DOTA 2

[Twig]

I was depressed to discover that a guy who started half a year after me and took forever to improve is now in my tier of matchmaking. (He's on my friends list so when I ran into him on the opposite team...)

 

And then I got stomped.

 

I haven't improved much. ):

 

HOW I IMPROVE

[Peters]

GUILD TIME. Invite me please: Lildude

[darthbator]

darthbator! Invite me too!!

[Dewar]

So, how does the new guild system work anyway? I went to the guild page but it wouldn't really let me interact with anything.

[TheLastBaron]

Uh there's a chat channel for the guild and you can open up your party and anyone in the guild can just join. Those are the main features.

[osmosisch]

The new tutorial stuff just came out, it contains a lot of clever ideas, like making people do 1v1s against other newbies with a limited hero pool to pick from. Very cool.

[Peters]

Can someone please invite me to the guild. Name is Lildude in the chat.

 

Thank you

[Brannigan]

The wait is over, Dota 2 is out! Thank god, I was being harrassed for the 8 invites I had sitting in my inventory for the past year

[YoyomaBones]

Can I please be invited to the guild? I'm already in the Idle Thumbs Lords Management Consortium, my name there is Snyot.

[Tundra]

Any thumbs in the UK/London area playing DOTA2? Im pretty new - over 20 hours - but i work 4 days a week so can devote time to learn.

Like most thumbs i'm well mannered, take advice easily, and just all-round good etiquet

[Frenetic Pony]

I think I figured it out, and this is going to make me sound like an ass if I say it wrong.

 

I downloaded Dota 2 again and played a few matches, because I've been on a big game kick the last few weeks and beat Shadowrun and Uncharted 2 again, and now need a game. The first few matches for one night were fun.

 

And then I got back into the swing of things. Last five games in a row weren't... challenging enough. I came out of the last match, a random draft, with my dead last pick essentially, Spectre. I ended up highest level on my team with 14 kill, 18 assists and 2 deaths. Again. I think the game was fun when I was learning it, and it was a challenge. But the empty, worthless feeling came over me when I continually get matches that, in essence, aren't decided by me playing my best. Either my team as a whole is outmatched no matter how well I do, or it's close enough that I end up as one of the top or the top player on my team and we won handily.

 

I should stop harping on this. I've harped enough. I don't even like harps.

[Twig]

So the wins are too easy for you, and the losses are... too easy for you?

[Frenetic Pony]

So the wins are too easy for you, and the losses are... too easy for you?

 

KNEW I'd say it wrong.

 

It's an extreme either or, either matchmaking seems to match up completely unfair teams one way or another, and so my input doesn't feel like it counts in either case.

[Twig]

That's what I thought you meant, but I wanted to have some fun. Sorryyyy! U:

 

Yes it does feel like that sometimes. Really, that just means you aren't having an impact because you SUCK.

 

U: U:

 

The more you play, the less that feeling occurs.

[Frenetic Pony]

That's what I thought you meant, but I wanted to have some fun. Sorryyyy! U:

 

Yes it does feel like that sometimes. Really, that just means you aren't having an impact because you SUCK.

 

U: U:

 

The more you play, the less that feeling occurs.

 

Ha! Nooo, not at all. Let me explain. I'm usually the highest ranked on my team whether we win OR lose. So I'm playing my best but it doesn't feel like it matters one way or another. And since I've learned how to play around a fourth of all the characters already there isn't anything particularly new to learn. Every game goes how I can see it going. Every game that my team is losing can and lately has been turned around if people follow what I say, or is lost when people don't. Not that I give advice unless we're really losing, but that's the way it's worked out for the last thirty+ games.

 

I'm not bad, I'm too good. I'm bored. One recent game, captain's pick, I got saddled with Luna, a character I didn't choose out of six I offered to play. I was highest level on any team almost the entire time, killed nigh as many creeps as the rest of my team combined, and by the end I'd maxed on level AND items; again. Literally maxed, I had 5 items worth 5,000+ gold each, power boots, and several thousand gold saved up. But no, my team wouldn't attack, they just had to wait for their Lifestealer to get Divine Rapier to win. Of course when I finally got them to go for it I was able to demolish the enemy in about a minute single handedly thanks to Satanic, Lincon Sphere, Mjolnir, Butterfly, and I can't remember the last one.

 

Point being, I just feel like I've seen it all, everything. I've faced every hero in the game except the handful people just NEVER play both as allies and enemies. I've seen every scenario played out, I've got 250 hours clocked, and I know others have clocked far more, and I've done far more on other games. But as much as I don't want to be I'm done with DOTA 2. And I know 250 hours if far more value than I could ever hope for out of a free game, Valve rules, the original DOTA guy hit gold. But it's also frustrating, because its the only game I've clocked so much time in that just abruptly ends in value for me. It's too binary, too predictable. You could play Forza, or Civilization, or Smash Bros, or Counterstrike forever and ever and ever without feeling like you've "seen absolutely everything." But for the last 50 hours of DOTA 2 that's how I felt, and I just kept playing hoping I was wrong, like I did when I downloaded it this last time. But it's gone again, and I know I'm probably not wrong. At least it's only about a month till GTA V and the start of the years end video game releases.

[Flynn]

I'm not bad, I'm too good. I'm bored.

 

If you're as good you say you are you should be winning a million dollars this weekend.

 

Likely your hidden matchmaking rating reset from either your long  period of not playing, or the influx of new players from Dota launching officially, and you need to win a ton of matches to catch up.

 

Over time the differences average out, just like poker, if you're truly playing better than everyone, you're matchmaking shoudl start seeing better players.

 

And comparing gold and experience and among team members is silly anyway... in any LoMa, gold and experience is distributed based on team decisions to optimize efficiency.  The person who gets the most is a strategy decision not a competition.  If it is a competition... well your team is going to have a bad time.

[Twig]

Even if you're doing well in games where you lose, that still means you aren't having an impact. It also means the people you're allied with suck. It also means your MMR is fucked up right now. Flynn's probably right; the influx of new players plus your long break undoubtedly had an impact. The more you play, the less that feeling occurs, because you start getting matched up with people indicative of your skill level.

 

You're not "too good". You're "too good for the people you're playing with". Which, even that is probably untrue.

 

I mean if you're bored, quit, whatever. But I doubt you're as hot shit as you seem to think you are. U:

 

(Sorry that probably sounds mean. I don't mean it to be!)

[Apelsin]

Just played my first multiplayer game and we didn't lose!

 

Sure I had a negative K/D ratio, but it wasn't nearly as horrible as I thought it would be

[Frenetic Pony]

If you're as good you say you are you should be winning a million dollars this weekend.

 

Likely your hidden matchmaking rating reset from either your long  period of not playing, or the influx of new players from Dota launching officially, and you need to win a ton of matches to catch up.

 

Over time the differences average out, just like poker, if you're truly playing better than everyone, you're matchmaking shoudl start seeing better players.

 

And comparing gold and experience and among team members is silly anyway... in any LoMa, gold and experience is distributed based on team decisions to optimize efficiency.  The person who gets the most is a strategy decision not a competition.  If it is a competition... well your team is going to have a bad time.

 

I don't want to play Pro, even though I've been called pro, I don't how much better the Pros are, and I don't care. I'm just frustrated the game runs out of fun for me before I'm ready to put it down. Every other game I played for a long time I felt ready to put down when I did stop playing it, DOTA 2 is the only one that feels like there's nothing more to offer even though I want it to offer more. That's the only thing I'm really trying to explain.

[Flynn]

So many matches at TI3 have been incredible.

 

I can't believe how many times Navi goes right up to the edge of defeat and pulls off an absurd comeback.  The Fountain Hooks.  The Loser's Bracket final.  

 

[Dewar]

Man, the finals of the tournament were crazy intense.

[Reyturner]

And then I got back into the swing of things. Last five games in a row weren't... challenging enough. I came out of the last match, a random draft, with my dead last pick essentially, Spectre. I ended up highest level on my team with 14 kill, 18 assists and 2 deaths. Again. I think the game was fun when I was learning it, and it was a challenge. But the empty, worthless feeling came over me when I continually get matches that, in essence, aren't decided by me playing my best. Either my team as a whole is outmatched no matter how well I do, or it's close enough that I end up as one of the top or the top player on my team and we won handily.

 

It's likely that you haven't played enough games for your MMR to be accurate. Elo style systems require large numbers before they are really mean anything, especially when they base your MMR ranking on the results of your games and not your individual performance (which wouldn't be any better honestly). 

 

I know Dota 2 is capable of generating an individual rating based on individual performance (you can make this info public in options, play a bunch of games to generate some results and use DotaBuff.com to see this for yourself) but I don't know how they use it in relation to your MMR (i'm fairly certain total games played is a significant part of it as I rarely seem to encounter people who've play vastly more than I have). 

 

You'll probably have to play a few dozen games before it gets accurate, during which you'll likely play in a lot of stomps, one way or the other. After that, you'll be more or less where you should be (whether you agree with their assessment is another matter ).

 

Edit: it should also be mentioned that the pool of players have been hugely impacted with the game being released officially (not to mention all the "new" players who've been playing WC3 dota for 7 years). 

[Dewar]

Not to mention the International bringing in the occasional players like me.

[devilscurls]

I played a few years of WC3 DotA back at Uni on a LAN around 2006, we all knew each other so the games were generally great (you couldn't leave or you didn't get in the next game).  Playing online with WC3 was pretty painful, so I quit.  

 

I decided to start playing DotA2 a week or so ago. So far I can't help but feel the winner is decided by whoever has the 'least bad' worst player on their team.  I think this has an even bigger role than leavers, which is frustrating.

 

It might get better once my MMR is set/improves but at the moment I feel like I am becoming one of those angry people typing "please don't feed" all the time and screaming at my display.  

 

So I was wondering, do the games evolve to be less frustrating as you play longer?  Does playing more All Random or less Limited Heroes help?  Any other tips to get the most out of it?

 

Still having a great time though...

[Brannigan]

random draft tends to help a little.  It does get better overall, but you do still get the occasional bad player race