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[Nix]

I want it to keep the hero selection tight and relatively static. Introducing a new hero every week in LoL is exciting, but it throws balance and gameplay out of whack.

[supershigi]

I am very excited about this. I was super addicted to DotA, but sadly I just have not been able to get into LoL or HoN (even though I've promised friends at Riot that I would try to give LoL more of a chance).  One of my favorite things about DotA was the item combination system... building a Sheep Stick, Assault Cuirass, Heart of Tarrasque, etc.  It always felt more like experimenting, and there was less rigidity when it came to equipping certain types of heroes with non-traditional items.  Also, I haven't found a LoL character that feels enough like my DotA hero of choice: Beast Master.

The trailer looked cool.  I appreciate that art style they went with made all the heroes look pretty distinct. 

[gimymblert]

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I am very excited about this. I was super addicted to DotA, but sadly I just have not been able to get into LoL or HoN (even though I've promised friends at Riot that I would try to give LoL more of a chance).  One of my favorite things about DotA was the item combination system... building a Sheep Stick, Assault Cuirass, Heart of Tarrasque, etc.  It always felt more like experimenting, and there was less rigidity when it came to equipping certain types of heroes with non-traditional items.  Also, I haven't found a LoL character that feels enough like my DotA hero of choice: Beast Master.

have you tried udyr? he's sort of a beast master (he can turn into different beast stances)? or nidalee, she can turn into a cougar and has a different set of skills in that form

also let us know if you want to try playing LoL again, a lot of us play it almost every day with each other (allen, dragonmaw, myself, im9today, gliael, john sandoval, the monster king, etc.)

[Uykered]

Don't know if other online action games have this, but in the SC2 engine you can mute people (chat/speech). So if there's occasionally someone being an idiot you can just mute them (it remembers people you've muted too). Hopefully Dota 2 will have that.

[deathtotheweird]

in League of Legends you can /ignore a single person or /ignore ally and /ignore enemy to ignore all allies or all enemies. very handy when you find yourself the 5th in a team of premades who all like to blame the fifth.

[Dragonmaw]

early previews of Dota2 mention Valve's unwillingness to mess with the Dota classic gameplay: http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1143122p1.html

so Dragonmaw, shut up. Dota2 is gonna be Dota and you are going to either like it or eat a dick!!! or like it and eat a dick too I don't care. just eat a dick!!

ban'd.........

The issue here is that DotA is chained to the Warcraft 3 engine, which is ridiculously outdated by today's standards and lacks many features we have come to expect from modern games. DotA 2 will be its own game, so Valve can make it work exactly the way they want it to work instead of trying to make it fit in someone else's engine.

They are making DOTA in a new engine so that they can incorporate all of the limitations inherent from the previous engine! Sounds like a masterful plan to me.

This issue here is that DotA is outdated and large chunks of its mechanics aren't actually part of DotA, but are in fact artifacts of the WC3 engine. By just carbon-copy porting it, you still end up with those shitty archaic fuckass design elements that you should get rid of in the first place.

I'm all for a more hardcore DotA-like than LoL, but I want it to be its own game, not a pretty rehash. Make the same game three times!

[shig]

One good thing about this new Dota is the they're hopefully going to fix the problems with the lack of animations for specific attacks. Like when you're the abomination hero and pull someone else with the chain, the enemy would just keep his stationary pose and kind of float super fast towards you. It looked stupid.

[Alevice]

Anyone here got to play Tides of Blood and Aeon of the Zenith?

[Derek]

http://dota2.com/tournaments/international/?q=hd&c=English

The tournament just started, btw.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

how can they have a tournament if nobody even knows how to play the game yet (or play the game well)? it doesn't make any sense. i love e-sports and watching videogame tournaments but the skill level of a tournament of a game that isn't even out yet would be abyssmal; people in a few years would look back on how people played in the tournament and laugh

[Nillo]

The teams were given plenty of time to prepare themselves. They don't have years of Dota2 experience, obviously, but they didn't just go to the tournament without knowing anything about the game. And since it's so similar to the original DotA, much of what they already know can be adapted to the new environment.

This issue here is that DotA is outdated and large chunks of its mechanics aren't actually part of DotA, but are in fact artifacts of the WC3 engine.

Reconnect functionality. Leaver protection. Tutorials. Voice chat. Custom hotkeys. New animations, models and sound sets.

Those are the things I'm looking for in DotA 2. Not things that are part of the core gameplay, but things that just make the game more friendly and more fun to play. You say that certain DotA mechanics are "artifacts", but I'm interested in hearing specifically what you are talking about.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i still wonder about it. the game isn't out yet and presumably not balanced, so they'd be "training" their skills on an unbalanced game, which might do them more harm than good (sort of how the strategies of the people who got into the sc2 beta early are now totally obsolete)

the tournament will still be worth watching just to see what the game is like, but i still wouldn't expect dota2 tournaments several years from now to be played anything like this one, just like champion players in sc2 tournaments during the beta seem terrible compared to even the average sc2 players now

[Derek]

Man, they are having all kinds of technical issues and the game is not that enthralling to watch.

[Mhaine]

Man, they are having all kinds of technical issues and the game is not that enthralling to watch.

Yeah, it doesn't look professional at all. There is an incredible amount of lag, long pauses, extremely defensive and slow gameplay and low quality audio on the tournament, for those who don't know what is happening.

Do you know if this is on LAN or online?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

no, starcraft is notorious for *good* manners, not bad ones. especially in south korea

also: i'm watching the tournament but they really need a commentator to explain what's going on. tournaments are boring without a commentator. may as well be watching a replay

also: the game looks worse than i expected, graphically. all the models are so small compared to the terrain, and it's very zoomed out. contrast with league of legends where every player is identifiable and colorful. the graphics actually look worse than LoL, even though they have more polygons and look more professional

[Nillo]

I was wondering about the commentary thing. It looks like they do have commentary since there are options under the video where you can select a commentary language, but I've selected English and I'm not hearing anything.

[Mhaine]

What are the signs of getting taken "seriously"

Good sportsmanship.

Play, or watch SCBW and SC2.

Do you mean these are notorious for flaming?

The behaviours of a few are generally not representative of the whole. As long as there are enough players with good sportsmanship -- enough good players to form a pro league -- then the game has the potential to be taken seriously.  

The next hurdle is whether the game becomes part of mainstream culture, and for that it needs to be a spectator sport. First person games are not really suitable as spectator sports, because the spectators need an objective/global view of the game.

Indeed, indeed! Our views on this are the same, and all I am saying that this has already happened and is still growing! There is GSL, NASL, Dreamhack and there is the tournament on Cologne that is currently going on for SC. You can find information on professional players/teams on Liquidpedia: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Portal:Teams/Europe

Starcraft is not a first person game, and allows observing and global game views (and indeed, even the players have global game view). Just yesterday, a player with the handle HuK was bought by a team called IG for a disclosed 6-figure salary.

I learned of this scene only about 3 months ago. I suspect they will grow large enough. This is about an event from early this month:
Unique video views: 1,740,771
Absolute unique viewers: 1,494,026
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=251333&currentpage=2

I do not know anything about the competitive scenes of Dota games, and do not care much about them right now, honestly. They are big in China, and so large in EU or US, however.

[Derek]

There was English commentary at the beginning, but now it's gone. It's probably because the audio quality was really bad (lots of static and cutting out).

[Mhaine]

There was English commentary at the beginning, but now it's gone. It's probably because the audio quality was really bad (lots of static and cutting out).

You can check this:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/39572/Keelie

Fine sound quality.