Dota 2

"IN ABOUT 9 MONTHS, I'VE SPENT
602 HOURS IN DOTA 2"

In the past, i have no idea what RTS/MOBA is. Also I'm not interested in Dota that time, but one day one of my friend insist me to play Dota 2 and he said it would be fun. To be honest I'm not a hardcore gamer who take a single game so serious since i was little, i used to play RPG games like "Pokemon, or Final Fantasy" but this one is different.

According to Steam, as of December 17 of 2014, I've spent 602 hours in Dota 2. My job, and Dota 2. Dota 2 has served me as the most unexpected of life preservers this year. My duty as student somehow interrupted by Dota and It's like I can't life without Dota for serious.

It is without a doubt the most time I've spent in any multiplayer game that I can remember, the most consistently I've played a multiplayer game since Getamped 2 in 2012 until 2013. And I've spent that time largely because of the people I play with and also with my brother and yet I still can balance the school and gaming time.

I've turned to Dota 2 over and over across a year filled with horrifying actions, which is ironic, I admit. Some of Dota 2's community is truly the worst of what video games have to offer, of course, with sexist, racist, homophobic and transphobic language and slurs thrown around, with poor sportsmanship on display often enough not to be surprising. Especially on SE Asia Server I don't know about the other server, but this is irritating.

But this has the side effect of making civility something that stands out even more. When 10 people together agree to pause a game for minutes at a time because real life intrudes for one of them, when everybody wishes everyone else good luck, it seems like a tacit acknowledgement of what gaming can be — a place for people to relate to one another over this thing. Where people are good to each other.

"I HAD A LIFE, BUT EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN DOTA COME"

This has been a year in desperate need of those moments, of opportunities for people to be good and decent towards one another.

I don't play games for an escape. I'm not good at forgetting the other stuff. But I do find some games meditative. It's good to be able to focus on one thing. Dota 2 is a mentally demanding game due to the laundry list of things that can be considered at all times, and I find the most success when I let it have the bulk of my bandwidth (and when I pick Bounty Hunter). It's a luxury that I try to allow myself there.

I don't know how I would review Dota 2. But If I comparing Dota 2 to another MOBA/RTS games, Dota 2 sure really hard. I don't know that I really even get it, though I spend a lot of time trying to understand parts of it. But I know that it is a medium, a court where I gather with friends to work toward small moments of victory, even when we lose. We don't always work well together. When break time at school we argue about strategy, and we argue over blown plays, and sometimes each of us needs to take a break for a few days to get a grip and refocus.

Dota 2 is a fun game. I like playing it. I like the tactical and strategic depth, the constantly evolving meta-game, and feeling like there's always something new to learn. But it's everything that's grown around it that's been something I've sorely needed this year, and the reason that I've spent so much time there.