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What game did you hate even after sinking a lot of time into it?
(media.piefed.social)
I've been revisiting anno 2205, infamously the ugly duckling of the Anno series of RTS games. I don't mind so much the fact that it's different, lacks customisation and random map generation - I'm bothered because the game is so slow to progress through on challenge settings, and it feels like a game designed just to artificially waste your time; in other anno games, you can always pull tricks to dig yourself out of economic crisis - selling off assets and surplus goods, completing quests for other parties, or taking loans. 2205 is very very confined in terms of what you can do to financially recover in the early game and forces you into a lot of military events.
I played DotA when it was a custom WC3 map (and Aoens of Strife in SC). Seeing it become this whole genre and esports phenomena was weird. I feel like I could never take any of them seriously.
I think DOTA2 came quite a long way from the cheese factory that was the original WC3 map packs.
I actually went with a friend to a tournament, and was genuinely impressed at how the game felt watchable in a way you'd hope for a football or basketball game to be entertainment. The gameplay was fast-paced and full of reversals. The announcers helped fill in what a newb wouldn't immediately know about different builds and strategies. You got a steady buildup of excitement into those final minutes, when a timely save or kill could swing the match. Even the creep farming had a bit of tension, as you watch the teams race for the upper hand.
MOBAs were a natural fit for eSports. I get why it took off. Shame it hasn't endured.
I used to screw around on the custom games and it's crazy seeing mobas and tower defense games take off when it was originally just nerds screwing around. It was so fun griefing footman wars and the hobbit and uther party and just about every game was griefable. Backdooring in OG DOTA would also really piss people off. Anyway I swore off LoL when it became a battle of keeping up with the meta and the stupid mini games that you had to play. Dota started doing something kinda similar with meta creep and I just don't want to watch hours of tutorials and follow the pro meta exactly to be at an elo where people aren't screaming the n-word over voice chat.
The only moba mode I thought was consistently fun was Ability Draft. It was so categorically broken and silly, but DotA 2 killed it off I think.