I've been playing DotA 2 since 2011 and received a beta key shortly after the beta was announced. Since then I've seen the game change, grow, and evolve into what it is today. Despite my following grievances and lists of items that I think should be changed or altered, I still think that DotA is by far the best game out there. Most of my qualms are not with the actual gameplay itself, but rather everything else surrounding the game. I'm not the best writer, but I'll do my best to coherently put my thoughts down. Enjoy.
#1 - Ranked Matchmaking Killed DotA's Communities
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For those of you that haven't been playing since before Ranked Matchmaking was released it may be hard for you to understand, but bear with me here. Back in the day there was still a hidden ranking that put matches together as to balance them, but there was no visible way for anyone to see their ranking. The only way to actually gauge if you were good or not was to see if you were normal, high, or very high skill (which, back then there were a lot less very high skill games) or to see how close your game was to the front page of the Watch tab (also essentially impossible to do unless you were near the tip top). The mindset of players back then, due to lack of ranking, was a lot different.
After ranked was added, it only took a short while for the mindsets of people to shift from a more casual and having fun mindset, into the competitive "I Have To Gain MMR" mindset. I don't have any numbers to make this claim, but I think that party queue likely saw its numbers fall as a result as well.
Why is this mindset change a bad thing? Well take a look at virtually any DotA community and see how barren they are nowadays.
http://nadota.com/
https://www.joindota.com/en/start
http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2
Virtually every DotA community, Team Liquid included, outside of Reddit seems nearly dead. Does Team Liquid even have an active Inhouse League anymore? Or any active threads outside of general discussion?
Since ranked was added, people are are less interested in playing together, and strictly want to raise their magic number thus making DotA a far lonelier game and any sense of "community" is dying. Even DotA 1 had a much better sense of communnity than DotA 1 does, with having clans, inhouse leagues, active channels that weren't just spammed by bots.
Even outside of the communities, it now takes longer than even just to find matches because of the split between ranked and unranked. I queued for every single game mode with a friend yesterday during peak hours and it took 8 minutes to find an unranked game. That's absurd! Sequestering everyone into all of these different pools, ranked, unranked, international ranked, bots, and then once you get into those there's different game modes like all random, all pick, captains draft, etc. all of those just makes it harder and harder to find games.
My biggest complaint lies here in this #1 tab, Valve needs to do something to make the game feel more alive and make communities able to thrive once more if they want to keep the game alive.
After ranked was added, it only took a short while for the mindsets of people to shift from a more casual and having fun mindset, into the competitive "I Have To Gain MMR" mindset. I don't have any numbers to make this claim, but I think that party queue likely saw its numbers fall as a result as well.
Why is this mindset change a bad thing? Well take a look at virtually any DotA community and see how barren they are nowadays.
http://nadota.com/
https://www.joindota.com/en/start
http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2
Virtually every DotA community, Team Liquid included, outside of Reddit seems nearly dead. Does Team Liquid even have an active Inhouse League anymore? Or any active threads outside of general discussion?
Since ranked was added, people are are less interested in playing together, and strictly want to raise their magic number thus making DotA a far lonelier game and any sense of "community" is dying. Even DotA 1 had a much better sense of communnity than DotA 1 does, with having clans, inhouse leagues, active channels that weren't just spammed by bots.
Even outside of the communities, it now takes longer than even just to find matches because of the split between ranked and unranked. I queued for every single game mode with a friend yesterday during peak hours and it took 8 minutes to find an unranked game. That's absurd! Sequestering everyone into all of these different pools, ranked, unranked, international ranked, bots, and then once you get into those there's different game modes like all random, all pick, captains draft, etc. all of those just makes it harder and harder to find games.
My biggest complaint lies here in this #1 tab, Valve needs to do something to make the game feel more alive and make communities able to thrive once more if they want to keep the game alive.
#2 - The UI is Atrocious
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I'm not a design fanatic, I couldn't possibly tell you or Valve how to make DotA a prettier or more functional game, but what I do know is that presently, it's pretty shit. I'd go into detail about what works and what doesn't, but I think it's been gone over numerous times on reddit. I just wanted to point out that Valve still hasn't changed anything.
#3 - Flanderization of Heroes
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Again, this might be a hard one for people who haven't been playing for at least 5 years, but there's definitely a trend of characters becoming Flanderized versions of themselves. Here's what I mean:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization
Heroes used to be all somewhat rounded out with a few unique quirks and interesting characteristics. But over time and having their unique aspects consistently buffed to make them more unique and standoutish they've become hyper-versions of their previous selves. Because of this, you'll see heroes like Necro, Pugna, Bloodseeker, become so prominent because all it takes is a slight buff and they become outlandish. DotA has always operated on the concept of "Everything Is Overpowered So Nothing Is!" but that seems to reign true nowadays more than ever. I'm not saying that every hero needs to be watered down, mirror images of each other like League of Legend's champions, but does anyone even have any fun playing against the Flavor of the Month heroes when they're released? Because years and years ago the only thing that was annoying to really play against was Anti-Mage, and he was certainly counterable by just.....playing well.... but now, it feels like if you don't have a specific counter to some heroes, you're just shit out of luck.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization
Heroes used to be all somewhat rounded out with a few unique quirks and interesting characteristics. But over time and having their unique aspects consistently buffed to make them more unique and standoutish they've become hyper-versions of their previous selves. Because of this, you'll see heroes like Necro, Pugna, Bloodseeker, become so prominent because all it takes is a slight buff and they become outlandish. DotA has always operated on the concept of "Everything Is Overpowered So Nothing Is!" but that seems to reign true nowadays more than ever. I'm not saying that every hero needs to be watered down, mirror images of each other like League of Legend's champions, but does anyone even have any fun playing against the Flavor of the Month heroes when they're released? Because years and years ago the only thing that was annoying to really play against was Anti-Mage, and he was certainly counterable by just.....playing well.... but now, it feels like if you don't have a specific counter to some heroes, you're just shit out of luck.
#4 - Cosmetic System Ruined
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I know that this might seem like such a small thing to be irritated by, but it feels really non-existent to me now. I used to love having a few mythical items and potentially trading with a friend, or having my hero feel unique in some way as far as looks go. But nowadays there's thousand different Uber Mythical Elite Godlike items that are what, $30 on the store? And more are being released all the time to just outdo each other with crazier and crazier looks. So what's my problem?
Players should be able to disable cosmetics so we don't have to see completely hero altering cosmetics or distracting effects.
How are these two things close to one another?
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Not to mention the various wards that have to squiggle around, or the lighting effects of heroes. I'm not saying that those things should be removed, but I'd at least like the option to disable them.
Another thing, the inventory system now feels completely detached and unmanageable. I have no clue what's going on when I open my inventory and no clue where to even begin if I wanted to see what items I have, what I could wear on a hero, etc. All I know about it is that once I start a game it tries to sell me a complete set. What happened to individual pieces? I digress. The system is shit and needs to either be reverted or changed to become simpler and more manageable.
Players should be able to disable cosmetics so we don't have to see completely hero altering cosmetics or distracting effects.
How are these two things close to one another?
+ Show Spoiler +
Not to mention the various wards that have to squiggle around, or the lighting effects of heroes. I'm not saying that those things should be removed, but I'd at least like the option to disable them.
Another thing, the inventory system now feels completely detached and unmanageable. I have no clue what's going on when I open my inventory and no clue where to even begin if I wanted to see what items I have, what I could wear on a hero, etc. All I know about it is that once I start a game it tries to sell me a complete set. What happened to individual pieces? I digress. The system is shit and needs to either be reverted or changed to become simpler and more manageable.
While I did list 4 qualms I've had for DotA, I want to really emphasize that #1, with the community feeling dead, is by far the most important by numerous degrees. So in this section I'll be addressing that.
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There's simply too many ways to play DotA and it's fractured out community. When you search for a game here's a list of all the possible ways you could wind up in a different game:
-MMR
-behavior score
-unranked
-ranked
-international ranked
-game mode (AP, AR, CD, CM, LP, SD, RD, AD, ARDM)
seems a bit ridiculous, right?
That compounded with ranked seemingly being the default for anyone looking to play a quick or casual game essentially makes many of those modes dead. What should be changed?
Ranked Matchmaking should be locked behind more than just a bar of levels played, but also behind a system that requires players to play unranked within a not-so-distant time to be able to play a limited number of ranked games.
For instance, a system that only allows players to play 5 ranked games every 24 hours but in order to unlock their ability to play ranked games they must first play 2 unranked games in that 24 hours beforehand.
How does this help?
Players are more likely to play with others in unranked since there's no solo MMR to gain, it can help with building a community back as people might play with others more or seek others out to play. It will also help with issues around ranked and make ranked slightly more of what it should be: a competition. The casual crowd will find it locked a bit more away.
Another change, rather than having low priority, if you get reported enough in ranked you receive flat ranked matchmaking bans for periods of time (maybe a week?) making you ineligible to play. Also a system where if you report someone they are FAR less likely to wind up in your immediate future games.
What can be done in unranked for "toxicity"? Perhaps implement the behavior system there, as opposed to having another variable effecting ranked.
Revamping the chat system from there to be able to have chat admins, perhaps "clans" in some way, self-managed inhouse league systems, the list goes on, would drastically help with the communal aspect of DotA. As of now, I don't have all the answers, I may not even have any of them. I just want to see the game that I've loved and played for years thrive so others can enjoy it for as long as I have.
-MMR
-behavior score
-unranked
-ranked
-international ranked
-game mode (AP, AR, CD, CM, LP, SD, RD, AD, ARDM)
seems a bit ridiculous, right?
That compounded with ranked seemingly being the default for anyone looking to play a quick or casual game essentially makes many of those modes dead. What should be changed?
Ranked Matchmaking should be locked behind more than just a bar of levels played, but also behind a system that requires players to play unranked within a not-so-distant time to be able to play a limited number of ranked games.
For instance, a system that only allows players to play 5 ranked games every 24 hours but in order to unlock their ability to play ranked games they must first play 2 unranked games in that 24 hours beforehand.
How does this help?
Players are more likely to play with others in unranked since there's no solo MMR to gain, it can help with building a community back as people might play with others more or seek others out to play. It will also help with issues around ranked and make ranked slightly more of what it should be: a competition. The casual crowd will find it locked a bit more away.
Another change, rather than having low priority, if you get reported enough in ranked you receive flat ranked matchmaking bans for periods of time (maybe a week?) making you ineligible to play. Also a system where if you report someone they are FAR less likely to wind up in your immediate future games.
What can be done in unranked for "toxicity"? Perhaps implement the behavior system there, as opposed to having another variable effecting ranked.
Revamping the chat system from there to be able to have chat admins, perhaps "clans" in some way, self-managed inhouse league systems, the list goes on, would drastically help with the communal aspect of DotA. As of now, I don't have all the answers, I may not even have any of them. I just want to see the game that I've loved and played for years thrive so others can enjoy it for as long as I have.
After writing this, WOW I feel like I'm a pretty incoherent writer. Sorry for not being able to properly fit my ideas together, but I hope you can still manage to take out the points and ideas that I tried to put in.
I recognize that my ideas might be flawed, or some things that I find to be problems others might not, or that I might be outright wrong on something. If this is the case then feel free to leave feedback or criticisms, they're much appreciated.
I hope you enjoyed this thread, GOOD LUCK HAVE FUN.