4Game

THE START

I got into dota because of friends but tbh the community is too toxic. I enjoy it in a different way than league, which was nice… Decisions matter less since games are so long, vs in league u have to play basically perfectly cus 1 mistake snowballs into a huge lead. But dear lord. From start to end my experience has been horrible. Me saying I'm a new player doesn't even matter, people just say that I should know things anyways. I would do beter than most players on my team, have the highest damage in every category, best kda, and people would still group up just to blame me. Everyone felt like talking to a really mean brick wall. (I am by no means perfect btw, I bit back, but tbh usually my bites back are "ok well u didn't do the best either so please leave me alone.")

In fact, even my friends who got me into dota turned out to kind of be toxic as well. Rage quitting, raging at teammates very easily, giving me so much unsolicited advice (that I already knew, they just wanted someone to pick on/ blame things on) etc. That being said, I understand why, the toxicity is contagious because it's an unhappy environment.

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MY REALIZATIONS

This game just isn't good for my mental health and mute all doesn't work because this game needs communication. I love the graphics of this game (although some characters are very ugly still and I heard dota does not really treat y'all well on the visual update side. Paying for the Mirana skin?? That should've been free. League literally released a whole show, and 3 free skins with it. Also I did watch the dota show… loved it until season 2, where it is now a complete and utter confusing mess and they killed everyone's favorite character for what I would consider a very anticlimactic ending)

Also, as someone who just started ff14, I really can't excuse toxic behavior for games anymore. FF14 is sooo friendly (and I know the genre is different, but wow is on the same scale as Dota in toxicness, so it translates). Tbh, I think how toxic people are really represents the relationship with the players and the devs of the game. Usually if the devs communicate, the community is pretty nice. Also if the devs encourage good behavior people are nice. There's nothing special about ff14 other than that they made being nice their community thing and the devs communicate even on the smallest issues, so everyone who plays the game just kind of adapts that sort of healthy communication.

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SHORT PSA

Dota is kind of like an abusive relationship tbh. Meanwhile ff14 is a healthy one. Once you experience a healthy one you just break the cycle and know your worth and stop putting up with less. If you ever leave dota with strong and heavy negative emotions, stop playing, genuinely. I feel as if it makes a lot of people feel this way but they come back. Which is another reason why everyone is so toxic. That is a sign of video game addiction and an unhealthy relationship with video games. It can add up to effecting very important things in your real life. Regardless of if it's a game or not, the emotions are real and very draining. So let this be a sign if u need it.

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THE CONCLUSION

Quitting the game and going back to league for any moba urges and ff14. League's community sucks too, but there are less tools to grief and solo carrying is way easier. I'm honestly happy playing league most of the time despite it's reputation because there's more tools for me to manage the toxicity. Also mute all works way better (PS the mute all button is literally broke in dota, it doesn't do anything for me, no one gets muted).

Lmk if u empathize.

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P.S.

If u came here to be defensive over the game just cus I don't like it, I want to say ur allowed to like the game even though I don't. There's really nothing to defend. You can fact check me on something, but tbh, most of what I said was my feelings, not facts about the game. If you came here to debate my feelings… well just don't, u shouldn't do that with people lol. U should accept their feelings. No game is objectively bad and if u have a healthy relationship with dota I am happy for u and ur circumstances.

Edit: I feel like my point about the community is being proven by the fact that I’m getting emails for toxic messages deleted on this post by mods (I assume mods are deleting them anyways.) I was pretty neutral and non aggressive in this post I felt like but maybe I’m wrong? I commend the mods.