Ian On The Red Dot

Yesterday, I wrote the first post in a series about how Dota might be able to reveal certain things about your friends. Today I will continue with another aspect of your friends’ characters that can be revealed through Dota.

Investing: Buying Small, Current Advantage, Gaining Momentum

In the early stages of learning the game, Dota players fall into two broad categories when it comes to buying items. The first kind of player would invest the initial gold into buying items like branches, flask, clarity potions, tangoes, null talismans, wraith brands and bracers. These are low cost items which help a player stay longer in a lane during the initial part of a game before returning to the fountain to heal so that more xp can be earned and gold farmed.

The second type of players is the kind that either does not buy any of the above items or buys those that can be upgraded to level 2 and above items. For example, such a player would buy a sobi mask because it can be used to make a basilius and eventually a vladmir’s offering.

Now buying a sobi mask by itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing although it has been argued that in early stages stats is more important than mana regeneration and actually it seems that one time boost in mana with clarity potions is also better than the regeneration sobi mask gives for the early stages). What is a bad thing or rather questionable is the logic behind buying a sobi mask.

A common reason is that buying a sobi mask is useful because it can be used later on as part of the higher level items. In other words, the sobi mask is not expendable (like potions and flasks) and need not be sold away (like bracers, bands and talismans) in the later stages of the game. Now this is where two different views about investing can be seen.

A disclaimer needs to be said here. If the player is a noob/newb, then even the initial advantage in the right choice of items might not make a difference to farming and the gaining of experience.

The former type of player understands the concept of incremental investment and how it helps build an early advantage. They understand that although the items like bracers, bands and talismans will have to be sold away later on at half the cost of buying them, the initial advantage these items accord to the player will allow them to farm better and gain more experience than the opponents. This advantage allows the possibility to gain the kind of momentum in the game which allows the player to totally outfarm the enemy and pawn them.

The latter type of player will be the kind that possibly sweats the small stuff in life. The kind that does not do anything where it seems like a loss would be suffered. For example, they might not be willing to take an initial pay cut just to shift to another job which might have better long term prospects or to a working environment that might make them happier.

The former is the kind that sees the bigger picture, the kind that understands that every small step counts and deliberately chooses the small steps that help lead to the goal even though the small steps might not seem to lead directly to the goal or at times seem to exact a high cost. For example, sobi mask directly leads to oblivion staff. Investing in stats allows you to farm better which leads possibly to the oblivion staff quicker.

As players get more experienced in the game, it is likely by the mechanism of imitation, they will start adopting the purchasing strategies of the better players although the better players would still be the ones who actually know which items are best for which heroes. In this case, noticing this about your friends will probably only be possible during the initial stages of learning how to play the game.

Investing: Always waiting for that one Big Score

As players become more experienced, it is the following kind of player that is seen: the player that saves for that mega item. For example, while being owned, there are instances when I hear a few teammates say, “Wait till I get my ‘Sacred Relic’ then they GG”.

And I am thinking, we might gg before you can get the relic. There are times when it is necessary to save the gold until it is enough to buy the more expensive items like that ‘demon edge’ (which costs 2600) but there are times when it is necessary to take the 1200 you have to buy the broadsword first, then the 1150 you have to buy the ‘blades of attack’ and recipe to make crystalys.

The two different type of players are those that know when there is time to save and hold out buying anything until the big item (subsequently buying the smaller items to make the level 3 item) and those that always just keep saving to get the big item first thinking that the big item is some magic cure not realizing that sometimes the small things are necessary first to allow the team to keep any foothold in the game.

I’m not sure how accurately this might reflect in real life, but it could be possible that the latter are the kind that always go -

‘My life will get better if I find that dream job’ instead of doing their best at the current job while looking for the next one.

‘Once I start earning $4000 then I will start saving more and learn to invest my money better’ instead of starting on saving and small investment plans first and slowing build up the savings and investment portfolio.

‘I just need this one time mega funding for my project’ instead of working on the idea or preparing for the execution of the idea without any funding such that when funding does come they are equipped to seize the opportunity.

‘Sigh, I couldn’t go to overseas university, now stuck in sucky NUS’ instead of making the best of their NUS days, seizing all the possible opportunities and striving to do a masters in an overseas university.

The former might be the kind that goes to NUS, aims to do well, apply for exchanges and slowly work to that final goal of being able to study or work overseas one day.

Finally

As I mentioned in the first post, Dota would most likely not be an accurate predictor of people’s characters. But during different phases of the learning curve for the game and different circumstances while playing the game (i.e. losing instead of owning) it is possible that Dota might reveal a bit about your friends’ characters.