What happened to casual dota

So back in the day (2005-2007), my university dorms had a big dota community, it was a good pre-drinking time and it was about stomping pubs and having fun. I've just gotten back into dota in the last few months but holy **** the attitude of the game seems much different and the players seem a lot angrier. Wikipedia notes that dota is currently criticized for its hostile community, but that just not the dota I remember.

I'll use veno as an example, a team orientated ganking veno that sometimes progresses to a semi carry if the game is long enough, I know some may not agree, but it has always worked out very well for me especially if I have a working team. No one seemed angry for years. But now god forbid if you buy anything other than sentry and courier, or don't level your wards first, or farm in a lane, etc. Seriously if your not feeding, are successfully ganking, and winning the games, why is there so much flaming. I do not claim to be a pro, and totally up to learning new tricks (the game itself has changed a bit) but why can't you eye up your team and opponent and deviate your strategy a little anymore?

So something changed in the player base-
1. Do the pubs now mimic professional play, is the fun experimental stage is gone? Some famous guy in Khazakstan once played veno in a certain way so that is THE way he is played?
2. The ranking system
3. The entire generation has changed (i don't play other games, so i wouldn't know)

Sorry about the rant, but as someone who has recently come back from an 8 year dota absence this is something I definitely notice. On the plus side I see a lot less leavers now and a lot larger variety of heroes being played.

I don't know.
For some reason, I've been able dodge the 'hateful community' myself. Over my hundreds of hours, I've only met about 3 dshbags.
But recently, I've met a guy at my school who plays pro dota. He's more willing to blame others and less inclined to consider non-meta builds.
Maybe it just has to do with the fact that Dota2 isn't a fun mod anymore, but rather a highly competitive game with 13mil+ prize pools.

Lordusan, out of the 10 posts you have, 5 are from here alone... Please delete the extra posts when you see them.

Geezer, you are correct, if you stray from the common builds, especially as a support, you will get flamed comsistently in pubs. Unless you are playing in a team, i suggest to just go for the accepted build unless you do not care about getting flamed and reported.

-Trying Axe
Ooooh look so many casters, let's try a hood of defiance.
-Team gets r3kt by Lina+ES+Invoker wombo combo except me.
Guys look axe no vanguard n00b report report

ggwp hello low prio

im going to help you out here dude.

obviously you were playing dota 1 if its 8 years since u played then i can understand that it feels different. I used to run a carry leshrac in dota one and now all of a sudden hes making a comeback in the 1 position and im like "I TOLD YOU GUYS" but eh not what im going to explain. ive been playing since dota one and yea ... everything is changed.

1.Pubs always mimic pros, its part of the cycle. look at soccer you wear your teams jerseys play in boots by top players and everyone has a team. dota is surprisingly similar but the feeling in dota is that your closer to the pros then any other game, which means people playing like there pros is more and more common. Now the thing is... ganking veno doesnt really work atm, sure you can pull it off against the right team but the reason people get annoyed is that your doing something that doesnt utilise your hero to its max potential, support veno is a much better way of playing him at all levels and all stages. going core veno just doesnt cut it. with the nerfs to his damage and skills he is much more viable as a pusher lane support since the only thing not nerfed is his wards.

2.ranking is complained about everywhere nothing new here. i complained like everyone else until i calibrated my smurf haha. get used to it. also dont do ranked until your ready.

3.the entire generation has and has not changed think about it this way .... Dota has changed while you have not. its fun though ... you get to relearn dota all over again :D

Thats sort of what I'm talking about, even if I'm the best score on my team, and we win, but lost that one team fight where I accidentally messed up and laguna bladed a creep.

2007: Both teams chuckle in amusement and comment on how the creep had it coming.

2015: Your teams 4 carries flame uncontrollably for 5 minutes that you are a noob and that one mistake cost the entire team fight. OH AND BTW WHY DIDNT YOU BUY EULS REPORT

Yes I know ganking veno is not the ideal for the majority of the time, but its the reaction that I'm amazed about, its the change in reaction from the players. Even if I'm doing pretty good.

Yeah, the introduction of ranked matchmaking and massive tryharding turned people into *******s.

Not everybody is this way though, I've Doomed my fair share of creeps or similar and I think it was a laugh when I said "**** that creep" in all chat :)

For Venomancer, people have simply realized that he's best played as a nuker than as a right-clicker. Do the math yourself... Blink Dagger + Aghanim's Scepter + Veil of Discord is just better on him than Shadow Blade + Butterfly/ Manta Style/whatever.

true, people take it seriously now in solo queing mostly cause solo que=im the best ever

i find people who solo que have poor or very little self awareness or manners, thats why they are solo queuing and have no friends. i hardly ever solo que since im always in a 5 stack. everything is more fun in a 5 stack.

Maybe because you think differently? 8 years ago you enjoyed doing crazy thing and have fun with kids who are about the same age with you. When you grew up you find it stupid and couldn't enjoy anymore because you have mentally matured.

As for veno, ganker viper is very bad atm, spam ward is the beat way to go.

@Smuggels
Not really, in pinoyland here people tend to flame more in party than solo. Usually there will be 3-4 people party flaming a person until the end of the game if the one was not in their party and done a mistake. When a pinoy solo q, they will be very quiet usually.

idk. but yeah the community is really hostile. just play with your friends.