DOTA matches are too long for my lifestyle...any advice?

[Corky]

I really loved the original DOTA and tried DOTA 2 a few months ago. The biggest problem I have is committing to a 40+ minute match when I have RL responsiblities (hanging with the wife, making dinner, etc).

I've turned to SMITE to get my MOBA fix because it has Arena matches (which are only about 15-20 mins long), simplified play (no last hitting, jungling), etc. I also don't need to use a headset to play with people because of the keyboard commands.

Can anyone "talk me into" playing DOTA 2? I'm downloading it now because I want to give it another shot...but I'm really not confident I'll continue playing it over the long-term.

EDIT: If anyone has any tips that could get me up to speed real quick on the game (hotkey settings for store purchasing, etc) I would appreciate it. Another tough thing about MOBA's is the learning curves and I'd like to get up to speed as quickly as possible to stay motivated to stick with the game.

[Yaya]

Well, it is a quite committing game. You should not consider playing it again with the idea of leaving in the middle of a game. It ruins it for 9 other players, and you'll get put in low priority mod.

Hence man, either organize your life so that you can take a full hour freetime once and so (there are legions of married players here), or just enjoy even more what deprived you from DotA.

[Sminky]

Proper dota 2 at any level is at best 25 mins worst 80 mins. But nearly all of your games will be between the 34-50 min mark. Not much an induvidual can do about that (apart from diliberatly feed). I agree. i'm 'older' as well and it's hard to find the time. But any way there is around it (diretide mode, bot games) you might as well play another game.

[Mexicutioner]

Have it installed and ready to play for when you have an hour or more of free time. Otherwise play smite if you have too many interuptions.

[ᵗᵗᵛpudnpop]

the game won't change for your personal lifestyle. Take no offense, but if you dont have the time to commit to a match, don't waste your time and other's.

[Corky]

Mexicutioner původně napsal:

Have it installed and ready to play for when you have an hour or more of free time. Otherwise play smite if you have too many interuptions.

Yeah, I'm pretty much doing this at the moment...but I'll probably sub-in something other than SMITE if I do stick with DOTA 2 (don't want to confuse my muscle memory too much).

Thanks for the feedback all.

[CryHavoc&LetSlipTheCreepsOfWar]

You could play with a group of people with in the same situation (don't know if they will be able to play an hour long match) and who don't care if you leave. If you don't care about the abandon penalty either then it's an option.

Otherwise there are bot games, though with bots versus bots. The Co-op bot mode with another 4 human players against a team of 5 bots can still get you an abandon if you leave, and you'll piss off the other 4 people on your team.

Every now and then there are special event modes, like during holidays. The Diretide during Halloween and the Greeviling during Christmas, which are over way quicker, usually lasting around 20 minutes tops. You could keep checking to see when these temporary modes happen if you really want to play this game in a casual mode but with less time to spare.

They're also going to eventually add an Easy Mode, where deeper layer mechanics such as last hitting and denying creeps won't be necessary, it's highly probable that such games will last less than an ordinary game.

[Secret Asshole]

If a game is too long for "your lifestyle" then maybe you shouldn't play it.

[Corky]

What's Diretide?

I would love if they came out with an easier "Arena" mode of sorts like SMITE has.