Defense Of The Ancient (DOTA)
Real Time Control:
There are eight types of mechanics in the Defense Of The Ancient (DOTA), including:
• Selecting an unit
• Moving selected unit
• Attacking
• Using an item
• Casting a spell
• Buying an item from base
• Buying an item from secret shop
• Selling an item
Among all these mechanics, both selling an item and buying an item from secret shop require the player to be near a shop to sell an item, or be near a secret shop to buy an item from it, if the condition is fulfilled, then these mechanics are real time control since the item will be sold or bought within 100ms after the player clicked on the icon of the item, otherwise, the input will be locked out; Buying an item from base has real time control since the player can always buy an item within 100ms after he clicks the icon of the item on screen and it will never be locked out, selecting an unit also has real time control since a unit is selected within 100ms after the player click on it, and the player can perceive the real time control because the close look of the unit will be displayed at the bottom of the screen once selected, a voice will also be played to the player to confirm the selection and selecting an item will never be locked out either; Moving is performed by right clicking on the destination on screen, it has continuity of control most of the time since the character will move within 100ms after the player clicked mouse, however it will be locked out when the character is “stunned” or “paralyzed” by skills casted by enemy characters; Attacking is performed by right clicking on an enemy unit, it does not have continuity of control since after the attack action is executed, an animation will be played and further input will be blocked out until the animation is over, however this can be overcome by advanced players by interrupting the play of the animation after the attack with a move input, and a further attack action can be performed after the move instruction, it can also be improved by buying in game items that adds attack speed which will speed up the animation of the attack, attack will be locked out when the character is “stunned” by skills casted by enemy characters; Casting a spell is performed by left clicking a spell or press the hotkey of the spell and selecting an area/unit to cast spell on, depending on the spells, instant cast spells have continuity of control since the spell will be casted within 100ms after the input, some powerful ones do not have continuity of control since they require cast time, and the spell will only be performed a few seconds after the input, casting a spell will also be blocked out if the character is “stunned”, “paralyzed”, “silenced” by enemy’s spell or the spell is in “cooldown time”; Using an item is performed by left clicking the icon of the item or pressing the hotkey of the item, it has continuity of control since the item will exert its effect within 100ms of the input, however it will be locked out if the item is in “cooldown time” or the character is stunned by enemy’s spell; the player can always perform other mechanics if some mechanics were locked out, for instance, the player can buy items from base even his character is stunned and unable to move, attack or cast spells, thus DOTA has Real Time Control.
Spatial Simulation:
DOTA has spatial simulation since the player can interact with in-game object through collisions, in fact, many spells that has area effect relies on collision detection, including other special spells like arrows and hooks, and the height of the character can affect the miss rate of normal attacks.
Polish:
DOTA is well polished, all the spells are polished with flares, spikes, waves, lights etc. some ultimate skills has pre cast actions and sound to indicate the incoming powerful effect, attacks are also polished by variant effects to indicate the unit being hit, some special attacks has its own polish to inform the player.
In conclusion, DOTA has game feel.
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