MOBA Gamers

Today, we learn of interesting news. Icefrog announces HERE that he's leading a team at VALVE (an American video game company best known for Half-Life and it's content delivery system STEAM). What does this mean? Icefrog was very cautious of what he released in his blog, but he mentions that "I look forward to revealing more specific details when the time is right." He also mentions something that really should excite, motivate and confuse a lot of the DotA fans, "I finally have all the resources needed to do some very exciting stuff that you guys will love."



Is IceFrog late to his own ship? With the development of Heroes of Newerth, what many have referred to as DotA 2.0, and other companies like Riot Games, already trying rape the DotA community for it's self-proclaimed "spiritual successor" to DotA "League of Legends" one really has to wonder.



What does this mean for the future of DotA? IceFrog also points out "My goal and top priority in the future is to solve the surrounding issues that affect the DotA experience in order to allow it to reach new heights". He's always stated he is going to be working on DotA as long as possible, he's hinted at hero remakes in 6.65 and new features for balance and gameplay mechanics.



One thing is for sure, We (the DotA community), have a ton of faith in IceFrog. IceFrog has worked hard to keep DotA one of the most played games in the world, each map release boasting more items, heroes, and balances.



As much as I'm looking forward to getting in on some of the action, this raises a lot of questions, too many actually. Obviously VALVE sees the potential IceFrog has with the DotA community, and if they have any say in it, it's going to be like DotA. So what can we really get out of this?



Game Development: Is there a standalone DotA coming? There's already Heroes of Newerth and it's damn near done. How long will it take him and Valve to hash out a new game? Years?



DotA's Future: So when he is with Valve, at what point does DotA become a secondary goal? This was the announcement many have feared for a long time. People will have to actually purchase a game instead of downloading it and playing via the many methods of piracy DotA has become accustomed to. This means that many Asian countries that have less accessibility to high end gaming machines will be left in the cold when DotA's development is dried up?



Heroes of Newerth's Future: This one is a little easier to forecast since there are already so many players online. Heroes of Newerth made it's debut on Facebook, and launched a closed beta that has been one of the largest, most successful beta in size in the history of gaming.
The amount of pre-orders for the game deter any thought that the game doesn't appeal to DotA players already. How soon could IceFrog produce a game to actually compete with HoN?



League of Legend's Future: The future of this title is more and more grim each announcement. The only advantage LoL had was that some of DotA's "original creators" teamed up to make a DotA successor. Problem is, Guinsoo was widely known for not knowing balance in DotA, the last version of DotA Guinsoo released before IceFrog took over contained Stealth Assassin with a Death Ward that fired chaos damage at enemy heroes while you chased them as they ran away from it.



What do you guys think? Leave comments below on what this news means to you!