The WCG 2009 games list doesn’t include DotA. There’s quite a bit of disappointment coming from the comments over at MyMYM’s WCG news post. But should we be surprised that our favorite game, DotA, played by millions of players didn’t make the cut for the biggest video game tournament of the year? We didn’t put our best foot forward, but we can change that starting now.

We can learn a lot about what qualities a winning game candidate possesses by considering the list of headliner games that made the final cut:

• StarCraft
• WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne
• Counter Strike 1.6
• Guitar Hero: World Tour
• Virtua Fighter 5
• FIFA 09
• TrackMania
• Carom3D
• Red Stone
• Wise Star2 (mobile)
• Asphalt 4 (mobile)
• Dungeon and Fighter (promotional)

I don’t even know what some of these games are, but I bet my 14 year old nephew does. Maybe that’s because he doesn’t get to play DotA. The reason is that his family doesn’t like the vulgar atmosphere created by foul-mouthed online players. And he’s not alone, most of his peers don’t play DotA either. If we are going to create a future for our beloved DotA, we need to make sure that there isn’t a generational gap because kids are growing up with more “teen friendly” games like Guitar Hero. To a parent, Guitar Hero probably seems like a fairly productive thing for your child to be doing, in the same boat with taking piano lessons perhaps. But watching a DotA game for about 20 minutes often will expose the player to cyber bullying, as the pickup match becomes monopolized by ravenous, immature PVP dogs barking intimidating all-caps slander.

By taking a pro-active approach, we can change the negative environment. When you host a game, boycott players who have racial slurs in their names. Kick them immediately without question. When you find yourself in a game that is digressing into a shouting match or blame game, leave. Don’t give any time to those players. Don’t shit-talk the other players or LOL them when you make a kill. Don’t blame a loss on your teamates. Create a friendly environment for beginners. We were all beginners at some point, and we only stayed because we enjoyed playing. So let’s do our part make it a fun environment now that we are the stewards. Make new friends instead of new enemies. It’s easy.

Blizzard removed the advertising banner from the Warcraft 3 battle.net lobby with the latest 1.23 patch. Unfortunately, this makes DotA a less commercially viable game. As a gamer, rather than business owner, you might be thinking, “I hate ads”. But ads are only bad when they are invasive. I’ll give an example of great advertising. When I went to see “Lord of the Rings”, there was a trailer in the movie theater for Warcraft 3. I think they even had a demo disc available in the theater. Many DotA players got their start because of this ad campaign. So as a community, let’s be open to ads, and not try to circumvent them. Let’s give a moment of time each day or each week to those people in the DotA community who spend their time looking for corporate tournament sponsors. If you want professional gamers, you need sponsors. You can’t have one without the other. If you are unhappy about some ads or sponsors, do what you can to facilitate an alternative sponsorship. Here’s an example: I’m sure Hollister might care if 50,000 DotA players ordered shirts from their website this year, or if a dozen gamers in a game room drink Bawls Gaurana every night. But we have to let companies we buy from know what games we like. I’m going to buy my Adidas jacket anyway, if I can get to the Adidas website from a DotA page, and by doing so, let Adidas know that I play DotA when I buy the jacket, I’m helping the DotA community. Getting companies more involved in our community can only mean good things for DotA’s future.

As DotA’s primary caretaker, Icefrog should make a careful study of how Counterstrike 1.6 is on the big board at this year’s WCG. Counterstrike wasn’t always at the big tournament. It was once a young mod that stood out from the rest. Sort of like DotA today. In fact, the makers of Counterstrike weren’t inhibited by working with Valve software, they were enabled. Their vision for Counterstrike got bigtime studio support when Valve put great effort into the Counterstrike: Source remake. Gamers got the benefits for free! Counterstrike: Source was included with Half-Life 2 at no extra charge. Everybody gained. Blizzard and Icefrog would do well to emulate Valve’s approach and not crush the opportunity by trying to apply an iron fist.