I am not a big game player, but some really took my fancy. One of them is the Warcraft III Reign of Chaos/Frozen Throne universe. I didn’t play Blizzard’s earlier works, Warcraft I and II and Starcraft, and I didn’t move on to the World of Warcraft MMORPG. (I was playing the Command and Conquer/Red Alert series during that time.)
I got hooked instead in the most popular incarnation, the Defense of the Ancients (DotA)- All Stars mod . This makes use of the game engine’s ability for user customization to create a different type of game.
This became popular in local LAN shops because casual users could pick it up easily with little knowledge of the complex Warcraft RPG rules that come into play in full games. LAN shop owners could just install it and no central server connection was required – unless connecting to the official Battlenet gaming network. The game can be played on a low-end nVidia TNT with 32 MB RAM, and a 500 Ghz Pentium III. Personal users who don’t mind lag and inferior connectivity could make use of the Hamachi VPN.
Now, the official distributor is pushing the game. This revives their drive for sales. Since Reign of Chaos came out in 2002, and Frozen Throne a year later, DoTA brings new life into a 3-year old game. They are reviving their Clanwars Philippines website and online tournament. This has a presence from the World Cyber Games, which includes DotA in the roster.
Am I playing? No way. I’m just ready to be pwned.
