Production director Chris Sigaty has explained to Eurogamer that Blizzard is aiming for a more accessible take on the popular DOTA gametype with its official StarCraft 2 mod, Blizzard DOTA.
Shorter games, a simpler item system, simpler abilities and less powerful towers are the tools Blizzard will employ to make the game easier to get to grips with and "remove social tension" - although the intention is that it will be "easy to learn, difficult to master".
"Blizzard DOTA is our take on the DOTA-style games, but we're... really trying to question a lot of the mechanics that are in the DOTA-style games that are out there - last hitting and splitting gold and splitting experience and that sort of thing - and trying to really drive it down to the core fun of the gameplay," Sigaty told us at BlizzCon.
DOTA is a mini-genre blending tower defence, real-time strategy and action-RPG combat that began with the Defense of the Ancients mod for Warcraft 3 and now encompasses League of Legends and Valve's in-development Dota 2. A common complaint from new players of these games is the hostile reception from expert players who feel they let the side down.
"One of the big things is trying to remove social tension. Because all of the DOTA-style games... You almost get in this game space where your own team is angry at you because you don't know enough about it and you're holding them back," Sigaty said.
