DotA vs LoL...which is better?

[Arkhangelsk]

I prefer LoL, simply because it's more casual and easier to get into for players who are not into the genre that much, but still enjoy it occasionally. DoTA is more complicated and requires a bigger investment on the players part to be able to enjoy it.

 

[DazZ.]

People will always associate you with the worst part of whatever group your a part of. Therefore I wouldn't have gone on any subreddit.

Then why are you on the Escapist?

 

[KaosuHamoni]

If I have to listen to Luna or Witch Doctor again I will have to hurt something

Oh my lord Dan, I think I've broken you with my soundboard =D

[HEADING=1]SELEMENE COMMANDS[/HEADING]

Anyway, I like both, but for different reasons. LoL is where all my tryhard goes, because I'm actually reasonably good at it (Gold IV and rising), DOTA is where I go to play stupid-fun heroes with absolutely no regard for people's sanity (Lycan, Slardar, AXE, Sand King, Night Stalker, AXE, Spectre, Windrunner, AXE...)

So yeah, that's my take on it.

Well if you would just put this video on repeat for an hour as my vengeance for all the bullshit Luna lines every two seconds that would be great. Just wait until I find that soundboard, all Anti Mage all the time.


TRUTH COMPELS ME!

I'll be honest, all the one liners are infuriating after a while.

Indeed they are. As Witch Doctor would say:

Spoiler

[HEADING=1]LOOK AT IT GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/HEADING]

DID SOMEONE SAY WITCH DOCTOR?

 

[Vigormortis]

Dota 2 does better with a proper budget, competent dev team, the backing and support of Valve et al, but its also incontrovertibly retarded in the scope of its project, probably by the insistence of Icefrog. Rather than looking at what made warcraft 3 dota great, and making a worthy sequel, they have literally pulled the game out into their own engine, INCLUDING odd quirks and limitations of the Warcraft engine 3. For example, rather than asking how pathfinding and spawning of neutral creeps should work, they copy the behaviour from the warcraft 3 engine, which only behave that way due to limitations of that particular engine. Its mindboggling.

If you're referring to things like jungle camp stacking, denying, or aggro-passing, you need to understand those were left in intentionally. Not because they didn't want to bother finding "solutions" to them, but because those particular "bugs" ended up creating compelling gameplay mechanics and strategies.

You'd be surprised how often this happens in even the highest levels of game design. in fact, just as a quick example (an oddly apropos one at that), a similar kind of "bug" wound up becoming part of the core experience in certain segments of Half-Life 2.

Recall having to shoot down the gunships with the rocket launcher, only to have the gunships shoot down your rocket? Believe it or not, that was a bug during the early stages of the game's design. The gunship AI would attempt to prioritize the highest threat target, but wasn't entirely picky about what that target was. As a result, it would target the rocket and attempt to shoot it out of the air.

The dev team noticed this error and thought about fixing it. However, they quickly saw the impromptu game of cat-and-mouse it created, so they fleshed it out and left it in.

This is similar to many of the "bugs" people still associate with Dota.

 

[Vigormortis]

For example i know some people see it as a complete gamebreaker that Dota has such a thing as denying while LoL does not and therefore is more accessible to newcomers.

That's one assertion I've never understood from the LoL players.

Firstly: denying, while a decently powerful tool to the right team, isn't exactly crucial to gameplay. In fact, even within competitive play you don't see it that often.

It's one of the more common, and overly petty, complaints you hear.

Secondly: I would hardly call League of Legends more "accessible" to new players. Besides actively locking 90% of the heroes and other content from new players unless they pony-up the cash or grind for hours and hours, it also blocks new players from being able to jump right in and play as they please.

That's the very definition of inaccessible.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Secondly: I would hardly call League of Legends more "accessible" to new players. Besides actively locking 90% of the heroes and other content from new players unless they pony-up the cash or grind for hours and hours, it also blocks new players from being able to jump right in and play as they please.

That's the very definition of inaccessible.

LoL has more accessible game mechanics, in that they are streamlined and thus feature a shorter initial learning curve in terms of simply understanding how to play the game. The business model is "less accessible". You don't really hear many people defending the business model, because it's an example of a fairly predatory fee-to-play model.

 

[Vigormortis]

LoL has more accessible game mechanics, in that they are streamlined and thus feature a shorter initial learning curve in terms of simply understanding how to play the game. The business model is "less accessible". You don't really hear many people defending the business model, because it's an example of a fairly predatory fee-to-play model.

Except that I wouldn't agree with that assertion either.

At their core, Dota and LoL are very similar. The core play mechanics of one will, despite some fans assertions, translate to the other. Learning to play one will give a player a huge step up in learning the other.

Admittedly, Dota has more complex play mechanics at higher levels of play. Many of them being ones that LoL does not have. However, one doesn't necessarily need to learn those mechanics in order to play successfully. You don't need to learn how to deny. You don't need to learn how to lane pull or camp stack. You can do just fine with many of the same core mechanics you'd learn in LoL.

Baring this in mind, when I consider that LoL locks well over half of its heroes/champions, as well as other content and options, from being accessed by the player, whereas Dota does not, it becomes pretty apparent to me that Dota is the more accessible. Both games present similar initial learning curves, yet Dota allows new players more freedom in learning and discovering the disparate play styles and interactions of all the heroes.

LoL basically dictates how you learn the game. Dota gives the player free reign and let's them determine how they learn.

To me, it's pretty clear cut.