While I really really really don’t like MOBAs, I can’t help but be impressed by their humble and weirdly accidental extremely online roots. The first incarnation Defense of the Ancients, or Dota, wasn’t a game but a mod. It was a fan remix of the hero unit-centric real-time strategy game Warcraft 3. Dota was indirectly birthed by Blizzard, which is why they weren’t too happy when rival PC juggernaut Valve put out a game called Dota 2 to massive ongoing success.
Now Warcraft 3 is coming back with the recently released remaster Warcraft 3: Reforged. However, while it keeps the modding tools, its new policies seemed built to make sure Dota history doesn’t repeat itself.
Compared to its original release Warcraft 3: Reforged’s new rules, however reasonable they sound, make it a pretty walled garden as far as game creation goes. Users can’t use copyrighted third-party content, so no more bootleg Dragon Ball Z games. Blizzard can delete any custom game for any reason. And all custom games created in Warcraft 3: Reforged automatically become Blizzard copyrights, a policy that would have drastically altered the history of Dota had it been around during the company’s pre-Activision days.
Naturally, PC gaming fans who love to create and mess around with whatever they want free from corporate influence aren’t too thrilled about this. Modding is a huge part of the legacy that separates PC games from console games. However, this is the unfortunate trend. Bethesda tries to honor the history of mods in games like Doom and Skyrim, but with much more control than just sharing WAD files around. Meanwhile, even Nintendo now is open to user-generated content in games like Super Smash Bros. and Super Mario Maker. But that’s because they can still ultimately enforce their own strict whims at the end of the day.
Still, truly fan-made projects haven’t stopped emerging from these gentrified PC gaming platforms. I’m still not sure what Dota Auto Chess even is. For more on Warcraft check out these Warcraft toys and revisit a different kind of nostalgia with World of Warcraft Classic.
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