Anyone found my Boots of Speed?

If there's one game that can make you shout Chinese swear words across the room even though you're not Chinese, it's Defense of the Ancients.

I'm not particularly super enthusiastic about the game myself, but as a game designer I know it's a very well-designed game. It's still unbalanced, but at least it's well-designed enough to get players excited to tear each other's throats. The amount of decisions you can make at any given second is abundant, yet such little decisions could either favour or thwart your team's winning chances.

Stay on the road, or help another teammate?
Save up for Divine Rapier?
Kill Roshan? Wait, they're killing Roshan now! Should we attack their base?
Damn, should I use my ulti now?
b b b b b b bb b bb b b b bb b b b
Oi ask you to stun, never stun! Ma c&*$ ha@!

What's even more amazing is that it's just a freaking mod of Warcraft III. Even so, it's being used in tournaments worldwide and Asians in particular have caught its fever, and I'm pretty sure it's more popular than Warcraft III, at least in KL!

Now the game gets the proper analysis it deserves. A writer in Gamasutra, a well-known game design site, has dissected DotA and wrote a nice postmortem on the game. Go read it, and see for yourself what makes DotA fun.

Now seriously where's my Boots of Speed? It goes so well with my Sobi Mask...