DOTA is a goose which seemingly never stops laying golden eggs; regardless of how many times said goose is exploited by other developers. The game seems to possess a winning formula people can’t get enough of, despite having possibly the worst, angriest group of people playing it (like me).
Because of this, most companies attempting to cash in do so by not making too many drastic changes. Each tries to put its own unique ideas into their particular clone, but the general formula is all the same – and why not? It’s a good one.
Blizzard have announced at their Heart of the Swarm preview that they have big plans for the long awaited “Blizzard DOTA”; plans which involve making some drastic changes to the core gameplay of the genre so far. Most of these plans are centered on making the game more “simple” and accessible, especially to newer players.
It may seem risky, but this is Blizzard after all, a developer never short on golden eggs. In an interview with PCGamer, Johnny Ebbert, the senior designer of Blizzard DOTA, explains why Blizzard is taking DOTA in this new direction.
“At Blizzard we feel that it should be easy to learn, difficult to master,” said Ebbert, comparing this to the design of chess, a game which a child can learn, but most cannot master. “We felt like we really needed to simplify things, and get the depth where it belongs – on the back end.”
“I guess the other thing we’re attacking is the social tension that the genre is really kind of famous for,” said Ebbert.
He goes on to talk about kills and assists as “horrible, horrible” ways of scoring the game, and describes Blizzard’s DOTA as being a lot less focused on that kind of individual achievement.
“We got rid of kills and assists, and came up with the idea of a takedown. If three of us kill a guy, everyone who participated gets a takedown, the rewards are divided equally.”
Blizzard DOTA designer explains simplified approach << Comments and views
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