DotA 2 has changed a fair bit

A long while ago I used to play quite a lot of DotA2.  I played it enough to warrant purchasing the compendium for two different Internationals and I felt like, while I wasn't what you'd call good, I had a good grip of the game.  Then for some reason I quit, I don't remember why exactly but it was probably because my backlog of unfinished games is some kind of stupid high number and I gave up online gaming to focus on that for a while.

In my absence there have been a multitude of updates, none of which I kept up to speed with save for a few messages from my friend who plays it a bit more frequently than I do.  What I had heard is that the game had got some kind of overhaul and that it was all glitchy and shit.  Then some time passed and now it's not so glitchy and shit and it's back to being highly enjoyable and with that I decided to give it another go.  Fuck me is it different though.

Right off the bat the interface has been completely reworked and it's all fancy and swish now.  One thing I was a little disappointed to see is that my level from previously earned battle points had been replaced with some new thing and my old level was reduced to some kind of shitty trophy.  The inventory looks completely different and to me, who got so used to the old menus, it was a little hard for me to find everything.  Still, the extra 5-10 minutes I spent wrapping my head around the new design isn't worth complaining about that much.

There's all these new heroes now too and I have no idea who they are, what they do, what items are good for them and I've never seen anyone use them.  I suppose it would be a good idea for me to check them out but I remember that the "all hero challenge" was a thing and started doing that instead.  There's also a bunch of new items and it feels like every game I'm seeing something in the shop that I didn't see before.  I'm too worried about not letting the team down to spend time perusing the additions to the shop.  The pre-update DotA had this inventory thing in the menu which gave you a run down of all the items you could buy but this feature seems to have vanished so now I'm just using recommended builds and hoping that it all works out.

The map is also a little different and the base is covered in these statues that I think are player owned but I'm not sure what the fuck they are for other than being another thing to destroy when I make my way into the enemy base.

I like the new update though because while it's a little daunting its nice to see all this new stuff after a long hiatus.  So if you're like me and haven't played in a while give it a go, maybe the new content can rekindle your enjoyment for the game.

DotA2 Compendium is back!

YES! It's fucking back!  One of the best things in all of E-Sports is back to accompany one of the best events in all of e-sports!  The International!

I don't care if you love or hate DotA2 or the genre in general, The International is one of the best events in the whole competitive gaming scene just because of all the work that goes into the experience for both players and the spectators.

The Compendium is this cheap digital book that you can buy that outlines all the details of the upcoming tournament and the teams that are playing.  However it does so much more for the consumer that it's hard to believe that this is a thing being pushed in an industry full of companies trying to do nothing but nickle and dime you at every turn.

The book itself has a bunch of interactive features such as choosing your favourite teams or making predictions for the outcomes of the tournament and upon making those predictions you are given a multitude of rewards.

The more that you take part in the event and actually play DotA during the event, the more you are rewarded with all sorts of fancy shit.  What's even better is that not everything has been implemented yet, so as the event draws closer the features will expand even further for no additional cost, thus giving you more value for money out of your digital e-sports almanac.

The reason I say I don't care if you like DotA2 or not is because this is the kind of thing that ALL companies should do for any game that they want to push as a competitive title.  Love or hate Valve, the one thing you can't fault them on right here is fostering a sense of community within DotA2.  People are discussing the game and it's players and are going to be making decisions in the compendium based on these discussions and it's that kind of shit that brings people together and just adds to the enjoyment.

Valve is by no means a perfect company, they do a lot of bullshit and depending on where you stand there's a lot about them to dislike, but in the case of the Compendium they really are leading the way into what E-Sports should be.

Nothing Is Ever Easy, Is It?

Sorry for the shitty stock image but that's really how I feel about my new goddamn computer, at least until today.

You may have noticed that I've not made any posts for the last couple of days.  It's not because I've been busy with work or social stuff or because I don't have anything to talk about or anything like that.  It's because I got this new computer and it's spent all this time being a complete fucking asshole.

I just wanted to unbox it, plug it in and fucking play same damn games but no, of course it's not that fucking easy.  Everything (with the exception of DotA2) ran like total and complete garbage and it only got worse if I tried to stream.  This didn't make any sense to me because the damn thing is faster than my last one AND has a better graphics card in it so I was totally stumped.

Then, with a little help from a friend of mine, we managed to figure out what the fuck was going on.  This fucking machine has 2 graphics cards in it or something.  One is the Intel HD integrated card and the other is my NVidea thing.  The idea is that the computer will automatically decide when to use the HD crap and when to use the NVidea card.

This explains why I was able to run DotA2 no problem and have it look all nice and shiny.  Except when it came to running Hotline Miami or They Bleed Pixels it was using the fucking integrated shit and not switching over to the NVidea, or at least I think that's what was going on.  The result was that the games ran like total shit and streaming would only make the problem worse.  However after fucking about with some options I've managed to make everything use the NVidea stuff so now it all runs nice and fast.

.....Or at least I think that is what was going on.  I like to think I'm OK with computers but I'm absolutely no expert.  Long story short is that I fixed my shit, I'll be able to start writing/recording/streaming a lot more often now and everything should be grand.

Speed Run Races! A surprisingly fun past time

If you have been paying any attention to the stream, you may have noticed that a great deal of my free time has been taken up by speed running various games.  However only very recently have I taken up racing these games and I've found it to be rather enjoyable so today I thought I'd just share my first experiences with racing.

The site used for racing is called Speed Runs Live and through the magic of an IRC chat room players from all over come together to discuss games and perform speed run races.  Now going in I was extremely apprehensive because the majority of video game communities are complete trash.

Take DotA for example, if you suck at that game, people rage at you and throw all manner of insults which doesn't exactly do much to make you want to learn how to play and get good.  Even when you play the Vs Bot mode, which is designed for new players to learn the game, people STILL rage at you, it's a load of shit.

Now with speed running it's something different.  Now mainly I've been speed running Hotline Miami and They Bleed Pixels, and while I don't hold any records I've gotten pretty good at those games.  However, the game I started to race with was Megaman X, a game I started running a week ago.

Now I suck at Megaman X, it's a tough game to run and there is so much going on and so much to remember that I find it rather difficult.  So I hop on Speed Runs Live with my buddy, set up a race and start racing. 

Now I'm getting SMASHED, and people are more than welcome to come and see the suckage happen live on my twitch channel but none of the aforementioned shit slinging went down.  In fact, the opposite, people don't care if you suck, it's just not a big deal.  If you suck, then people will help you out, give you tips and offer advice.  I had people from the IRC in my chat room laughing along with me and telling me not to give up when I fucked up a skip and lost a bunch of time.  Racing Megaman X, despite my suckage was a truly enjoyable experience.

So to anyone out there looking to get into speed running but are afraid of "not being good enough" or whatever, it doesn't matter.  Just pick a game, get some splits and join the fun and the community will be there to help you and enhance the fun rather than berate you for your lack of skill or knowledge of the game.

Seriously, come race me at Megaman X sometime, you're guaranteed to win.

DotA2 New Year Event Roundup

New Year?! BUT IT'S FEBRUARY!  Well this event was in time for the Chinese new year, hence the picture of the horse and the dirty big dragon.  It should be obvious except with some of the shit I see people writing on the internet it wouldn't surprise me if there was a certain group of people who may stumble on this post that didn't know these Chinese New Year wasn't Jan 1st.

Anyway, what happened in this event? Well lot's of fucking NOTHING, that's your answer.

Well...that's a harsh evaluation.  There was a patch with a cool new Ability Draft mode, that allows you to pick your skills from a big pool made up of all the heroes in the match which were picked at random.  It's an interesting mode made to be played for fun, but almost every game I've had of it contains one super try hard tosser moaning and just spoiling the silliness for everyone else.

Then on top of that there were two new heroes.  Phoenix, a big fire bird that heals shit and explodes a lot.  Then there was Terrorblade who is a big glowy eyed demon that makes clones of things and swaps health bars around.  I've not had a chance to play them yet because I'm on a huge winning streak with Zeus and I'm a very boring individual who hates change.  Maybe once I start losing I'll give them a spin.

But then there was the event itself....holy shit what a let down.  From the kickoff there was this big timer that was counting down from 7 days.  During this timer, playing normal games of DotA got you a form of currency called Flamesalt Ingots, that the game said would be used to fight "the year beast".

So I cut off EVERYTHING to grind out a load of ingots.  If you were wondering why I've not been streaming or producing videos, it's because I was grinding ingots on DotA.....yes I'm that sad stop judging me.

Anyway, once the timer ticked down, the year beast appeared! A huge dragon thing where the damage you dealt to it was converted into prizes.  Now, the gold you were given to buy items with against the dragon was based on how many ingots you got, and even though I had over 1000 ingots (I'm not paying for favour, go fuck yourself), it didn't last very long.

I managed to get a couple of prizes but once my ingots were gone there was literally NO point in playing anymore.  All those games of DotA for a short morning sessions against the year beast and I was done, what a fucking letdown.

Finally, I still have no idea what the fucking offering thing does in the item menu, I just put shit on there and nothing happens, so that's another feature that can go royally fuck itself.

SHITTEST. EVENT. EVER

Diretide!!!

Oh man, I do love me a good old DotA event! 

Diretide is the new DotA event that will continue on to around the 28th I think and it's being held in November because there was some update that threw their schedule off, so we get our trick or treating thing in November.  Better late than never though!

Diretide is a special game mode where each team has a big old bucket of candy on their side of the map.  The idea is that you have to kill monsters to gain candy and go drop it off at your bucket and the team with the most candy at the end wins the game.  Although, you can hop on along with your team into your enemies base and steal candy from their bucket, so a good balance of offence and defence is required if you want to win.

After a little while, the game ends and the winning team is granted a bunch of items, then the big monster that walks around the map sits his ass down and the 10 of you team up to go kill him as many times as you can within a time limit.  The more times you kill him, the better loot you get at the end so the great thing about this mode is that you're guaranteed some kind of prize just for participating.

It's a fun little mode and the games are way shorter than your usual DotA match, so you can hop on for half an hour, play a little bit and still come away with something for your time.  The problem is that it's a little bit broken with some characters being way better than others and some just being outright useless, but for a little mini game it's forgivable. 

The other thing is that there are groups of players who have figured out how to get the big monster kill count really really high, and this means that you will be seeing the same handful of characters basically every game, which can get a little bit dull.

But all things considered it's a fun little mode and if you're like me and don't give a flying fuck about item drops, the stuff you can sell on the steam marketplace means that you'll probably get to buy a cheap free game at the end of it, even if you only played a couple of games a day.

So if you don't already play DotA, go give it a shot.  People are a lot more forgiving of new players during an event because winning really isn't all that important here, just have fun and get some free stuff.

Stop Making MOBA Games

If there is something which could quite easily be described as pointless, it would be making a new MOBA game right now.

So we have DotA2 which is the big one, one of the most played games on steam and has a massive user base that includes people who have been playing since the days of the old Warcraft 3 mod and people who have recently picked it up.  On the other side of that you have League of Legends, a similar game with simpler mechanics and a more newbie friendly approach to things and this game also has a massive userbase.

Before that we had Heroes of Newerth, which was a game that was basically trying to be DotA but with it's muddy art style, crap characters and awkward transition into a free to play model, it was quickly forgotten.  Then on top of that there have been quite a few other titles which have been trying to take the crowns from DotA and League.  Stuff like Bloodline Champions, SMITE and a few others are all there and available to play but very rarely do you see anyone talking about them.

So you would think at this point people would be like "well shit, guess we're not taking them down anytime soon, guess we better go make a different kind of game" but you'd be wrong.  There has been talk for fucking ages of "Blizzard DotA" although I have no idea what that's going to be like and then more recently we have this thing called Strife made by the same guys who did Heroes of Newerth.

This is a terrible idea because what do you expect happen, really?  These games will get released, be played for a few hours by a small group of people before being binned and ignored for League or DotA.  These developers should be channelling their efforts into making something different, something new or original, but instead we're just getting shit games that'll be forgotten within a few months.

We've seen this exact same thing happen with MMO's thanks to World of Warcraft, and it's happening again now with this shit.  Stop making these games because getting people to switch or even just take interest isn't really worth the time or money.  Maybe in the future, once DotA and League have lost some steam, but doing it now is the epitome of pointless.

The International and the Interactive Compendium

Right, today is the day The International 2013 starts, so let's get hype!

Really thought I just want to spend some time talking about how awesome this tournament actually is.  For those that don't know, The International is a yearly tournament that takes place where 16 of the best teams from around the world come together and kick the shit out of each other until only one remains and takes a massive cash prize.

The cool thing about the cash prize, is that Valve released something called "The Interactive Compendium" which is this virtual book that that gives you all sorts of tournament information, allows you to make predictions and even manage a fantasy DotA team.  The coolest thing about this though, is that Valve had said that a small amount of money spent on compendiums goes towards the prize pool for The International, so after all the sales this thing has had the prize pool is at something absolutely crazy like $2.8 million.

The Compendium even gives back to you, the player because as stretch goals are made you get nice little bonuses.  For example, I bought the compendium with steam credit but after a stretch goal was met I was given an item that I then sold on the marketplace for MORE than the compendiums value.  On top of that I've been given all sorts of other free shit, and the chance to earn even more free shit by simply watching games, although the chance of actually getting something from that is stupid low.

So if you're a fan of DotA, support this thing, it's nice that we have events like this and we should show them some love so they don't just die out.  If you're not a fan of DotA, you could always give it a watch anyway because maybe you'll find that you'd like to give the game a go, it's not like you have anything to lose.

Yu-Gi-Steam

This is something that popped up on Steam recently, and while I don't see the point, I fucking love it.

Steam Trading Cards is a feature that hit sometime last month I think and from what I can tell it's a feature where you can earn things like chat emoticons and other features for your steam profile. 

The system is very simple, certain games have card drops attached to them and by playing these games you get the cards.  Every game has a card drop limit of 3 or 4 but there are 8 cards in a set, so to get the full set of cards you must trade or use the steam marketplace in order to get the badge.  When you get the badge you unlock a load of stuff to use on your profile so you can customise your shit with a load of themed virtual goodies.

I personally think this whole thing is a load of shit and don't see the point, but that said all the cards are steam marketable, so I have no problem selling them off for a little bit of spare change to go towards my next game purchase, so there is some good that comes out of this whole thing even for those who don't really care.

Also if you have a Steam account above level 10 you can get foil card drops, but the only purpose I've seen for these is selling for insane amounts of dosh on the Steam market.  Still, I think they did a great job here of providing a fun and free little extra then benefits everybody, it'll be interesting to see what direction this thing takes when it comes out of beta.

A Problem With MOBAs

Forgive the image, it was one I used in a post a long time ago and it was easier just to use it again, this is not a DotA vs LoL post.  Also I know there are people on the net who don't like the term MOBA but I'm sorry, it's just the term I've known for the longest time

Anyway, today I was playing some DotA2 and I was trying to think why this genre more than any if notorious for having such a toxic, aggressive community.  It wasn't too long before I realised the reason why.

You don't even have to think that hard for the main reason why there is a significant chunk of the player bases for these games who just don't seem like very nice people.  A game of DotA or LoL or anything like that tends to take about 35 minutes or so at least (or 20 if it's a quick surrender in LoL) and that's quite a time investment for someone with a busy day.  Even if you're not busy, if you're not having fun, 35 minutes can feel like fucking forever.  So, if there is someone on the team causing the game to go poorly then it's pretty obvious that the reaction to that person is going to be quite negative, their lack of ability basically renders the entire duration of the game a waste of time.

Now what I'm not saying is that people who are new shouldn't play, because that would be just completely fucking stupid, but what is a newbie to do?  Well the common argument is "go play against bots!" but I don't really buy into that.

You see, bot games are all well and good for learning the basic mechanics of the game and how your character of choice works, but let's face it, bots don't play like real people.  You could play bot games all day but when you start going up against real people who do things differently and behaving in different ways then even with all the bot practice in the world you're still going to get rocked.

It's not so bad in a game like Starcraft because that is only 1v1.  If you suck in a game of Starcraft, the only persons time you are wasting is your own.  But if you suck in a MOBA game then you are wasting the time of 4 other people, and people don't like having their time wasted on stuff that isn't fun for them.

Unfortunately though, I don't have a solution because the only real way to get better is to keep practicing in real games so that you can eventually get to the point where you can play effectively.

So really what I'm trying to say is that people who play these kind of games need to chill out and just accept the fact that there are going to be people who suck.  There isn't a need to get mad, because it reflects badly on the community and you're not helping the sucky person get any better.  So help them out, teach them a thing or two about what to do, who knows, maybe something will click with them and you'll be able to turn around a losing game.

If you are on the receiving end of the abuse, don't rise to it, just ask for help because maybe the person yelling at you might calm down when they realise that you are just genuinely new and need pointers.  Calling each other "fucking noobs" all game doesn't help anything now, does it?

I've singled out this genre because it's pretty well known for having ragey arseholes but this goes for other team games too.  Chill out, it's not like that one loss on your record is going to ruin your life and maybe you'll help improve someones gameplay so they can score their own wins further down the line.

Steam Marketplace! Free Games (With some luck and patience)

I'm surprised this is something I was not made aware of sooner, because it's fucking awesome!

So, Steam have had this service for a while where you can buy and sell in-game items for real life dosh.  When I first saw this I laughed thinking it was a load of shit, and while I was half right after fucking around with it for an evening I ended up making £7.50 which is enough to buy a game off the store.

So how does it work?  Well the only games that are supported are Team Fortress 2 and DotA2, and even then you can't just sell all the shit in your steam inventory willy nilly, only certain things at the moment are marketable.  So I had a bunch of chests from DotA, and some items on TF2 and I put them up for like, 20p (or a penny for the DotA chests)

After waiting for what has now been about 24 hours, I know have enough money in my steam funds for a cheap game.  You know, if you ask me this idea is pretty fucking amazing.  Granted your selling stuff for basically nothing, like I said chests and crates go for about a penny, but if your big on DotA or TF2 and you make some sales, then do it long enough and you'll have enough for a free game.

Steam do take a percentage of the sale for themselves which I've seen some people complain about, but you are getting money for shit that you earned in game and didn't pay for, so really you have nothing to lose by selling all those crappy chests.

I don't know what I'm going to do with my spare pocket change, probably save it until I have about a tenner then buy something on the next sale, who knows?  Either way, it's a cool service and gives me that incentive to sink a couple more hours into DotA and TF2.

DotA 2

I have a new addiction, and it's called DotA2

This is a game I previously had very little experience with despite owning it for a long long time.  Although the whole thing seemed a bit impenetrable at first and because of that I ended up shelving it for a long long time.

Recently though, I decided to give it another spin with a few buddies.  After a few games of being absolutely destroyed and struggling to figure out whats what, things started to go a lot smoother.  Once you get round all the differences from something like, League of Legends, and you begin to get a feel for how to play, everything becomes a lot clearer. 

When you first fire it up you are SWAMPED with literally hundreds of things that you have to take in all at once.  Of course, not all of these things will sink in over the course of one game, so you will need to take a little while to find your feet.  That said, once you have found your feet DotA2 is a much more satisfying game to play than League.

I'm not saying League is bad with that, but League feels very bare bones.  One of the reasons I think it appeals to so many people is that you don't really have to learn all that much stuff before you can play it with some degree of proficiency.  With League you can switch your brain off and just make things die, which is fine for having fun with, but the depth found it DotA makes it a much more satisfying after a match is finished.

Right now it's still in beta and you need an invite to play it, but if you can get your hands on one, give it a go.  But whatever you do don't give up just because you get destroyed the first few times, it WILL happen, I promise it, but once you do master it a little bit you'll be playing one of the most fun games available at the moment.

Leauge of Legends Vs DotA2

When I'm spending my time lurking around gaming forums, a common topic I see being discussed is which game is better between League of Legends or DotA2.  So I'm going to throw my opinion into the pile, even though it's sort of like spitting in the ocean at this point.

So which game do I think is better?  Well the answer is neither because this whole argument is fucking stupid in the first place, they are two completely different games, offering completely different experiences made by completely different sets of people.  Yes, they are in the same genre so there are some things you can say about similarities in style and game play, but the differences are far too vast between the two titles.

Don't take the fact that I think this argument is stupid to mean I don't like either game.  I like them both and I play both, but I play them for different purposes.  League of Legends I play strictly for the fun times, dicking around with a small group of buddies and just generally having a good time occasionally doing stupid shit.  DotA on the other hand is my serious face game.  I still have fun with it but I feel more motivated to TRY and do well in DotA than I do in League.  That's not me saying League of Legends isn't a competitive game, I just personally don't want to treat it as such.

Now the reason this argument is so stupid is because it's so obvious that League of Legends is trying to attract a completely different kind of person to DotA that if you can't see that you need to be smacked over the head with a piece of wood.  League from day 1 has always been a game that's far more accessible to new players, it's a free game that simplified the game mechanics of beasts like DotA so that everybody could have fun with it.  That's not to say the game is dumbed down per se, but things have been tweaked in the favour of those who know nothing about this genre than the hardcore fans of the old Warcraft 3 mod.

DotA on the other hand is the kind of game you really need to study to be good at.  There is so much depth to this game, and things like buying items and dying carry so much more weight that it's really aimed at the kind of person who wants a deep, challenging game rather than a quick MOBA fix.

To simplify my point further, it's like the difference between chess and checkers.  Neither are bad games, but one blatantly requires more thought, effort and practise than the other to be good at. 

But what I also see a lot of is people from DotA bashing people who play League, and this is also really fucking stupid.  It's not like the DotA scene was particularly huge until recently, but the hardcore DotA fans would love nothing more than all the new League players to just fuck off.  This doesn't make any sense!  Yes, DotA is deeper and more involving, so HELP THEM understand it and get good at it, don't shun them straight off the bat, your community will never improve that way!

Both good games, if your a fan of the genre I'd recommend both!

Note: Comparing these games to RTS games is fucking stupid, don't do it.  Also RTS players need to generally shut up about League and DotA players, because it's not impossible to be good at both genres for fucks sake.