Description:

Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena video game. It is played in discrete matches involving two teams of five players, each of which occupies the opposite corner of the map. Each of the bases called the “Ancient”, which the opposite team must destroy to win the match. Each player controls a “Hero” character and focuses on leveling up, collecting gold, acquiring items and fighting against the other team to achieve victory.

Game website: http://blog.dota2.com/?l=english

Analysis of my gameplay:

Observing my friend playing:

What I have learnt from the process:

Lens of emotions and Elemental tetrad – story

My friend and I were going with the flow of the game i.e. following the team around. Perhaps we are not so aggressive in nature; hence there are similarities in the way we play.

I realised that the elemental tetrad – story can be created by the players themselves. The game designers create the elements of potential conflicts while the players will able to create the experience through those conflicts. It is a refreshing idea. Emotions are created based on how the players play the game. For instance, if it is a friendly match, the teammates would be forgiving and will purely enjoy the process, not the result. By allowing players to have the freedom to decide what they want to do with their heroes, it gives lots of variety of attack technique such as sneak attack or gang attack. This allows different game experiences every time they play.

Elemental tetrad – mechanics and Lens of skills

My friend is more skilful than me, however he is more defensive. One thing I notice is that the personality of the players plays a part in how the game wins. Somehow, the personality of my friend connects with the hero in the game, which might be the reason why he loves this hero so much. Also, the game finds and matches the team’s skill level so that it will not be unbalance. Once you know how to play a hero well, you will enjoy the game better and better. Sometimes you will find interesting techniques to kill using your items and skills. That makes you want to play more to try out.

Unification theme and Elemental tetrad – aesthetics

This game is more of heroes in 2 different teams fighting to defeat each other’s base which is the Ancient. The overall aesthetics match the strange creatures (heroes) and it emphasise on how surreal the game environment is. This gives off a sense of uniqueness or fantasy-like environment. I am more into the aesthetics so for instance every time I see a cute courier, I will be very tempted to buy. I love the music especially when into gang fights. The music that is played makes me more engrossed and makes the fights more epics. My friend on the other hand, is not really into the aesthetics. However, if he is wandering around the jungle, he will sometimes imitate after what the hero said.

Technology

My friend and I have experienced this latency of the network connection. Especially in team fights, the game screen will sometimes hang and the next time you know, your hero died. You do not even know what kills you. I hope that the game server will improve.

Lens of Endogenous Value

The game makes the struggle easy to understand, which is determined by your health, gold and your levels. Recently, it makes changes to the runes such that opponents will go to the runes to get gold. Even before the game “starts”, players will start to kill each other just to get it. I find that this is a good design as compared to the previous version as it allows the fun to begin even earlier. No more waiting till the creeps appeared.