1.Simpler to use
No program installation needed; just a web browser
2.Both PC and Mac friendly
Why choose DotaPod?
I asked the gaming community over there and here are some of the responses I received:
From "ampi"
Pros:
1.On average, load times are FASTER and smoother.
2.You will rarely see the "disconnection screen" countdown since the host is a dedicated server. It will also mean less player-based lags (when downloading or watching videos on Youtube)
3.Average player skill is higher than normal Battlenet pubbies and Garena normal rooms. This is debatable but you'll notice that there's more team play at DotaPod compared to Garena players.
4.Less flaming, less trash talking and less leave rate compared to GGC.
5.Organized stats system with ELO ranking.
6.Stat tracking allows mods to monitor leave rates of players allowing them to screen out or penalize those with excessive leaving.
7.ACTIVE MODS. Yes, this is a big plus.
8.Less hacking/maphacking than ggc. Albeit, less than 5% of the games here have hackers or suspected hackers. Offenders are instantly banned.
Cons:
1. DotaPod is not very newbie friendly. Veterans tend to stick together making games mostly one-sided specially if there are new players.
Are East Asians mostly the one benefitting from a delay-less experience? How about Europeans or Americans? How can DotaPod provide a satisfying experience for them?
Sprion (Administrator):
*In the mean time ... For users from other countries who cannot benefit from the server-hosted games, users have the option to create games from their own computers, and share them to friends and users all over the world. These are called PUBLIC games.
See:
http://www.dotapod.com/create
http://www.dotapod.com/faq.php?a
For example,
US users could create their own US games and share the gamelink to US friends (it's just a URL btw) and they could join simply by visiting via their browser.
* -More servers will come when things get better (or when organizations sponsors us servers!)
But concerning lags, is there any difference between DotaPod and Garena?
Thesilence88 (Moderator):
"Permanently hosted with the best connection available to ensure the best experience for everyone."
Yes, a very huge difference. As you can see, Garena is just like a portal, whereby every players there are redirected to servers that are created by other users. What happens is that, you would never know the 'exact' latency of that server, which causes unreliability and bad experience.Here in Dotapod, we are all connected to ONE server (I didn't put 'only' for a reason, will explain it later), which is permanently hosted with the best connection available to ensure the best experience for everyone. Now, this server acts as a docking station for every user to connect with, for this reason, everyone will feel like the host itself! Lag-free, no more 'waiting for other players' popup, a high reliable server that operates 24 hours.
For the reason i didn't put 'only' is because there are multiple servers around the globe!(soon). The reason the servers is placed at different countries, is to allow those with high latency (resulted from remote countries) able to play Lag-Free as well! All these server is then chained and link to the Singapore server's database, where their records will be recorded. So far, we have server from Singapore (connection proven and tested to be optimum from India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippine, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore & China), and China (Beijing)! If promotion is good enough, and we get to have volunteer server hosts from different country, DotaPod will be 'EPIC'.
*Development in progress*
DopaPod has not gone fully international yet; at the moment mostly East Asians are the ones benefiting from those lag-free games. But hopefully it will be soon.
Links
DotaPod - Website
