[exabrial]

Aging myself here... I played a ton of DOTA on the WarCraft3 engine... probably when I should have been studying for engineering finals.

What amazed me about the game, and probably why it is so addictively fun to play is you always have two competing things gripping for your attention. On one hand, resource farming _demands_ incredible attention to detail (obtaining the last shot on creeps for a kill, ergo a gold reward). Then on the other hand, you must also be planning your character's build, monitoring minimap, monitoring others' builds, and most especially watching missing enemy players. It's hard to do all of the things effectively... one has to make the farming aspect of the game second nature and remove the distraction to be a good player. (Which I never was)

I don't have the luxury of spare time to play long DOTA games anymore, and largely I've replaced it with building things and outdoor sports (MTB racing, Gravel Racing, climbing) but I still look fondly at those times and the IRL and online friend group I had.

[matthewaveryusa]

They've added turbo mode recently which keeps most games between 15 and 30 minutes!

[sundarurfriend]

Since parent said they played DOTA on the WarCraft3 engine: Turbo mode is basically `-em` (easy mode) from Dota 1 with some quality of life improvements.

[adamrezich]

if it weren't for Turbo I probably wouldn't still be playing 11 years after beta. Turbo is great.