Dotally Rad » comparison

So why is League of Legends surpassing Heroes of Newerth as a replacement of DotA? It’s been widely criticized for it’s messy game design, it’s stupid japanophile graphics and overall just being a watered down content version of DotA that has totally been removed from the AoS style of game, which may not totally be a bad thing.

Could it be that LoL has Pendragon, a mastermind of a businessman that rivals even Hunter_ without the shadiness? I mean he still has the TDA forums up & running even though TDA exists no more but it makes him so much moolah it’s not funny at all. Does this have something to do with the $100,000 Season 1 prize money? The fact that it, for the moment at least, is Free to play? Another huge lure from the $$$ costing HoN? Lastly this impressive Season 1 trailer is so much eye candy but as a lot of people have pointed out, they are upset that Riot Games have spent time on making a video to attract new players as opposed to updating new content to keep the already playerbase.

Or is it that S2 games still has major issues with balancing? I mean we still have the same 5 heroes being picked/banned in EVERY competitive game and it seems you either ban or pick those heroes or your doom is neigh. Or it’s somewhat unstable servers? It’s been widely noted that the USW servers are horrendous even for some USW players, spiking from 200 to upwards of 800ms ping in a single match. Now don’t get me wrong, the gaming industry is a business but it does seem like S2 gaming is just a money grabbing scheme over and over. First of all the price to buy a HoN account is $30, to buy a sub-account (or AKA or Alternative account) is $20 and to reset your stats is another $20. That’s right people if you get shit on early in your HoN career and don’t want to shell out $20 to have another chance at people not kicking you from every game then you are pretty much S-C-R-E-W-E-D. What’s more they this past weekend let all the smurfing return for a one time weekend only (for now at least). All old pre-retail accounts were once again active and allowed to play to test HoN, why? So that players who didn’t pay will hopefully be enticed to buy HoN.

And what of DotA? The competitive scene has somewhat recently lost one of it’s most prominent names for ages to come, Merlini. New faces are emerging from Asia and the European teams are starting to pale in comparison of teamwork and skill. What this spells for DotA tournaments is yet to be seen but thus far they are holding strong. DotAcast I have to say is being run by a bunch of shmucks who throw out swear words like candy, very professional for what is suppose to be a very prominent e-Sports media company. And what of a new version? The versions take an absurdly long time to come out unless it’s a quick fix to a bug (usually resulting in a .b/.c version etc.) I mean I know firsthand how stupid the WC3 editor is but with rumors swirling of DotA 2.0 being worked on one question remains, is it time for Icefrog to hand over the reigns of DotA to someone who can focus 100% on WC3′s DotA?

Which brings me to DotA 2.0, not much news has surfaced since my last rant although there have been questions of release dates in which the president has stated “soon but we are not 100% set on a date”. Yeah OK you might as well have said fuck you we’ll release it when we want to. Perhaps the suggestions that DotA 2.0 is not Valve’s #1 project as some people had suggested and due to E3, I think we can all confirm that a slight bit. So again the usual questions arise, What is valve doing, what is icefrog doing, when will it be released, why am i a fat ugly pre-pubesc– oops that ones for Dr Phil. As of right now all I can tell you for sure is that … well nothing since LITERALLY no new news has arised since my last rant, either Valve is keeping a tight tight lid on things or there literally is nothing new to say.

AND AS ALWAYS