I wanna crap on this, because I think this game alone took up most of the times that I spent on computer games these four years, just like most of us. But no one will be that lame to wrap up like me. :)
Everyone more or less have a bit of heroism, especially in the virtual realm of gaming. Before the fascinating DoTA, there were few similar maps popular like HeroArena, 3 Corridor. In fact, seniors had a strong team in 3 Corridor. After its emergence, DoTA quickly overshadowed the rest because of its unique hero skills, spells and combinations, and game balance. It brings up the joy of hero killing by blasting dumb and exaggerating sounds. It may sound stupid but deep down player's heart, it contributes to most of the pride and satisfaction one wants in gaming. As simple as that.
*Please read with caution because the following paragraphs contain self boasting of the author that may make you feel uneasy or nausea. Any illness caused is deeply regretted.
Chapter 1: Voyagers to a new land
DoTA wasn't popular at first. (Is that true for every game?) At the time wei wah introduced this map to our circle it wasn't really known among NTU students. And so we (wei wah, boon keat, lit ting, ccc and me) wandered into this new land and started to explore. Somehow I adapted to this map quickly. Maybe because it allowed me to play in my own cunning way. For the first two days, me and ccc could play against the rest of three and still won most of the matches. I've turned Bounty Hunter into a killing machine and Night Stalker into a walking nightmare for others. Of course, this only lasted for two days.
We started to play more often as a team and went to massacre noobs in NTUBnet. There was a NTU ESport Competition and we decided to give it a go. Our team name was "iAM", and my nick was "iAMstupid". For 3 weeks we trained day and night (day was night and night was day as far as sleeping concerned) and won the champion relatively easy. Only the final match was a tough battle. And we won the IG's medal too. Competition wasn't that stiff as not too many people had played that much to develop the skills and team work. Strategies adopted that time weren't as abundant as what exists for today. Our combo of maximizing AOE spell (double stun and double wave) worked pretty well.
The first year of NTU I spent about an average of two games per day perhaps. Without others being as mad as us, as voyagers to a new land, we were pretty successful. Of course winning trophies were great, but the root of the happiness lied in the good spirit and co-operation between members and the feeling of togetherness. I guessed that's the major reason why we play team games.
Chapter 2: Inhabitant of a desert island
At the top of my game, I suddenly decided to stop my addiction and let go. I realized I need more time for other aspects in my life like studies. I was very lucky that my grades weren't affected in the first year because most of the contents were learnt during STPM. Also, there were more and more people getting mad on this and it's just a matter of time before they becoming more skillful than us. It's too time consuming to maintain the level that I were at.
I didn't stop it slowly but abruptly. From the perspective of gaming, in some way it's like pulling out from the voyager's team and isolating myself in a desert island, without any connection to the game and unaware of any updates or changes. I played countable matches whenever I back to ipoh with my rubber gang members, and though I didn't play during normal days, I were still able to bully them. Haha.
Chapter 3: Return to the homeland
But after one and a half year, I finally came back. Not that I could still play competitive games since I was disconnected to this for so long but occasionally I played for the sake of revoking my skills and memories.
Moreover, I realized more of the need of using it to destress as life's getting tougher. Maybe I was influenced by someone else or I am the one who influences others or maybe both exists and strengthes each other, a new gang of dota "kaki" was formed informally which include me, Bee, Eddie, Kamen, HY, Xandra, Wen Keat, Jee Voon, ZF, Luke, KW, sometimes Ka Hong, JiaVei and a partial but special member: Teng Hooi (He's special because he got most of my exposures, knowledges to DoTA but lacks practical ability). We seldom played "VS" matches among players because it consumed too much energy. We prefered to play against "hard" but predictable AI computers.
Why is it called Homeland? It's because I used to play game. Most of us grown up playing different games. How far can we disconnected ourselves to games esp. PC games? Not too far. Some of us already said that they could not imagine giving up gaming in the future. Of course we should not be too addicted into it, but occassional short addiction seems like do more good than harm. The problem lies in how to control the degree. I have to admit that I am actually very weak against temptation, that's why I need to isolate myself from being exposed to it.
So, how long will DoTA remain popular? I think it will be quite long. Even nowadays people still play Starcraft and CS. Learning a game needs a lot of time too. So most likely, I will still play some dota matches in the future, although it will become lesser and lesser in the future.
By the way, I've just finished two VS matches from 12 to 2am. Played like shit and won none, so bad. LOL
