Guesong said:
Advice?
No, no, you don't get it. In-houses are about stacking teams, trampling the newbies and less experienced and calling it fun times. Oh, and All Pick tryharding.
*shrug*
No wonder some people just go straight to Spectators and don't budge even if there's only one more slot to fill.
It's really a shame you see it that way, cause it's really not. It might just be how you're perceiving the game, maybe cause you're either new to the game or how HoN-GAF goes about doing things, but it barely ever is trampling noobs, making fun of it, and trolling. There are only a handful of things that can decisively be called trolling in our inhouses. Here I am, in Mumble at this very moment, discussing how I think the inhouses have kind of fallen off the beaten path of somewhat trying. Nowadays, it's purely a casual fun-fest, or at least in my opinion it is.
I've already explained before that it's kind of difficult to help out someone while you're focusing on playing your own game. Get yourself heard if you can. While you may not see it, HoN-GAF is very friendly, welcoming, and helpful.
The thing is that to a new player, it may seem like we're tryharding, but a lot of the people you're playing with are already of a very high skill level, and it's somewhat difficult to tone that down a ton. I see that a lot of people in our inhouses play heroes they don't normally play, or a hero they are practicing, but of course they already know exactly what to do with that hero, and they're instead just practicing their execution with it.
In fact, when all the new players just came into HoN when it first went F2P, a lot of us made sure to go extra easy on the new players, and essentially leave them alone. Maybe that's something we should consider doing still now (perhaps not to the same extreme), but I think a lot of people expect that the people who are still sticking with the game kind of have an idea that the game moves very quickly, and at times can be quite unforgiving.
The reason people go to spectator isn't really because they want to avoid being trolled or something. A lot of people just want to watch, or just take a break. I think you're thinking into it a bit too much. I love our influx of new users, and I hope they stick around. But it is really necessary to relax a bit. You have to understand that it is difficult to hover over everyone, and needlessly bother them over their every mistake. It might be what you want in theory, but in practice it'd be nothing but annoying. There are a lot of players who call out for help, but when they are actually given advice, they take it poorly and assume other players think they are bad or useless. It's difficult to please everyone.
Lastly, I have to give all new players advice to stay active and ask questions. All of the players ask for help in specific things, whether they need help with hero builds, item builds, or what they need to be doing, and so on. I do it, and some of the best players on HoN-GAF do it. Otherwise, no one will ever know you're having trouble with something and won't be able to help out. Try not to get too down on the game. I, and everyone else, can guarantee that once you work out the game (though it may take a long time) it is incredibly rewarding and will be worth the work. Especially with DotA2 on the horizon since HoN is almost a carbon copy of DotA in every way.