos, and was updated upon the release of its expansion, The Frozen Throne.
A lot of updates were made to make Dota 2 more user-friendly, and more optimized. In terms of graphics Dota 2 has improved a lot compared to the original Dota which seem to be a bit pixilated, now in Dota 2 everything has been remodeled to 3D, and the textures are refined, many of the in game items has been changed and reworked to help balance the game and the new characters that are not based on the original dota updates, the maps were also remodelled valve also put shrines and bounty runes that compared to the original dota, also the heroes skill effects are improved, its interface controls were also updated. Skills are now triggered by QWER keys unlike in the original Dota the keys were scattered all around the keyboard, well depending on the hero you chose and its skills. In the latest 7.07 patch valve changed the ranking systems to a seasonal rankings and changed MMR to medals to see what your rank is like in LOL or League of Legends. The overall game may require a more powerful hardware to support the game without lag like a minimum of Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, a 256 VRAM, 2 GB RAM, 8GB HDD Space.
Since Dota 2 is an online game players can compete with each other anywhere in the world. Because of the popularity tournaments are being held. Last August 12, 2017 a tournament was held in Seattle, USA with a $ 24,787,916 prize money to the winners, Team Liquid a European Squad took home an amount of $10,806,301 after defeating Team Newbee in a 3–0 historic sweep they were the 1st team to have ever swept the grand finals at TI.
Dota or Dota 2 for me was a complicated video game at first but as I continued playing I moved on to think of it as a form of performance, might even think of it as a type of sport. Much of what I used to understand as creative or social challenges — getting five people to work together with one another, experimenting with the opportunities provided by the hero pool — I now think of in terms of organised competition and self-improvement. Dota 2 isn’t a toy box any more: it’s a challenge. It’s a wall to be climbed, an encounter with a game that demands respect and doesn’t owe you anything.
