The Stanley Parable Creator Explains Why Players Hate Dota 2 But Still Spend Hundreds, Even Thousands, of Hours in It

William Pugh, the creator of The Stanley Parable, has spent over 1600 hours in Dota 2, but he absolutely cannot call this experience pleasant. In a new interview, the developer spoke about his conflicting feelings towards competitive multiplayer games and admitted that Valve has become more a source of irritation than entertainment for him.

According to Pugh, Dota 2 is the game with the most hours played in his entire Steam library. He has 1603 hours logged, which is even more than in Team Fortress 2. However, when asked if he enjoyed playing Dota 2, the developer answered unequivocally: “No”. He cited the behavior of his teammates as the main reason.

Pugh recalled matches where allies didn't help the team, chose inappropriate items, overextended, or mindlessly dove under towers. He said that when he played as a support, his carry allies often failed to fulfill their role. As a result, almost every match turned into a source of new frustration.

He also jokingly stated that he hates all Dota 2 players, including those who play it well, because, in his opinion, achieving a high level in the game requires dedicating too much time to it.

The developer compared Dota 2 to chess but noted an important difference. In chess, your opponent cannot simultaneously be in your voice chat explaining how much you ruined their game. According to Pugh, it is the constant need to interact with other players that makes the experience particularly stressful.

Pugh believes that Dota 2 possesses a unique quality: the game is capable of completely absorbing a person's attention. He compared it to trying to solve a “five-dimensional Rubik's Cube,” where a player spends an entire hour trying to simultaneously hold a huge number of variables in their mind.

Throughout a match, a player is almost completely disconnected from everything else, trying to understand what is happening. However, after the end of another game, this focus can turn into irritation.