Dota 2: A New Player's Rite of Passage
"Welcome to Dota!" shouts the announcer, as the game map loads on to the screen. You are soon greeted with a scene consisting of five players, a shopkeeper of questionable effectiveness, and depending on which corner of the map your base is located, either an enormous cheery blossom tree (for the Radiant), or a fearsome pit of fire (for the Dire).
You notice that you do not have any equipment, so you click on the shopkeeper, hoping to purchase some as soon as possible. There are so many choices to choose from, most of them out of your initial price range too. You then quickly buy a few from the list of recommended items, a few twig like weapons, and green leaves that are supposed to heal you.
With your new gear you proceed on to a lane you feel most comfortable with, then you hear a teammate yell over the voice chat, "No! That is my lane! I called mid first, move!" Thus, you quickly leave the middle lane and head to the bottom most lane. Your bottom lane partner seems to be quite okay with you joining him; he even types "GLHF (Good Luck Have Fun!)" into the chat. All is well until he sees what you bought from the shop. "WTF! (What the F*ck), you bought the wrong things. Why would (insert Hero name) use that? You have to build more of (insert agility, intelligence, or strength)!" exclaims your partner. Frantically you respond with, "Sorry, I am a new player, first game with (insert Hero name)." However, your apologies are not accepted, and all of your teammates send to the all chat (chat that both teams can read), "GG (Good Game!) FF (Finish Fast) We have a noob (new and stupid player) here." The other team also replies, "Haha GG, will do!" You want to say that you have actually played LoL (League of Legends) in the past, so you are not that bad at this genre of games. But you do not, since LoL is looked down upon in this community.
As the game progresses, you quickly realize that your teammates are right about what items to build for your hero. You attempt to go for hero kills, but you do not understand which hero ability to use and also when to use them for highest effectiveness. More often than not, you die in the process despite your teammate peeling for you (drawing enemy attacks away from weaker teammates). As a result, your score quickly becomes, 0 Kills 5 Deaths 6 Assists, since you seem to be able to help damage during team fights. Amidst the confusion of how to stay alive and still help the team, you constantly hear the game announcer say, "Your top tower is under attack." "Your top tower has fallen." "Rampage!" A rampage is when a hero kills 5 enemy heroes in a row without dying. Your teammates have stopped complaining about you. They realized that you are just bad and need to practice more against a computer team.
As the game nears the end, you realize that you have improved your skills, but they are still poor compared to those of your teammates.
Finally, by some miracle, your team wins the game, and the other team sends in the all chat, "Wow GG, nice comeback, but (insert your hero name) is really bad though." Your teammates agree, "Yeah I can't tell if he is a feeder (person that intentionally dies to enemies to give them experience points and gold) or is just a bad player." In shame you just click close and return to the home screen.
You vow never to play the game again, but you know inside you that you still want to play. Perhaps you're your teammates' game advice is right.
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