5 lame excuses for not switching from WC3 DotA to Dota 2

Most Asian countries have already switched over from WC3 (Warcraft 3) DotA to Dota 2, but not the Philippines. The transition rate is slow and people here have a lot of reasons for not switching over. While I know and respect that there are legitimate reasons as to why not everyone in my country can switch, some of the excuses I’ve heard are just too silly to forget.

Here are the five worst excuses I’ve heard about why people won’t switch from WC3 DotA to Dota 2. I heard them all from when I ran a computer rental cafe in the Philippines the past couple of years.

1. There’s a win-loss record and profile levels

Even though the public can’t see your number of losses, the existence of said record is apparently a bad enough thing in itself. It supposedly gauges how good or bad you are and is therefore, I don’t know, invites people to make fun of you as a noob? Guess what, though. I tried comparing this to the Garena client, where people often play WC3 DotA online, only to find out that there are profile levels, too. There are even rooms over there limited to high level players.

2. You can’t just quit a game in Dota 2

Dota 2 pays attention to your game abandons, which you are penalized for by getting sent to the low priority bracket. Game queues in the low priority bracket are much longer to deter people from playing games they won’t be able to finish, or that they will quit from because it’s just not working out.

Of course, I’m happy about that part. Whether we are winning or losing, I dislike it when someone quits the game. Never mind that he was from the opposing team and that his quitting could spell a win for mine. It is the worst when the game has not even started and people quit because they don’t get mid, the hero they wanted or because they random select a hero they don’t want and no one wants to switch. Perhaps to satisfy the balance of nature, there are other people who don’t like the system because there is no point in playing a losing game or with people who don’t agree with you.

3. You need a Steam account and it is “complicated” to get one.

This happened when Steam gave away extra Dota 2 invites to existing players to share with friends. I received a lot of keys and happily shared them out. In that process, I came across three people who dropped the idea of playing Dota 2 because they had to make a Steam account (“Can’t I use my Facebook account?”).