DOTA2 isn’t my kind of game. Enchanted Axes, Boots of Travel, Eyes of Looking. Really not my kind of thing. 

So it’s kind of weird that I can’t stop playing it. It’s like every time I play I understand a tiny bit more, so an hour after I’ve rage quitted I want to keep trying. It’s not like Valve, they’re usually formulaic with the learning curve (to the point where the learning mechanic is plainly obvious and kind of patronizing.. see episode 2). In DOTA2 you are dropped right in it.

Even just the menu screen. There’s so much going on. So many words I’ve never seen before (never played WOW).

So here’s a list of stuff that turned me off, scared me and made me not want to bother:

• So many characters. Each one unique. Which do I choose? I don’t know what I’m doing!
• The ingame shop has so much stuff. This isn’t too bad because you can’t afford most of it and it has a suggestion thing.
• Playing multiplayer is intimidating. Not because the other team will kick your ass – but because you’re scared of letting down your teammates.

Here’s some stuff that I didn’t understand, that makes me more likely to play it.

• I thought you built your character up over time. But it resets every game. So it’s a level playing field. I thought that I’d get murdered by experienced players because they’d built a character up for years.
• Everyone has the same choice of players. Whichever team you’re on you can choose the same group of players. I thought that the bad guys chose the bad guys and the good guys chose the good guys.
• Each character is different. I mean wildly different. Not just like in TF2 where one guy runs a bit faster than the other. They have wildly different magic shit.
• Teamwork is incredibly important.
• There seems to be only one map.
• It’s kinda funny. I thought these games took themselves very seriously, but maybe they don’t. “To read the future, I need entrails!”
• A robot guy has the same voice as Kleiner!

I still wouldn’t say it’s my game.. but it’s nice to dip my toe into this genre that I haven’t played before and find out why people put up with all the stupid lore bullshit.