Anyone else find watching this game mesmerizing?

I am not a fan of the MOBA genre. I don't play them because I don't have the patience to really learn them and get good and I don't find the gameplay itself to be something I really want to get better at. That said I can't stop watching other people play them. I don't know why but I can't stop watching. Help me.....

I'm on the opposite side myself, I never thought there existed a game I couldn't watch the GB crew play, then MOBAs came along and shattered that. Hell, I have rewatched pathfinder a number of times . These games just aren't for me, but glad other people enjoy them :-)

There's only certain people who I find entertaining to watch simply because their game knowledge is just on some next level shit. SingSing, Draskyll, all the Na'Vi players are pretty much it for me. I'll watch other streamers to kill time, but no one else besides those people really make it a mesmerizing experience for me

@babychoochoo: I really feel like its watching basketball for me in a weird sort of way. I love basketball regardless of who is playing. If you told me there was a Milwaukee Bucks vs. Utah Jazz game on I would watch it. That is how I feel about Dota 2. Something about just watching it unfolds entertains me regardless of who is playing. Maybe it is because I know nothing about the game (while it seems like you may know the basics) so I don't really know how to effectively judge who plays better.

I'm sure it would be quite entertaining if I knew what was happening most of the time. I should probably play a few games.

@meteora3255: Oh God, you would watch Bucks vs. Jazz? You're a better/worse man than me.

Well I hate to say it, but esports.

Seriously DOTA 2, StarCraft 2 and a few others actually make decent spectator sports. I think we'll see even more in the years to come, that have even higher entertainment value.

@amyggen: I am a basketball junkie. Even if the basketball isn't very good. Maybe I can see Sanders and Favors fight.

Yup I really enjoy watching DotA as well. I need a good commentator to go along with it, though.

Yeah even I wouldn't watch those games though I'd only watch a game involving either team if my home team were playing against them and that's pretty much it...

@meteora3255: Heh, fair enough. I just can't get much enjoyment out of teams tanking in the way those two are. Really good start of the season overall though, even if the East fucking sucks.

What's the polar opposite of mesmerised? That's me spectating Dota.

Now StarCraft II on the other hand I have probably watched 500+ hours of...

Casters make or break the tournament streams for me. Still hoping for another Bruno + Lumi cast.

@amyggen: I'm from Indiana so watching the Pacers steamroll through the league has been fantastic. The East is terrible although its funny to watch because it seems like teams can't decide whether to tank or chase the playoffs because it won't take much to get in.

I find it impenetrable, Daily DOTA is the only feature on the site I don't watch. I also can't watch sports, of the E variety or otherwise. Not that I'm saying you need to enjoy a sporting game to enjoy watching DOTA, but it doesn't bite me in the way it does you as a basketball fan.

Competitive online games aren't something I play often, so I'm not very interested in trying myself either. I will say that I enjoy the character designs. The artists they have working on that game are top notch. I also get a kick out of how hilariously similar they are to their Warcraft counterparts.

@tom_omb: Since they really just updated a WarCraft 3 custom map/mod it makes sense that the character designs are similar. I played a decent amount of Frozen Throne DotA back in the day. I wasn't good and I really only played because my friends did but it does mean I recognize a lot of the characters and they seem to be pretty similar to their DotA All-Stars versions. That probably also helps me enjoy watching it.

I like to watch streams and videos of players that know how to commentate and/or make it fun. Draskyl, Purge, Pyrion, Daily Dota sometimes. I'm not really into the pro e-sport aspect though, I just don't care about the teams or the players so it's hard to get anything out of it. But that's true about all sports, for me.

I mostly watch to learn or to get some laughs out of it. Wouldn't exactly call myself "mesmerized" by it, well, maybe sometimes.

@meteora3255: Heh, yeah. I'm a Knicks fan, so the season hasn't been really fun for me from that standpoint. But I generally think it's been a really fun season so far, especially with Portland doing what they've done so far. And yeah, Indiana looks to be the strongest team this season (never count out Miami of course). And if Paul George keeps playing, they're favourites to win a championship imo. The MVP title is between George and Durantc (with Durant leading by a hair, he's been carrying OKC on his back this season) right now, with LeBron right behind and Aldridge behind that.

Hate it and find it uninteresting/boring, whenever Brad played it on Unpro Fridays I just shut the stream off until the upped the archive, actually, I do that a lot, I do that with the games Drew plays on there as well, sorry Drew but nothing he's played has been even remotely interesting to me, whenever Dota or a Drew game is put on the show I hear that oh so familiar sound of the dragging of the needle across a record.

@nmc2008: Are you telling me you didn't watch the amazing first person flight sim with awesome surprise terrorist gunplay? You are missing out man.

Yeah I don't get mesmerized by mobas. Turns out knowing a lot about them takes some of the magic out. Though I'll still watch some big teams play, and I'll try to catch Sing_Sing when he's on because those games are generally hilariously onesided. And the guy just has this freakish intuition for the game. HE ALWAYS KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE.

@nmc2008: SUPER HOT.

SUPER HOT.

LOL I saw that one, the title screen brought more entertainment than the game itself.

Yeah I feel the same. I've just never really been interested in watching people play it.

it's got good art style, particles are clever but still the whole yelling of the announcer kinda doesn't look like the game game I'm watching.

I didn't get DOTA (playing or watching) until I watched TI3 when it clicked for me.

I still don't play as much dota as I would like to but I really enjoy watching competitive dota.

Not really, no.

There are some games I like watching and I don't necessarily enjoy playing myself, like watching EVO or generally fighting game tournaments - but DOTA does nothing for me. Maybe it's the pacing, maybe it's that I've never liked RTS, but it's unwatchable for me.

It's worth playing a few games. I guess it's a purely Canadian perspective, but it's kinda like watching curling. It looks interesting, but when you don't understand the game, it looks a bit boring as a spectator sport. Once you play a game or two, you just start to understand it, and you get whats going on when you see it played at a high level.

Thankfully, most curlers are more likely to buy you a drink than scream obscenities about your mother over the internet.

I love watching pro teams battling it out. Then i also love watching the Dota streamers on twitch, especially Draskyl when he talks about the hero's and different strategies to use when playing. It's very useful and entertaining at the same time

@meteora3255: So interesting you say this! I felt that my 2013 GOTY was Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm because it introduced me to the whole e-sports phenomenon. Watching pro players battle it out, announced by professionals, in a crowd of thousands (I saw the finale at Blizzcon 2013 and it was AMAZING) has really turned me on to watching other games, too. So I'm in the same camp as you.

I watch ten times as much Dota as I play.

Personally, I can't stand watching it. I could watch fighting games or Starcraft for an entire day, but I just can't get into any of this MOBA stuff. I still do on rare occasions take a look at a Dota 2 match, but I end up just coming away even more convinced that the craze isn't for me.

There was a brief period of about one month where I kinda got into playing Dota 2, but I got over that pretty quickly once I faced the realities of the time investment required to actually become a competent team player.

same problem, even when im tired from playing, im still watching dota 2 streams on weplay... srsly, when you watching this game, it gives so much different fillings >_<