Veteran Gamers

This week on the podcast I said (for the third or fourth time) that MOBAs just aren’t my thing. Given the fun I had on Awesomenauts, I wondered if maybe I could give DOTA2 another try. So I did, and the results were horrendous. I got so frustrated that I ragequit and uninstalled the game.

But then I felt a strange yearning, so I went back. This time, however, I had a plan: I would play only against bots. This is essential, because a well-coordinated team of humans that knows what it’s doing will obliterate you. They’ll save up their biggest attacks until you’re vulnerable, then launch them at you all at once, and there will be nothing you can do about it. They’ll use tanks and support and range and melee in perfect unity, and you’ll gnash your teeth while watching yourself die again.

With bots this is less of an issue. I teamed up with various people and we had a blast. We didn’t win every time, but we managed to shove the enemy down more often than not. Plus I got some kills along the way, which is a really good feeling. Best of all, I feel like I’m kinda getting a handle on a couple of characters. (Not really super good, but enough to feel some confidence.)

I don’t think I’m ready to play humans again yet, but to be honest I don’t even care about that. (Maybe it would be best to avoid human opponents altogether, until I find a team of four other people and we can coordinate some strategy.) In the meantime, I’m having loads of fun with it now, and maybe I can recruit some other folks into the fray.

DOTA2 is not an easy game. But Valve has created some playable tutorials which are very helpful. There are guides online, but they probably won’t be as helpful as just playing and experimenting. (You can play with all bots on your side vs. all bots on the enemy team if you want, so there’s no danger of people getting mad when you mess up. But then people usually don’t get mad anyway.)

PS. See what I did with the title?