Dota 2 LAN mode confirmed

Valve has confirmed both a LAN mode and mod support for Dota 2 as it continues to add enough servers to support the community at launch.

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Valve's much-anticipated multiplayer action-RPG, Dota 2, will include both LAN and mod support, the developer announced today. Local-area-network enabled Dota 2 matches are obviously a nice option for all Dota 2 players, but is an especially attractive feature in China, home to the "largest Dota audience in the world."

Dota 2 project boss Erik Johnson confirmed the news in an interview with JoinDOTA.com. Johnson also confirmed that though nothing is set in stone, Valve hopes to hold The International--the gigantic worldwide Dota 2 competition held in Seattle--on the weekend that straddles the end of August and beginning of September.

The release date of Dota 2 is still unknown, but as Eurogamer notes, Johnson's comments seem to indicate the possibility that the game will be out by then as well. "Our release date is not tied to The International," he said, "but we do have a goal of everyone being able to view the matches live inside the game."

As with all highly-competitive online experiences, latency is an important factor that must be monitored to ensure a level playing field for all participants. "Our goal is for everyone around the world to have sub 100ms latency to our servers," Johnson explained. "We will continue to deploy servers around the world until this is true."

Johnson also indicated that Valve is "still working on" whether or not Dota 2 will utilize a free-to-play business model, or something more traditional.

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  • reply
    February 15, 2012 4:00 PM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, Dota 2 LAN mode confirmed.

    Valve has confirmed both a LAN mode and mod support for Dota 2 as it continues to add enough servers to support the community at launch.

    • reply
      February 15, 2012 4:09 PM

      I want hats, not LAN.

    • reply
      February 15, 2012 4:32 PM

      Yay!!! LAN!!!. Let's see if the rest of the publishers grow a brain and follow Valve. Doubt it, though.

      At least we won't have to suffer DOTA 2 tournaments pathethically failing due to the internet taking a break, like with StarCraft 2. Suck it, Blizzard.

    • reply
      February 15, 2012 4:58 PM

      Fuck Valve, if there's one thing Blizzard has taught us is that gamers don't need LAN and that it's of no benefit (can you imagine people playing at LAN parties instead of online and spending their money on virtual hats for their heroes?).
      I'm going to make a petition and boycott this game.

      • reply
        February 15, 2012 5:08 PM

        agree this sounds like people would have to much fun at LANs not spending money

    • reply
      February 15, 2012 5:10 PM

      Mod support? *drool* I'll have some fun with this.

    • GFB legacy 10 years
      reply
      February 16, 2012 4:28 AM

      I received Dota2 beta access, tried it a few games, found it very boring.

      The only thing I really liked about it was everything Valve did (graphics, art, and all the stuff surrounding the game such as replay features, community features, etc). But the gameplay was boring and "old", and it is very easy to get the sense that it was limited to the mod tools of WC3.

      I personally think Dota2 is for the Uber Geeks only, who likes to spend hours upon hours to read up on all the items and heroes available, not to talk about the hours of uninterrupted gameplay they have to have (no girlfriend!) in order to complete a long game.

      I don't think Dota2 i's the casual game it once was in it's early days.

      I'm looking forward to Blizzards SC2 dota game, which will be both quicker (20min games), simpler (cut down on the items and spell descriptions, that actually added very little additional gameplay other than making the game more complex), and made some new innovative game features that helps deal with all the things that where frustrating in Dota!

      • reply
        February 16, 2012 6:08 AM

        So what you are saying is, you are bad at MOBA games.

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        February 16, 2012 6:19 AM

        DotA was never a "casual" game, but it was extraordinarily popular. Valve simply didn't want to rock the boat.

        I agree though, I don't have the patience for it anymore. The games are just too long and I'm not willing to fully devote myself into getting back in the swing of things.

      • reply
        February 16, 2012 6:21 AM

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