My friends are into League of Legends, their mostly PC gamers who play LoL religiously alongside the occasional MMO or PC game. Over the past few months they've tried time and time again to convince me to jump onto the PC bandwagon and join them in their nightly sessions of LoL. I was tempted so much so that I looked into building a gaming PC and even put together a basic idea of what components and parts I'd need for the rig. But before investing the money I thought I'd better give PC gaming a try, at least for a week, to ensure I at least enjoy gaming on the platform. Rather than League though I decided to give DOTA 2 a try, I find the hero purchasing of LoL off-putting and was more drawn to DOTA for some particular reason. So I installed DOTA 2 last week and today I uninstalled the game.

It's not that I didn't enjoy the game, far from it, I spent 14 hours according to Steam playing the game in the last week. I achieved 6 victories, 4 defeats, found one or two characters whose role I liked, learnt some basic MOBA strategy, avoided the trolls who plague the genre and discovered I hate playing as Zeus. So now you might be wondering why uninstall the game? In short, I do not want a game this complex and addicting that is as large a time investment per game as a MOBA in my life.

DOTA is not a simple game. It's a game that you must learn, research and practice if you truly wish to succeed. It takes time something I discovered having spent only a week with the game. Sure I only played 10 matches but I also spent time researching characters and strategies and watching players better than I playing the game in order to improve my skills with the handful of characters I'd tried and taken a liking to. On top of that there's also the item shops and the crafting which is strategy all within itself, once more research is required on when and what to buy with each specific character or role. Even having gained knowledge on which items to purchase with each character and role you still must consider team and character selection and then level, money and skill management within the game. Granted it becomes more streamlined over time as you become more and more experienced and familiar with the game but it's overwhelming and jarring for beginners. With the only method of streamlining the process being to research, practice and experiment the hours just keep on adding up and even then it's likely that your only experienced with a handful of characters.

It's also a very addictive, no thanks to Valve and their meta-game of items, markets, leveling up and random item drops. Your always encouraged to play one more game be it in hopes of obtaining that random rare drop, in order to level up or even just to see that new item equipped to your favorite character. It's an addictive game built within an addictive game with the azure of selling items for money to either reinvest in the game or purchasing other games, which would be fine if a match lasted 10 or 15 minutes but they don't. Your average match might last 45 minutes and simply sitting down to play a few matches can destroy an entire evening of gaming. Play a handful of Street Fighter matches, put another hour into that RPG and finish off with a game of Halo or play 3 (maybe 4 if one was quick) games of DOTA.

The truth is that I loved my time with DOTA 2. I understand how people can delve deep into the genre and believe that I've gained an appreciation for the genre as a whole. It's a great game but when I consider the time required to play the game, the other games that I want to play and invest lots of time in and the direction that my life is heading (I'm about to enter the first year of university this September) I can regrettably say that DOTA is a game just not one that I want to play.

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Currently playing:

• Uncharted 3
• Lumines: Electronic Symphony (I'm attempting to get all of the trophies - blog planned shortly after)