This spawned a series of variants from multiple different users, such as DotA: DX, TFT DotA, DotA Outland, DotA EX, Darkness Falls, and DotA 2 (not Valve’s). Almost immediately after it came out, a series of imitators came into existence, of these imitators was an Aeon-of-Strife-style (AoS-like) map called Defense of the Ancients (now referred to as RoC-DotA) by an enigmatic mapper named Eul. Backgroundįor those of you who don’t know, Aeon of Strife was one of the most popular custom maps (also called UMS maps) on Starcraft: Brood War and subsequently Warcraft: Reign of Chaos (or RoC) for a short period of time. Today I would like to clear up the actual history of the MOBA genre and provide the public with the first versions of these maps. So back in 2015, I began a 2 week long round of internet sleuthing that I completed but never compiled into an article. Starcraft’s StarEdit was the first level editor I used for game development back in 1999 and was my introduction to level design, environment art, set dressing and mechanical design.

This was out of a combination of both concern for media preservation and nostalgia as Aeon of Strife, the grandfather to the MOBA genre, is a Starcraft: Brood War map that I used to play back in early 2002. I became interested in lost media and particularly the case of Aeon of Strife and the original Defense of the Ancients.

Aeon of Strife: Battlefield 1.03 ForewordĪbout three years ago I began an investigation I never had the chance to complete due to life and work that I have decided to come back to now that I am putting my affairs in order and moving onto a new faculty position in August.

Defense of the ancients starcraft 2