4Game

Throughout the years i've written/read multiple comments on different topics, and what i found fascinating is how little response serious comments get, i mean, i see people farm karma with memes all day long, but serious topics or comments might not get attention or even get downvoted. You can say it's just an observation of one person, but how many times legit suggestion were downvoted first and then came back years later. And what's the new game suggestion we're discussing right now as community? – idk, everything from 10v10 to Overthrow to seasonal events were passed down from Valve, the only thing that's been brought by community is Dota Chess(nice name btw, not every board game is chess, but chess players are smart, so dota players must be too) – we're not talking about dota at all, complaining – yeah, there's always a thing that must be fixed, but improving – no.

So what are we talking about? Community news(from dota players twitter beefs to your favorite caster memes) – YOU MUST NOT FEEL ALONE, e-sports news – fans/gamblers high and entertainment(memes/art/cosplay) – just fill your brain. That's it! We don't discuss new patches, we don't suggest landscape changes, we don't build our own maps, we don't offer new mechanics, we don't suggest new NPCs. How cool would that be to have another Roshan like entity, instead of trading Side for Roshan, we'd have it three way – opponents might contest Roshan, take Side or another big NPC, they also might go greedy and take Side+NPC by splitting the team – yeah, it's dumb you might say, and it should be dumb, because i'm just a man, i have brain power of a MAN, not of 1.1m COMMUNITY. A person can't change anything, but community can.

Let's talk about our community then. First we got to recognize the fact that we're a gaming community, we're bound by the game and it's important do discuss what kind of game dota is and how it affects us. Dota isn't 100 hours Dead Space, it's not 500 hours Cyberpunk and it's not 3k hours MMORPG(if those are still alive), dota is "6k hours still a Legend and keep going" competitive game with one of the highest learning curves, some say you spend 1k hours only learning skills/mechanics. There's no story, there's no character development(only personal skill) and it is fair to say that we all passed the test of high learning curve to prove we're capable of climbing the mmr ladder. How many 8 hour marathons of winning/losing have you had in your gaming life, considering that many of you sitting on a same medal for >1k hours, i would say – a lot. And i don't mean it as if i hadn't done that myself, we all have done that. So we got to ask: "What are we doing?" – we're sitting on a gamblers high, we win – we get dopamine hits, we lose – we start another game searching for dopamine hits.

We're PLEASURE JUNKIES(myself included); no wonder p-stars are so popular(check Mia Khalifa/Arteezy tweet, skitter/Eva Elfie selfie). You go play games, you have 10 games lose streak, you feel depressed, you need that high, you go jerk-off – now those girls own you. Does your mother do p*rn? Your sister? Any woman around you? Do you want your girlfriend to be a p-star? – No, it's disgusting to the highest degree, but, hey, if we close our eyes for one second, you do it, i do it, masturbating is fun, so what's the big deal with a p-star being a celebrity in our community.

What happens after you Jerked off, now it's time to scroll some social network(low intensity info), maybe reddit, read some e-sports news, funny memes, fuck that long text bullshit, i need some rest before starting a new, this time definitely, win streak.

"Ooh, look, the new tournament is coming, i will be sitting on the edge, rooting for my team. But some games aren't as interesting to me, how can i intensify the pleasure? – Got it! I'll raise the stakes, i'll bet weekly salary on one team and the game would become much more interesting after that" – that's why betting companies are owning sports all around the world(people even bet points on streams).

Going back to the game, we've established that we don't play for the content, we play for the win, so how does Valve manage our interest? Short term – 50% win rate, you have to stay on the same place, unless you up your skill, then you stay in another, higher place; mid term – events; long term – cosmetics or any other investment in the game. And then when we got bored after a season, we poke Valve with a stick and say "do something", then comes another major, we root for our teams, try their strats in our pubs, wait for another event and then repeat. WE ARE NOT ENGAGED, WE'RE JUST CONSUMING. We don't discuss play styles, we explore them ourselves, we don't discuss counter picks we figure them out, we use Dotabuff and Overwolf to have one up over opponents.

There could have been written many books about dota, the same there are about chess: strats, tempo, landscape, game styles, counter picks, but nobody cares.
We are not a community of knowledge seeking individuals, we're community of PLEASURE JUNKIES.

I think these things can help with the situation:

1. Healthy gaming. Less hours, less intensity, if the guy screaming into the mic, he probably should take a rest, for his own mental state, not some throw into LP immediately labeling him mentally unstable.
2. Encourage players interactions with game itself. Easier game modding(that's how the game was even created, as a WC3 mod), encourage player involvement in patch development. Maybe dota+ should even teach Legends like me how to play dota and what mistakes i've made. Maybe differentiate entertainment and game parts of discussions.
3. Self control. The same that prn-addiction starts with NoFap, poor mental state of community should start with some self-restrictions. Shit, i don't even know how to help people differentiate reading one funny post, from 2 hour long meme watching, just recognize that we live in the era of pleasures, and be gud.