The Dota team revealed how they will be making improvements to the game to make it more accessible to new players, according to a blog post from the Dota Team.
Here is the blog post in full on what changes will be made to overall improve the Dota 2 experience for new players:
“Some of the most satisfying moments in Dota are found in the first stages of learning the game, as you begin to see intricate strategies take shape in the battles around you. However, there have also been some issues that caused unnecessary challenges for new players in the past. With today’s update we’re introducing two features designed to help new players face as few barriers as possible to enjoying Dota.
The first feature is a change to the hero selection system. To help new players, we are now restricting hero selection to a curated group of twenty heroes for their first twenty-five games. This introductory group consists of heroes that we’ve learned are very successful in helping new players learn and enjoy the game.
Today’s update also introduces a feature that matches new players against players with consistently high behavior scores. It is especially important for a new player to have a good social experience while they are first trying to learn the game. The matchmaking system will now ensure that new players will play with and against appropriately-skilled players that also have a track record of good behavior.
The International is soon approaching, and we look forward to welcoming you to the Newcomer Stream!”
So, along with restricting the amount of heroes new Dota 2 players will be using for their first few rounds, they will also be matchmaking new players with others who are known to have good behavior to keep any possible conflict from arising.
On Metacritic, the game has a score of 90 from critics but a user score of 6.5, with either extremely positive comments or extremely negative comments.
One review from USgamer gave the game a full score of 100.
In their review, the USgamer reviewer said that Dota 2 is “a great PvP game that offers some of the most intriguing and nuanced team combat around.”
On the other hand, experienced MOBA players gave the game positive reviews while inexperienced MOBA players mentioned how unforgiving Dota 2 and its community was to brand new players.
“I started playing this coming from League of Legends since I wanted to try something new. I highly do not recommend this game unless you know what it is going into it, it is extremely unfriendly to new users and you will probably get flamed every game even bot games,” said Metacritic user ZeroGman, who gave Dota 2 a score of a three. “Overall: If you played Dota 1 and loved it, play Dota 2. If you have never played Dota or even LoL, try League of Legends first.”
For reference, Dota 2 has over 1,700 positive reviews, 115 mixed reviews, and over 1,600 negative reviews. This really proves how unforgiving the game may be for players who haven’t played any MOBA or even the previous Dota game.
Hopefully, as a result of the improvements, Dota 2‘s community will be able to appreciate newer players to the franchise. But, considering that Dota 2‘s community may be an “unfriendly” environment, changing the difficulty curve may anger more experienced players. I guess this is where the “good behavior” aspect comes in, but if new players are having problems entering the harsh community, shouldn’t the Dota Team work to make the community a more welcoming place?
These changes, though, may still be able to help to grow the Dota community to add newer players.
Featured image via Flickr/Sergey Galyonkin.
