3 Life Lessons Learned From Heroes of The Storm
By Jason Prott
There used to be a time when life lessons were to be gleaned off the stories your elders told, or discovered after a scraped knee and a hard day’s labor, but nowadays we can just play video games.
After 200 games of Heroes of The Storm I’ve discovered that I don’t need role models or Aesop’s Fables — all I need is a MOBA. Blizzard’s entry into the genre has done more than just convince me how well the F2P model can work, it has also demonstrated three key life lessons through gameplay.
1. Communication
Communicating with your team will give you an edge in most competitive games, but in Heroes of The Storm good communication is required just to stand a chance.
The side objectives in each map vary but all facilitate the destruction of the enemy core. The power some of these objectives have is staggering and choosing to ignore them usually leads to a crushing defeat. Haunted Mines and Blackheart’s Bay require the most coordination and communication among teammates — my win percent on these maps is proof enough.
Heroes of the Storm doesn’t feature in-game voice chat(which is probably for the best), but it contains a ping system that allows you to easily communicate simple commands and ideas to your teammates. Think of these like the sticky notes found around your workplace. They can be helpful guides and reminders, or passive-aggressive orders that lead to your secret hatred of co-workers.
Accent these pings with a few words in chat and you can keep any team working together, which is important. A team with several conflicting strategies will almost always lose to a team focused on one single strategy, even if it’s horribly misguided.
2. Friendship
They say friendship is priceless, but in Heroes of the Storm it’s worth exactly 50% more XP. It’s Blizzard’s way of encouraging positive experiences within their game. When you play with friends you tend to win more, and winning is fun.
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Your friends also fill the spaces on your team which otherwise may be filled with unsavory types (unless your friends are also jerks). When I started playing Heroes of the Storm my Battle.net friends list was a desolate wasteland worthy of mockery, but now it’s 20 strong and growing. When you find friendly players in-game don’t be frugal with your friend invites. I’m always willing to group up with teammates after a good game and most other players share this sentiment.
3. Perseverance
The MOBA genre is partly defined by the wild swings in momentum that occur during a game, it’s part of the reason they have a strong eSports following. A team wipe can completely change the course of a game and create an upset in a matter of seconds.
Heroes of the Storm works hard to make each team a contender to win up until those last moments. You level as a team rather than individuals, creating a safety net for weaker players that prevents them from becoming under-leveled and obsolete(although some simply can’t be helped).
The shared leveling tends keeps teams similarly powered so games are competitive from beginning to end. Even if you feel defeat is inevitable Heroes of the Storm teaches you to persevere! There’s no conceding here, which may come as a shock to many MOBA veterans.
I began my time with the game in the pro-concede camp, but I’ve grown to appreciate the no-surrender mentality. It breeds many more upset wins, although you will have to sit through some unholy abuse that will make you question the existence of a god. Luckily the lopsided games usually last less than 20 minutes.
Don’t Believe Me?
You claim I’ve read between the lines a bit much. Have I really? What if Blizzard is secretly preaching an agenda of wholesome values? What other ideas are they supplanting in my mind?! I need to find some aluminum foil.