Erik Johnson, Project Lead: We haven't announced pricing for the game just yet.

Erik Johnson: I'm not sure what hardcore means in the context of the DOTA community. Hardcore used to mean a fairly small group within a larger community that were dedicated to a particular product and spent a lot of their time interacting with the community, both inside and outside of the game experience. In the case of DOTA, there are tens of millions of people that play the game, and it seems like most fit that description.



There are a lot of rough edges around the original DOTA for people wanting to get into games and play with their friends, but the fundamental mechanics of the game once you're in a game seem to be pretty compelling for a wide range of people. We want to make it easy for people to get in and play with people of similar skill levels, and get into a game with their friends, but we think the fundamental experience of DOTA is a good one.

Erik Johnson: DOTA 2 is a competitive game that borrows elements from action games, role-playing games, and real-time strategy games. The gameplay is very fast-paced, but rewards players for anticipating their teammates' and opponent's decisions, rather than rewarding twitch reflexes. Over the course of each match, which generally lasts less than an hour, you get a full RPG experience where your character starts with very little resources and skills -- but over time, becomes orders of magnitude more powerful. And while it has the camera position of a traditional RTS, you only (generally) control a single unit and don't have any base construction tasks to worry about.

Erik Johnson: We don't really understand why this is a hot-button issue. One of the reasons why we think DOTA has such broad appeal is that there are so many different ways for players to improve their skills. Many traditional RTS games put a high premium on a person's ability to micromanage a large number of units at once; in DOTA, while you tend to focus on a single hero, there are some parts of the game that will reward player who have good microing skills. Being good at controlling a lane in the early game is one of those, but is not something that is required to have fun or be competitive.

Erik Johnson: We don't think the DOTA community is a toxic one at all. A huge number of users spend a huge amount of their time just writing guides to teach new (and experienced) players strategies for heroes, items, and high-level strategy for the game. In any community of this size, you're going to run into some people that rub you the wrong way... but I think that is true for, well, your average grocery store.



We also want to build more tools for the community to interact with each other, like allowing an experienced player to coach someone who is new to the game. Most new players come into DOTA via their friends, so we think this makes a lot of sense.

Erik Johnson: We're building a sequel to DOTA, and we're hoping that people in that community feel like we've done a good enough job to try DOTA 2 out. There are lots of fans of similar games, and probably fans of Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead that will probably want to check it out also.

Erik Johnson: The same things that draw so many people to playing DOTA around the world help to make it a great professional game. Bringing the best players in the world together in one place and broadcasting that to everyone around the world seemed like a great way to show people DOTA 2 for the first time.



With so much of the DOTA community that are interested in and follow the competitive scene, we're looking forward to bringing attention to these players. We're also looking forward to working with all of the existing leagues and organizations and making sure DOTA 2 has all of the tools it needs to be a great professional game.

Erik Johnson: We think a lot more about all of the DOTA fans, and how we move forward one of the most popular games in the world. We're building the sequel to the game and we hope the community is happy with DOTA 2.

Valve's been pretty hush-hush with details on DOTA 2, the upcoming sequel to the enormously popular Defense of the Ancients mod for Warcraft III -- which itself basically kicked off an entire subgenre of team-based strategy games. Now, with spiritual successors like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth enjoying considerable success in the free-to-play PC market, DOTA is on the cusp of a proper comeback. Valve's Erik Johnson answered a few of our burning questions about DOTA 2 -- have at 'em!What is DOTA 2's business model? Will it be free-to-play with microtransactions (similar to other recent MOBA games), or will it be a traditional purchase-to-play product?How close does DOTA 2 hew to the original Warcraft III mod? Is it going to be aimed mostly at hardcore fans of the first Defense of the Ancients, or less-experienced fans of the growing MOBA subgenre?What unique combat mechanics does DOTA 2 have? An in-depth description of a few characters, abilities, items, etc. would be appreciated, just to provide some sort of clear context for what the gameplay flow generally looks like.What is Valve's stance on experience-denial mechanics (i.e. counter-killing your own creeps)? This is something of a hot-button issue for fans of this subgenre, particularly since League of Legends managed to do away with it pretty successfully.What steps are you taking to create a strong, positive community for DOTA 2? Depending on who you ask, the original DOTA is known for having a somewhat toxic and (arguably) xenophobic community. Are you taking active measures to dispel this perception?What do you think DOTA will offer that current MOBA games like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth do not? What void are you filling with DOTA 2 -- in what ways do you think the MOBA genre can and should evolve, that it has not already?Obviously, you've got a big tournament happening later this month at the Gamescom expo in Germany, featuring some pretty well-known DOTA teams. Can you elaborate on what DOTA 2's future is with regard to the competitive scene? Have you spoken to anyone at pro-gaming organizations such as Major League Gaming?What is Valve's position on Riot Games' counter-filing for the DOTA trademark, and Blizzard's remarks on the whole situation?Hmmm, Valve's still being pretty vague about DOTA 2. I want some details! Fortunately, it's going to be unveiled later this month -- are you looking forward to it as much as I am? What do you want to see out of this DOTA sequel that we haven't already seen in games like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth?