Dota 2 fans have finally got the tutorial they’ve been waiting years for, right ahead of the new Netflix anime. But not before they built one themselves.
It seems like teamwork really can make the dream work – at least for the dedicated fans of Dota 2. After much demand from the game’s community, and even the creation of a fan-launched project, an official learner’s guide to Dota 2 has finally been released.
Nearly eight years after Dota 2 was released is a pretty peculiar time to finally release a guide to help new players, but it’s definitely a strategic move by Valve. Dota: Dragon’s Blood has just hit Netflix (yes, another Netflix game adaptation), and with it a whole new generation of Dota 2 players can be expected to emerge.
With the title remaining as one of Steam’s bestsellers so long after its release, you can probably assume it will hold onto this position as even more players join the community. But for a game to stay relevant to both new and old players, it needs to be accessible to those who aren’t yet experts.
Dota has long been renowned as a game that is hard for new players to join, with the new guide acknowledging that the depth of the game “brings a vast number of new things to process and absorb, and the first steps of Dota discovery sometimes feel overwhelming”.
Now, this massive barrier to entry is starting to come down, making the game easier to understand, and thus the community more welcoming to new players.
ITS DONE! The Community Tutorial Project is LIVE and ready for public playtesting! We have 3 days to get the entire community's feedback before the anime launches so GO OUT THERE AND GET UR FRIENDS WHO NEVER PLAYED DOTA TO SLAM IT! https://t.co/iAazql6etq https://t.co/aTkBwuzugs
— SirActionSlacks (@SirActionSlacks) March 22, 2021
The comprehensive guide provides updates on everything that’s changed since the game’s release in 2013 to make sure new and returning players are fully informed. The range of updates detailed in the post includes the streamlined shop, new player objectives, new player rewards, updated and improved bots, new player chat, hero briefs, and more.
The release of the official guide comes only days after a fan-made ‘Community Tutorial Project’ was released on Steam, seeking to make Dota 2 accessible to new players enticed by the anime.
It seems that the timing was not a simple coincidence, with renowned Dota 2 personality SirActionSlacks later tweeting to confirm that they were approached by Valve to “share ideas and impressions” of their similar projects, and ensure that Dota 2 remains “the best game in the world”.
Never forget what a dedicated community can do-Proud to say we were approched by Valve this month after the community support for the tutorial to share ideas and impressions of what we were both working on to keep this game the best game in the world. All of you made a difference
— SirActionSlacks (@SirActionSlacks) March 25, 2021
Valve’s comprehensive list of updates, alongside the community-generated playable tutorial, will definitely provide a valuable launching point for new players attempting to step into the world of Dota without being instantly labelled a ‘noob’.
Now it’s up to the community to embrace these new fans for themselves.
