By Demos Thenes

I thought this would be something good to discuss, maybe a nice change from pages of borderline spam about replays.

Why DotA is Broken (and How to Fix It)

Dear Icefrog:

We love and appreciate all you’ve done for DotA. But the truth is: DotA in its current state is terribly, terribly flawed as a competitive game—especially from a spectator’s point of view. Put simply, DotA is too often boring to watch, even for those who understand the game. Worse still, little has been done to address these problems over the course of the last few patches. 6.52 was great because it solved the issue of repetitive gameplay that plagued 6.48, but it ignored other major issues and made some even worse.

Without trying to sound like Barack Obama, DotA needs a radical change, and it needs a radical change soon. Inclusion in ESWC was a huge step for DotA, but further steps are probably impossible without some major transformations. The biggest problems (and some possible solutions):

Problem #1: Action
A common complaint about DotA is that not enough action happens. The latest version, where strong lategame (DK, TB, SnY, BKB,etc.) and cheap map vision encourage a warding/farming strategy, highlights this problem. Just watch the ESWC grand finals (Ks v Zenith) for a good illustration. This problem, though, isn’t just 6.52: DotA in general is pretty lacking in action. Hero killing simply isn’t encouraged enough. Just think: in Counterstrike, at least five players die every two minutes. Early game (most heroes seem to gank only when they find a suitable rune) and midgame (most fights occur only when a tower is involved) are problem points.

Possible Solutions
Increase experience from hero kills. Most heroes don’t leave their lane without a rune partially because the lost experience often isn’t worth the possibility of a kill. Increasing experience gain makes their effort worthwhile and encourages hero killing in general.
Change/buff runes. To further encourage ganking action, another gank-oriented rune could be added, or rune spawn could be changed to every 1:30 (coupled with a bottle nerf) for considerably more action.
Make Dagon cheaper. Dagon has gone from a joke item to almost viable. A cheaper Dagon would go a long way to making teams more aggressive and midgame fights fun to watch.
Encourage hero killing. All of these changes really emphasize the same point: heroes should die, and often. –ardm25lives is such a fun mode because hero killing is emphasized; why not translate that to normal games?

Problem #2: Length
With the advent of midgame push strategies featuring heroes like Visage and Broodmother, games have gotten shorter; but again, this flaw goes beyond the current version. An average DotA game, at 60 minutes, is far longer than the average game of any other e-sport. One of the biggest reasons why DotA games last so long is the difficulty of pushing into an opponent’s base and delivering a damaging blow. 6.52 made this worse with its emphasis on AoE: the ramp chokepoint gives a huge advantage to the defending team in casting its AoE. Even teams with large advantages in other aspects of the game have trouble sieging base (see ESWC Ks v MYM, at least before the player dropped).

Possible Solutions
Nerf map vision. Wards shouldn’t be cheap enough that one hero can buy them all. Beastmaster/Visage shouldn’t have maphack skills. Less map vision should theoretically reduce the effectiveness of ward/farm strategies.
Make bases bigger. Early pushes fail because heroes revive and immediately rejoin the battle. Make it harder, and the buildings will fall faster.
Widen the ramps. Without such a huge advantage to the defending team, games should be shortened.
Nerf Black King Bar. Arguable, but really support heroes should be ganking, not farming for an overpowered item that makes all spell-based heroes on the map useless which causes prolonged games.

Problem #3: Complexity
DotA itself has a steep learning curve compared to other games. None of us picked up DotA and were immediately amazing. Competitive DotA is impossible for someone who’s never played before to understand and still very difficult for the average DotA player to appreciate. The casual observer ignores DotA most often because he can’t understand it. Making the competitive scene more accessible would go a long way.

Possible Solutions
Make DotA easier to learn. Add a –tm (tutorial mode) or a –help xxx command to DotA to help beginners pick up the game faster. Add a –help xxx or a –info xxx for observers to help out people watching a GGTV game for the first time.
Better coverage from news sites. Punctual, high quality, accurate coverage (sorely lacking at ESWC, why pay reporters to go to LANs if they don’t do anything there?) from MYM, fanat1c, SK-Gaming, etc. would help engage casual observers while interest is high.
Publicize. Get the word out about the competitive DotA scene on external sites. More youtube videos similar to PGS’s (pl.youtube.com/watch?v=oO-_6xjbt6A) would be nice.

Problem #4: Structure
Competitive Counterstrike (and most other FPS) is clearly divided into rounds. Warcraft III has tiers. What does DotA have? Only a vaguely defined early game, midgame, and late game. Introducing a more controlled game flow has the potential to tackle all of the above problems simultaneously. More defined “events” have the potential to provide more reliable action, shorten games, and be easily explainable to observers.

Possible Solutions
Tweak Roshan. Encourage more fights at and for Roshan. One idea would be to change it so that Roshan will begin weak, then grow in strength (level up) and/or respawn at every 10 minute mark, encouraging teams to go for a Roshan kill at least once every ten minute period. A bonus for consecutive Roshan kills would also be good.
Introduce “arena” events. Essentially the idea is to push all the heroes to engage in a fight somewhere on the map. Something like a Roshan spawning in lane could work.

For the casual gamers looking for something entertaining to watch, for the DotA veterans looking for something deep and engaging, for anyone who’s ever sat through a ricefarm fest replay, DotA is broken. Please, please take a moment to consider how we can fix it.

Sincerely,
Your friend Demosthenes

PS. These “possible solutions” do not include the obvious balance tweaks that need to be made (Broodmother perhaps?).

PPS. Thank you all very much for reading. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to offer a plan of how to fix DotA, but just to begin discussion about what overarching problems exist in the DotA map and how to fix them. Many of my ideas are derived from reading others’ posts. I compiled them mixed with my own thoughts to start discussion.

Afterthought:

QUOTE(Demos Thenes @ Sep 5 2008, 06:15 PM)

It looks like a ton of people, including many forum veterans surprisingly, seem to have completely missed the point of the article. And many others only read the title, maybe skipped down and read about an "arena event" (probably bad name) idea I threw in last second just for discussion purposes. Honestly some of these responses are ridiculous.

I'm NOT suggesting DotA should turn into Counterstrike. I'm NOT comparing DotA to Counterstrike or any FPS, only pointing out elements/characteristics of other games. I'm NOT suggesting DotA be transformed from a strategy game into an action game. I'm NOT suggesting that DotA should be "dumbed down." Notice that my complexity point didn't include simplifying DotA?

I really doubt any of the changes I suggested change the core of DotA. I really doubt that making DotA more entertaining will destroy the essence of what DotA is. Yes, strategy is at the heart of DotA, but prolonged farming and avoiding fights don't have to be.

Please, learn some comprehension before writing entire essays (yes I did read your post shoto) to attack people.

Counterstrike is an example of a successful e-sport/game that is entertaining to spectators at a competitive level. This is a desirable trait. We WANT DotA to grow, don't we?