Category: Why Dota Sucks

“[I]n roughly the same time that a variety of genres went from proof of concept to their apex, the dota genre has gone from Defense of the Ancients…to Dota 2.”

“So let’s explain the real reason that dota became popular. It has nothing to do with the quality of any dota game.”

“What the creators of Defense of the Ancients inadvertently pioneered was a game model that was designed to defeat the decline of novelty, a game which can offer new situations even as a world of replays, video streamers, salaried players, and tens of millions of players hammer down on it.”

“[I]f your game does not give veteran players the agency to overcome lousy teammates, and if your game does not give weaker players the game modes where they can learn the game without inconveniencing others, then the inevitable result is a community of raving lunatics.”

“In other words, dota is defined by “teamwork” because its creators have failed to provide anything but teamwork.”

“I do not want a game of weak logic where the theory changes because its creator wants to balance a matchup, and I do not want a game where it is more convenient to learn things by reading a guide than it is to play it. I want games which are worlds, and have rulesets which are confident and strong enough to convince me that is absolutely what they are.”

“How can the Dota series be balanced if we are now nearly a dozen years past its conception, and yet, it always seems like someone has to go back and make a correction? And how can dota games be balanced if nobody seems confident enough to stake their reputation on a current version of the game?”

“The interactions created by those parts—where teams of five lead a small number of computer-controlled allies down lanes on a single base map—are less complex than what you can find in competing genres.”

“So you see, dota players have sold themselves a myth that their games feature some of the most complex and diverse character rosters in videogames…but are bound to one of the simplest control schemes in the entire medium, and are built around a character template that was merely a subset of an RTS game.”

“And if you would argue that dota actually improves itself by automating the repetition, you are arguing the repetitive elements in these games are so awful that it is better to forego them entirely.