#warriorsofhatewarriorsofdreams

The land of Dota 2 is a mystical place where extraordinary things happen that to me may be entirely fascinating, but are almost totally inexplicable to 99.9% of the people on Earth; intricate moments and decisions whose meaning are completely and entirely foreign and bizarre to the giant, interwoven amoeba that is the human race. Therein lies the beauty of Dota 2.

The game is absurd. Its distance to the rest of human life – which could be represented by the requisite time commitment to understand the game, let alone appreciate something like “The Play”– is crucial to its presentation, complexity, appeal, and the level of escapism it provides. The game is ridiculous: in how many other articles of entertainment do you get to witness an S&M queen team up with a woolly mammoth, some sort of cannibal NFL player, a petrol-head surfing an enormous bat and a half-woman half-deer to fight two humanoid fish, a floating ball of energy and half the background cast of the ancient Greek story of Perseus?

  Hooved wizards, women riding cats and over-sized crustaceans fighting in a jungle-filled box is preposterous, but very few people find it funny. When a heated game is underway, it’s extremely rare for a player to make a joke about the absurdity of a broad-shouldered tree with a gem on his forehead purposefully getting murdered by a large, sleepless, cheese guardian so as not to give currency and magical education to an old man with an out-of-control panda.

In the same way that football players don’t stop and think halfway through the game “some of us are over 30 and we’re all wearing multi-coloured shorts”, there is a serious, competitive aspect to Dota 2 that is already fuelling all sorts of careers including professional players, commentators and analysis panellists. The juxtaposition between the professional esport it has become and being able to instruct a flying donkey to refill your bottle with some sort of blue soda and pick up a Helm of the Dominator while he’s at it is a huge part of Dota 2’s charm.

  So why do some players take such a crazy and seemingly hilarious game so seriously, so quickly? Well played Dota 2 is spectacular, it inspires an interested player to improve, and learn. Pulling off a good performance with your favourite hero requires hours and hours of commitment and a lot of in-game intelligence. From choosing your hero, choosing your items, when to do what, who to do it with and who to do it to, Dota 2 provides an unparalleled amount of options and scope for gameplay creativity. A constant intellectual challenge.

  An evening of Dota 2 can be an intensely competitive experience. But after a short break, once you’ve removed yourself from a state of total immersion, stopped chastising yourself for not skilling “Sprouts” at level one and congratulating yourself for tricking an oversized bug into chasing you by hiding your second clone behind an unused skill point you can see the beauty of the game. Through its bizarre and unique presentation, and the fierce level of focus it demands, playing Dota 2 truly is like being transported into another world. I have never come across another form of entertainment that leaves absolutely no room for thinking about other things while doing it.

A traditional concern with video games is that they can be addictive and a waste of time. Dota 2, however, is as addictive as it is off-putting. From my experience playing the game with friends, they either play a hundred hours and then barely touch the thing again, or it becomes an integral, even integrally social, part of their life, playing around 1000 hours a year. Cigarettes are labelled as addictive; I eat food every day am I addicted to that? I don’t know about you but I can’t stop eating, I have to get my fix every day it seems. Dota 2 fulfils the part of me that wants to improve at something, challenge myself, and scream with joy when I dunk four fools with Culling Blade and walk away on 20 HP. If that’s addiction, I’m ok with that.

  But does Dota 2 enrich my life, is it a waste of time? I am not trying to answer an assumed, societal criticism of video gaming in general but more my own question which I ask myself often: is this game actually worth playing? When I'm playing Dota 2, am I happy with what I’m doing with my life?

  If you try to brush your teeth with the wrong hand it’s soon obvious that the other hand is better at it. This goes for intellectual and emotional tasks too. Repetition restructures muscles and neural pathways in the body enabling it to perform tasks more smoothly and efficiently. What re-structuring is going on when I play Dota 2?

  In Dota 2, (like in life, I reckon…) communication is the key; you also have to think fast and react faster; if you want to win more you have to work together with other people and sometimes lead them. Dota 2 is intense, you have have to deal with difficult situations often and can swing between ecstasy and despair multiple times in a short space of time. Wanting to keep playing is what enables you to weather these obstacles and emotions. Dota 2 is also endlessly challenging, requiring persistent commitment and determination to succeed.

  After 2500+ hours of Dota 2, I have noticed that I communicate better with people, even repairing relationships I before would have been too proud or afraid to return to; I make clearer decisions more quickly; I have better tools for distancing myself from my emotions; I am more able to keep calm when dealing with difficult people. I have no doubt in my mind that Dota 2 - the beautiful game - has improved me as a person. It is well known in educated circles that competition and play develop the brain, promoting improved cognitive function and creativity. Dota 2 is as good an exponent of the ameliorative consequences of such activities as any other I have come across.

  Dota 2 has some negative points. Football is played with 22 players, a referee and 2 linesmen. Dota 2 is played with 10 players. I haven’t played 22-player football since I was at school, but I’ve played masses of football since and enjoyed it every single time. You don’t need the full setup to play and enjoy football. This is a problem for Dota 2, depending on your point of view.

  In an evening of public matches you are more than likely going to come across people who are weak and insecure, which combined with anonymity can make them extremely rude. You also get people who have no sense of cooperation or teamwork at all, which is a bizarre void to have in a game in which 5 good, solo-minded, technical players will most likely get annihilated by 5 mediocre players who are all working together.

  If you don't have 9 other people to play with, Dota 2 provides you with other people online to fill in the gaps. It is this more than anything that affects how much you will enjoy the next potentially 80 minutes. When you start a match with people you don’t know you are locking yourself in for what could be a horrible experience, your teammates could be poor at the game, they might do the Dota 2 equivalent of choosing 6 goalkeepers and 5 strikers for the team, they might be rude, they might give up halfway through. On the other hand they could be lovely people who are a joy to play with. Either way, a match in which the teams don't work together will most likely come down to factors that no one player has control over, the end a result of mainly, and whether or not one or a few skilled players do particularly well and snowball. This happens every day, most games are like this, and it’s not “real Dota”, its usually a disappointing experience – for me at least – even when you win. “Real Dota” is worth watching because of the quality and spectacle that can be witnessed when two coordinated teams of five confront each other. Experienced players playing Captain’s Mode put on the best, most interesting show. Playing two 5-man team Captain’s Mode is also the most intense, enjoyable and rewarding Dota to play. Not only do you not end up with a team of 11 strikers, you end up with a plan and a strategy, something to work on together that is well-suited to dealing with what you believe the opposition to be up to.

  There are a number of series of YouTube videos which exhibit what the contributors consider to be displays of their individual skill. These are usually predictable and samey. They can be vaguely exciting but are on a totally different level to professional teamfight moments: e.g. “The Play”. I don’t care how good you are at Storm Spirit, if you don’t play for the team, you are not necessarily a good Dota 2 player, because you’re only playing 10% of the game.

  One of the most enjoyable, deep and unique aspects of Dota 2 is what the cast offers. Every hero has a distinct personality, is played in a different way, and appeals to different people. For example, there is a huge red orc that can have maximum impact when you just send him charging into a fight, get stuck in and stay in even when you really think you should leave. This hero is best played when you are in a really ballsy, balls out, balls deep or go home mood; if you hesitate, you will probably just die boringly, unsuccessfully. On the other end of the scale there’s a flying blue and purple fairy with a huge ant-like head that can trick you by attacking, disappearing, attacking again, dodging your attacks and then appearing behind you, flicking dust in your eyes and then laughing at you back where she started; a high skill-cap hero for those who want to demonstrate deception and creativity. A team-player control freak might like to get in the driver’s seat of a flying, faceless blue ball that can dart around the map topping up allied heroes’ health and mana, provide vision, transport wounded soldiers out of the fight and bring fresh hooves back in. (Most heroes, no matter how closely they resemble humans, usually end up having hooves on closer inspection - and have had hooves all along).

  Each hero takes hundreds of hours to master so to some extent you have to pick a few and hone your skills with those, while dabbling with all of them. Which heroes will you choose? I have found that this feels infinitely more personal than the different coloured mohicans and anal beards that RPGs like Fallout 4: Anal Destination will groom up for you. On top of that everyone plays the same heroes differently and can even find new and unique ways of building and levelling the hero within a match.

  When loading into a match the loading screens like to give you a bit of friendly advice. One such axiom goes as follows:

  ‘Remain calm, it’s only a game.’

  If Dota 2 is a game then what isn’t? I am sitting in my room talking with my friends playing this thing, that seems more like my life than a game to me. If I was winning every time I would be instantly bored, but instead I am forced to fully engage every time to stand even a hope of winning.

  I love Dota 2. I am glad to have it as a hobby that develops social and cognitive skills none of my other hobbies touch. Sometimes I hate Dota 2. Losing six matches in a row is a horrible experience; but one always gets over these troughs and emerges stronger, more determined, more experienced, more ready, ready to ask the same question once more…