How can Valve make a sequel to DotA if they didn't make the first one?
How can Valve make a sequel to DotA if they didn't make the first one?
I've never played Defense of the Ancients (DotA) but apparently it was popular enough to warrant a sequel. But, after reading up on it, I found out the first game was a modification to Warcraft 3, a game made by Blizzard Entertainment. Yet now, DotA 2 is being made by Valve, a completely different company than Blizzard. So my question is; how can they do this? Since it's a mod, I don't think Blizzard has a claim to it, but it seems like they would have more rights (since it was made with one of their games) than Valve, who had nothing to do with Warcraft 3 or the original DotA mod.I would think that it is the modders who created the piece that possess the rights to it. Maybe Valve liked their work and contacted them about their desire to create a sequel?
Hi M. T. Dremer. In answer to your question, Valve can make a 'sequel' to DotA (or Dota as it is now being referred to because the acronym seems to have formed it's own word) because they hired the majority of the team that worked on the original DotA mod. Valve have given them funding and the guidance of a company that knows what they are doing and are letting them do their thing.
Often it is modders that are truly pioneering innovative games as large publishers tend to shy away from doing anything to original in case it affects their profits. And you will also find that many modders end up getting hired by these larger companies. For example, just look at the modder who made some brilliant mods for Civilization IV and ended up being hired by Sid Meier's company to be one of the Lead Designers for Civ V. And now a few members of the original DotA mod have been hired by Valve!
As to Blizzard having any rights to Dota 2, well, they don't. They have no rights or claims to the IDEA behind the original DotA mod. You will find multiple games that are essentialy DotA clones out already, such as League of Legends or Heroes of Newerth. I will also add that Dota 2 is being made on an entirely new game engine and all that jazz, so really Blizzard has absolutely nothing to do with it and cannot claim anything. I don't think they are too concerned though really, they own the big gorillas that are WoW and SC2, and let us not forget Diablo III on the horizon.
So this is really long... not sure how that happened! I just was reading about Dota 2 the other day hehe.Sequel comes from the word sequence. It simply means that it carries on from the previous, be it a movie, game or whatever. It is also used as a term for remakes, IE; War of the Worlds. To me this is a misuse of the term.
Lots of sequels are made by others not affiliated with the original.
Copy-write issues are a separate issue.
