I was going to wait for the end of the international and do a round up of the news but this was too big to wait; first of all during Wednesdays night coverage this vague teaser trailer was played for fans watching online and on the big screen inside the Key Arena at the the international.Â
It personally caught me unawares and left me intrigued, but admittedly, like many others I was left a tad disappointed when I seen the text "The Dota card game" appear beneath. Personally, I would of been more interested if it flashed up "The Dota RPG", or even better a brand new intellectual property. It's not that I don't like the genre, but it does seem to be the newest band wagon developers are jumping onto following Hearthstone's success; Gwent is based on the witcher franchise while The Elder Scrolls: Legends, is obviously based on the elder scrolls games, never mind the horde of other stand alone card games. I'll be honest and say Hearthstone is the only one I have tried, but it has left a sour taste in my mouth recently, making me hesitant to try others. As a very bit time casual player my problem with Hearthstone is the sheer amount of resources, time and/or money it takes to stay relevant, but that is purely my own opinion and I know many people who enjoy the game, even some who dont even spend a penny on it. I wasn't the only one disappointed in the announcement of a "Dota Card Game": the youtube trailer currently has only 3k likes while 28k dislikes, and there was a notable air of discontent in the stadium right after the trailer.
Back to the topic on hand, Artifact is due out 2018 and on reflection, and considering the limited information out there, my curiosity has won over my disappointment, as I am interested in how Valve will bring the world of dota into a card game. From the limited information available it sounds to me like you are the captain/coach of a dota 2 team, you draft your heroes and decide on how the lanes will shape up and macro manage a game of dota. We don't know much but we do know that there will the dota heroes with their spells and abilities, gold and items from the game. The host, Day 9, also commented on how the game will have three boards on which to play your cards, representing the three lanes from dota 2. My hope for the game is that like dota 2, your financial circumstances won't impact on your ability to play and do well in the game. It would somewhat irk me if on day one some rich kid can come in and dump hundreds of euros on the game and have a notable advantage over less well off players. Another way Valve can mix up the card game genre is by making use of their already established "Steam Marketplace", and actually having it as a "Trading Card Game" where you can supplement your card collection by buying/selling or trading cards with your friends and other users online.
The more I think on it, it makes perfect sense from valve, as there are an entire host of dota fans out there that for one reason or another don't actually play the game; lots of people enjoy keeping up with the competitive eSports side of things and watching live games but don't know how to play, or have no interest in playing. Others love the lore and idea of dota but have a hard time committing to playing the game as they simply don't enjoy some aspect of it, or are limited by their circumstances. I have friends that used to play but can't stand the attitude of other players, or being forced into certain "meta" picks or play styles, whilst others simply have moved house and their internet connection isn't up to the task. Then there is people like myself who just don't have the time to commit to such long matches; my last 6 months of dota games have lasted an average of 46:21, and there have been times I have had a few hours or so to play and maybe only get 1-2 games of dota in, and if they turn out to be bad games you can't help but feel playing dota was the wrong choice of game. Artifact will give all of these types of players another option or another way into spending time and more importantly money on the Dota universe.
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Now onto the big news, as Valve releasing their first new game in years isn't big news.....
Anyone who pays attention to the Dota scene will know that at last year's International, Valve made big news by not only announcing the port of the pre-existing Abyssal Underlord but also the announcement of Monkey King, the first 100% new Dota 2 hero. We know now that Monkey King's release later that year also brought with it the announcement of patch 7.00 at the Boston major , which for me is one of the biggest patches to any game I know, not only bringing the new hero and a host of user interface (UI) features, such as a new HUD new and pre-game pick screen, and a few hero remodels to boot, but also some of the biggest gameplay changes I know of ever to hit a competitive game.
Not one, but two.
Now, a new hero was not a surprise, with many diligent internet investigators discovering many clues and hints in lines of code all pointing to a new hero. References to the character appeared in Dota 2 code as far back as May. Lines of code mentioning a "Hero_Sylph" as well as new abilities all pointed to a new hero, but I think I speak for the majority of fans when I say I did not see two coming our way, and a full new patch to boot with the "The Dueling Fates" update. The two new heroes: an unnamed flashy and stylish looking Pangolin equipped with a sword with a swashbuckling swagger, and the cute but undeniably sinister fairy, which no doubt is the hero "Sylph" mentioned in the code.
Fans are already scrambling to work out how the new heroes will operate, with many pointing to parts of the trailer and interpreting how they will translate to the game. Already people are claiming a disarm, or a passive "break" ability for our skillful Pangolin with perhaps the balling up and roll being an ultimate, or at very least the heroes main defining skill. This is a bit of a stretch but taking into consideration what he says during the intro "What a hero truly needs is style" after disregarding all three primary stats, could we be looking at a hero with no primary stat or perhaps a way to "skillfully" swap between them?. As for Sylph we can only guess what her abilities will entail, but we do have a clue to their names with Grapple, Shadow Realm, Flash Powder and Will-O-Wisp all already being mentioned in the code we talked about earlier. Going on those names alone, I would guess grapple being a stun/root, Shadow Realm being a banish, or perhaps a mobility or form of protection for her by entering this "shadow realm", whilst I would guess "Flash Powder" is a blind/disarm. As for her ultimate, "Will-O-Wisp" was seen in the trailer but no real clue was given to how it will work, I wouldn't expect it to be a full on minion, but perhaps it will have some measure of control after use.
As for the patch in it's entirety, whilst trying to ignore what changes the two new heroes will bring to our game alone, I expect there to be a few other smaller additions; perhaps a new item or notable change to an existing hero/item, a few more aghanim's scepter upgrades for heroes that don't already have one, and then I expect there to be the usual balance changes to existing heroes and skills. I don't expect as massive of an upheaval to the game as 7.00 brought with it, but I could be wrong, only time will tell.
Last night, or the early hours of this morning for us, valve graced the big screens of the Key Area, and many hundreds of thousands of monitors, across the world with this video.