With the arrival of the New Year's Day holiday, many game developers are successively promoting their new games.
If it were in the past, many game developers would certainly take it easy.
After all, based on some information previously released by Nebula Games, the game called "DOTA" was likely to be launched during this period.
Although, looking at it as a Warcraft RPG map, the game doesn't seem to have anything particularly special about it.
But coming from Nebula Games, combined with the popularity of Dragon's Blood before, and various large-scale promotions, it all lets people feel Nebula Games' emphasis on the game "DOTA."
However, after more of its information was released, things changed.
Nebula Games announced that this game would be free-to-play and only launch on the PC platform.
These two keywords immediately surprised many players and industry designers.
If it only launches on the PC platform, there's nothing much to say about that.
Because from the game's controls, it seems to be like Warcraft's, but instead of controlling an army, it's just controlling a single hero unit.
This control method and gameplay are indeed more suitable for PC platforms than VR platforms.
The key point is the free-to-play aspect.
Whether a game can survive clearly depends on whether it can make money.
Even though games are called the ninth art, art also needs to make money.
This is true for movies, painting, and music, just like any traditional art.
So, it's obvious that "DOTA" will be a project that charges through in-game purchases.
As for the paid content, although Nebula Games hasn't said anything yet, in reality, both players and industry designers know exactly what it will be.
It definitely won't involve anything related to balance in stats. It should be like games such as "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" and "Rainbow Six: Siege," adding in-game purchase systems like skins.
But the question is, can this monetization model make money?
After all, the promotion for "DOTA" can definitely be described as heavyweight.
However, no matter what, this is clearly going to happen, as it's official news released by Nebula Games.
Game developers who were planning to avoid it, like Atari and FOW, have much fewer concerns now.
Although from the bottom of their hearts, they didn't have high hopes for "DOTA's" gameplay, they would have avoided the release window out of respect for Nebula Games and Lucas's reputation.
But now, since it's a free-to-play game and launching on a different platform, there clearly won't be much competition.
So, there's no need to worry.
Therefore, FOW and Atari have successively begun their promotions.
As for Nebula Games, they are still following their own promotional rhythm.
"DOTA" has successively released two new promotional CGs, featuring Monkey King and Bomberman.
In a past life, Dota's promotion could only be described as unloved.
Now, Lucas plans to make a short background CG animation for each hero.
Just like how each operative in "Rainbow Six: Siege" has one.
Of course, considering the massive number of heroes in "DOTA," it's impossible to release them all at once. But with a pace of two per month, the current heroes can at least be covered for several years.
Unlike before, although these new promotional CGs are also well-made, many Nebula Games players haven't paid too much attention to this aspect.
For some excited new players, they just waved their hands and said: It's standard stuff, don't be surprised, they wouldn't be too surprised even if Nebula Games suddenly made a CG animated feature film one day.
Compared to Monkey King and Bomberman, players are more curious about the gameplay mode of "DOTA" in these hero CG animation short films.
As more information is revealed, the gameplay of "DOTA" is gradually becoming clear.
Players are all discussing the video materials that have circulated online.
"Although the promotion is strong, it feels like this new game is just taking out the heroes from Warcraft?"
"There seem to be a lot of heroes, so the focus has shifted from troop types to heroes?"
"It's hard to say, but Nebula Games is taking this game very seriously, even investing as much as in World of Warcraft. It feels like it should be a core game."
"I'm not sure about that, but from the videos and information, this game seems quite simple, doesn't it? Especially the controls, you only need to control one hero unit, and it seems like heroes only have four skills plus six item slots."
"Doesn't that mean there's not much skill involved?"
Soon, players online started arguing.
After all, from what's shown in the promotional videos, imagining it in your mind doesn't really convey how outstanding this game is, at least not in proportion to the massive promotional effort.
Of course, a considerable number of players expressed their anticipation for "DOTA." After all these years, Nebula Games has been synonymous with quality games in the minds of these players.
And this time, the investment in promotion is huge, so many players believe this game won't be that simple.
Amidst various discussions among players, "DOTA" has, to the anticipation of countless players, entered its open beta testing phase.
The 10-day non-wipe test period, with the in-game shop temporarily closed, is mainly so Lucas can collect more data for game fixes.
After all, "DOTA" is different from a single-player game; it focuses on multiplayer combat.
Basically, games that focus on multiplayer in the industry follow this model.
Including collecting data on new player habits, Lucas and his team need to make detailed adjustments bit by bit. However, at this stage, it's definitely much better than in a past life.
After all, one should know that Dota's tutorial in a past life was part of a paid plus membership, and it suggested buying two creep score axes for starting items.
...
In a specially decorated gaming room, Zack and Hannah sat side by side on the sofa.
"It's been a long time since I played a PC game!" Zack said with a sigh.
Considering the development of VR and the fact that major game developers have been releasing VR games in the past two years.
So, for PC, although they would update their configurations when there were new graphics cards, they rarely played on them.
After all, whenever they had free time, they'd dive into the game pods for better visual effects, and playing lying down was indeed more comfortable than sitting in a chair.
"But it feels good, I just don't know if this game will be fun." Hannah nodded with a sense of nostalgia.
"It's from Nebula Games, I still have a lot of confidence. Although Boss Lucas likes to pull some stunts, either by cutting people or torturing them, the quality is always guaranteed," Zack said with a smile.
"Oh right, this game is apparently 5v5. Aren't Ben and the others coming?" Hannah asked curiously.
"Ben and the others are busy during the day. We're scheduled for eight tonight. We'll play first and get a massive lead. According to the information, there seem to be different role assignments in the game. We'll be the main damage dealers, and Ben and the others can contribute resources," Zack said with a sly grin.
"Good idea!" Hannah gave him a thumbs up.
Hannah didn't know about the so-called roles in Dota.
But she had experience with contributing resources.
When "Warcraft" was popular, they had also teamed up to play "Warcraft."
At that time, they developed a tactical system.
They would create a private room where resources could be shared. Then, the two most skilled players would prioritize developing their barracks and technology. The two less skilled players would prioritize building workers to gather wood, and then all the wood and money would be given to the two most skilled players.
This would allow them to quickly build troops and develop technology, leading to an early offensive.
Even if they couldn't secure an outright win, and the game entered a stalemate, they could still have the richer players help the poorer ones catch up.
She guessed that the so-called roles in Dota would probably be similar.
(End of this chapter)
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