2011-08-18, 09:08 PM
y0y0y0y0shi0 Wrote:I feel as if you're greatly misinterpreting what I'm saying and you're detracting from my idea to make your point known. You implied that the steep learning curve was part of what drove players away, and I was responding to that. I don't play dota because of the steep learning curve, so I apologize if I don't have that mindset.
I simply don't see the appeal in a uselessly flashy revamp.
Okay, I guess what I said was a bit confusing. First of all, DotA is a game that is simply designed to be hardcore and punishing, similar to many other eSports, such as Brood War. These types of games are very popular internationally. I have a friend in China that barely plays video games at all and has still played some DotA with friends. The steep learning curve and high skill cap does make it harder for casual players to get into the game, but it also makes people appreciate its difficulty more and respect the ability of the players who can play it on a competitive level more. It's exactly why Brood War is so popular in Korea. Icefrog could make the game easier, by removing denying, by making it easier to coordinate chain disables, by removing the abundance of juke spots, by making it so you don't have to coordinate item purchases with your team, by removing active items, by punishing tower dives, by making level 1 ganks more difficult, but oh look, now we're playing this less team-centric, less strategic game called League of Legends.
Now, I understand that the steep learning curve also makes DotA less able to pick up newer players, especially casual players who may have played LoL. But that's only a small part of it. Try to play DotA right now. If you want to play on Battle.net, you need to buy Warcraft III and TFT, which still sell for about $30 bucks combined at the cheapest. Can Battle.net provide you with a good DotA experience? Hell no. You're going to deal with stacked teams, leavers, trolls, griefers, and people of all sorts of skill levels. So you need to find a DotA league. Are there any that are filled with mostly English speakers and are noob friendly? No. You're not going to find a good place to play DotA anywhere, unless you have friends that can teach you.
DotA 2 isn't just a UI update. Moving it to an independent game based on the source engine means it isn't just a hack job anymore. You can have rankings, matchmaking, the new coaching system Valve is attempting to implement, better replays, and more interesting skills now that everything doesn't have to be a cleverly modified Storm Bolt or something similar. You can just log onto Steam and play a game without jumping through hoops to do it. You're still going to deal with trolls and griefers, but you will get into games much faster, you won't have to run any extra software except Steam, and you will be playing much more balanced games.
TL;DR the main reason DotA isn't as popular as it could be is because it's really hard to access. That is the main thing DotA 2 changes. You're just being distracted by the shiny stuff.