Andrew Wilber
Staff Writer
Imagine 10 to 15 guys packed into a room that was originally designed for two. Now add a dozen computers and a web of Ethernet cables strung in every possible direction, and you have a pretty clear picture of a Defense of the Ancients party like the one I experienced on Long 2nd last Friday night.
Defense of the Ancients, or DotA, is a game type within the popular, if somewhat dated, Warcraft III realtime strategy game released by Blizzard Entertainment. It has recently become the favorite among PC gamers on campus who gather at least once a week to battle each other over a local area network.
“It started out as Age of Empires, which was going on for years,” said sophomore Kelly Findley. “Then last spring we started doing Warcraft, and eventually we agreed on Defense of the Ancients.”
DotA, which requires the players to defend certain objectives known as “ancients” while killing enemy players and leveling up their in-game characters, is a team sport. While it all takes place on the computer, it requires a lot of communication between the gamers in the real world.
Last Friday’s party got off to a slow start as the players filled the room, taking almost every available inch of space from the floor to the tops of bunk beds, assembled their equipment, and then networked their computers together, which can require quite a bit of trouble-shooting even on a good day. However, once the game began the atmosphere changed completely with every eye in the room glued to a computer screen.
As the game reached a more intense phase, players began shouting commands to their teammates––and occasionally insults to the opposing team.
“Fall back, we won’t be able to beat them,” yelled junior Dave Skinner, whose team ultimately won the first match. Most such commands consisted of gamer jargon, referring to in-game terms like “buffs” and “negations.”
Each player has a character or hero in the game with different attributes. During a lull in the violence, I leaned down to freshman Adam Franklin’s computer to ask him about his character, “Drow Ranger.”
“When they say ‘Drow’ they’re talking about me. They speak in fear,” he said, apparently confident in who would win the game.
The round ended after about an hour, with one team managing to obliterate the other’s ancients. A typical round of DotA can last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, according to junior, Timothy Baldi, who frequently hosts the parties in his room.