Dota 2 is currently in development at Valve. “What is Dota?” you may ask. Well, DotA is short for Defense of the Ancients. What, that doesn’t help? Ok, Defense of the Ancients is an extremely popular Warcraft III mod. It was built by multiple modders and has been constantly changing and growing since 2003. In 2008, gaming business website Gamasutra stated “(DotA) is likely the most popular and most-discussed free, non-supported game mod in the world”. Its so popular that tournaments are held all over the world, including Blizzcon. I want to make it very clear that DotA is not a standalone game. It is a mod/scenario for an existing game. Everything happening in DotA is powered by Warcraft III.
Warcraft III is clearly a Blizzard game (Blizzard being half of Blizzard/Activision, and makers of the immensely popular World of Warcraft). Dota 2 will be a game, a standalone game, not affiliated with Warcraft III or Blizzard. How exactly is Valve getting away with creating a full retail follow up to a mod made in an engine and game wholly owned by their competitor Blizzard? Apparently Valve trademarked the name Dota and hired the current lead Dota developer, IceFrog, to design its follow up. Valve has a history of scooping up development teams when they see something they can use, I.E. Turtle Rock Studios (Left 4 Dead) and Nuclear Monkey Software (Portal), but to poach the mod community of an established game is downright weird.
Lets assume the acquisition of Icefrog isn’t weird, and Valve just thinks that hiring the “Dota guy” will yeild a crowd pleasing RTS. Why must they call it Dota? Not DotA, just “Dota”. Valve has made it clear that “Dota”, as a word, is less of a acronym than it used to be (whatever that means). Will Dota 2 ship with no mentions of the name Defense of the Ancients? Does Blizzard own that name? Icefrog has stated that the art assets for DotA are being migrated over to the Steam engine. These art assets which obviously have been completely redrawn, pull heavily from the art found in Warcraft III. Is that legal?
This is an unprecedented move on Valve’s part. They are openly exploiting the fanbase Blizzard built with Warcraft III, and looking to steal a portion of the RTS market through the backdoor. It seems like Valve is going whole hog into stealing the Dota name from both Blizzard and its creation community. Funny thing is that they are probably going to get away with it. Blizzard doesn’t own the name Dota and apparently Icefrog owns the original scenario. Past devs of the DotA – Allstars versions of the mod are trying to stop the name from being transferred, via litigation, but I’m sure Valve’s lawyers saw that coming and are bringing their A-game.
What happens when Blizzard announces Warcraft IV (I know it’s not likely to happen anytime soon, but it’s possible), do they try to recreate the magic themselves, or will they look to the mod community to recreate the Dota experience? Would they even legally be able to? What about the recently announced Starcraft 2: Blizzard DotA, do they get to keep the name or has Valve locked it down so much that even the mighty Blizz can’t touch it? Blizzard and Valve have always played nice in the past, but this issue has sparked some tension. Its obviously not a hot button issue yet, but if Dota 2 has a sizable buzz surrounding it near launch, I can see Blizzard stepping in and trying to delay the release and even claim ownership of the name.
Here’s what I see happening. Valve promotes this game as Dota 2 for months possibly years, in an effort to get attention for their first RTS title. Then, 3 months before release someone, namely Blizzard, drops a lawsuit that could potentially delay or cancel the game. Valve, knowing the inevitability of this, has a back up name ready to go at a moment’s notice. They make the name change and to the untrained eye it makes Blizzard look like clowns for not siding with the head of the DotA community, Icefrog. While all along, Valve had no intentions of releasing the title as Dota 2, it was all just a wicked marketing campaign. They would be using the popularity of the Dota name to launch their own “unrelated” intellectual property. At least, I hope that’s how it turns out…that would be epic!