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Call me crazy, but I think I've worked out why non-English speakers and teams in my random queue get on my nerves. No, it's not my ingrained Canadian xenophobia... Okay, not just that.
I think it's because a lot of the time, Dota doesn't feel like Radiant versus Dire (or Pudge team versus non-Pudge team.) A lot of the time it seems like a competition within your own team about who takes the credit or blame. Language barriers and in-group, out-group thinking seem to trump the actual team a lot of the time. Actually, it's mainly when things are going badly, but some folks will go out of the way to kick their teammates around in any circumstances.
And that's silly, right? Because we're all a pool of players of the same game, trying to learn as shuffle back and forth in random groups and we should have a certain feeling of commonality. Like brothers in arms. Or people stuck in traffic.
I'll admit, I'm not exactly seeing a representative sample of the community. I stay away from ranked most days and I've only been playing since December (when people seemed in a much better mood for some reason.) That's why I'm asking y'all.
In Dota 2, is the affinity between language groups, nationalities, playstyles, friends, favorite breakfast cereals, and other vital forms of identity politics more important than the game at hand? Or does being the lone X Language Speaker / Non-Group Queue Person / Carry Who Had To Buy Wards Cause No One Buys Wards just happen to correlate with being a terrible Dota-Player?
I know we're not changing how matchmaking gets organized or whatever. But I'm still curious if that team feeling isn't more about who you are than it is about being on the same team for thirty minutes (Or seventy if you're in one of those games where the carries deliberately prolong things to farm each other to death.)
TL;DR
What actually makes for team spirit and cooperation, besides being five friends who queue up together?
I think it's because a lot of the time, Dota doesn't feel like Radiant versus Dire (or Pudge team versus non-Pudge team.) A lot of the time it seems like a competition within your own team about who takes the credit or blame. Language barriers and in-group, out-group thinking seem to trump the actual team a lot of the time. Actually, it's mainly when things are going badly, but some folks will go out of the way to kick their teammates around in any circumstances.
And that's silly, right? Because we're all a pool of players of the same game, trying to learn as shuffle back and forth in random groups and we should have a certain feeling of commonality. Like brothers in arms. Or people stuck in traffic.
I'll admit, I'm not exactly seeing a representative sample of the community. I stay away from ranked most days and I've only been playing since December (when people seemed in a much better mood for some reason.) That's why I'm asking y'all.
In Dota 2, is the affinity between language groups, nationalities, playstyles, friends, favorite breakfast cereals, and other vital forms of identity politics more important than the game at hand? Or does being the lone X Language Speaker / Non-Group Queue Person / Carry Who Had To Buy Wards Cause No One Buys Wards just happen to correlate with being a terrible Dota-Player?
I know we're not changing how matchmaking gets organized or whatever. But I'm still curious if that team feeling isn't more about who you are than it is about being on the same team for thirty minutes (Or seventy if you're in one of those games where the carries deliberately prolong things to farm each other to death.)
TL;DR
What actually makes for team spirit and cooperation, besides being five friends who queue up together?
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