Since my write-ups regarding the heroes in DotA led me to receive a beta key from a Valve employee, I decided I might as well write something about DotA 2, hopefully something positive, largely focusing on ways that the original game can be improved upon.
As a quick disclaimer though, this does not include issues such as balance, hero design, or the general metagame, it's more focused on getting people to play the game, and much more importantly, especially if Valve are going to adopt the TF2 method of making money, retaining those players.
Having played DotA in its original incarnation for at least 5 years, there's only a few problems I've really had with the game that aren't directly related to balance, and these are:
Out of game
- The lobby system
- Disconnecting
- The Community
Finding a game in the original version of DotA was not a fun task at all. Firstly it would involve you loading up your copy of Warcraft 3, going to Battle.net, logging into a realm and then clicking on custom game, you'd then be met with this.
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| This assumes you've set up the correct filters, you did do that, right? |
Roughly 3/4 of the games on the list are not even DotA, and of the ones that are, not a single one is quite simply -all pick, the closest choices are -all pick easy mode or -single draft. What this means is that you're going to have to constantly refresh this list to hope to see a mode corresponding to the one that you want. Once you do this though, you might think you're done, but it's just beginning.
Attempting to join a game has around a 20% chance of success, with most games already being full or having you just being unable to connect at all, the latter of which causes Battle.net to think about it for 30 seconds before informing you of the connection problem. Upon entering the game though, said game might be completely deserted, meaning you will have to wait for several minutes for the game to fill up, or it will be a completely full game.
As the game fills up though, there is a good chance that the host might kick you due to your previous record in DotA games, your country of origin or even just your ping, or some completely random reason on their banlist (you beat them one time),
All of this assumes you're just playing alone, if you're playing with friends. Then you have to make the game yourself, tell them the name beforehand, and then wait for pubbies to join. However, if none of you can make a game, then you'll have to do all of the aforementioned stuff, and then call the game that you're going to pile into and hope that you can all get onto the same team and that none of you get kicked. Keep in mind you can't highlight text in the chat window in Battle.net so you'll have to manually type the thing you want to copy beforehand, just for that added inconvenience. While third party programs do exist, they just add an extra layer onto things you have to do to find/make a game, in exchange for some convenience.
At first, the queuing system put in place by games such as League of Legends and DotA 2 seem like the best idea, but it is important to make this not the sole way to find games, some level of default chatroom and socialization is needed, lest you end up with some like release StarCraft 2, an intensely lonely experience.
The other reasons why game lobbies are needed are for inhouses and tournament play, where both teams are fixed, as opposed to just one, and preparation time can be given. Finally, lobbies and private games are just needed for those fringe custom games like showing a newbie how to play and doing strange stuff like 5v5 -ARAM or Pudge/Techies Wars or -wtf mode and so on.
Disconnecting
Another relic of the Battle.net engine used in the original DotA led to disconnects being absolutely fatal in all but high-end arranged matches, due to the nature of the workarounds involved. If someone's connection hiccupped for just a moment, they were completely removed from the game, and, assuming everything else being equal, their team was forced to fight from a disadvantageous position, and the enemy was robbed of a decent match.
The fix for this is simple and S2, Riot Games and Valve have all implemented ways for people who have disconnected in order to get back into the game, albeit with differing amounts of leniency. I'll be getting into Valve's system a bit later on, though all of them are a definite improvement over the original DotA.
Community
This though, is where it begins to get really, really ugly indeed. The current word being thrown around to describe the community in DotAlikes is "toxic". However, it's not healthy or interesting to completely dismiss the entire community like this, and it is in these companies' best interest to deal with the problem areas of the community so that the general populace can enjoy the game and wish to continue playing. Before we can begin to solve it though, we have to work on identifying these areas.
Based on my anecdotal evidence of eight years of playing this game, things I've gleaned from people I play with as well as general trends I've noticed on forums, there are four 'problem groups' in the community for these types of games, these are:
- Foreigners
- Feeders
- Leavers
- Ragers
Foreigners
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| Foreign Dog, unless you are Hungarian, then it is just a dog. |
Talking about this one is an absolute minefield, but I'll try my absolute hardest to offer both sides of the argument, and what I think should be done about it. DotA is a worldwide game, played by many different nationalities, notably Brazil, China, Russia and Scandinavia. However, unlike a game like Starcraft which has much the same type of global reach, it presents one major problem in DotA.
The problem quite simply is that DotA is a team game, and hence relies largely on communication and teamwork, players need to communicate with each other to at least the extent of "Attack/Defend here" in public games, and much more involved and intricate details in higher level games. Having someone who cannot speak the language that everyone else is speaking serves to quickly throw a wrench into plans that are going to be had, causing one team to play at a lower level, as well as having one person who is completely and utterly unable to communicate with the other four.
While this sounds bad enough anyway, it is only augmented due to the nature of the internet itself, racial abuse is quickly hurled at foreign players, prejudice runs rife with players saying things like "gg we have a spic/chink/russian on our team." For a problem like this, there are two solutions that I can come up with; though to an extent they are mutually exclusive.
Segregation involves splitting players off by region based on language spoken, so Russian players would have their own queue and ladder, Chinese players would, Brazilian players would, English players would and so on and so forth. While this is an attractive solution on the face of it, there is the problem of fragmentation, with some countries having much smaller DotA scenes then other countries, as well as the hassle of making tens of separate queues for players who speak different languages, and then, there would also be the dreaded 'other' queue, filled with the players who speak languages that don't warrant their own queue.
Integration would involve splits only being carried out for the purposes of gaming infrastructure and to cause as little lag and delay as possible, language would never come into it. How the problem would be solved though would be through the use of macros, a list of prewritten phrases that could be used to cover most eventualities in public play, they would generally be context sensitive clicks and would appear in the chat screen in the following way:
<Player Name> - <Hero Name> wants you to attack <Player Name> - <Hero Name>!
<Player Name> - <Hero Name> wants you to attack <Location>!
<Player Name> - <Hero Name> wants you to defend <Location>!
<Player Name> - <Hero Name> is warning you that <Location> Lane is missing a hero, be careful!
and so on and so forth, everything apart from the Player Names would be translated into the speaker's native language and it would serve as a very useful way to have people of different nationalities play together without the problems caused by a lack of communication, meaning that any problems that would happen at this point would fall under the category of raging, which will be covered soon. The only problem with this solution would be making the system of using these macros intuitive and easy, as well as informing players of how they would work in the first place.
The Other Three
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| The position of the logos is just a coincidence, I am above such petty matters like DotAlike tribalism |
This serves to show the three remaining types of problems in the community, and also how they interact with each other, albeit in a limited and slightly ham-fisted way, I'll begin with tackling Leavers, and then Feeders, and then Ragers.
Leavers
These are players who leave before a game is either completed, or before the result of the game is certain beyond any and all reasonable doubt. The reasons for leaving are varied and not limited to some of the following:
- Exceptionally bad early game, quite simply does not wish to continue.
- Presence of angry/bad players on team which cause an environment they don't wish to participate in.
- Connection/Computer problems
- Real Life issues, whether an emergency or mismanagement of time. (Oh shit my dead uncle who is on fire fell down the stairs)
- Intentional griefing.
While almost all of these reasons can be solved through fixing the root of the cause, a system still has to be put into place to prevent leaving in the first place, as I mentioned before, one team having a leaver, and hence being a player down robs everyone in the game of having a good time. One team is forced to fight at a disadvantage while the other team is unable to have an equal, challenging game, turning it into a 'ruined game'.
The solution is two-fold and involves both punishing leavers and saving 'ruined games'.
Because almost every single player will experience one of these problems from time to time and feel forced to leave a game, the punishment cannot take place on the first leave, doing such a thing would cause annoyance at seemingly unfair punishment, or force people to suffer in real life due to the needs of a game. Beginning every player with 3 available leaves, and then increasing the number allowed for every 50 games played to completion would be fair. Once players pass this number though, punishments should begin to be put into place.
In all honestly, I feel the system that Valve put into the game involving a specific leaver queue is nothing short of fantastic, having to wait at least 30 minutes for a game is extremely frustrating and might help some players to achieve the epiphany that having their time be wasted is not a fun thing, and that they should be more careful about leaving in the future, the severity of the punishment should increase exponentially though for each leave accrued. However, I am torn on whether the duration of the punishment should involve being forced to queue for X number of games in the leaver queue, or whether it should last for a specific amount of time, and if the time should only expire when queuing or in an actual game.
On the other side though, the 'doomed games' have to be saved and the only way to do so would be through having players joining these games to take the place of leavers and playing them to completion. However, there would be the problem of incentive, since only a few players would be willing to join games in progress while playing as essentially a random hero and trying to win when at a massive disadvantage (they are generally either insane or badass). Players could receive perks and rewards for doing this, though exploiting the system would have to be heavily punished, and joining games involving leavers cannot be the sole way, or easiest way to get them, since the last thing we'd want is for leavers to be encouraged, which means another incentive has to be found.
There is one solution to this though, completely perfect in its simplicity and cunning.
Have leavers placed into the leaver queue, and said leaver queue places leavers into 'ruined games', which they have to play to completion or risk further punishment. It is entirely possible, once again, that they might have a realization that the early game isn't everything, or that leaving a game isn't something they should do in the first place.
Feeders
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| In the time he spent finding the M key in an attempt to move, he went 0-18-0 and was sent 25 computer viruses |
Feeders are quite simply the weak link in the chain that comprises a team, they don't understand the intricacies of DotA and have not spent enough time learning everything there is to know about the game so that they are able to not die and play at an acceptable level. However, a feeder could also just be a player who is playing in a skill level vastly beyond the one he should be playing at (think reverse smurfing), while getting absolutely crushed by a better player works in 1v1 games and serves as a helpful learning experience, it falls flat in DotA due to the enemy team quite simply being able to feed off of you and get stronger, as well as the perception of every game of DotA being "serious business".
The idea of every game being serious business means that feeders are quite simply, not tolerated, which, to me, is an absolutely massive shame. Such an act and attitude makes the entire community even more insular and terrifying to newbies. However, there are solutions.
The first and most important thing that has to be put into place is a decent tutorial system, something that allows absolutely anyone to understand how the game works; these could even be placed into levels like the following.
Basic
- What a hero is
- How to move your hero
- How to use abilities
- Items
- Creeps and towers
Intermediate
- Hero Roles
- Enemy heroes
- Last Hitting
- Usable Items
- Secret Shop
Advanced
- Ganking and Team Fights
- Warding
- Juke Spots
- Runes
- Lane Control
- Roshan
If every player was functioning at the baseline of understanding how to ward, control their lane and what to do in a teamfight, I think most people would be very, very happy indeed. To add a reason to do these tutorials, give rewards for completing each one (Skins, Avatar etc), and maybe even make them mandatory. An option could be put in to make them skippable, but if a player proceeds to do very badly indeed, then quite simply force them to attempt the tutorials, while highlighting the things they can win. As well as this, other players can also function as teachers, however, both their advice has to be correct, and they have to explain things in a friendly way. If both of these conditions are met, then reward players who are willing to teach massively, whether through players commending them and giving them prizes for that, or quite simply giving them prizes straight up.
Despite this, there are some players who, quite simply, do not care about playing DotA at a high level and just want to mess around and have fun. Placing these players anywhere near even medium level games would be a mistake due to their attitude. For them, something slightly different would be put into place, a sort of 'newbie island' where the games are -em, players are able to queue up to fight bots and defeat AIs. The lack of seriousness and the zero effect it has on your ranking will have to be justified again and again. Players can elect to join Newbie Island straight away by choosing "Casual" as a skill setting. A player who loses excessive games could also be asked if they wish to play there instead
Finally, to fix the big fish in a little pond problem, as well as being completely out of your depth, a robust matchmaking system would have to be put into place to prevent one team having a feeder, or having 'that guy' who just destroys everybody (even though everyone really want to be 'that guy').
In conclusion, feeders would be dealt with by teaching them how to play, giving them options to have fun if they don't want to play the normal mode of the game, and by placing them with people at their skill level.
Ragers
Ragers are generally the reason why the DotA community has received the reputation it has, that of being a racist, sexist, ableist, and insular hellhole. A large proportion of this is down to the perception of DotA being serious business, something that I'll explain now.
Playing a game of DotA is a large time investment (generally 30-70 minutes), where you generally want to play at the best of your ability with 4 people you have never met before in your life, against 5 people you have never met before in your life. You are forced to rely on these people and if they don't play at a level that you consider good, then frustration begins to set in. Combine that with a healthy amount of the Dunning-Kruger effect and you have a pretty horrible thing bubbling underneath the surface.
This frustration will make itself known, rarely through calm, constructive criticism, but generally through anger, rudeness, and other unpleasantness. Someone who doesn't know not to overextend isn't a "new inexperienced player", instead they're "a godamned retard". Brazilians are called "taco eating spics" and so on and so forth. Part of this can be dealt with through the measures suggested earlier, in order to prevent feeders and foreign players from being as prevalent, however this isn't an attempt to kowtow to ragers
Most of the community doesn't enjoy text and verbal abuse, especially if they wish to play games to relax and to let off steam, not to be insulted and bullied among other things. Such actions would drive these people away from the game, and while the abusers would welcome that, players who tried to get friends into the game won't, people who enjoy newbies entering these games won't, and most importantly of all, the companies who rely upon and thrive on the revenue they get from a constant stream of new players won't.
Quite simply, ragers hurt Riot/Valve/S2's bottom line more than anything else in the game and they have to be dealt with to ensure a healthy community and a popular game. Early on, the number of reports would be very large indeed with quite a large amount of false reports for frivolous and unimportant reasons. In order to deal with this, a system like the Tribunal in League of Legends could be set up, where cases are judged by the majority of people, however, unlike the Tribunal, the system could be placed into the actual game client and the nature of the rewards would have to be different (Achievements, DotA-money etc). Reports that are positive, as in they recieve a majority of people saying they should be punished, are brought to the attention of moderators and GMs who can then take the necessary action.
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| This, this is good. Not the content, that is terrible, but the idea is good. |
As for the idea of punishment, they would quickly increase in severity, beginning with being unable to type in game and being forced to use pings and the previously mentioned macros, next they'd lose the right to play games for periods of time, and then finally, they'd be banned, and if they wish to play again, they either have to pay a fine, or buy another copy of the game. However, after three instances of this, they'd be completely banned from the game, with no way of playing again.
The rager community has been largely ignored until the Tribunal in League of Legends and the reporting system in DotA 2, swift and decisive action would have to be taken to try and deal with the growing problem and help remove the stigma attached to the community as a whole.
Conclusion
While I do absolutely love DotA, I am aware there are major problems with the game, some of which prevented it from truly entering the mainstream, and some of which would drive away new blood. Riot Games did a good job dealing with a good deal of these in League of Legends, though they didn't go all the way, and I had other disagreements with the game. I can only hope that Valve are able to address and deal with these problems and make DotA 2 an excellent and inclusive game.
