Now on to Video Gaming news. I'm a fan of League Of Legends, which is what's considered a "Multilayer Online Battle Arena" in the vein of the wildly popular Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients which invented the genre. Spin-offs incude the disappointing Demigod and the newly released Heroes of Neverwith. The game is a mix between RTS and RPG in which two teams of five heroes, each with specific abilities assigned for a specific role, work in conduction to smash the other team's base and defend their own. Strewn across the map are three "lanes" each with three levels of towers and minions that spawn out of the respective base. Players gain an advantage over each other by leveling up thru killing minions and enemy heroes and gaining money to buy better equipment.
The original map was designed in '03 by modder Steve Feak AKA "Guinsoo", which was then taken over by modder "IceFrog" who's variant became the official version offered for free off of the official site DoTA All-Stars. Back in '06 Feak and site admin Steve “Pendragon” Mescon teamed together to found Riot Games and develop their own DoTA inspired game: League of Legends. IceFrog, the last remaining devoted developer of DoTA, was hired on by Valve back in October of '09, the same month League of Legends was released to the general public. Now Valve is developing their own DoTA varriant and seeking a trademark on the term DoTA, which has prompted Riot Games to file a lawsuit against Valve on the grounds that the term shouldn't be trademarked and remain, like the original game, a free property for the gaming community at large, thus protecting hundreds of players from possible copyright infringement.
I've played both DoTA and LoL, and I can say with full certianty that LoL is the superior game. Both are free-to-play, but the former has a very dedicated and hardcore fanbase that doesn't suffer new players at all. Every time I played I was heckeled by other players for being a noob and out-right ordered to just leave. Playing LoL, I may play bad and get heckled for it, but I've never been ordered by another player to leave. Riot Games provides regular updates, new characters, and a streamlined system deveoloped for new players to jump right in. Compare that to DoTA with its confusing characters, no real FAQ's on how to use them, and the confusing item system that requires you to visit separate shops to complete a single item. Already hosting its first official tourtament, LoL has proved itself to be superior in every concept of the word. Valve developing their own DoTA inspired game with its former regular developer can only mean good things, as it provides Riot Games with a clear and present competitor, and competition is ultimately a good thing. Only time will tell how the pricing and update structure will look like, but since it's being developed by the creators of Steam and Team Fortress 2, the best online distribution game service and the best multilayer FPS with the best characters and art style respectively, Valve's project can only be nothing short of epic, and just might upend LoL as the rightful heir to the DoTA throne.
On the surface, this is a cut and dry case. Riot Games co-founder and developer of the original DoTA Mescon holds claim to the trademark, plain and simple. Why Valve trademark it in the first place? Let's take a look back for a minute. Valve is owned by Electronic Arts and Warcraft III, the game DoTA was based off of, was developed by Blizzard who are owned by Activsion...get the picture now?
It's now secret that both developers are heated rivals as the two biggest third party developers in America and possibly the world today. Also take into account the Infinity Ward debacle, where after the huge success of Modern Warfare 2 the lead developers and executives Vince Zampella and Jason West not only left their Activsion-owned developer but filed lawsuit against Activsion on the grounds of unpaid royalties. Both West and Zampella have left Infinity Ward and founded their own studio Respawn Entertainment...hired on by Electronic Arts. Activision was slapped again by current Infinity Ward employees over charges of withholding bonuses as an ultimatum to develop Modern Warfare 3. Also thrown into the mix are claims that West and Zampella wanted to maintain the integrety of the Call of Duty name by forcing Activsion to stop developing yearly sequels by alternating between them and other devlopers such as Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. While I can't substantiate those claims, they do sound legit as current Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is that kind of boss: a man who cares nothing more than profit, who wants to "...take out the fun of making games..." and exploit IP's for all their worth. Oh and FYI, for my fellow anime fans, Kotick was former CEO of 4Kids...kinda puts things into perspective, doesn't it?
So what does this have to do with the DoTA trademark? Simple: Blizzard would have the final say over the DoTA trademark since it was developed thru their game. Valve filing trademark sounds less like something of their doing and more of EA firing the next shot in the ongoing Activision-EA proxy war. EA won previously with securing Zamella and West and oppening a studio for them. The next step is to fight an indirect battle thru an obscure license and see how Activision/Blizzard bites. By drawing Blizzard into anugly lawsuit battle thru Valve, EA ensures another long and drawn-out debacle for Activision which will force them to spend time and resources that could be spent developing games and using said wasted time in their favor. Yeah, this is petty on a chickenshit level, but that's what happens when corporate rivals and huge sums of money come together: proxy wars and frivilous lawsuits to stick it to the next guy. Fox was the one who sued the rights to the Watchmen film from Warner Bros. who were developing it while they sat on their fat asses waiting for them to finish so they could snatch it out of their hands and gain easy profits after all.
You heard it hear first: a possible proxy war between Acivision/Blizzard and EA/Valve over the DoTA trademark. Stay tuned for more news and commentary from your friend and blogger, Benny Ortiz. Oh, and to all major gaming news sites (1up, Escapist, Kotaku, et all), I called it first.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a betting pool to open. I've got 5-1 odds on Activision/Blizzard: place your bets, people!
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