MrMooEar

Seriously! It feels like a conspiracy! Volvo have mercy! ! The beginner stream is super exciting for me. I have been trying to explain the excitement of pro Dota to some people at Double Fine and it's just a really hard thing to convey. Maybe this will be the thing that shows newcomers why eSports can be cool?

This shit is the best! !

Thanks for the kind words about this episode! I think it's my favorite so far! Ayesee was awesome! ! Such a great suggestion! I would like that too! !

Hey man! I think that I left out a bunch of that stuff because it just sort of goes without saying. Almost all of the heroes in Dota came directly from Warcraft 3 characters, including their names! War3 is the progenitor of this whole thing for sure. So almost all of the abilities in Dota can be directly attributed to Blizzard. Also I think it's worth noting that without the ridiculously extensive mod support from Blizzard for War3 the LoMa genre wouldn't even be a thing. I'm all about giving credit where credit is due! ! But! The reason that I brought up the Pudge hook specifically is that this is the kind of ability that did not exist in War3. I could be wrong about that, but I think that it was the Dota modders that created this iconic ability. It's just fascinating to me that the Blizzard LoMa would infuse things that came out of the mod. Does a LoMa need to have a character with a Pudge-style hook? Is that even necessary? Does the hook have to be on the Abomination character? I feel like they're doing so many things to purposefully distance themselves from Dota that it's just really interesting to see that particular idea get used in that form by the original creator. It's like a snake eating its tail times infinity! !

P.S. Vanaman's a bad person. !

Well said! I don't think I was making my point very well when we were talking about this. I think that interaction on the internet is super difficult because you never know who's on the other side of the screen. Intent is so hard to convey and when you have something that's kind of ambiguous like the "DUNKIN BRONUTS!" exclamation I just think that you should choose to not say it. Just say it to your own team... there's really no need to throw it in the face of a bunch of random people from the internet that might get really offended! Just be nice. That's a great rule. Dota could use a lot more players that are just nice. !

Reyturner - That's an excellent point that the unlikely comeback is the highest high! I agree with that part of it. It would be a bummer to see the baby thrown out with the bathwater. But man... I get fountain-dived about 50 times more than I experience the dope comeback. Just sayin. We can stop talking about this now and all be bros. I'll give Vanaman the all clear. !

I'm sure that we'll talk about this on the next cast, but Sean and I got the Dota Today team together and played a few matches! I really want to have a discussion about casuals vs. pros and how Captain's Mode is like the most difficult puzzle game on the planet. But as Famous Vanaman says "you're burnin cast!" ! Honestly the best part about team play for me is that it unlocks the surrender feature. If someone on your team types a "gg" in chat, it enables a 10s countdown that ends with a concession. This is exactly what happens in the pro scene anyway - I believe that players are smart enough to know when a game is a hopeless stomp. The snowbally nature of Dota makes it so that there are times when a comeback is truly impossible. We used it in a couple of our games and it was great to end the misery and queue up again! So good. Def improved my Dota experience a lot! Reyturner - I want to respect your position but I it just seems so harsh! Taking away the possibility of hats from the team that is getting completely wrecked and just wants a relief from the next 20 minutes of awfulness? Yikes! In my opinion, the high highs of Dota do not come from stomps while the low lows do come from stomps. Adding surrender raises the floor for everyone and does nothing to the ceiling. The high highs still comes from those close matches that you just barely pull out, and the low lows are truncated because you can "gg go next", swiftly ending the suffering while congratulating the enemy team with a crushing victory.

The surrender debate is near and dear to my heart. I am staunchly FOR surrender, and probably always will be! I don't have a lot of time to play the game, so I want to maximize my time with it. Sometimes a game can be over with little to no hope of a comeback at 30 minutes. The next 15 minutes are usually a waste of my time. I'm not talking about the situation where it's 20-25 on the board and you're down 1 tower and someone sullenly cries for a "gg" in response to one teamfight gone wrong. I'm talking about the situation where it's 35-5 and you're down 6 towers and your carry has a hand of midas and a brown boot. You're not coming back from this, no matter how hard the throws! The real reason that I think surrender is necessary is because the matchmaking isn't perfect. We've all gotten stuck playing against people that are just way better than we are. At those times, and only after getting thoroughly trashed, do I want to "gg go next." I just want another shot at a fair fight and I want to get to it as quickly as possible. It could mean the difference between playing 2 games of dota in a night instead of just 1! THAT'S DOUBLE THE DOTA. ! I think the arguments against surrender are pretty interesting, but there are solutions out there to minimize the impact and/or exploitability of a surrender system. The League system isn't perfect and could be iterated on, but I think it's better to attempt a fair solution as opposed to just ostriching and pretending that this isn't a problem! Thanks for listening to the cast you guys! !

Hey guys! !