Dota has lived on for the past two decades, and now the second dota celebrates its 10th anniversary. Some franchises that continue to succeed for years will have memorable moments to offer to their players, but the shadows of what’s going on in the future are very dark.
One school teacher, going a name like “TypicalBalkanAsshole” on Reddit recently looked back at their experience with Dota 2, ranging from their own time with the game to their ability to reflect the changing competitive gaming landscape by their students.
The user talked about how they went to a local LAN cafe for play together offline in 2003 because there was no wifi available for them. They began to fight against the Counter-Strike vs. the Allota released and changed everything.
These LAN cafés changed into something new. The players waited for someone to tell their needs for another player. Players would play together for hours in a scenario where no one knew the shit. Dota became a culture where players rumbled all night and shouted away from each other. And when we all sang games, the day was a long way forward.
The sweetest thing was that there was no cry on intentional feeding, the TypicalBalkanAsshole wrote. You would just get slapped so your headphones fell off your head and you learned the lesson. We want to play well and try hard. The culture didn’t change very much.
From LAN-Cafés to major esports, Dota did it all. Image from Valve!
By going back to his first birthday, the Reddit user reminisced about Puppey, Dendi, and the legends of the game as Dota developed, as well as the last kiss they kissed together with their girlfriend as they began to learn about playing at that time. Afterwards, he continued to reminisce about their past with the beta key and then reprogramming Dota 2 for the first time in 2011.
The debates of past love and triumph end but the haunting truth of where Dota and other competitive games could be headed begins.
The Reddit user and several colleagues have looked at data and think new blood won’t flood the scene like it was in those games in the past 15 years, some of which is backed by other studies on the market dominance of mobile gaming.
Such a thread of memories tipped a lot of fans around the world: current and former legends like Alliances Loda, who simply commended the poster for their clear love of Dota and the strongly connected community.
The most memorable memories of the glory days were shared among us. However, the fact remains that LAN cafes are less popular in countries where they were a gaming cultural hub and in regions like Southeast Asia have faded apart.
We’ve only stayed for each other, wrote TypicalBalkanAsshole. When you tell your teammate to kill himself or to uninstall, remember that there is no one who could replace him. One day you hit the select match button, but a accept match will never go up. Remind your friends and the opponents of respect and gratitude because he is actually a brother you have shared a hobby. One day this will be a memory. It’s not time for this day, but it’s not necessary, isn’t it?
I’m one of those players who left the queue long ago, only picked up Dota in the last few years to play fun pubs or check out the actual updates and the fight pass around The International. But, no matter how much time I spend tutning down the keys, my love for the game that I’m always doing the day.
Aegis of Champions is still alive, the competitive scene is never missing exciting stories to follow; at the same time seeing someone rise the Alliance of Champions raises our mind.
And none of that doom and gloom talk means that Dota or any of those other games are actually dying, rather the culture and the way people use them are changing. In fact, Dota 2 had some pretty good gameplay, and CS:GO soon got a sequel.
Dota 2 has just celebrated its 10th anniversary and Valve has changed its direction to a new development timeline that will see the game getting a variety of large updates and bundles each year – while the team’s tries to achieve the goal of the other players in the future.
As many people as I mentioned before, the only way to make the game alive is to run the road and get up the game. In words of the Reddit user Glitter_puke, only thing to do about it is get up in order. The future will happen at its own pace, but now I must hear people scream over my sexual escapades my mom has gotten up to in a language I rarely speak while I go hitting a creep. I’ve been playing this game for 17 years and no plans to stop it.
