I'm playing Dota 2, 'cause I can play nothing else on my laptop. It's a game that teaches you the value of teamwork - and punishes you for its lacking. Working together is the only way to ensure victory. It's extremely rare that you'd be able to win the game on your own, and a five-man gank onto your poor ass will end up in blood and tears for you, no matter how many items you have. That being said, it has quite a steep learning curve. To play effectively, you have to know all of the 113 heroes: what they do, what are their abilities, how to play them well (which lets you know how to play well against them) and even the quirks they have. You have to know the items, too: what to buy, what combines into what, what would be beneficial for this specific strategy (as there is no set way to play)... It may seem monumental, but it's this that gives Dota 2 a lot of depth. It's chess with 113 different pieces - and then some. I've recently found a cool group of people to play with through voice chat, and it's been a completely different experience to playing with random match-made players. Ideally, you'd want this level of coordination and cooperation to persist in every game - using text chat, pre-made phrases activated through the chat wheel or hotkeys, or in-game voice chat. That doesn't always happen, because people play the game for different reasons and with different mindsets, not all of which aim at cooperation foremost. It's the reason Dota 2 is known to be "toxic", lacking as the word may be for description. It's a fun game. If that's your kind of thing, you'll probably play it for a long time. It's free, and you can buy cosmetic additions - in-game music packs, HUD, hero outfits - from the official store or the Steam Marketplace. Be prepared to do lots of reading and lose lots of games to stupid mistakes if you want to be any good. Luckily, there are both the Gamepedia and the player-made in-game guides for heroes and various aspects of the game.
I was addicted to League of Legends -- a DOTA port I'm sure you're familiar with. I would play for ten hours straight, and love every minute. I'd collapse into bed at absurd hours of the morning, and I did that regularly during a two-year period. I had to quit video games cold turkey because I just could not regulate myself well. It's such a tantalizing, exciting, addicting gametype. Reading your description took me back.
I'm currently in that state. I defaulted to it after a 2 year break when my favorite Minecraft server went down. Sadly, it's gotten so much more interesting since then now that I'm grasping the many win-conditions on both micro-/macro- scale. Riot's pacing on updates and teasers is down to a science, too. Ugh.
Don't video game designers have fully fledged clinical psychologists on retainer to help them squeeze serotonin out of our monkey brains? I feel you.Riot's pacing on updates and teasers is down to a science, too. Ugh.
Nah, they're just making enough product so they can get their own fix, too. Did you ever follow the competitive scene? I swear that's what really got me into it. My only peeve is there's no real sense of fan loyalty since all teams are based in the same area, meaning bandwagonning is where the masses thrall to. Other than that, it only serves the hype. Their promo team is fire. They out-sourced this piece: Most promo clips are outsourced, from what I read. Even some modeling of champions, IIRC. The thing that tickles me is the studio which created the piece shown is Studio Mir (which did AtLA and LoK).
I would definitely watch streams, but not to follow the pros as much as to gain insight as to how to get better. But you're right, Riot is on their shit with the marketplace and all the goodies just a click away.
No, not hypocritical. Even though it brings up something interesting. People can and ought to self-regulate. It's healthy and necessary for someone to be their own best steward. But what about people who never get to the level? I don't want to hijack the thread, but video games get me thinking about this sort of thing a lot.