October of 2021 was a month I was looking forward a lot, and it turned out it was even busier than expected (in a few ways better and other worse).
As a result, while I had planned to have 2 short stories written, I only did one (the second one is close to completed, but not quite). Also, since one of the topics I’m writing about this past October relates to a Valve game, it’s only fair that I use their tactic and say that this blog post was published on October 33rd.
Just like last month, you can see the list of topics I’m going to talk about here. Keep scrolling or click on the links:
The International Dota 2 Championships 10 (TI10)
The long awaited and postponed from August 2020 to October 2021 due to COVID-19. With the biggest prize pool in eSports history, even gamers who don’t play Dota or in some cases people who don’t even play games at all, were bound to hear about it – I’ve done a 30 second review of Dota 2 here. For comparison, Squid Game had a prize pool of about $38 Million, while TI10 had about $40 Million (and nobody had to die).
This is the 10th consecutive International, which makes it clear that Dota 2 is here to stay. Even some professional players didn’t believe it was going to last this long. Especially considering that with Dota 1 predating it, and other competitors springing up (like League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Heroes of Newerth, etc…).
This event in particular brings together people from all over the world in cheering for their favorite teams. Granted, it doesn’t have nearly as massive as an audience as regular sports do, but with peak views on Twitch alone surpassing 1 million people, it’s still nothing to scoff at. Furthermore, it is a game that is extremely well balanced. There were only a handful of heroes that were not contested by any team.
Since Valve almost never does any type of advertising for this wonderful game, it’s basically up to the community to keep it alive and going. And given the fact that I love both watching some of the tournaments, as well as playing it, I personally definitely want it to keep existing. Team Spirit, это гг.
Alright, that’s the awesome stuff. Now onto the shit. Micro-transactions and gambling. In short: fuck’em.
This is something that doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough (unless you follow Jim Stephanie Sterling that is – highly encourage you to check them out!!). At first I thought that there was nothing wrong with it. At the end of the day, the whole game is for free, and you just have to pay for extra stuff, the fancy cosmetics that don’t impact the gameplay. In fact, as you might have surmised from the opening, I actually supported this kind of monetization. I know servers cost money to run and so I was more than happy to support the devs by chipping into the biggest prize pool in history of eSports.
No big deal right?
It actually is though. And then also Valve got greedier. Started locking the better rewards at higher levels. Made them only temporarily available, or, purchasable. Creating the “fear of missing out” effect so that people are compelled to get that shiny new hat. Locked them as ultra rare rewards in gambling chests.
And even then, for most people that is not a big issue. For most neuro-typical people (aka, your average person), our logical part of the brain decides when it’s enough and when to call it quits.
But then you have the infamous “whales”. The small percentage of the community that spends thousands of $ (or whichever currency) in pursuit of instant gratification. The people who are addicted to gambling, or are in one way or another taken advantage of. There is no protection for them. They don’t appear in the glory and the limelight, but they are there.
Every single game, whether it is pay to win, or just pay for cosmetics, doesn’t matter. At the end of it all, it leads to some very vulnerable individuals getting exploited and literally bled dry.
Does this mean that I’ll stop supporting Dota 2? Of course not. There’s no better MOBA alternative as far as I’m aware of – just look at League of Legends where you have to pay for skins AND for unlocking champions. Not to mention there are much worse game companies out there (EA with gambling for kids, Ubisoft with sexual predators, etc. etc …).
That said however, just because something is better than, it still does not make it good. And after the euphoria of the grand competition subsides, we do have to acknowledge the ugly truth that made it possible in the first place.
New Reviews
Not a lot to add here, just trying to keep up with stuff as I watch / play, or, as I remember. This month, I reviewed the following with the 30 second review format:
Core Crisis (short story)
Second to last story from my old blog (the very last one is what I’m currently writing), now part of the Space, Time, and the People in Between. It’s one that I quite enjoyed the idea and didn’t want or need to change a whole lot, except, as I was reading the original, I found it too cheesy. There were also some other changes that I made along the way, but I do think that in this case, the rewrite contains the spirit of the original.
I have also moved the location. At the time I was thinking about a secret underground facility, somewhere in the middle of nowhere and that was Siberia. But upon rethinking it, I decided it could have easily played out as a secret / forgotten base of ex Yugoslavia. Why not. Not nearly as inaccessible, but it could still play the role.
As a result, this is the only story where I changed the names during the rewrite from my old blog. From wannabe Russian, to more Slovenian, Croat, Serbian, whatnot.
Go ahead and read it – any feedback appreciated:
Tomo Umer 
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