D&D General What D&D reflects today, media wise...

[Lanefan]

Edit to add: I had to google what DOTA was, because I had no idea.

Yet you didn't put the answer here meaning the rest of us still have to look it up for ourselves!

 

[DarkCrisis]

Gary Gygax: "D&D is not based on LOTR!"
2022 fan: "Maybe D&D will reject it's LOTR roots!"

It's always been a mish-mash of a ton of stuff. It always will be a mish-mash of a ton of stuff.

He much preferred Conan but knew the bread was buttered with LotRs.

 

[Mistwell]

He much preferred Conan but knew the bread was buttered with LotRs.

He liked all sorts of stuff. And the people working with him to produce AD&D 1e also liked all sorts of stuff. The appendix of inspiration is a very long list. One could easily argue Vance had more influence than Tolkien.

 

[Mordhau]

What is DOTA?

 

[Reynard]

Right. Nevermind that, as someone that plays MMORPGs and watches anime, the comparison is lacking. Were anime a big influence, we'd have a more exciting fighter class.

That's a great retort to an assertion I didn't actually make. I said fantasy anime was influenced by D&D not the other way around.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

Yet you didn't put the answer here meaning the rest of us still have to look it up for ourselves!

What is DOTA?

DotA (or Defense of the Ancients) is a mod that was created using the modding tools of Warcraft 3. It used the heroes, items and assets of the game to popularize a new genre (MOBAs, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas) where typically two teams of five players, each controlling one hero, split on three lanes on their half of the map to battle another team of five players doing the same. Minions, or creeps, are AI controlled petty enemies that periodically spawn at each team's base and make their way through the three lanes to try and reach the enemy's base. Each team are killing each other's minions and supporting theirs to try and "push" all the way to the enemy's base and destroy their main building and win the game. There's often side objectives scattered around the map.

Other examples in the same genre are Heroes of the Storm (by Blizzard), DotA 2 (by Valve), League of Legends (by Riot Games) and Smite (by Hi-Rez studios).

The most recent iteration is Dota 2, developed by Valve. Like most other MOBAs it's well known (among other things) for itss ecclectic and colorful cast of characters with different abilities, silhouettes and backstories.

See Dota Heroes if you are curious.

 

[Azzy]

That's a great retort to an assertion I didn't actually make. I said fantasy anime was influenced by D&D not the other way around.

You misread me. I wasn't retorting you, I was agreeing with your post and adding more reasons to disagree with the OP.

 

[Azzy]

What is DOTA?

A animated fantasy show on Netflix.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I think Star Wars is an apt comparison in terms of creative roots. You could argue that Star Wars' biggest influence is Buck Rogers and other sci fi pulp adventures, but Lucas was also inspired by samurai films, German expressionism, WWII newsreels, western mythology, eastern spiritualism, noir films, etc.

When looking at modern Star Wars movies and TV shows, we can trace their influence to the original Star Wars, which is basically a genre in itself. But modern Star Wars has a lot of other influences too: westerns, anime, revisionist films, and so on.

I'd argue that modern D&D is still firmly entrenched in the D&D genre (a mishmash of LotR, Vance, Conan, wargames, etc), and by modern fantasy and storytelling. Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Adventure Time, World of Warcraft... These are all part of the fantasy zeitgeist, and whether creators intend to or not, their influence shows up in D&D.

 

[DarkCrisis]

You misread me. I wasn't retorting you, I was agreeing with your post and adding more reasons to disagree with the OP.

I really don’t see my post as something to disagree with. It was more of a “If not LotR, what do you think modern D&D is inspired by.”

Though I admit I had a hard time expressing that