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What I Learned in 6000 Hours of Dota 2
I’m basically still a beginner.
Since 2013, I’ve spent close to 6,000 hours (250 days) playing Dota 2, hereafter referred to as just Dota. Like most addictions, it’s been filled with highs and lows. Over the years, it has made and ruined friend/relationships, cost sleep and money, caused and relieved stress, been a crutch in times of hopelessness, and taught me humility, dedication, teamwork, anger management, and more. I’ve quit the game many times and returned just as many.
In this article I answer the elusive questions:
a.) why play 6000 hours of any game, let alone one as frustrating as Dota?
b.) what could you possibly learn it?
c.) why is Dota so addictive?
And more!
If your only familiarity with Dota is from the catchy Basshunter song, then let me break it down for you real quick.
What’s a Dota?
Dota is an online video game where two teams of 5 players battle against each other in a roughly 40 minute match to destroy the other team’s base AKA, their Ancient. Each player controls a hero, one of 100+ unique characters with spells and lore that a player can choose to play at the outset of a match.
Dota started as a Warcraft 3 mod, Defense of the Ancients (DotA), and grew so much in popularity that Valve Software hired the original creator of DotA, IceFrog, as well as a few other talented designers and developers to create a standalone sequel. However, since DotA was developed in the Warcraft 3 universe, Blizzard held intellectual property rights on the name Defense of the Ancients. Valve executive Erik Johnson argued that the name Dota referred to a concept, not an acronym, and Valve won a trial in May 2012 for the commercial trademark use of Dota. The result is the sequel we know and love today, Dota 2, or simply Dota.
