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Development

Origins
The earliest version of Dota emerged in 2003, with the release of the custom Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos mod called Defense of the
Ancients (DotA), which was created and updated by the pseudonymous designer "Eul". [16] After Blizzard Entertainment released theexpansion
pack The Frozen Throne in 2003, clones of the DotA mod competed for popularity, with DotA: Allstars by Steve "Guinsoo" Feak being the
most popular.[17] With the assistance of his friend, Steve "Pendragon" Mescon, Feak created the official DotAcommunity website dotaallstars.com and formed a holding company for it called DotA-Allstars, LLC. [18] When Feak retired from developing DotA in 2005, a friend,
under the pseudonym "IceFrog", took his place.[19] The popularity of DotA increased significantly; it became one of the most popular mods in
the world, and, by 2008, a prominent electronic sports title.[20] In May 2009, IceFrog and Mescon had a falling out, prompting the latter to
create a new official community at playdota.com. [21]

Concept
According to Valve Corporation managing director Gabe Newell, the company's investment in Defense of the Ancients began when several
veteran employeesincluding Team Fortress designer Robin Walker, programmer Adrian Finol and project manager Erik Johnsonbecame
interested in the mod and attempted to play it competitively. They began to correspond with IceFrog about his long-term plans for the mod.
[22]

The email conversations culminated in Erik Johnson offering IceFrog a tour of the company, after which he was hired to develop a sequel.

[23]

The first public notification regarding the development of the game was a post on IceFrog's blog on October 5, 2009, in which he disclosed

that he would be leading a team at Valve. [24] No further word was given until Dota 2 was officially announced on October 13, 2010, when the
website of Game Informer revealed a general synopsis of the game and its development. [25] The resultant surge of traffic crashed Game
Informer's servers.[26]
With Valve's acquisition of the franchise, the company adopted the term "Dota", which derives from the original mod's acronym for "Defense
of the Ancients". Erik Johnson explained that this was for the reason that the term "Dota" refers to a concept, rather than an acronym.
[23]

Shortly after a questions and answers session by IceFrog about the new game, Valve filed a trademark claim. [27] At Gamescom 2011, Gabe

Newell said that the trademark was a necessary measure for developing a sequel with the already identifiable brand name. [28] Steve Feak and
Steve Mescon expressed their concern that Valve did not have the right to trademark the Dota name, which they believed was a community
asset. They filed an opposing trademark for "DOTA" on behalf of DotA-Allstars, LLC, then a subsidiary of their employer, Riot Games, on
August 9, 2010.[18] Rob Pardo, the executive vice president of Blizzard Entertainment, expressed a similar concern, explaining his perspective
that the DotA name was an asset of their game's community. Blizzard acquired DotA-Allstars, LLC from Riot Games and filed an opposition
against Valve in November 2011, citing Blizzard's ownership of both the Warcraft III World Editor and DotA-Allstars, LLC as proper claims to
the franchise.[29][29] On May 11, 2012, Blizzard and Valve announced that the dispute had been settled, with Valve retaining the commercial
franchising rights to the term "Dota", while non-commercial usage of the name could still be utilized. [30]

Design
Early on in development, the goal for Dota 2 was to translate the aesthetic aspects of DotA to the Source engine, while presenting expanded
support for the game's framework.[25] Dota 2 features the factions of the Radiant and the Dire in the stead of the Sentineland
the Scourge respectively, with the characters' respective alignment preserved, while also re-establishing their individual character traits in a
stand-alone form. Character names, abilities, items, map design and other fine details remain predominantly unchanged, but the Source
engine allows for continued, scaled development to bypass engine limitations of the Warcraft III World Editor. The Dota profile matchmaking
feature scales a player's automated placement with their estimated skill level, which supports the competitive experience. Unranked practice
matches can also be played with other human players, AI bots, or alone. In the debut questions and answers post at the Dota 2 blog, IceFrog
stated that the game would serve as the long-term continuation of the intellectual property of the original mod, building upon the gameplay
without making many significant core changes that could potentially alter the overall experience. [23] According to Valve, the company
contracted major contributors to DotA's popularity, in order to assist in developing Dota 2, including the mod's original creator known as
"Eul", as well as loading screen artist Kendrick Lim of Imaginary Friends Studios.[31] In addition, the composer of Warcraft III, Jason Hayes,

was contracted by Valve to collaborate with Tim Larkin to develop Dota 2's musical score.[1] IceFrog stated that in order to further
emphasize Dota 2's premise as a continuation of DotA, contributions would remain consistent from sources outside the main development
team.[32]
To accommodate Dota 2, Valve updated the Source engine to include new features, such as high-end cloth modeling and improved global
lighting.[25] Dota 2 utilizes Steam to provide social and community functionality for the game, while Steam users can save personal files and
settings using the Steam Cloud. In the tradition of Valve's competitive-oriented games, Dota 2 also features multiple ways to spectate live
matches. The game host has the option to fill open slots in matches with bots if enough human players are not available. [33] In addition to
Steam-based competitive matches, Valve introduced local area network (LAN) multiplayer connectivity to Dota 2 in September 2013.[34] In
November 2013, Valve introduced a coaching system, which allows experienced players to tutor newer players with special in-game tools. [33]
Valve added support for tournaments in June 2012. Tournaments are available for spectating in-game via the purchase of tournament tickets
in the "Dota Store", which provide an alternative to viewing live streams online. The tickets allow players to watch both live and completed
matches; a portion of the ticket fees go to the tournament organizers. In addition, the game's software automatically recognizes groups of
players that frequently play together as teams and catalogs them as such in matches. [35]
As part of a plan to create a social network based around Dota 2, Gabe Newell announced in April 2012 that the game would be free-to-play,
with player contributions to the community being a cornerstone feature. [36] In June 2012, the Dota development team at Valve formally
confirmed that the game would be free-to-play with no added cost for having the full roster of Heroes and item inventory readily available.
[37]

Income for Dota 2 would, however, be maintained through the Dota Store, where players could purchase various exclusively

cosmetic virtual goods, such as in-game items.[38] Until the game's release, players were able to purchase an early access bundle, which
included a digital copy of Dota 2, along with several in-game cosmetic items. [39] The Dota Store includes both custom creations developed by
Valve and a selection of user-created products from the Steam Workshop that have been approved by Valve. The market model was
fashioned after Team Fortress 2, which had reimbursed designers of cosmetic items with $3.5 million of income by the time it had become
free-to-play in June 2011.[37] In January 2014, Gabe Newell revealed that the average Steam Workshop contributor to Dota 2 made
approximately $15,000 from their creations in 2013. [40]

Merchandise
The rising popularity of Dota 2 led Valve to produce apparel, accessories, posters, and a number of other products featuring the characters
and other elements from the game. In addition, Valve secured licensing contracts with third-party producers; the first of these deals
concerned a Dota 2 SteelSeries QcK+ mousepad, which was announced at Gamescom.[41] On September 25, 2012, Weta Workshop, the
studio that developed the custom "Aegis of the Immortal" trophy for the winners of The International 2012, announced a prop product line
that would include statues, weapons, and armor based on Dota 2 characters.[42] On February 10, 2013, the National Entertainment
Collectibles Association announced a new toy line featuring Hero-themed action figures at the American International Toy Fair.[43]

Documentary
Main article: Free to Play (film)
Valve documented the lives and stories of three professional Dota playersBenedict "Hyhy" Lim, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, and Clinton "Fear"
Loomisleading up to Dota 2's public unveiling. The product of this, a then-unnamed documentary, explored what the game and the
unprecedented scale of the tournament meant to them. In August 2012, GameTrailers announced that Valve was developing the
documentary.[44] Throughout June 2013, Valve conducted what they described as a private "beta testing" phase, in which they invited a small
number of individuals to visit the company headquarters in order to give input to early screenings of the documentary. When the invite was
leaked to Kotaku, the vice-president of marketing at Valve, Doug Lombardi, confirmed that the documentary was in development and
revealed its name as "Free to Play".[45] The documentary was released on March 19, 2014 and was distributed through outlets including
Steam, iTunes, and YouTube.[46]

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