The Long Game
Developer/publisher Valve Format PC Release 2013
Progress reports on the games we just can’t quit, featuring Dota 2
Dota 2’ s position has always been unique. As a game, it retains the spirit of the mod it once was – the messy organic sprawl of a community creation. Much of the shape of the modern MOBA is owed to the way that modders toyed with each other’s creations in the days of Warcraft III: the original role of Dota 2’ s anonymous lead developer, IceFrog, was as a sort of tinkerer-steward, pulling together hero ideas from dozens of variants and mingling them with his own. An accidental consequence of this structure – but a happy one for Riot Games – was that heroes could just as easily be broken out again, individually itemised, and sold one by one to players. In the branch of its existence that became League Of Legends, Defense
Of The Ancients ( DotA) laid the foundations for what we now understand as free to play.
The case of Valve’s Dota 2 is different. As a product, it drives Steam installs in territories that Valve would otherwise struggle to reach, such as Russia and China. Its cosmetic-item store generates vast sums, and its crowdfunded annual championships have become the most moneyed esports event in the world. Yet these are bolt-ons – money doesn’t touch the game’s heart, and Dota 2 is defined by the fact that everything essential for free is truly free, not free-to- play free. That includes all 113 heroes, every powermodifying item, and Dota 2’ s singular map: Valve’s MOBA is one where every player can be assumed to have access to every tool, and this continues to fundamentally shape the way the game is developed.
The rate of major updates has slowed dramatically since Dota 2’ s beta phase, which lasted until mid-2013. New heroes now arrive at a rate of one or two per year, slower than in MOBAs that have a business incentive to generate new heroes for players to buy. Even so, change has come. Last year saw the final DotA character ported to Valve’s remake, and the game has since received its first hero, Monkey King, whose design is untrammelled by the limits of the Warcraft III engine. In practical terms, this means he can climb trees.
The release of the game’s 7.0 update in late 2016 brought substantial alterations to the map and to in-game character progression. Initial shock at these changes has since matured into an understanding that
Dota 2’ s core identity hasn’t changed – the health of the competition at this year’s International championships attests to that. As it approaches its fifth year, Dota 2 remains unique: supremely generous and utterly inaccessible, popular and exclusive, finely balanced and quixotically complex.