DOTA 2 is going to be doing meet-the style video shorts to promote their game. They want to completely change the feel of the DOTA world.
“we’re re-imagining the whole world” said Gabe Newell in his interview with 1-up. They want to completely re-do the content from Warcraft 3 and really give it a Valve art and story style. This includes the Valve promotional style, of course. We are just hoping that this will not hurt the mood of the game as DOTA was never a straight comedy. It did however have many comedic elements, so it could work out for the best.
What does sound promising is the fact that they are going to take something else from TF2 and earlier games: character specific banter. If certain characters are on opposite teams, they will have special sayings for each other. This was actually used in TF2 to great effect in their VS updates. You may recall their most noteworthy character to character taunt:
This reconstruction was the plan from the beginning, as Valve has been developing the original ideas of Icefrog. For those who don’t know, Icefrog is one of the original developers of DOTA and the center of great controversy. We have to take a moment to inform those new to the series why Icefrog’s involvement could actually be a detriment.
This is because when he was with the DOTA community he was very outspoken, and some said hard to work with. His current fan perception is one of a sell out to Valve. They believe he failed to give credit to those who worked on the project with him. Many actually question how much he contributed to early DOTA games.
But back to the real news, this is a very strange way to go about using DOTA. However if Valve does it right, people will be watching DOTA 2 meet the videos long before they ever play the game. They should be able to power through the negative publicity into positive. We will keep you posted on DOTA 2 news.
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Your remarks about Icefrog are frankly offensive. Not only is your offhand slandering of him based solely on a single rumor from an unnamed and unverified blog post, but you’ve also applied the information incorrectly. Here is what we know or have been told.
1. Eul developed DotA on WC3 ROC based loosely on the SCBW custom map Aeon of Strife
2. Guinsoo and a number of other modders ported it to WC3 TFT. Guinsoo’s mod called DotA – All-stars became the prevalent incarnation.
3. Pendragon built the community site dota-allstars.com which served as a hub for dota enthusiasts for a number of years.
4. in 2006 Icefrog took over development of DotA – Allstars after Guinsoo stopped.
5. Icefrog developed DotA into the popular game it is today. When he took over there were no DotA competitions or millions of regular players. All of these things came because of him
6. For the last five years Icefrog has developed DotA independently with only the assistance of community responses and his game testers.
7. Roughly two years ago he began working with Valve to develop Dota 2
8. In his time with Valve one single person who may or may not actually work for Valve wrote a blog post slamming Icefrog as being difficult to work with and uninterested in new ides.
9. number eight is contrary to everything every competitive player, other verified employee of Valve, and community member has ever experienced in their interactions with Icefrog in person or via email – myself included.
Posting such statements with no sources or verification of any kind is unprofessional.
Let us go down all of this. I was actually around for this although lots of people have done a great job of covering up what actually happened with DOTA.
1. —-
2.—–
3. None of these have anything to do with Icefrog. And are irrelevant. You can’t seriously be bringing all this information in that has nothing to do with your complaint?
4. see 5
5. Many people argued that he didn’t actually do a lot of work on the game. Which, as far as I can tell, is a valid comment. He does not have very much evidence to support him doing a lot of work other than promotion. If you are trying to tell me Icefrog is not extremely secretive about his work, then that is just not true.
6. Off and on yes, but once again it was relating to his work on the actual game. Of which he has been more than secretive about.
7. Yes, and?
8. Valve employees aren’t going to talk bad about their boss and/or equal in ways that could get them fired? They aren’t going to use their real names? Perish the thought!
9. Yes alright: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=292947
Another fan mentions icefrog: http://www.dotastrategy.com/blog/dota-2-and-then-some/
http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/archive/index.php/t-173943.html
Icefrog actually censors his own forums whenever controversy comes up like this, or I would have a truckload of posts to add to this. Whatever else someone can say about him, I will give you this, he is very good at PR. Even many major players have stopped saying anything bad about him after he or someone who works with him have talked to them. The Heroes of Newerth forum mentions this and I have seen posts vanish myself as a long time DOTA and MOBA player.
The main problem is that Icefrog gave DOTA 2 to Valve when it was not his game to give. There is not one shred of evidence supporting the fact that he did significant work on the original version or even beta versions of Allstars. That is why some fans are mad. A casual glance of most random MOBA forums not run by Icefrog can tell you this.
The situation is skewed further by Icefrog’s army of rabid fanboys who go around hunting down any offensive posts towards DOTA or their master. As far as sources, this is common knowledge. You might as well ask me to cite that we need air to breathe or water to continue functioning. As far as professionalism, mentioning this situation is newsworthy, but it would make my job easier if Icefrog was actually open about anything in his professional life.
If he wants to do an interview to actually clear all of this confusion about his work life and community problems, then we would be happy to. If he is so blind that he and his fans think there is no problem, then I would say you have caused your own problem. None of this is slanderous, I am just reporting what anyone from the community can see. I do not think you understand how libel works.