1

E-Society
Dota2 is the new form of e-sport which is played online with players all over the world. There are
several places one can play the game with others. But we will consider online gaming here just to
resemble the idea of being into the world just as an accident with some unknown people around you
where you are supposed to adapt with the help of all the resources around you.You don’t necessarily
know them personally but you enjoy playing with them with certain sets of rules which are predefined
in most complex manner. In this paper we will try to identity how small team of 5 people in the Dota2
can resemble to the expression of individual in real life. We will develop argument around the higher
education system that one is entitled to be part of, to survive in the world and make a choice to play
her role as a part of community and efforts to support one another for living through structural
analysis of Dota2 which goes on same lines of understanding world that we live into.
DotA is set up as an epic, ten player battle that takes place over the course of about an hour-long game. There
are ten players at a time, split into two teams of five. Each player takes control of one hero, and the teams
fight it out across the battlefield with the help of computer controlled units and structures until one side
destroys their opponents' Ancient. The Ancients are heavily defended structures situated in the middle of each
base (Icefrog 2010).

In earlier stages of development of the game there was not any money involved in this sport. There
were not many people that even knew about this game. But in gaming cafes of India this got
introduced through an individual map in Warcraft 3. There was a time that as a gamer you will keep
working around different mechanics of the game not just to know what is there in it but, there was
sense of respect if one knows how to play as many games as possible. It was mere activity of leisure
and entertainment which allowed many to start getting interested in it. But there was some structural
basis of this individual map which got famous all over the world which made people more engaged
into the game than ever before which ultimately evolved into the Dota2 as an individual game
powered by steam. Over period of time markets developed with publicity and all other strategies of
marketing to generate revenue. We will try to deconstruct this internal structure of the game which
is no different than those concepts we encounter in daily life.
First of all, we will identify the people who are actually playing this game actively. 650K-700K are
monthly average players who play Dota2 regularly (Jamesgray 2016). Engage voluntarily into spending
their energy and time for the sake of entertainment, even though it doesn’t stimulate brain
automatically as a movie, cartoons or even anime1. A 2010 survey found that youth age 8 to 18 devote
seven-and-a-half hours a day to entertainment media (Norcia 2014). In case of massively played
multiplayer online games, largely players are from age group of 16 to early 30s, involved in exploring
the world of virtual gaming and communicating with each other on large scales. This is the age when
individuals are exposed to the reality outside the protected cocoon in their school years and left
insecure in job market to find right position for their future depending on their higher
education. There is cycle of thoughts which is running inside about the career and choice of education,
when previously there is no such opportunity or even a way of thinking of an education as something
of choice and field of expertize. Considering this let’s look at the ways in which game is structured.
Choice
In the game there are almost 113 heroes that you can choose from. In institutionalized education
system there are various options that one has to choose from depending upon her interests and
personalities. In this case of game there is choice on first hand whether to really open an account and
start exploring the world of Dota2. It is not enforced directly by anyone or someone with authority or
even elder in that sense. It is just a buzz that is created around and one gets to know about this virtual
world, where large population of same age is engaged, form small communities of same liking, where

1
A style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as children.

Abhiijeet Kulkarni| Roll no. 163603001|Social Collective |Date:2 September 2016|Assignment-3

 2

it does not matter where are you from and what do you do in life, your caste, gender or even
educational qualification but it is about your interest in the game that defines your presence in the
community. There is sense of inclusion developed within an individual which motivates her to go and
actually sign up to be part of this local community. Once you get into the game over period of time
you realize that it is not only limited to gamers in that area where one resides, but there are small
groups of people from all over the world which encompasses large gaming community of millions and
individual feels part of that large gaming community. Whereas in case of traditional setup of higher
education one is entitled to take admission and study the syllabus. There is not much reason why
someone is becoming part of this education system. There is huge discrimination among those who
are good in traditional way of learning things or score good marks in the examination and those who
just cannot cope up in the rat race. People do not have basic choice to whether to opt into taking
further education or not. If not education what next can be done with this life that one has? It is kind
of automated system of education where one does not have any idea about the education that one is
taking. One goes to the institution learning some theories and postulates which are developed by
someone in past. In usual setup one might even learn what someone has proved or stated in past. But
one does not find it significant in her context of world as there is no background over why something
is explored the way it has. There is no space to facilitate the need to really understand these different
ideas which are developed by those in the past with their context and their need to come up with
different worldviews.
Learning
Usually individual encounters some e-game, which includes too many features and complex in its
nature, without having any theoretical knowledge required to play that game. Then what is that makes
her to engage into this multifaceted world of rules which is completely new to her. The visual
fundamentals itself are far different from what one sees in real world. These are quite weird and
diverse to even grasp at times. At the same time, foundation of reality is included in structuring the
game which gives us the sense of reality that we encounter every now and then like trees, water,
animals, insects, building, roads, humans etc. This analogy can be observed in our education system
as well. Individuals encounter with lots of vocabulary and terminology to actually understand the
subject beforehand. There is no practical implication of these subjects that one studies in the class.
But rote learning these words and the terminologies, generating conceptual maps associated with
particular definition becomes mechanical process without knowing the exact significance or role it has
in her understanding of the world. In the subconscious, the process is same from the perspective of
that individual, where she is trying to comprehend some data into its meaning and significance, but
there is visible role which she is supposed to play in the game and know the requirements of that
character is necessary to improve the way one plays the game. The necessity to know more and
understand more or even develop new ways of playing roles into the game is generated through
actually taking part into the activity than sitting in classroom and doing passive learning.
Valuation
In case of Dota2 individual has to open an account to play the game which starts with zero experience
points. This ensures that everyone starts from the base line and fight against each other based on the
experience one has. This grading is innovative in its own way where one is scored in two ways. One
her overall experience of the game and time that she has spent on game, playing over years. Second
is comparative assessment based on other gamers. After certain level of experience one can enter into
ranked zone of battles where her skills based upon various factors are measured and allotted a rank
by calibrating some 30 matches in the start. Comparative scoring is used in ranked matches scenario,
which is based upon principle of negative marking that helps one to keep track on her quality of game
and style if one needs to change it in any way to get better at playing. Now no matter what is the role
that one chooses and the hero that one plays, ultimate reward is same for every player of the team
once they win that particular match.

Abhiijeet Kulkarni| Roll no. 163603001|Social Collective |Date:2 September 2016|Assignment-3

 3

There are different scales of scoring for solo matches as well as party matches. In party matches one
has the opportunity to team up in advance and play against opponents who have the same formation
of team. Whereas in solo matches you are accidently teamed up with some random people from the
world of the same rank that of you. Here you get one more choice to decide whether one wants to be
at random position of team making or just want to play along with those whom she knows already.
This essentially changes the way one is scored from another. So there is justice in a sense to actual
valuation of the gameplay depending upon the format one chooses to be in. If someone does not want
to be part of this ranked gaming scenario, they can just play public matches where they can practice
their skills and enjoy the gameplay without any burden of getting recorded or judged for what they
do. It is a kind of experimental learning where there is whole lot of scope to learn with the method of
trial and error than just mugging up standard ways of understanding multiple factors of the game. This
allows them to understand game in better sense and improve with exploring various features inside
the game to come up with own playing style.
This whole idea of having different scales based upon various aspects makes it possible for individual
to understand game in better way than demoralizing efforts taken to actually explore and understand
different facets of the game. This very idea of valuation and different forms of valuation expedite
learning based upon the individuality of the person and various criteria that are involved in making of
a person as a human. Now comparing this with the institutional education becomes just impossible in
a way because there is not taken enough efforts to understand various facets of individual to bring
best out her. Monotonous way of education, where one is judged continually based upon
normalization of their personalities based upon some concrete notions of superiority, biases towards
particular set of skills, which will enhance ability to earn more at the end of the day. There is whole
lot of injustice in difference fields of education. Where science earns maximum compared to rest of
humanities, arts, fine arts. This is the major reason why specific age group of individuals are attracted
towards gaming where they find sense of inclusion. Ultimately to play a game they are using the same
kind of mental activity which is required to study in traditional format. In the current world where
unemployment is the major issue, one relates the end result of studying books with their ability to
earn. Which fails tremendously on psycho-socio level of understanding and seems like a useless task
to even have proper education. Even the journey of education and experiencing happiness through
process of building up knowledge is beyond all possibilities due to specific frame of looking at
individuals and judging them on preconceived notions which doesn’t allow random exploration of the
world nor values their efforts they take for understanding one concept in the text. There is no
motivation to study, which eventually push them towards something like gaming which allows them
to appreciate or accept themselves for what they are and what one is capable of doing in life. There is
idea of self and identity that is generated through process of playing games.
Responsibility
Online multiplayer games allow players to meet different people with same class of efficiency and
move on competing with one another. In a sense there is space of equality, where you encounter with
those who have same level of skills that of self. There is opportunity to improve based upon individual
efforts and dedication to move one step ahead of others. At the same time, one cannot be so mean
to think of her own success, but she has to think about collective well-being. To increase experience
points in most efficient way she needs to win the game with the team, so that every member of the
team gets same amount of experience points with her. This clearly has the sense of individuality to
win, which makes a lot of difference in losing and winning the game.
In the start of the match one has to choose one hero from the pool of 113 heroes to play till end of
the game. One has the sense of liberty to choose from various options. At the same point she has to
be particular enough while making the choice and think about the requirements of the team. Now this
is where worldly role that one has to choose comes into picture which can be compared to the actual
match. We can see there is distribution of labour in human society for collective well-being. There are

Abhiijeet Kulkarni| Roll no. 163603001|Social Collective |Date:2 September 2016|Assignment-3

 4

certain responsibilities shared among individuals and we survive as one unit. Same way in the game
to actually win the game, it requires a near-ideal amount of teamwork. Significant teamwork of poor
individual players playing as a team with proper communication, making unique strategies and
reacting best to the live situations can beat a team of good individual players who don't work as a
team. Even if three or four people has proper co-ordination and understanding of each other, knowing
their strength and weakness makes it possible for them win the match even though there in are
individuals inferior compared to the rest. It becomes quite easy to carry that weak player along with
the team and make proper use her capacity. This is one thing that makes games more interesting than
real world of transactions where everyone is being very individualistic in their world view that they
don’t have time nor a requirement to think about weak sections of the society. So while designing the
game there are similar roles that are required in real life are included in the game in form of distributed
categories of heroes.
Which are agility, strength, intelligent. These names are quite precise to the importance that one has
in the game.

 Intelligent
In real world we think that intelligence is directly related to the brain and efficiency to succeed in
life. Where as in game it does play superior role in first 10-15 mins of the game and completely
depend upon those who play these intelligent heroes. In gaming scenarios these heroes are called
to be supports. Their major task is to support other heroes, handle resources efficiently that agility
heroes can get most of the benefit from initial stages of the game. It is quite similar to what
management people do. It is kind of office work where one will have to keep eye on all the
activities on the map, warn allies from any danger, help them into what they are supposed to do,
keep track of progress, decision making, maximizing the efficiency of others and so on. But on the
contrary to what we see in real world, these people who play these kind of roles has same
importance that of labourer who is actually doing the work as agility heroes. For that matter the
effective result of winning and losing game depends upon those who are working on resource
building than these intelligent heroes.

 Agility
These agility heroes are the carry of the game. Dominant in nature who ultimately carries the
team to the end of the game and make the team win after 35mins of the game. Till then they are
supposed to gather as many resources as possible and get stronger compared to the opponent’s
carries to eventually win the clashes in late game with better inventories. Now these agility heroes
are nothing but labourers, doing odd jobs to build up required inventory for self. This very
inventory is what makes possible for team to function in the game. Surprisingly in the game
maximum players are more interested in playing these types of heroes than intelligent heroes. As
in real world people will not like to think of these odd jobs of developing resources as important
as who manages those who are actually producing commodity in real sense.

 Strength
Every hero has specific set of skills, its own personality which has different forms of damage to kill
the opponent. Every hero cannot take the damage and survive the clash. So there are strength
heroes (durables) which take the damage as much as possible so that in the meanwhile allies will
damage more to the opponents and dominate one another. These are similar characters like
carries which produce resources building up inventories but for different purpose than carries. In
summary these durables are producing some commodities which are owned individually but
usable on the allies to help them in different ways to protect them or to empower them to survive.
Let us think of these durables as NGOs who are working in society to empower weak section of
masses. This is fundamentally required to ensure every one of the team is alive, and do not lose

Abhiijeet Kulkarni| Roll no. 163603001|Social Collective |Date:2 September 2016|Assignment-3

 5

resources in the process of death and reviving back into the game. As once individual is dead in
the game she is not playing the game for certain amount of time as a penalty which affects pace
of the game significantly. This is very significant when think of every human being as a part of the
society. Why is it important to take care every member of the society? It is not just moral duty or
responsibility to ensure living of others but eventually those people are ensuring our well-being
and quality of life. So if they are rising above poverty and healthy, as a community there is better
opportunity for humanity to flourish in sustainable fashion.
Though there are strong categories developed inside the game to understand the role of individual
character into the game, one can completely change the dynamics of the game knowing exact
specialty of the hero based upon her unique understanding of the powers it has. So while picking up
the roles in the game to balance the team, one can make proper strategy to eventually win the match.
If there is some gimmick intended by opponents, then in the game knowing their strategy, depending
upon the placing of the heroes in the map and various other factors one can change the roles
completely with the same heroes and adjust the requirements to tackle the opponent. Then at a point
carry starts supporting the intelligent heroes which can nuke down opponents and win over easily just
because one sacrifices and understands her exact role, which is required in particular gaming scenario.
This kind of understanding in human society and responsibilities shared among each other can ensure
development of cooperative societies which are based upon fraternity, justice and freedom.
Structure
Though there is concrete structure to the game with some definite goals to be achieved there is whole
lot of scope for individuals to decide their ways to approach. One has to identify her place in the team
according to the dynamics of the team. As we have seen before this team is formed from the pool of
individuals of same experience and awareness of the game on the principle of uniform distribution,
so somewhere one has to accept that there can be weak section of people which does not have certain
skills that are required to win the game. But then one has sense of responsibility to give her best to
take everyone with her and play united. Even though there is hidden identity of individuals in the game
you need to communicate with each other to know what are they best at and be honest about their
dexterity. Due to this anonymous nature of self in the game, one has no fear or pressure to be judged
on his originality. When you are allotted as a team, there is no other option than to co-operate and
take over the weakness of the team with your own set of expertize developed over period of time.
After tremendous efforts and practice, knowing various aspects of the game one starts enjoying it.
Then it does not remain the question of winning and losing one match, but processes that are involved
into the game itself are rewarding enough to human consciousness to grow as a gaming community.
Now this flexibility into the structure of game where one can express her individuality but at the same
time, there is acceptance of the complex situations that one encounters. There is sense of justice and
equality that is developed into the game by working upon those factors which are lacking in real life.
There is space for human expression, at the same time continues efforts are taken from the developers
of the game depending upon the feedback of the players. The changes are made according to the
collective voting, reporting bugs and so on. This builds up the sense of trust that, may be this is the
not perfect world that we are playing into but there are some visible efforts by someone to eliminate
those errors and maintain integrity of gaming scenario. There are different heroes developed over
period of time and added to the game as it balances the meta of the game because of collective efforts
of gaming community in participation of decision making of the game.
Let’s not look at the game as something complete imagination but the ways in which it resembles with
various worldly transactions one is engaged into, in real life. The possibilities of changing world that
we live into. Will this gaming community give rise to humanity in its new form? Can this revive morals,
ethics, empathy, responsibility as a community? There is a vacuum in education system which is failing
to provide what is required by human society to sustain for long as a community. In a way we can

Abhiijeet Kulkarni| Roll no. 163603001|Social Collective |Date:2 September 2016|Assignment-3

 6

incorporate these gaming ideas into real world of education, which will help youth to make sense of
the transactions happening around them in most efficient way and identify their role to survive
communally.

Bibliography:
Icefrog. 2010. “Learn.” Playdota.com. http://www.playdota.com/learn.
jamesgray. 2016. “Dota 2.” © Steamcharts.com. http://steamcharts.com/app/570.
Norcia, Andrea. 2014. “The Impact of Video Games.” Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
http://www.pamf.org/parenting-teens/general/media-web/videogames.html.
Word Count: 3,896

Abhiijeet Kulkarni| Roll no. 163603001|Social Collective |Date:2 September 2016|Assignment-3