Why I stopped playing LoL in favor of DotA2
August 20, 2012 2 Comments
Of these two games, I would not say that the gameplay of either is superior to the other. Each play with their own style and have things I like/dislike about each. As far as the actual game goes for either, I’m Switzerland. Neutral. Gray like Gandalf. I’m pH7 you might say. However, I stopped playing LoL on a regular basis months ago in favor of DotA2. It wasn’t some concrete decision, where I had a moment of choice that I can point to and say, “There, that is why I no longer play”. It was just a gradual subduing of my time spent in game. This weekend, after watching a YouTube video from Riot about the history of their champions, I decided to go give the game a whirl again. All I got was one game before the stark contrast between the total experience of the two games slapped me in the face and reminded me why I never went back – the community.
It started off badly. Within seconds (literally), my 4 teammates were bitching at each other. Calling each other noobs, criticizing choices on champion, spell selection, calling what lane they are going to take, and then being yelled at for going there. Within the champion select, before everyone was locked in, someone even threw out the “GG”. It wasn’t friendly banter; it wasn’t joking humor; it was bitter, vitriolic condemnation of their own teammates and fellow human beings. Did I mention this wasn’t even a ranked game? Just a standard match for fun. The attitude didn’t improve during the length of the game. Not surprisingly, the match didn’t go well. I lasted 12 minutes in game, reading condemnation, proclamations of superiority, and demands of subservience from half of my teammates, before I finally ignored them. That’s a two-edged sword sadly, because once ignored, communication is gone, and a game that relies on teamwork is basically lost. The game finally ended at about the 30 minute mark (the surrender was no-voted). I left the game, closed LoL, and doubt I will return any time soon.
I’m not saying that the community of DotA2 is the gold standard. I wouldn’t even call it the bronze standard. However, it’s not complete shit, and the average interaction is light-years beyond my experience yesterday. Not every game in LoL occurs like mine did, but it’s an indicative example of the aggregate. I talked about it on the forums at Inquisition, and one of the leaders commented something along the lines of “This is the norm in hyper-popular games.”. The norm is not acceptable, and if it’s bad enough to drive away a veteran of online gaming like me, chances are, it will do the same to others.
About Shadow
Shadow-war 
I’m not sold on that assessment of LoL; when I tried HoN, I went into a game, picked one of the few champions there were available, which was an AP mid, died once, came back to lane, died to some absurd champion, had the rest of the team say some variation on a theme of “FFS YOU TAKE PYRO AND FEED? GO AND DIE SCRUB” and promptly left the game in disgust at how bad the game, the matchmaking and the players were. I’m pretty sure HoN has a smaller community than LoL; and that was my first game. As a newbie.
I want to like Dota2. But I still have the deep-seated hate of DotA from my WC3 days when the community was “LOL GET BANNED IF NEWB GO DIE” and the game took up valuable refresh slots that could otherwise be used by worthwhile maps. That, and half of the time I wonder what kind of retarded spazfuck designed a champion with permanent invisibility. And the fact the last time I tried to play a game two people instantly left, so, yeah, game over.
Oh well.
More LoL streams for me.
That sounds like all of my LoL games. I could never get into the game because of community.
Anyone ever play Demigod? The game never had post-release support (09 release or something) so there’s barely ever anyone playing… but the players aren’t dipshits. It’s the only dota-clone game that I’ve ever played that made something a bit different from the original. It’s much more slow paced and tactical. It’s my fav ‘moba’ game if I can find a damn game to play. Most of the players are vets and wont let you play with them if you don’t have ‘250 game plays or x amount of wins’. It’s really hard to find a game of new/avg skill level for me.