I was addicted to League of Legends -- a DOTA port I'm sure you're familiar with. I would play for ten hours straight, and love every minute. I'd collapse into bed at absurd hours of the morning, and I did that regularly during a two-year period. I had to quit video games cold turkey because I just could not regulate myself well. It's such a tantalizing, exciting, addicting gametype. Reading your description took me back.
I'm currently in that state. I defaulted to it after a 2 year break when my favorite Minecraft server went down. Sadly, it's gotten so much more interesting since then now that I'm grasping the many win-conditions on both micro-/macro- scale. Riot's pacing on updates and teasers is down to a science, too. Ugh.
Don't video game designers have fully fledged clinical psychologists on retainer to help them squeeze serotonin out of our monkey brains? I feel you.Riot's pacing on updates and teasers is down to a science, too. Ugh.
Nah, they're just making enough product so they can get their own fix, too. Did you ever follow the competitive scene? I swear that's what really got me into it. My only peeve is there's no real sense of fan loyalty since all teams are based in the same area, meaning bandwagonning is where the masses thrall to. Other than that, it only serves the hype. Their promo team is fire. They out-sourced this piece: Most promo clips are outsourced, from what I read. Even some modeling of champions, IIRC. The thing that tickles me is the studio which created the piece shown is Studio Mir (which did AtLA and LoK).
I would definitely watch streams, but not to follow the pros as much as to gain insight as to how to get better. But you're right, Riot is on their shit with the marketplace and all the goodies just a click away.
No, not hypocritical. Even though it brings up something interesting. People can and ought to self-regulate. It's healthy and necessary for someone to be their own best steward. But what about people who never get to the level? I don't want to hijack the thread, but video games get me thinking about this sort of thing a lot.