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MOBA Noob
MightyUnclean
Member EpicPosts: 3,531
I'm considering trying a MOBA and have a couple of questions:
1) Does a middle-aged, slow, non-twitchy man have any place playing this kind of game? Or will I simply be destroyed and ridiculed by a legion of teens?
2) If I do have a place, which MOBA would be good to start? DOTA 2? LoL?
Thanks!
Comments
I too are of similar stats to you and dipped my toes into mobas just over a year ago. I will try to give you some examples of my experiences and give my opinion on which moba you should try out.
Firstly i found lol to be just like why people complain about mobas. The first few levels where fun but once you start playing with high level player it starts becoming toxic. People really laying into each other over the littlest thing and after a while it got to me, i prefer teamwork, giving people advise over what basically boils down to bullying someone if they arent playing the perfect game.
Dota 2 - The community for this game seems to be better and the overall gaming experience seems to be more polished than lol. Dota 2 is also a lot harder to play, requires more skill and a good understanding of mobas to be good at it. If you want to jump in at the deep end and drown for a couple of months then dota 2 is for you.
There is however a third option and i would highly recommend SMITE - this is also free to play but uses a 3rd person view instead of the isometric view. The community seems to be on par with Dota 2 but it doesnt have no where near as steep learning curve. What you could do is play smite for a couple of months until you get the who moba thing in your head. How matches are played, how building you character with items can make or break you and just generally how to play mobas. Then once you feel comfortable move over to Dota 2.
That was my plan however i love playing SMITE much more than Dota 2 so ive now gone back to that hehe
1) In every game, there are good, average and bad players no matter the age. So you'll be fine.
2) I did not played LoL nor Dota 2, but I play Prime World which I enjoy it a lot : http://en.playpw.com/ . You can try it. It has some pretty interesting things beside the basic MOBA's, like tallents ( artifacts ) , castel building , single and multiplayer mission , etc.
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
We're playing DOTA2.
"We're" includes me and my middle-aged friends, our wives and our kids.
It's a very easy game to get into, while providing enough strategy for it to be played by the pros.
I would pick dota2.
"If the Damned gave you a roadmap, then you'd know just where to go"
It's very hard to start MOBA after an age. I have been playing Dota/Dota 2 for over 5 years and play in high - very high bracket of Dota 2 Matchmaking as of now so here are a couple of answers imo:
1) It starts becoming difficult. It's not only about twtich reactions. I myself know that my performance has been declining even though i am just 24 now. Several notable Dota pros like Maelk and others have seen this as well and they are no longer what they were were when they were in their prime and hence they retire. People who taught me the game when i started have lost it.
2) Because of reason number 1, i would suggest you to go for LoL as it more casual. Starting Dota while being middle-aged will just make sure that you lose your hair faster.
The thing is, unless you want to play with bots for years and years, you will be competing in the game. Everytime you play against other people, your rating is being analysed. Slowly slowly it will go up as will your expectations of yourself and others. Believe me, everyone starts Dota just for fun that's what i did. I especially hate PvP in almost every game i play and yet here i am 5 years into it and not planning on stopping anytime soon. Now, when your level rises the frustration begins. I don't like to flame but when someone in your team is solo losing you the game, tensions reach high. That's what makes the community so toxic. It's because just one person can ruin an entire hour long game for you and no one likes to lose when the fault isn't theirs in any way. It will go the other way too. You might be having an off day or might be ranked against individuals more skilled than you. Then you will be on the receiving end. So, take that into mind. Once you start Dota or any MOBA, you will become competitive. These aren't the type of PvE games that you can have fun with playing solo.
Also, like many others Dota has a steep learning curve. I had a friend guiding me but it still took me 6-9 months to get to a decent level where i could understand what's going on. Dota also has denies both for creeps and heroes, juke spots (not like go into the grass and disappear), different vision at day/nigh, individual hero turning speed, etc. Hence the reason i suggested LoL. Dota is definitely a more polished and complete game but much harder.
Is it true that in DOTA2, you can get reported and banned by people as punishment for playing badly?
Do these games bring out the worst in people like the dungeon/raid finder in WoW, where players treat each other like shit because there's zero accountability and you'll probably never see each other again?
All of that happens at low level games (normal level of Matchmaking in Dota 2). At high and very high level people are comparatively more mannered (emphasis on comparatively). but it will take you an eternity to reach that level in Dota 2 when you are just starting as a noob. Minimum a year if you ask me so you will have to take it up while you are in the low level games.
Also, you won't be banned but if lot of people report you or you abandon too many games, you may either be muted in chat or be dropped down to low priority matchmaking for a short duration (2 days -> 5 days -> week and so on) depending on what they reported you for or your abandons. Low priority is where the worst of the worst reside and everyone will be rage quitting at that level while being wannabe trolls and flamers so try to stay clear of it.
And yes, players will treat you like shit.
Remember when you start, always play against bots until you are familiar with the heroes and fill confident enough to enter against people.
So, in case you are starting it, here is the best guide for noobs on Dota 2 (made by a now long-time caster of the game)
http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck
Also, here is Eurogamer's journey into the game when they started as noobs as well. It's a bit old but a fun read nonetheless and accurately describes what you will be experiencing.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-10-the-dota-2-experience-part-one
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-17-the-dota-2-experience-part-two
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-24-the-dota-2-experience-part-three
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/
MOBA's have without a doubt the worst group of gamers I've ever experienced. There's just so many people who are impatient, easily agitated and equally arrogant. It has a very toxic community.
See the problem is that it's a very competitive genre with matches that are usually around 45 minutes long. So when you're being held back a "bad' player it isn't fun and it just becomes a huge waste a time. It doesn't help that these people play the game obsessively at hours on end and have the stress build up until they can't handle it anymore.. making them extremely bitter and hostile. Add to this that they're mostly free to play.
In general they're very fun games, though. If you can handle the vitriol then you might have a blast. Personally, I just don't have thick enough skin to play those games or else I would.
That said there are some casual MOBA's around. You can dabble with Awesomenauts (which is just that - awesome) where from my experience it has been very relaxed. It isn't a traditional MOBA, but it does use the same formula.
Currently Playing:
nothing
MOBA games is really fun for casual player like me.. Age doesn't matter as long as you can play the game, I've seen below 10 years old playing LOL in cafe'. I can't imagine sometimes playing with kids ahahaha.
Anyway try LOL or Dota or Dota 2.
MOBA is probably the cruddiest genre of games ever made to be honest, it is a low skill game compared to say an RTS and the communities are awful, I just want to warn you ahead of time. Even MMORPG arena requires more skill than an MOBA does.
Having said that if you are coming from an MMORPG and you are used to the combat smoothness of say WoW or GW2 you probably want to play LoL. DOTA 2 is leaps and bounds behind LoL when it comes to basic gameplay. DOTA 2 is probably ahead of LoL when it comes to the more tactical/strategic gameplay though.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/
If your coming from MMOs i suggest smite. it puts you in 3rd person view, you use wsad to move around and most of the skills take some kind of skill to do. plus the community is way better than LoL and if you get a toxic player just mute them and never see their chat again.
Also their are many game modes to enjoy, your not stuck playing the same thing over and over for ever. and they do a match of the day, every day is a different kind of game.
If your going to try a Mobo there are a couple basic things you should know.
1. When you start your going to be terrible.... It will be bad. You'll have no idea what's happening and people will be screaming cuss words at you in about 10 different languages.. I was cussed out the other day in an obscure austrian Dialect I had never even heard of. You need to go-in understanding that, and accept that your not going to get better in an hour, or 10 hours, or 10 days.
I tell everyone who starts playing they will need to lose about 100 games before they even start to understand what's really happening in the game.
2. The game is complex, It's honestly one of the most ludiciously complex generas out thereIn dota there are 100+ heros with 4 skills each. You need to know what ALL of them do, and better if you understand how they interact with one another.
EX. if you Axe taunt a hero who is Rhasta shackled it will break the Rhasta shackle. Or if you use Ghost Scpeter it will make you immune to Omni-slash.
Some times these are really obscure, and will not be mention anywhere in ANY tooltip. You'll have to learn by trial and error.
3. The community is as a whole rather awful. In a game where your teams ability to win the game isn't based on the performence of your best player, but based on the performance of your worst player there is a lot of blame flying around on a losing team. I've gotten into heated arguments with people i've been friends with for years.
4. If you spend the time to get decent and understand the game it can be the most fun you will ever have in a video game. On the other hand some games you get beat so badly you want to uninstall and never play again. It's not that the other team beats you, but it will appear that they beat you while not even trying.
all PvP games do, without exception.
I will give you this advice; learn whatever role(s) you want to play most and try, try, and try some more. Learn the map VERY well, learn your champions VERY well, and be patient with yourself. There will be some quick reactions required but awareness and knowledge will serve you just as well as you will know what to do in the myriad of situations that will present themselves.
Other than that make sure to wear your armor that has +100 against verbal garbage. Most of the angry people you'll run into are jaded vets or people whose lives are just not going the way they expected that game. Both of which have nothing to do with you, so just work on improving your game and forget about it. You'll learn some rather colorful ways of cursing before it is all over with.
I wish you the best of luck and remember this is about fun. The games will piss you off sometimes but make sure more than anything that you're having fun or there is no point. Good luck and Godspeed.
P.S. I recommend League of Legends and DOTA2. There are of course others, but these two are particularly polished and fun with a variety of characters to represent you in the arena.
Yeah, I enjoy fighters as well. The community for most fighting games blow. In regards to Moba games, LoL is faster paced, more forgiving, and easier to pickup. DOTA is slower paced with more options. Smite is better than both imho (vastly prefer 3rd person).