Week 3: Building Character

I started doing power cleans this week.  The first time I tried them, on Tuesday, I was well convinced that the form was impossible or my body somehow did not properly support it.  I stood cluelessly by the squat rack, phone in hand, attempting to discern just how far up my elbows were supposed to be and how in the world I was supposed to do this when I had a neck in the way of the ideal place of the bar.  I made a couple awkward jumps up, bruising, in turn, each of my shoulders and each side of my collar bone.  I gave up that day after "completing" a 3x5 set of power cleans, resolving to stick with the barbell weight the next time.

Then, Sunday rolls around.  Turns out a few good nights' rests, forgetting your lifting gloves in the car, and generally chilling the fuck out makes the impossible possible.  I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out today.

Keep doing what you do, Dota

People have a lot of arguments they make when asserting one roughly comparable game is Clearly Superior(tm).  Usually people criticize how "competitive" a game is versus how "fun" the game is (presuming the two can be exclusive), or how steep or shallow the learning curve is, or how realistic or visceral the experience might be.  I personally have one big test for video games that Dota 2 happens to pass in flying colors: how much character the game has.

Character is two-dimensional measure of a game and its components: it is both how unique a game and its components are, and how consistent that uniqueness is.  For a good character to stand out in any story, he must be unique (or otherwise be unremarkable), but also have integrity (or otherwise be poorly defined and difficult to grasp).  Character can be found in many levels in Dota 2:

• The consistent, colorful art style.  The beautiful pastel approach to Dota 2 makes it stand out at a distance, and the insane level of polish that goes into the models and UI make it look crisp and confident.
• The styling of the characters themselves.  From the pefect silhouetting that Valve honed in TF2 and brought over to Dota 2, to the absolutely astounding writing and voice acting, Valve have brought each of these little action figures to life with their own unique egos, personalities, rivalries, and senses of humor.
• No-holds barred hero ability design.  Each of Dota's Ability 4-Paks contains thematically consistent and hard-edged skills that further compound the character of the hero, and no idea is off-limits.  A hero that only works at night time? Sure, why not.  How about a hero that can physically rewrite the map?  While we're at it, why not add one that can ignore it completely?  One of Dota's heroes has exactly one clickable ability.  Another has no less than  fourteen.  Many of these abilities are instantly lethal in the right circumstance, but can be rendered useless with a bit of wit.  Dota's heroes are generally jacks of no trades, but masters of one.  Though Invoker happens to be a master of one trade, that trade being the mastery of all trades.
• Compare this to LoL, where Riot's own hero list suggests the heroes can be roughly compared just by looking at a few bars.
• Hard-edged item design.  Like the heroes, items in Dota have particularly specialized purposes.  Their abilities are generally the reason you buy the item, and every one of them is a game changer - in the right hands.
• The Physical/Magical distinction.  This is a highly under-appreciated feature of Dota, in my opinion.  Physical and Magical damage are not treated as simply as, say, "elements" in other games.  If your game has Fire damage and Lightning damage, chances are I can get otherwise-identical items that provide me X points of Fire resist and X points of lightning resist.  It's not quite so simple in Dota.
• Physical damage comes from auto-attacks.  Magical damage comes from abilities.  This distinction is still pretty common across MOBA's, but the addition of Harkon's Blade to HoN muddles it in a way that bothers me.
• Physical damage is naturally scaling.  Magical damage is naturally static.  There's no "Ability Power" stat in Dota.  Dota's flat treatment of spells, which are magic damage unless with exception, give them a very unique flavor - one that spikes in usefulness the moment you get it, and tapers off if you don't capitalize in it.  Physical damage, however, scales naturally with items you would normally buy for your hero - even for spellcasters (thanks to the STR/AGI/INT mechanic).
• Physical damage is common-place and slowly adds up.  Magic damage is sudden and violent.  Even the weakest of magic DoT abilities are threatening until they expire.
• Physical damage takes a lot of work to protect against, while magic is easily foiled with a focused effort.  Black King Bar is, in many ways, one of Dota's most defining items, as it renders all magic damage and, with few exceptions, all disables, completely useless.  This causes you to suddenly value your auto-attacking carries that have been otherwise totally useless all game.

Say what you will about if these are good or profitable design decisions, but I would argue they give Dota 2 a unique flavor that makes you feel like you're dominating the game in your own special snowflake-y way.

Weight: 194.1 lbs

Squats: 185 lbs

Bench Press: 115 lbs

Overhead Press: 95 lbs

Deadlift: 220 lbs

Power Clean: 45 lbs