Maybe I'm speaking from a biased standpoint since I played so much WoW PvP where the same spell can have 10+ different animations depending on the race+gender combination of the character casting it, but I want to reiterate that glance value for cards and dota animations really only matter for the first 10 or so times you see it, then it's part of your instinctive reactions (this happens within a single dota match).
The issue with Dota cosmetics is that they're incredibly ugly and uninspired, but I think their effect on gameplay is a lot less than what you think. The QOP change example is an actual mechanical change though, not really a cosmetic?
In MTG I don't think you need to go "Uhh what is that" because the board state and the permanents on it are mentally stored as names and numbers, not as pictures. It's like playing chess blindfolded (with maybe pawns only and a 4x4 board) - doesn't matter how the pieces are shaped.
Again, I could be biased towards thinking a certain way due to my academic background mostly studying things that are just invisible, or my upbringing as a minority.
If you're laning against a Centaur Warrunner and he has a cosmetic that makes him backflip before stunning, how many times do you have to see it before you're able to reliably phase-shift dodge it as Puck?
If you want to point out problematic dota cosmetic examples, you should point out stuff like this.
This is a problem because both heroes (Skymage and Venge) could be in the same team, in the same support role, and with the same amount of health.
(health bar amount contributes as much to glance value as hero models)
I appreciate you acknowledging your bias as a minority. My bias is as a minority also in TF2 (spy player) where they added so many cosmetics the game actually ran worse. This is why I say they have a team that makes games and a team that wrecks games. One team to make it run and the other to make it not run.
Personally I can't adapt and overcome it. I just stop playing the game.
I forgot to mention in earlier post that if you are playing the whole time while they make these changes, it might be alright- you kind of adjust. But if you take long break and come back, it's much different - centaur jumping and doing backflips, skymage looks like veng, you see a random hero that is just a mess of color and sound and realize it's actually one of the old heroes, but every cosmetic and animation changed so much that you just have no idea what's going on. Then at the same time you are trying to figure out the actual new heroes.
Like this yeah. It's like tf2s cosmetic situation but worse because atleast tf2 chars kinda have other ways to be glanced and figured. Just "Adapt" is the based answer but the reality is that most cannot or will not adapt and will lose out on a potentially good experience. Unless it's dota.
We don't adapt because we want to, we just do. It's beyond our control - the human brain (and spirit) function at a much higher level than our cognition.
That wouldn't be surprising, considering nothing I say is genuine and it's all just arguing in devil's advocate for the sake of it. None of my arguments are real after all, and I'm just trolling the boards.
I disagree. Someone who sees the (hypothetical) centaur backflip stun a few times won't fall for it (as in, go "whats he doing?") again no matter their willingness.
