Ian On The Red Dot

It has been said that we are living during a time when the generation, accumulation and dissemination of knowledge is happening at an unprecedented pace. The key to keeping up is the desire and ability to continue learning thus preventing ourselves from becoming irrelevant early in our lives.

I believe that Dota has the capacity to reveal who might have a greater chance of survival based on their willingness to learn.

Noob versus Newb

Both noobs and newbs are damn lousy in Dota. The main difference between these two class of players is their willingness to learn from more experience and better players.

Newbs are beginners and thus players shouldn’t fault a new player who feeds because they have to start learning somewhere. I understand that it can be frustrating to be stuck on a team with a joker who keeps asking how to make a guinsoo and keeps dying, but patience is a virtue (and the greater the challenge, the greater the Glory - tonight we dine in hell!). I think the only times one can fault a newb are:

1. When the game name says ‘Singapore -ap PROS‘ and the newb still joins the game. If the name does not put the word pros then it is open season for newbs to join. But if it does, then I think a bit of frustration and aggravation is justified.

2. When the newb doesn’t listen. For example if you tell the newb to back and he stills go and farm alone in the bottom lane after all the towers have been pushed, he is trying to promote himself to a noob.

Noobs are not always beginners. They can be people who have played the game for a damn long time. The two key characteristics of noobs are an unwillingness to bother to learn the game and the tendency to think they are damn bloody good thus negating the need to listen to anyone. Noobs display these two characteristics in varying degrees.

The worse kind of noobs are the kind that blame other people when they are obviously the weakest link. Sometimes you just want to reach through the computer screen and strangle the joker who ,after feeding 0-12, types in the main chat, ‘Sigh, my team damn noob.’

Stubbornness can be an asset at times especially when you have supreme confidence in your own intellect and abilities. But it takes wisdom to know when to defer to someone with greater knowledge and experience.

Friends tend to be more willing to listen to each other as opposed to a stranger in a public game and thus it can be argued the stranger is not really a noob but just that you haven’t earned his trust such that he should be listening to you or your friend might be actually a damn stubborn person but just because you guys are friends he listens.

However every friend has to start learning how to play at some time. It is at this starting point of their dota playing that is most telling for the newb/noob characteristics. When new heroes come out is another good time to observe these characteristics. Also, even though you might not be friends with the other players, it is easily identifiable in a Dota game who should be worth listening to so the strangers in a public game doesn’t always cut it.

The Teachers

Regarding this aspect of the character of dota players, how more experienced and better players deal with noobs/newbs reveals who are the ones who can make good teachers.

There are those who just write off anyone who doesn’t know how to play as a noob and do not bother to teach. Some hosts would even go as far as to kick the player. There are others who would try to teach the player and based on the reaction of that player decide whether to continue making an effort to help teach or ignore the player.

Finally

When I first learned how to play the game, I was really lousy.  It was only when I met the founding members of my clan that I got better.  They taught me how to play the game better and because of it I continued to play the game.  If I had not met those two guys, I would have probably stopped playing Dota.  This is an important point that I will elaborate in my last post of the series.