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The DotA paradox: A critical insightinto playful online innovation

Josh Jarrett @Joshua_Jarrett

Digital Cultures Research Centre,University of the West of England

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DotA?

• Defence of the Ancients (DotA) was a highly successful total conversion modification for Warcraft 3 (2002, Blizzard Entertainment)

• It radically changed the gameplay of the original game by shifting focus away from control of many different units and into a just one (typically) with a new emphasis on customisation and competitive team versus team action.

• It was a mod that ended up becoming much more popular than the original game and since its first inception in 2003 it has inspired the most played genre in the world; MOBA’s.

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MOBA’s?• The activities of the DotA culture pioneered the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena

genre (MOBA)• MOBA’s such as League of Legends (Riot Games, 2009), Dota 2 (2013),

Awesomenauts (Ronimo Games, 2012), Heroes of Newerth (S2 Games, 2012), Smite (Hi-Rez Studios, 2014) and Heroes of the Storm (Blizzard Entertainment, TBA) now make up the most played online genre in the world

• Dota 2 is the most popular game on the platform Steam by a magnitude of ten• League of Legends is one of the most played games in the world attracting 28

million daily players • The MOBA genre is also responsible for some of the most influential industry

defining trends such as fair free to play (not ‘pay to win’), e-sports and live streaming

• The focus here is on the original crucible of creativity that lead to all of this; the Warcraft 3 mod DotA and its surrounding culture

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DotA Culture

• DotA is a culture that first started around 2003 with the release of Warcraft 3 and its easily accessible modding tools

• It was a culture that was left to its own devices by the original platform holders Blizzard Entertainment due to the play of DotA requiring an original copy of the game Warcraft 3

• The result was an entirely grassroots culture with no concern for any commercial considerations or external goals beyond that of creating and sustaining an enjoyable game

• The culture existed through the game itself and also wider online paratextual spaces such as forums, player written guides and player created videos (and later live streaming)

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•the ‘playdota.com’ site

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DotA Culture• In many ways it represented a thriving culture of oppositional

power towards corporate produced games and platforms• It was this non-commercial identity that was crucial in the

development of this game and genre• The few modders who were responsible for developing the

game were themselves players and listened to the wider community of players to an unprecedented extent

• Unlike more commercial modes of professional development that are very top down and often uncompromising in the choices they implement (e.g. Youtube comment system), DotA’s was extremely bottom up and democratic

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DotA Culture

• Given the amount of variables DotA contains and the extremely competitive culture it embodies, this collective mode of development proved crucial in balancing the game and keeping it both innovative and sustainable

• The game and culture embodied the ideals of a ‘meritocracy’ (see Paul, 2012: 147) and that had a profound effect upon the design and development of DotA

• In a sense, it was a game and a genre that could only be born in a participatory setting

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Connective playful innovation• The abundance of playful experience was fed back into the development

choices of the game and the result was an incredibly dynamic and ever evolving game system

• Spaces such as ‘playdota.com’ were extremely effective aggregators of the attention that DotA was attracting in its play space and those experiences circled back into the game in the form structural changes

• ‘rule systems are never totalising. They are incomplete systems, made real only through the interpretative work of the participants (at times broadly construed to include formal institutional actors) and never fully developed’ (Taylor, 2012: 57)

• The activity of play constantly brought emergent potentialities out of the varied rules of the play space and through paying close attention to these playful actions modders adapted DotA by adding to or adjusting the game in order to keep it balanced

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Connective playful innovation

• The result is a game of incredible variation and room for expression that is at the same time balanced through the constant play, debate and potential for continuous change exercised by its connective culture

• The underlying aim of this production model is a game similar Chess in that it is perfectly balanced but with vastly more potential for emergent play styles

• For a sense of how big a challenge balancing a game such as this is; DotA contains over one hundred unique heroes each with four unique moves and these heroes are customised by a pool of over one hundred items. All of these variables combine in the heavily teamwork focused and real time dynamics of the game

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A small sample of the heroes / items

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Connective playful innovation • ‘Something I’m wondering is this...when it comes to DotA, it seems

there are many counters out there for almost everything...except disabilities. Hear me out on this...’

• DotaGuy86 (A1) • ‘I myself was glad to see this item, as I play mostly nukers, support and

glass cannons, couldn’t be happier to see this item. Now, as much as it is useful, it is very situational. Let’s review its pros and cons...’

• Unfawkable (A2) • ‘Was wondering what you guys think about [the hero skill] Slithereen

crush. In my opinion it is overpowered in comparison to other aoe [area of effect] stuns/slows and causes [the hero] Slithereen guard to be overpowered...’

• Mfaa (A3)

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Gaming authenticity / capital

• Unlike many productive online cultures that it is easy to also frame DotA as; the primary goal for most players was not to improve the game itself

• The vast majority of players wished to improve their game, display their own cultural or gaming (Consalvo, 2009) capital to others through being original in their play styles

• More in common with sub-cultural styles which are similar bottom up displays of authenticity

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Gaming authenticity / capital

• Opening to a player written strategy guide: • ‘Welcome to DotA. You suck, and you are going to be constantly

reminded of this fact for about 6 – 9 months (if you learn). If you read this guide and use your brain and be actively aware of how bad you suck, you can easily shave 3 – 6 months off of your complete noob status.’

‘Unfortunately, DotA has a massive learning curve.’ Purge (B1)

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Gaming authenticity / capital• ‘Just curious to what you guys think.

For me, I seem to be buying treads less and less, while AB / PB more and more (I buy BoT later on). I know treads seems to be the most common boots in competitive, but I don’t find them that useful.’

• Fireblaze762 (B2)

• ‘Furion is my favourite hero, I play him a lot and I notice how actively he is used in the current metagame.

However furion has a lot of different styles, you have the solo furi rushing dagon, the foresting pusher, the support and the farmer carry. What do you guys deem the most efficient of the play styles? Personally I love the dagon ganker, however I also find it very efficient to get treads and janggo and gank and roam around without dagon as well. Furi will always have decent farm, but often at the cost of stealing some farm from carries, therefore I feel it is important to use the farm well, and not spend it on expensive items that will grow useless over time, such as dagon for instance.’

• callemacody (B3)

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Wider political economic implications of DotA’s culture

• At the time I was carrying out this research the culture was going through a moment of transition as corporate iterations of the same genre pioneered by the DotA culture were being released (see MOBA games)

• In large part the culture of DotA was agnostic about the prospect of their grassroots genre being remade and profited upon by external commercial lead developers

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Wider political economic implications of DotA’s culture

• The majority of players felt that there was little problem with corporate developers effectively assimilating the innovations of DotA’s culture

• On the subject of Dota 2 (made by Valve Corporation) most respondents felt:

• ‘IMO a corporate version of DotA will be better than the current DotA, partly because it's Valve.’

• iIoveyou (C1)• ‘I think Valve should be able to do better on quality of programming resulting in reduced

bugs and better mechanics.’• Mfs_313 (C1)• ‘[In terms of] quality it should be better with Valve supporting the development.’• Vot1_Bear (C1)• ‘I think being Valve this corporation that you talk about, [it] makes me trust in them.’• DemonDays (C1)• ‘Valve is doing a pretty bad job at being a corporate body.’• Hideinlight (C1)

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Wider political economic implications of DotA’s culture

• Some respondents expressed concerns over the corporate iterations of the genre, although it should be emphasised that these views were in the minority

• ‘In [terms of] creativity, no way. In terms of dedication, nope. Man, take a look at the long history of PC video games. I've come to the conclusion that fan-made mods, [and] unofficial patches are even better than the developers' content. The developers' work is more or less done after the game ships and brings in sales.’

• Thiede (C1)• ‘I think creativity will kind of suffer. I don't think that now Icefrog can actually pick a whole hero idea from

a suggestion. Royalty issues. Being a community project for fun, you could add just about anything in it. I bet we could have added superman as a hero and no one would have cared. But now since it’s a paid for entity, things will be curbed within the legal rights.’

• Mfs_313 (C1)• ‘I don't think it is possible to be more creative than the original simply because anyone with any creative

influence will have to work within the boundaries of the corporate needs.’• CanderSlow (C1)• ‘Dota vanilla [another term for DotA] has been carried on for years by fans (Icefrog, beta testers,

programmers, PD community) so I think that including too much money into it, for me, will dispel the original spirit of this great adventure.’

• 4N4C0ND4 (C1)

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Current state of the game;DotA paradox

• The mod still exists and is still being developed by its community however it is a shadow of its previous self

• Commercial iterations of the game most notable with the release of League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth and Dota 2 have taken the place of the self sustaining grassroots game that DotA once was

• It is now a genre worth literally hundreds of millions of pounds which the vast majority of DotA’s original pioneers and innovators do not see

• Paradoxically however, the majority of the players involved in that original culture do not mind

• Much the same as the model of production that was a side product of the individual motivations players, the monetisation of the genre and by extension those same players is not a concern to them

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Thank you for your time

Josh Jarrett - @Joshua_Jarrett