Is Dota Too Hard?
My friends and I often talk about teaching our parents how to use new technology. Ten years ago it was how to create an e-mail account. Today it’s how to play mobile games, which is so, so much easier. It’s not long until we get Candy Crush updates from our parents.
In 2010 Ian Boghost developed a satirical game called Cow Clicker. It was a pared down take on the state of mobile and social gaming at the time. The two word title itself was the instruction guide. You click on cows. The more you click, the more the cows moo, and eventually you were rewarded by purchasing new, fancy cows with “mooney.” It was deceptively simple, and what started out as a joke became a cult and viral hit.
If mobile and social gaming lies at one end of the “accessibility” spectrum, then Dota lies at the other end. For mobile games, everyone at the dinner table, from toddlers to their parents could play. You could squeeze a quick game in while waiting for coffee or ignoring an awkward conversation. Dota, on the other hand, requires your full concentration and a time commitment on average from 30 mins to an hour, and you are punished for failing to do so. It’s an insular community where 1000 invested hours can be considered the minimum for an experienced gamer.
A Game of Exceptions
The de facto introduction to Dota 2 has been Purge’s 15,000+ word behemoth of a guide, “Welcome to Dota, You Suck.” The document is a comprehensive breakdown on all facets of the game, from starting builds to the intricacies of illusion and item damage mechanics. Dota is filled with these “did you know” facts that can never be comprehended at once. There is no complete document for Dota’s minutiae and exceptions. It’s like learning English. It has to be learned through self discovery, word of mouth, and persistent correction. Did you know Manta Style has a longer cool down for ranged heroes? I didn’t either, until I saw a Reddit post about little known facts on Dota. Are you familiar with debuffs that can be dispelled by strong dispels, and debuffs that can not be dispelled by normal dispels? Wait until someone criticizes you for trying to avoid Oracle’s False Promise damage with Eul’s.
The largest hurdle isn’t even these details, but you do with them. Dota isn’t a game that you can jump into and figure it out as you go. You don’t even know where to go. It is like a game of Chess where a novice plots his next five moves, and the first one is already in the wrong direction. In Dota, there are enough aphorisms to fill a spinoff treatise of Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War.
“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” (Avoid fights. Farm the map)
“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” (Baiting the enemy)
“When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.” (Don’t dive the T3s)
“Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley” (Don’t flame)
The Reward
At first glance, Dota’s reward is superficial in its cosmetic items. Other than our MMR, which may waver, there’s no other way to display our prowess. Part of the fun of investing in a game is to see our progress (and show it off), like an expansive culture in Civilization or a geared out character in World of Warcraft. However, in Dota, every game starts out from scratch. Every player starts with the same set of tools. The game doesn’t reward us by unlocking new features from game to game. Our heroes don’t level up and become more powerful. We can’t showcase our MMR. The only way to show off is by doing it. The secret of Dota’s reward is seeing yourself improve. The game doesn’t reward us—we reward ourselves.
It’s those same details and exceptions that gives Dota its learning curve but also its depth. Without this, we would never get those moments where we used our knowledge of cooldowns to exploit a window to push. Or when we recognize that their weak offlaner enables our two supports more freedom to pull, roam, and pressure other lanes.
Experience in Dota can culminate into what the community describes as "game sense." It's like a sixth sense. A player with high game sense will know where enemy players are, without much vision. He can feel the ebbs and flows of a game, and he'll know when it's best to retreat before a gank is in motion. He outwits his opponents with experience, knowledge, and intuition. It's up to us to decide whether it was worth it.
Dota is hard. It's a helluva learning curve and a rollercoaster of emotions with people you don't even know, sometimes. But we all come back to it, because players enjoy the satisfaction of winning a hard-earned match that no other accomplishment in the world can match.
For gamers anyway. And if that is the best feeling in the world, I think you need a life. (Not being mean, just honest)
" The secret of Dota’s reward is seeing yourself improve. The game doesn’t reward us—we reward ourselves." Just like everything else that you put effort in life.
@edron I agree. Dota can give back as much or more as you put in. Not every game can say the same.
>Game is hard.
Great post, really enjoyed reading it!
Very well written, good blog posts!
brilliantly written
good stuff really hit it home with some of my feelz
@eggs I would like to know how and where one can submit articles for this blog? I would love to write something if that is a possibility ofcourse.
@hunter feel free to email me at steven@dotabuff.com and we can talk
"Is Dota Too Hard?"
Dota is NP-Tryhard.
right in the feel train
I think u can match all of sun tzu art of war with dota2 someone should try it #PogChamp that shit make me lol so hard Kappa
I LOVE DOTA , but that is hard
You should add a thumbs up button, great post :D
I DOTA hard,but that is LOVE
/like , well done good article, I want more of this plz
I wish this was longer, I really enjoyed reading it!
My English is too bad to understand all things that u wrote. But I can feel it, love dota.
great post
I am currently trying to finish Warcraft III, which has been criticized by some RTS fans as being too slow and easy. Compared to Warcraft III, Dota 2 is a glacier-paced, super-casual diversion.
Dota 2 is mostly unfair and unbalanced game that fails to find equally good players to matches or equal hero combos. Comebacks are extremely rare and usually it only takes 5 - 7 minutes to tell which team is going to win, after that people are just waiting for the next match and not trying any longer. This is why dota is updated night and day and yet it still faills to become enjoyable and balanced modern day chess. Dota is hard and if you can't spend something like 6 hours daily by studing this game, you should never play public at all, and if you didn't play dota 1 then don't start playing dota 2 either since you will never catch other players but instead you ll' be left behind when you begin. Solo game is pointless and incredibly poorly programmed, but biggest fail is that it will not teach you to play against real people, it will misslead you and distort your gameplan big time.
@Pahani Julmuri LOL that's really funny. Comebacks are rare? Really? I think you misspelled League of Legends good sir.
gg wp
Dota is all about draft, no matter how good you play, if you are outdrafted by a team with sufficient skill you will get rekt.
Dota is pretty much a mind game, it tests your patience of when to push,gank, and farm. You also need patience when everyone is missing on the map, that's why brain health is very important when you play this game.
Wow much feels
Someone should dedicate an entire post to compare Sun Tzu's art of war to Dota 2.
Side note, good read :)
Gr8 Post, I enjoyed reading it.
Nice post, keep it up :)
I agree, because when some one in your team is new, all you have to do is to tell them what they need to do without saying "NOOB" and stuffs like that. Then they'll learn, and it'll be fun and rewarding to see them progress. ^-^
> Game is hard!
Версута на картинке
@eggs Damn good text! I'm a DotA 1 and 2 player and i completely agree with every point mentioned in the text especially with part of the Art of War of Sun Tzu
Dota 2 isnt hard, this entire blog post was a b8 click.
The art of war is a garbage book written by some chink 2000 years ago *tips fedora*
And if you seriously don't know at least 95% of spell reactions, you should uninstall.
Nah its not hard, its just the toxic community that ruin it.
Maybe I should read the Art of War at some point.
"Experience in Dota can culminate into what the community describes as "game sense." It's like a sixth sense. A player with high game sense will know where enemy players are, without much vision. He can feel the ebbs and flows of a game, and he'll know when it's best to retreat before a gank is in motion. He outwits his opponents with experience, knowledge, and intuition."
Which is why I LOVE getting paired with teammates with half/or not even close to the amount of play time I have. SO MUCH FUN.
everygame is hard!!
and now think about this: most players started dota cuz they sucked hard in war3, talking about difficulty of understanding things and maybe getting the mechanics done. then think that sc2 most likely is more demanding than war3 used to be(still is? I quit in 2011), then you see why RTS games scene is so small compared to dota...
no taking away anything from ur game, I used to play dota1 as well, funny thing, but I naturally got okey in it, cause I was used to the engine and what you could or couldn't do.
Good article. But most of us already knew dota is hard. NOW, WHERE'S MY PHOENIX TO OFFLANE ANALYSIS?!?!
The Art of War.
“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” (Avoid fights. Farm the map) <<< rat
“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” (Baiting the enemy) << feed
“When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.” (Don’t dive the T3s) << give space so enemy could comeback
“Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley” (Don’t flame) << trust our beloved then they will dc and abandon
hahaha sorry not to say sorry, my experience in SEA :))
not very hard, but frustrating when team is goinf full retard
I think you might have False Promise confused with Fortune's End.
Otherwise, good article!
i guess you could include "opportunity cost" on this post since it is super important on economical aspect and in-game decision making. And very similar to chess too. Nice post.
I take that it's an opinion piece but calling it "too" complex it's an exaggeration: it's overly simple by design. If there are any hidden mechanics without mention for something meant to be played by a large crowd then it's just bad design, plain and simple.
There are no race damage modifiers, no element damage modifiers, no size damage modifiers, no status attack modifiers; the accuracy in change for the uphill terrain is a good idea but there aren't real differences in terrain (muddy, snow, hot or something else) that might change how some skills or movement work. Turn rates add some flavor on chasing heros and escaping but 90% it involves how your laning will go and escape that very idea for the minigame that involves early game
There are no real differences in night and day for about 100 of the heros other than the vision sight: most heros don't get buffs and debuffs, despise the mechanic is there for slark, nightstalker, gondar and luna
Complexity and opportunies come out of the gigantic roster there is and the good variety of items the game has but calling it too hard is a gigantic leap.
Dota is not hard if there in no peenoise in this world !!
i really like this article
especially about sun tzu
well done
this is kinda off topic but i think the diary function for your matches displayed on dotabuff should also include an option to make your own entries in the diary as well... something to look back to when viewing your match history. like "on this match i need to improve on this and that" then you look back and say "hey i still suck up till now"