DOTA

[Solarn]

That's the same advice that I've heard others say about learning DOTA. I play LoL, myself, and that community is toxic enough, even with the whole Tribunal thing going (though it has gotten a little better, at least to me). I will say one of the best pieces of advice I read in one of those very guides you mention, which I instantly applied to my playing in LoL, is that the very first time someone starts insulting you, calling you "noob" and whatever else, don't bother arguing back with them; just put them immediately on ignore and get on with enjoying the game. Following this advice has made my game experience in LoL much, much more relaxing and enjoyable (even though I still accumulate losses).

As far as I know, and I admit I could be quite wrong on this point, DOTA doesn't have quite the same behavioral enforcement that LoL has developed. LoL's community is about as toxic as I can stand, and it has behavioral enforcement (although I will never play a ranked game because of the expected toxicity, based on the progression of it from bots to blind pick PvP). So, I've mostly stayed away from DOTA for fear of having to deal with a level of toxicity that would just completely rob the game of any sense of fun. I will admit, I feel I may be doing myself a slight disservice, because the gameplay in DOTA looks to be far deeper than LoL's.

However, I will have to say that I don't care how thick a skin you have; unless you're an unfeeling, uncaring husk (or a robot), getting yelled at constantly for even the slightest error is a soul-syphoning experience that robs the game of any and all fun.

Dota 2's community is much less toxic than those of most other MOBAs, although that's not really saying much. The game has a report system, where players can report others for communication abuse, ability abuse or deliberate feeding, and every report is reviewed by a Valve staff member. First time or rare offenders get put in a separate low-priority matchmaking pool (the same as leavers get) while repeat offenders are temporarily or permanently banned. The success rate of the system so far is pretty high (in that assholes get punished and false reports get ignored).

To be honest, I've never understood the extreme rage factor that develops in MOBAs. I've seen rage in MMO PvP before, but it was usually almost comical in its nature. But the rage I've experienced directed at me, and others, in LoL was just vicious and malicious. I had a guy actually make a death-threat against me, at one point. I've never had that in MMO PvP. I know I'm not the best player, but that kind of thing is just uncalled for on any level, in my opinion.

There are several distinct reasons for the bad state of the MOBA community, and as far as I can tell, they are the following:

1) MOBAs are highly competitive games, and by that I mean that there are officially endorsed tournaments held for them with prize pools of hundreds of thousands of dollars (and a lot of significantly smaller ones as well). This creates a community similar to other competitive games like Counter-Strike or Super Smash Bros. where everyone feels like even casual matches have a high stake (and they sometimes do, in that the best ranked pub players can expect to be scouted for an amateur or maybe even a professional competitive team) and that bad players are besmirching the game's good name.

2) They are also team games, more so than any other kind of game, meaning that even one really bad player in an otherwise good team can actually cost them a victory (assuming they are playing against a more evenly skilled team), leading to a lot of people flaming the "worst" player in the team (lowest kill/death ratio, worst items, etc.) even when they are not at fault.

3) The previous two reasons attract a lot of trolls who just want to make life shitty for everyone else and get away with it.

4) And finally, a lot of "official" people in the MOBA community unfortunately endorse this kind of behaviour. From S2 (the creators of Heroes of Newerth) selling in-game taunts based on it, to competitive players who prominently display it, to many popular fansites, it's everywhere.

Fortunately, Dota 2 lucked out on the last one; the official Dota website, playdota.com is well moderated and Valve have taken a definitive stance against cyber-bullying and implemented (and are implementing) pretty good measures against it, like the Dota 2 report system, so the worst elements of the community only have each other for support. And if anything that kind of people are famous for, it's being unable to get along with anyone.

 

[Frostbite3789]

I honestly don't get it. Given how toxic the community for MOBAs is considered to be, maybe that's for the best.

The mute function is the most OP function in LoL. Someone starts to rage or act like a dickhead? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand muted.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

I've never understood how anyone can have trouble with Dota. The game is exceptionally straight forward. Read the description of the roles. Have a look at all the heroes. Play the extensive tutorial that teaches you ever phase of the game. Play against bots. Play against bots with people. Play a real game. Work out if it's best to 2 1 2, 3 1 1 or 0 1 3 + jungle. Communicate. Press buttons.

• 1 Hard Carry
  1 Semi-Carry
  1 Utility (varies depending on team makeups)
  1 Support
  1 Hard Support

Where do people have problems? Do they just dive into a game with no idea what anything is? You can't be having shit teams more than the enemy - rule of averages. The low skill brackets are also super easy to tear up; just pick Riki, SB, Husk or Drow, etc., and roll the enemy until it stops working. Welcome to mid tier bracket. Don't be an idiot. Understand the roles. Welcome to high tier bracket. Now it's challenging.

I think people must assume they can just pick any hero they like the look of and do anything they want. Rambo, one man army, "I do whatever I want" tactics don't work in multiplayer strategy games.

That's just it - a lot of new players DO just enter a game knowing absolutely nothing about how the game works at all with the intent of learning as they go and don't research a game before they play it. This is especially true of players who have never even heard of MOBAs and typically don't play the genre's two closest cousins: MMOs and RTS's. Even players who are experienced with those two genres but are new to MOBAs can be baffled by the massive amount of terminology in these games and thus may not understand what their team is asking them to do. The list of roles you mentioned is a perfect example of this. A new player is likely to have no clue what a Carry is (let alone the difference between a Hard and Semi Carry), and can easily misinterpret what a Utility or Support is based on the name alone. That's not even getting into all of the abbreviations used in these games.

There's also the issues of players trying to learn about the staggering amount of heroes and items in the game, something which is not as simple as you make it out to be. A newbie can literally spend over five straight minutes just looking through the store trying to figure out what does what and how useful each item is for their playstyle or role (followed by being reported for being afk, but I'll get to that in a bit). With heroes / champions, not only are there an absolutely colossal amount of them (which can easily overwhelm new players), but players must stick with their chosen character for the entire match (which can often last well beyond thirty minutes). For players who don't like to do external research or who prefer a more hands-on approach to learning the game, figuring out even the basics of each and every hero / champion will most likely take quite a long time (talking 20+ hours here).

Lastly, the whole "feeding" mechanic basically ensures that any given team is only as good as its weakest member. Even a team of pros can easily fall apart due to one novice member unintentionally buffing the other team, which when combined with the hyper-serious mentality that this genre encourages causes players to get frustrated and lash out or even report the novice player that costed them the game. Add to this the possibility of being banned from the entire game (albeit temporarily) merely for being bad at the game and getting constantly reported over it is just a few reasons why MOBAs have the reputation of being hell on newbies.

 

[WashAran]

Wow so some people need to be told to use the ignore function. Amazing!

 

[Smertnik]

I've been told that to enjoy the likes of DotA or LoL, I should be prepared for months, if not years, of painstakingly learning the game's methodology and terminology, its every last nuance, the interplay between different character types- all the while withstanding heaps of scorn and abuse from players who think they were born with that knowledge and anyone who doesn't have it is a substandard human being... and then, maybe, I'll start enjoying it.

And I'm inclined to believe it. What I don't get is why I should bother, when there's plenty of far more accessible and enjoyable games out there.

I'm sorry, but people who say this are talking out of their arse. The game itself is pretty easy to grasp, the only initial difficulty comes from the high information ceiling. But you can always just blindly follow in-game builds and play in the limited hero mode until you know better, which reduces the information you have to intake to a fraction. Couple it with the fact that you're mostly matchmaked with people who are just as clueless as you and it becomes a non-issue.
The whole notion of Dota players being the most terrible people on Earth is just as much a myth. You can find dicks anywhere and ARTS games are no exception. Even if you do meet some from time to time there's a perfectly usable mute function.

I, for one, started playing Dota roughly a year ago without any prior knowledge of the genre whatsoever, having only briefly skipped through Purge's guide beforehand, and have been having great fun ever since. And I even play alone.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Now, after finally playing Dota 2...

This is so true it hurts.