14

My question was closed because Raven Dreamer believes DotA (A Warcraft 3 map from the early 2000's) and DotA 2 (a brand new game by Valve scheduled for a 2012 release) are functionally identical.

I believe these games are distinct and the linked question does not even attempt to answer the question that I posed.

6
  • 4
    Both questions are pretty weak, and that we have a new one is indicative of why they're weak: do we really need (or want) a copy-cat comparison question for every two games in a genre? It's a Gorilla vs. Shark problem.
    – user3389
    Commented Mar 23, 2012 at 23:44
  • 2
    @MarkTrapp I disagree the first question is weak (high views and high votes, including myself who found it useful after seeing it), nor do I agree that Jeff's post applies to this situation. Neither questions ask "which is better", the games appear to be evolutions of existing concepts and build on each other. I find it important to know where those key design branches are as a "what to expect from this game" in a fashion that is not subjective or argumentative, but rather fact gathering in a way that is useful to other users. However, that is out of scope for my meta post.
    – Resorath
    Commented Mar 23, 2012 at 23:58
  • 2
    The purpose of asking a question like this is to find out which is better so one can make a determination about which game to play: if you're just doing it for idle curiosity and there's no problem to be solved, it's NC anyway. And re: popularity = quality, see "The Trouble with Popularity".
    – user3389
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 0:00
  • 1
    I sort of agree with @Mark on this one. I'm not sure how much value Comparing and Contrasting similar games has for our site...
    – tzenes
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 6:31
  • The question isn't "which is better", it's "which is better for my tastes." Significant difference.
    – Decency
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 9:38
  • 3
    @Decency: "Which is better for my tastes" is fundamentally game-rec, and not allowed.
    – user2640
    Commented Mar 27, 2012 at 16:09

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
12

These games are distinct and I find the differences between them both interesting and useful to learn more about the game on a high level view.

1
  • 3
    Play wise they are designed to be identical, but there are things around play which are different (like match making). These things can strongly influence play, and thus may be relevant? They also don't share the same bug set, so there will be slight differences there. From a high level view they (currently) play the same and you should employ the same strategies, though that might change as one game progresses or is taken in a new direction. I have no idea if that means there should be separate questions though... It would probably be better to just not compare games
    – tzenes
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 6:35
-4

DotA2 is a port of DotA

The question is not about all differences between LoL and DotA2, but specifies gameplay differences.

We already have a question asking for gameplay differences between LoL and DotA.

Because DotA2 has ported the gameplay of DotA, it is a duplicate of the question, even though DotA2 has added things the original mod did not have (like matchmaking).

18
  • 1
    And please, feel free to tell me why I'm wrong about these games being identical.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Mar 23, 2012 at 23:54
  • 3
    I understand your angle, perhaps that is a good answer to the question then, or a different question entirely. But saying game A is the same as Game B as an answer to a meta post about the question is not constructive in my opinion. Perhaps my question was not great because I was missing some key facts (mainly that DotA2 follows the DotA branch instead of LoL), but I don't see how that makes it a bad question, I just see how it could be a good answer. Note that LoL for all intensive purposes WAS thought of as "DotA2" when it came out - and is often directly compared to it.
    – Resorath
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 0:03
  • @Resorath I am not quite sure what you are arguing. DotA2 is not a new game. It is a port of an existing game. I don't think it's a bad question, just that it's a duplicate.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 0:06
  • 2
    Assuming comparison questions are allowed, it would seem to me that "What's the difference between DotA and DotA 2?" would be allowed, and would have a number of items on the list (as would "What's the difference between Half Life and Half Life: Source). Or am I mistaken and the only possible answer to such a question would be "nothing, they're the same game"?
    – user3389
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 0:06
  • @MarkTrapp Nothing, they're the same game.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 0:11
  • From Wiki "As the sequel to Defense of the Ancients, the development cycle of Dota 2 has been concentrated primarily upon fully transferring the aspects of its predecessor to the Source engine, as well as building upon the core gameplay." wiki. Therefore, although the question was answered meta (which is still wrong), I can change the question to signify what those differences are between 1 and 2, and LINK the currently duplicate candidate as relevant - putting the burden on the viewer to piece together the answer to my original question (which wont exist)
    – Resorath
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 0:39
  • ^ wrong as in this is not how it should be done. ran out of space.
    – Resorath
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 0:40
  • 4
    @Raven Various changes make Dota2 massively different from DotA. The metagame is the most obvious difference: without 30-40 heroes the games are fundamentally different and various characters are allowed to shine. This is why you saw the whole "ANTIMAGE IS IMBA" phase for a while there, none of his counters were in the game yet.
    – Decency
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 9:29
  • 2
    There are other subtle differences like turnspeeds and tower aggro, and you're correct that the goal is to make Dota2 a near-direct port of DotA on a newer engine, but it's definitely not there yet and it will likely branch in the very near future, never getting to the state where the original DotA is.
    – Decency
    Commented Mar 24, 2012 at 9:32
  • @Decency Differences countering specific heroes is not relevant to the question, because champions aren't an important point of comparison between LoL, or DotA; AntiMage doesn't exist in LoL, so the fact that his counters exist in DotA but not DotA2 is irrelevant.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Mar 30, 2012 at 2:38
  • @RavenDreamer This question asked if DotA is the same game as Dota2 and so I commented with regard to that. On the whole I think the two questions are relatively similar if you restrict the scope to gameplay, but there's a lot more to my answer than gameplay- the interfaces and environment of the games play an enormous factor in today's era when you're comparing one game to another.
    – Decency
    Commented Mar 30, 2012 at 4:12
  • @Decency Your answer is great... but this question is about closing a question as a duplicate. Your answer would be just as great on the linked-as-duplicate question. Obviously, the two games aren't 100% the same - but for the purposes of this specific question, I think they are.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Mar 30, 2012 at 4:19
  • @RavenDreamer As I very specifically just said, I don't think the two questions are a duplicate because there is a lot more to a game than its gameplay.
    – Decency
    Commented Mar 30, 2012 at 4:21
  • @Decency That's just it, though. The question asks specifically about gameplay differences.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Mar 30, 2012 at 4:22
  • 1
    @RavenDreamer I don't think the primary intent was to get the question answered, it was to win the contest by asking a highly controversial question. Since my answer already encompasses the differences outside of gameplay, and I don't see anyone else stepping up to answer the question, it makes sense to fit the question to its answer.
    – Decency
    Commented Mar 30, 2012 at 4:30

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .