Once again, here is Pendragon of the now defunct DotA-Allstars website.
@League of Legends Bugs Will Be Fixed
Do you think “leaver” punishment and player rating balancing has been perfected yet? What about online communications with friends and game hosting connections? What areas do you think have already been nailed by you or other DotA based game communities, and which do you see as still a work in progress?
Pendragon:
Since we operate League of Legends as a service to our players and continually improve and refine the experience, we will definitely be adding features and making improvements to the product for a long time to come. For example we clearly didn't stop improving the game when we launched, and we've made significant improvements to combat leavers already, but recognize that there is more work to be done.@League of Legends Champions
Regarding the recent news of Valve trying to patent the “DotA” trademark, Steve Feak recently commented that “I was aware that trademarking the name was possible, but originally I had no intention of filing for any DotA-related trademarks because DotA is owned by the community. DotA is a mod that many of people have contributed to, not a single person or development team like most typical games. As soon as you step away and create a new game, like we at Riot Games did with League of Legends, it’s no longer DotA. After all, DotA wouldn’t be where it is today without the many contributions the community has made over the years. Neither Pendragon, Riot Games nor I have any desire to dictate the future of DotA.”
Pendragon:
That is correct. We welcome competition, but we think that there are legal and ethical questions here. We always wanted to forge our own path with League of Legends because we strongly believe that “DotA” is and always should remain owned by the community and that it’s far bigger than one person.@League of Legends Stealing DotA trademarks?
You’ve also said that if you succeed in getting the DotA trademark, you’ll do nothing with it, which means not dictating the future of DotA could potentially be disastrous. With IceFrog working at Valve, if he stops updating the Warcraft 3 version of DotA, the community would be at a loss for who should take over, and the DotA WC3 scene could be hit with a dark ages, or even permanently disband. If you don’t plan on using the DotA name anyways, and there’s a strong possibility that the WC3 DotA community will crumble, then why fight for the trademark if you won’t even use it?
Pendragon:
We don’t agree with the idea the game will disband. We think that the DotA community is one of the most creative and passionate communities. There are many people who have and still are participating in the development of DotA. Just as Guinsoo took over for Eul and IceFrog took over for Guinsoo, it seems likely that someone will take the reins and continue to lead development if they aren't legally blocked from doing so.@League of Legends Secrets
Yes, but in the past it has always been a case of someone handing the crown over to another modder. This time -- patent or not -- it's IceFrog boldly taking his crown with him to Valve. I'd be surprised if anyone tries to step up and continue updating WC3 DotA when it would clash against the choices and changelog that Valve's "official" game would create under the guidance of IceFrog. Not to mention Blizzard's outdated WC3 Battle.Net software is a pain to use for DotA.
Your defense in the past has been that “As soon as you step away and create a new game, like we at Riot Games did with League of Legends, it’s no longer DotA.” However, should IceFrog and Valve choose to change nothing in the conversion, then it still essentially would be DotA, and with more authenticity to its updates than the Heroes of Newerth clone can boast. If that were the case, then wouldn’t it deserve to use the DotA name?
Pendragon:
DotA is tied to the Warcraft 3 engine - the looks, the graphics, the characters and the mechanics are all built on top of that engine. However, even if Valve is exactly able to copy the mod that so many developers worked hard to create, it doesn't necessarily mean that they should control the future of the name. If a company aside from Bioware was able to duplicate Mass Effect exactly, that doesn't then give them the right to take the name Mass Effect. The difference is the DotA community never protected the name for themselves to prevent another company from using it.@League of Legends Interviews
It looks like the community -- or Blizzard -- should have protected themselves, because like it or not, the name is definitely up for grabs and is far too valuable to not fight for.
It’s good to see that, despite the gameplay and legal differences between you and your competitors, all parties involved still seem focused on the fun development of the DotA based game community. It’s great to see game companies that love their communities so damn much. Do you think Blizzard missed out on a great opportunity?
Pendragon:
We have a lot of respect for Blizzard, and given their phenomenal success it's hard to second guess any of their decisions or their commitment to their community.@League of Legends Bug Exploits Will be Fixed
Many players on Battle.Net feel as if Blizzard has habitually ignored their community, with a popular opinion being that “Blizzard doesn’t care about nonpaying customers.” With players needing to download extra applications to ban players, use bots to host a game, and use Web sites just to find available games to join, you can’t blame disgruntled DotA players for being frustrated at having to jump through so many hoops. Do you think the rise of LoL, HoN, and Valve’s DotA will cause Blizzard to finally go back and update the WC3 Battle.Net to the level that StarCraft II has seen?
Pendragon:
I don’t want to speculate on that.@League of Legends Downloads
Blizzard doesn’t deserve all of the negative spotlight though. How do you feel about the DotA based game community, which is notorious for being one of the least noob-friendly multiplayer circles that the game industry has ever known? Not to mention their quickness to abandon support for professional DotA teams after each of their few but inevitable tournament losses. What would you like to communicate to the entire TD community about their responsibility in all of this for the ensured success of the game genre in the future?
Pendragon:
With League of Legends, we try to foster a friendlier community so that all players have a better experience. We're continually working on building up and improving the League of Legends and so far the results have been very positive and our users has appreciated our huge focus on creating a friendlier atmosphere.@LoL Champions
Okay, now for an easy question! Who is your current favorite LoL champion to play as?
Pendragon:
Right now my favorite Champion is Master Yi. I've gotten 3 penta-kills with him!
Thanks so much for your time today. In closing, are there any future secrets you want to announce or hint at? Give our readers a new detail or sneak peak picture to drool over!
Pendragon:
We think Valve is a great company, which is why their move to take control of the DotA name away from the DotA community is so puzzling. However, we're focusing our efforts on the upcoming new map and further improvements of League of Legends for all players and will continue to do so for years.
That is part 2 of Pendragon's Interview.
Thank you for reading the League of Legends Wiki - where we blog about everything LoL. This is a good place to go to everytime the LoL server is down.
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