VGCulture - Filler - Highlights of DotA 2 from Korean Casters

Source: Youtube Channel ATK402

I knew I should've watched the Internationals 3 in the Korean channel!

Also, League of Legends World Championship is happening this weekend.

NewNews - DotA 2 International 3

Official Site: http://www.dota2.com/international/mainevent/watch/

If you didn't know, the international 3 began yesterday.  The international is a global tournament for pro teams from around the world participating in the most intense DotA 2 event of the year.  You can watch their stream (shown above), or watch live through the DotA 2 client to win items (must pay for the ticket), and watch replays directly from the game.  This event lasts until Sunday.  If DotA 2 isn't your thing, there is also League of Legends next week and Starcraft 2 starting in 2 days.

NewNews - GamersGate Summer Sale

Official Site: http://www.gamersgate.com/

Steam Summer Sale begins tomorrow.  But for those ready to start buying and playing game right now, GamersGate is having a Summer Sale of their own.  Check out their 412 items on sale right now for some early fun before the big sale over at Steam tomorrow.

In other news, Valve has officially released DotA 2 on Steam now for all to play that want to play.  Along with the Steam Summer Sale tomorrow, many suspect that a whole slew of games will be added to the Steam Trading Card bandwagon and allow players to collect cards to craft into badges.

VGCulture - GW2, TL2, and MOBA Tourneys, oh my

Guild Wars 2: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/

Source: http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/829

It's been a week since I've started playing Guild Wars 2 and it has gone far beyond my expectations for the game.  I didn't see myself enjoying PvP and WvW as much as I do now.  The fluidity of the game makes the progression of PvE feel seamless.  I don't pay too much attention to levels as it's not as important.  I'm able to enjoy each aspect of the game with its spontaneity.  I'm not sure how long the replay value will last, but so far it's pretty good.


Torchlight 2: http://www.torchlight2game.com/
Source: Youtube Channel TotalHalibut

Runic games finally stated a release date for Torchlight 2.  On September 20th, players will be able to download it from their choice of distributor.  To be honest, it would've been better if they had came out last year or early this year to avoid the competition from Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2.  At least then, they'd have players willing to try their game out who aren't already Torchlight fans.  It seems some mechanics have been changed from the first one, and the addition of multiplayer and mod capabilities is a plus.  For me, I'll probably wait a while before getting it as I'm already full on my play list and don't have a reason to get it right away.

League of Legends: https://tournaments.leagueoflegends.com/s2-na-regionals
DotA 2: http://www.own3d.tv/TheInternational

I haven't been keeping up with the tournament matches, but both MOBA games are holding them right now and streaming live.  Some pretty crazy stuff.  That's all for now, have a great weekend everyone!

NewNews - Blizzard DotA still on the way with different name

As you may all know, there was a dispute between Blizzard and Valve when the term DotA was copyrighted and threw the whole community into confusion as to what was going on.  Icefrog, one of the developers of the original DotA, was hired by Valve to create a game and was asked what he wanted to do.  Icefrog said he wanted to do a sequel to DotA and create a better experience for the game without the limitations of the Warcraft III Engine that the original DotA was created on.  So I guess it was natural for Valve to copyright the trademark in order to release the game as an official product.  Around the same time the announcement of Valve getting the rights to the term "DotA", Blizzard was working on "Blizzard DotA" and found it befuddling that Valve would copyright the term "DotA" at all.  There has been DotA games for Starcraft 2, but there seems to be an official one that Blizzard is working on releasing.  With the release of DotA 2 close at hand, Blizzard seems to have decided to change the name of the Starcraft 2 mod rather than fight over the name as to not delay the release.

You can look up the history of DotA on Wikipedia, but I can try to give a very brief description of how it went down:
-It started with a custom campaign game on Starcraft called "Aeon of Strife."
-Username "Eul" created "Defense of the Ancients (DotA)" based on the maps, concept and gameplay of AoS.
-Username "Guinsoo" and a team of other WC3 modders helped on building on the DotA map.
-Icefrog joined the team and mostly carried the development from 2005 onwards
-After the popularity of DotA reached to international status, the MOBA genre was adopted into the industry
-Pentadragon and Guinsoo went on to work with "Riot Games" on "League of Legends (LoL)" and Icefrog was hired to work on "S2 Games'" "Heroes of Newerth (HoN).
-Over the years, a number of games adopted the genre and started making similar games or fusions: Demigod, Land of Chaos Online, Monday Night Combat, Realm of the Titans, Rise of Immortals, etc.
-Valve copyrights the term "DotA" and announces the development of DotA 2

Hopefully that's accurate, but it should still show how extensive the history of DotA is nonetheless.

Source:
-Gamasutra: Blizzard: Valve's 'Dota' Trademark Won't Delay StarCraft Mod 
-Joystiq: Blizzard Dota hits the reset button 

NewNews - DotA 2 Tournaments at Gamescom

Gameplay of "Defense of the Ancients 2" is being shown publicly through the best DotA teams in the world competing in a tournament at Gamescom Germany.

Source: Youtube Channel dota2

In addition, you can sign up for the beta with your steam account here: http://dota2.com/tournaments/international/

DotA 2 is looking pretty good so far, but it scares me already.  It's not just the fast-paced gameplay and split-second decision making of the old DotA that only scares me, but of all the people getting ready to play the game and start creating a bad community off of it right away.  I noticed a pattern that most all the popular online games have the worst communities while smaller, underestimated games have a really chill community of people playing on them.  It's sad, but I think a lot of people will turn away from DotA 2 because of the harsh/bad community and being scrutinized or ostracized for every little thing you do (doing bad, doing too good, having more kills than the rest of the team, having the most deaths, etc.).  It makes it very difficult to enjoy the game when the community is so bad (Land of Chaos Online was like that).  At the moment, there still hasn't been any conclusive evidence of DotA 2 being free-to-play when it's released.  Here's hoping for a successful (and fun) game.