Spread love, not hate

Well known DotA veteran and icon, Drayich, recently blogged about the level of hate within the community and the reasoning behind it.

The DotA community is growing day by day, going from strength to strength but something that has hung over the head of the community and players as a whole is the level of hate or flaming which occurs in and around games. This is something that has obviously been floating around in Papa Dray's head for a while.

Something that Drayich deals with are the comments made on sites such as GosuGamers.net following a replay or news article. According to him, 60% of the comments are negative and are generally made to make people feel bad; for what other reason would they be made?

Dray also talks about the vibe and personalities floating around DotA Pride and DotA Pride 2, especially how many players who consider themselves as "pros" will run down other players with derogatory comments such as "stupid noob". Do they expect these players to magically play better when insulted?

Drayich makes a specific reference to Kuroky's statement following their loss to TheSHIT!, where they played with a techies strat. He complimented the German star on his maturity and manners in accepting defeat and not resorting to excuses such as, "we picked for fun".

Below is a short extract from Drayich's blog:

"So, I'm challenging you all. Professional players, noobs, midskilled, HoN players, Feeders, Gangers, call yourself whatever you want to, but take some time to think before you comment on other players. Ask yourself, What is my intension? Is my intension really to behave badly? Do I want to feel like I'm a better person by saying something which isn't nice? Do I want the victim to feel offended?
If thats the case - I hope someone hugs you soon."

Flaming is something which GosuGamers tries very hard to interdict, but not everyone is as mature as expected. The DotA scene is riding the crest of the wave at the moment, but in order to achieve excellence, all the hate needs to end.