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This is sort of blog-esque and trying to figure out how to improve the overall level of play.
I’ve been playing DotA since 5.84b. One of my friends introduced me to the game, but for the most part, I had to teach myself how to play. I’m not sure how many people remember DotA in those days. The load time for each game was about 5 minutes (the only way out was to hard quit Wc3). People would troll games by leaving during the start game timer. Imagine trying to learn the game or even play the game when 5v5 was a rarity. This was before ban bots became commonplace (and also before I discover Clan TDA).
Compared to then, the system we have in place today is amazing. Statistics available to you (though I’m not sure that that’s actually a good thing), instruments in place to reduce the amount of rage quitting, in game chat to make coordination easier. And you can even play against bots of different skill level to familiarize yourself with the game before jumping into the unforgiving matchmaking.
I held the believe early on that the best way to learn was to choose one hero (Lich) and play him over and over again until I felt comfortable with the game. Through getting wrecked by other players, I began to learn how to play other heroes. At some point, I gained familiarity with the game and all the heroes. I found friends to play with and brought others into the game. DotA become a lifestyle. My weekends involved waking up, DotA until I needed food sometime in the afternoon, then DotA til dinner, then DotA til sleep. And repeat for Sunday. That was only possible because I had some great friends in the game.
We used to have some angry games. We would win, but at some point in the game, someone would have raged and we’d sit in vent not speaking to each other until the game was over. And once it was, friends we were again. Raging was funny. Our vent password was grief. For weeks we were convinced these two friends decided to break up their friendship over DotA.
A lot of time has passed. It’s been almost 10 years since I started playing. I’ve graduated college, worked for a few years, graduated from a Masters program, now working on a PhD program. I’ve quit DotA for other games, but something has always drawn me back. I’ve mellowed too. I rarely get frustrated at the game anymore. I try to encourage teammates and coordinate so that we play better as a team. I play support because my APM is down and I believe that the random team I get will be of quality.
Perhaps it’s my age, but I’m disappointed at seeing all the anger in these games. There is nothing worth raging about. I used to go to sleep (or at least try to) angry at teammates, angry at friends. It would take me an hour to calm down and fall asleep. I would go to work the next day dead tired. At some point, I realized, it just wasn't’ worth it.
Raging at teammates doesn’t make them better. It doesn’t inspire the team to organize and play together. All it does is serve to fracture the team and cause everyone to play greedy instead of unified. Sometimes you’ll win. But it’s in spite of and not because of the rage. I’m disappointed to see that there is a thread where so many people complain about teammates.
I want all of you to try something else. Try encouraging. Try teaching. You don’t need a 5 stack in order to do well. You just need 5 people who are coordinated. Be that coordination.
There was one game (5 randoms) which I was convinced my team had lost. But our CM refused to give up. He took control of the team, coordinated our activities. At a time where I had given up hope, he gave it back to the team. I believe, solely because of him, we were able to win that game. That made me realize what was possible, if we stopped being mean and tried being nice. I encourage all of you to give it a shot.
As a final note, keep in my why we play video games (at least most of us). To get better or to have fun. You won’t get better by raging. It’s a team game, focus on the team aspect. And if you’re raging, you probably aren’t having fun.
So, gl hf my fellow DotA-ers. And be a better gamer.
 
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right on man, I played back in the days of 5.84b on my brothers computer cause' I didn't have my own... and I could walk downstairs and toast bread and butter it by the time the loading screen was finished haha
nice post, it's good to remember the past ;D
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Raging is part of growing up. I'd rather vent on a video game to a random stranger then to someone i know irl.
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On January 28 2013 16:11 MysteryMeat1 wrote:
Raging is part of growing up. I'd rather vent on a video game to a random stranger then to someone i know irl.
Why can't you just rage alone in your room where nobody can hear or see you? If I get to the point where I feel I absolutely must rage, that's what I do.
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The problem is, and this is what I rage at, when you try to teach and coordinate, but instead of listening and learning, your allies just chose to flame and go their own way. You can teach as much as you want, but when your zeus steals lasthits from your carry all game, then builds a butterfly, it just literally ruins the game for everyone on that team.
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On January 28 2013 18:51 Zealos wrote:
The problem is, and this is what I rage at, when you try to teach and coordinate, but instead of listening and learning, your allies just chose to flame and go their own way. You can teach as much as you want, but when your zeus steals lasthits from your carry all game, then builds a butterfly, it just literally ruins the game for everyone on that team.
Even then there are zero drawbacks to not raging, zero benefits for raging and a good possibility that raging can make the game even worse. I don't think I've ever seen a game when a player raging at a another somehow made the game better. It's not that hard to just not press enter and do your own raging privatelly if you have to.
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I agree with Zealos. It's easy to say "Just coordinate the team, teach them how to play" but it doesn't work like that in a real game, at least not at lower MMR. What happens is "Hey man, I see you're using that ability a bit wrong, it's more effective if you do like this" and they immediately "wtf do u kno n00b, u suck @ dis game, im afk from now".
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i've just accepted that flaming and raging is a part of the casual dota experience. I do not start any flaming myself; if i get angry at teammates i do not vent it unless provoked, but if someone starts bullshit like that i play along. NOT responding to insults make me extremely pissed off, whereas just returning fire doesn't.
If i REALLY get angry, i stop playing for the day. That kind of frustration is just not worth it. Letting the chat abuse go on makes me angry, thus when i'm not really mad, i'll flame and rage in chat as long as someones been a douchebag and deserves it.
Reading this it doesnt make any sense, but whatever. dota is 50% teamgame, 50% teamflame
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On January 28 2013 18:51 Zealos wrote:
The problem is, and this is what I rage at, when you try to teach and coordinate, but instead of listening and learning, your allies just chose to flame and go their own way. You can teach as much as you want, but when your zeus steals lasthits from your carry all game, then builds a butterfly, it just literally ruins the game for everyone on that team.
lol no, if you're beeing super serious and still getting matched up with that troll zeus, maybe you should just relax a little and let people stray from competitively viable strats, you're all in the bottom of the pool anyway.
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On January 28 2013 19:23 Tobberoth wrote:
I agree with Zealos. It's easy to say "Just coordinate the team, teach them how to play" but it doesn't work like that in a real game, at least not at lower MMR. What happens is "Hey man, I see you're using that ability a bit wrong, it's more effective if you do like this" and they immediately "wtf do u kno n00b, u suck @ dis game, im afk from now".
I think his point is that even if your teammates don't want to be taught nor are they listening to your advices, raging over them in the chat won't change anything at best, probably will make it even worse for you and your team. I've seen games (not DOTA) where a team can be far behind and win only because one player took the leadership and tried his best to get the team together. Hell, i've been on one of those games. Low/high MMR, it's the same, think about how it would feel if someone saw you in the street and insulted you because you were walking on the left side of the sidewalk when it's better to walk on the right side? Will it makes you feel like you've learn something or would you just ignore the guy and keep doing what you feel like doing? It's the same, you can't really compare the two things but you see my point. Raging makes others feel like you're not worth listening to. If they don't want to learn, just ignore everybody, mute them and keep playing. You don't need them to know how bad you think they are.
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On January 28 2013 21:16 CYFAWS wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2013 18:51 Zealos wrote:
The problem is, and this is what I rage at, when you try to teach and coordinate, but instead of listening and learning, your allies just chose to flame and go their own way. You can teach as much as you want, but when your zeus steals lasthits from your carry all game, then builds a butterfly, it just literally ruins the game for everyone on that team. lol no, if you're beeing super serious and still getting matched up with that troll zeus, maybe you should just relax a little and let people stray from competitively viable strats, you're all in the bottom of the pool anyway.
First prize for completely missing the point of a post goes to...
Well done for still managing to get an ironic flame in there though, good job.
On January 28 2013 18:59 SKC wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2013 18:51 Zealos wrote:
The problem is, and this is what I rage at, when you try to teach and coordinate, but instead of listening and learning, your allies just chose to flame and go their own way. You can teach as much as you want, but when your zeus steals lasthits from your carry all game, then builds a butterfly, it just literally ruins the game for everyone on that team. Even then there are zero drawbacks to not raging, zero benefits for raging and a good possibility that raging can make the game even worse. I don't think I've ever seen a game when a player raging at a another somehow made the game better. It's not that hard to just not press enter and do your own raging privatelly if you have to.
This makes sense though I guess. It's just a shame when you're playing well and as a good team of 4, then the 5th person manages to screw the rest of the 4 over :/
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I recognize that sometimes one person can really screw things up during a game. But I get the suspicion, especially because of matchmaking, that their poor performance can be related to things that the team does.
For example, one game I had, me (Warlock) and a Sven got destroyed top. Middle kept ganking us at the tower, and just fell more and behind. Now a couple things could have helped. Our mid ended up getting quite a few kills after the gank, but he always came a bit late. Looking purely at stats, you would say, sven and I sucked and was losing the game for us, while mid was dominating the game. If we consider a scenario where mid comes earlier and we fight 3v3, you would drastically alter your opinion of how the game was progressing.
What I mean is, it's very easy to point at player(s) and say they lost you the game. But you need to consider that this is a team game and often times, the entire team has some liability for an individual's poor performance.
As for those who mentioned players refusing the offered help. There's not much you can do about that. But keep trying, because giving up means you've lost.
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You know, when I read this in the sidebar, I was totally confused. I read the title to be "Less GG, more GG."
I can assure you that all the anger in DotA is more than apparent in other MOBAs (League of Legends).
Much of my father's lamentations (he's a LoL diehard) are about how the other kiddies playing ranked are whining little bitches who do nothing but rage 24/7.
A lot of it is tied into the fact that it's a team game. You stop raging as much when you realize it's all your fault (though goddamn, there are instances in RTS that make you RAGE).
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On January 29 2013 02:55 Qwyn wrote:
You know, when I read this in the sidebar, I was totally confused. I read the title to be "Less GG, more GG."
I can assure you that all the anger in DotA is more than apparent in other MOBAs (League of Legends).
Much of my father's lamentations (he's a LoL diehard) are about how the other kiddies playing ranked are whining little bitches who do nothing but rage 24/7.
A lot of it is tied into the fact that it's a team game. You stop raging as much when you realize it's all your fault (though goddamn, there are instances in RTS that make you RAGE).
Apologies. I should have come up with a better title, but at 1? 2 am when I finished writing, my brain was fried.
I think the last sentence you wrote is quite powerful. Recognition that we are not as faultless as we believe is the best way to rage less and work to improve more.
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If you can't handle being on a team of people for 45 minutes, then I'm curious what you will do when you're on month long projects at your work being forced to work with people.
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On January 29 2013 03:32 Butterednuts wrote:
If you can't handle being on a team of people for 45 minutes, then I'm curious what you will do when you're on month long projects at your work being forced to work with people.
The difference is in dota you're grouped with a bunch of:
a) flaming kiddies who have massive egos
b) BR? BR? BR? huehuehue troll warlord xD
c) xaxaxaxaxaxa
All of which don't listen and refuse to coordinate or cooperate. Whereas, in the workplace, the people you work with are generally bright enough to realize that you need to work with others, and with that comes actual teamwork. Most of the time.
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United States9925 Posts
hey... wait a second... ur not white_ra -.- xD
yeah i try teaching. but when people ignore what i say or dont follow instructions, thats when i usually start getting mad.
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5/5 Totally agree. Raging just makes the situation worse for yourself and everyone who has to listen to you (except opponent, they might enjoy it). Instead of wasting energy blaming someone who's not going to give two shits anyway, try look for what you could have done better in your own play. Even if you lose the game, you still gained experience and knowledge.
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If you don't rage, the anger will build up inside of you until you spontaneously combust.
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United States9925 Posts
On January 29 2013 05:47 ninazerg wrote:
If you don't rage, the anger will build up inside of you until you spontaneously combust.
sorta why i like to rage a lot.
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EPT
