Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a multiplayer online battle arena mod for
the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based
on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft.
The objective of the scenario is for each team to destroy the opponents'
Ancient, heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. Players use
powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters. As in role-playing
games, players level up their
heroes and use gold to buy equipment during the mission.[1]
The
scenario was developed with the "World Editor" of Reign
of Chaos, and was updated upon the release of its expansion, The Frozen Throne. There have
been many variations of the original concept; the most popular being DotA Allstars, which eventually
was simplified to DotA with the release of version 6.68.[2] This specific scenario has been
maintained by several authors during development, the latest of whom is the
anonymous developer known as "IceFrog"
who has developed the game since 2005.
Since
its original release, DotA has become a feature at several
worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard Entertainment's BlizzConand
the Asian World Cyber
Games, as well as the Cyberathlete Amateur and CyberEvolution
leagues; in a 2008 article of video game industry website Gamasutra,
the article's author claimed that DotA was probably "the most popular
and most-discussed free, non-supported game mod in the world".[3] DotA is largely attributed to being the
most significant inspiration for the multiplayer online battle arena genre.[4] Valve
Corporation acquired
the intellectual property rights to DotA to develop and release a stand-alone
sequel, Dota 2.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_the_Ancients
