Wulfstan's begginings. How I actually got to play DoTA/DOTA 2

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone! By now you probably all know me, but just in case this makes it ouside the boundaries of this community, my name is Wulfstan, and I'm proud to call myself a member of the DotaFIRE community.


Why am I writing this? I see so many people feeling discouraged when they first play this game, so I'd like to share some insight on my point of view on this. Starting out is really hard for everyone. DoTA/DOTA 2 has a really high learning curve. You can't even think how hard it was for me to learn on how to play this game at a decent level. There's still so many things to learn, because Valve/Icefrog kind of keep the game fresh with all the balance patches and the new heroes added to the game.

CHAPTER II : DOTA'S BEGGININGS

So, without further due, let's go on with it. Back in the old days, we had no DOTA 2. DoTA was not a standalone game. It was a mod/map in WC3(Warcraft III). It is based off of Aeon of Strife, an old SC (Starcraft) map that revolved around defending a point against waves of endless enemies. One of the creators of DoTA (yes, it wasn't always under Icefrog's tutelage), picked up the game and made it into what it is, basically creating this new genre, ARTS/MOBA (Action Real Time Strategy/Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, whatever you enjoy calling it).


The most popular version of DoTA was AllStars, made by Eul. Guinsoo turned the map into a 5 vs 5 battleground with the most beloved/balanced heroes from all the DoTA versions. However, the map itself and the heroes, were not exactly balanced. Let's just say, there were a lot of fun concepts that had to be removed or completly revamped (Gambler, Void Demon, Astral Trekker, good ol' Stealth Assassin, Silencer, Morphling)


The game mode/map went through the hands of multiple developers since Guinsoo, most notably Syllable, who's homage in the game is Lone Druid (ever wondered why he's called Sylla? Syllabear makes for quite a good pun, doesn't it?). Then, after a long while, it got into the hands of Icefrog, who made a really good job at balancing out the game. It turned into almost perfect balance, this is why we still have patch notes and balance changes. Keeping it real, keeping it fresh.

CHAPTER III : HOW I FOUND OUT ABOUT THE EXISTANCE OF THE GAME

I was not the most fortunate kid. Didn't have a really good PC up until the age of 13, even Warcraft III was having framerate issues on my old Pentium III CPU. However, I have great friends. One of them is SparkZoneXXX, (not going to disclose real names, because I don't have the approval). We are both into computer games. I remember ourselves playing good ol' Diablo II over at his place, just wreking faces with Bowmazon and Hammerdin. This is beyond the point though.


We both were HUGE Warcraft fans. Both played all the three RTS Warcraft games (Orcs and Humans, Beyond the Dark Portal, Frozen Throne). We didn't get into WoW that much though, even though we enjoyed the lore. So the next step would be obviously, looking for more stuff to do in Warcraft III. So we stumbled upon a gold mine: Custom Games! The amount of things you could have done with that were limitless, even this day, Warcraft III custom games don't cease to amaze me.


One day, I went to his house and noticed he was playing a new custom map. It seemed like some sort of an arena I thought to myself. He told me it's called DoTA. So I sat there and watched him play through a couple of matches, trying to get into the groove. And I just got absolutely hooked just by watching. Naturally, I had a problem, since I couldn't really play it online due to the lack of Internet at my place back then. (couldn't get it at all because judiciary problems, basically, we didn't really own the house we lived in), so I asked if he could check for an AI version of it.


So he did, and I got it. I played the AI version for 2 years straight everyday at least a couple of matches. And I still was amazed at how different the outcome of a game can be, based on the picks, the item pick-ups, the lanes. I was really eager every time a new AI version would come out. The most excited I got was when 6.68 came out, with 4 new heroes (never had so many at once : Shadow Demon, Disruptor, Io and Gyrocopter).


The first hero I picked in AI, still remember it. It was Huskar. I had(and still have) a real high affinity for trolls in the Warcraft universe. They are funny, savage, valiant, and inspiring. Now mind you, Old Huskar wasn't close to the new one at all. inner vitality was worse (no extra heal when your HP is low), burning spears didn't deal that much damage, Berserker's Blood used to give attack speed and damage, and Life Break took down 50% of the enemy's HP but without any leap, or gap closer (so Blink Dagger was pretty much core on him).


Later, I finally got an ISP that didn't require you to present the house's contract (or a copy of it) when you'd sign for it. So, I started playing online. My first game was a complete blast! I was actually playing Slark, back when he was totally trash (there was a time when Slark bad? Damn, nobody expected that). And when I won my first game, I felt a really high sense of accomplishment.


Next, I ventured into playing some different game modes. The second game mode beside AP (All Pick) that I tried was AR (All Random). And suddenly, tragedy struck. I got a hero that I have never played before in 2 years since I was playing that damned AI map! And I still remember it, Bloodseeker. Ugh, I said to myself, time to improvize! Now mind you, back then we had no elaborate shop system, there were multiple vendors and you had to remember the recepe's by heart until later versions when they actually added the components of the item onto the recepe itself.


I fed miserably, and was called every single bad word I could have imagined at that point. Felt demoralised, felt bad, felt dissapointment. That was the first time I got raged at through the Internet. And it didn't feel good. But I didn't take it too hard. In fact, that is what motivated me. That is what made me believe. That is what made me persevere in the game. And that taught me a real hard lesson (at least in theory, sometimes I still need to get it off): Don't be a jerk towards the others. I guess saltyness is OK, but don't be a genuine jerk.


I played a couple of games until I met Gore. He was a really cool guy, and he used to play for neXt.Please! Romania (or whatever you used to spell it). They were a top tier team in Europe, battling MYM for the throne back in the golden days of DoTA. He kindly taught me a lot of stuff about the game, and the game's mechanics.


And the rest of it, well, this isn't really the end you expected, did you? Don't worry, there's plenty more to go around. I'll probably continue it in a later blog post. For now, this is all you get.