On the Issues of Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, Suicide, and Mass Murdering

...not to mention serial rapists.

It's the night before SAT I. I should be sitting in front of my desk, feverishly studying the vocabulary terms and practising math. But nooo. I choose to be sitting in front of the computer, trying to hone my essay skills.

First. Euthanasia.
Defined: Also called mercy killing. the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die.
-Dictionary.com
I wouldn't know about mercy. Or painless death. But I do know that it's your friends or allies who do it to you. Those creeps on the front lines, those unthinking, unknown pawns, who do all the tanking, will never get more recognition than the "Second treant", and even that recognition is fleeting and transient, fading away from one's memory within a minute. What do we even care for them then? Why not just kill them when they outlive their usefulness, rather than let them be a potential hindrance by feeding the enemy? Why not just deny them?
(At this point, let us do solemnly sing a song for the Unsung Heroes of DotA – the creeps)

DotA is about the only game I know (perhaps I have a poor knowledge of games, but well) which actively encourages a player to kill his own allies (i.e. creeps. If they get a chance, heroes too) if it compromises one's own side by unwittingly helping the enemy. It encourages players to adopt that cold, calculating, unfeeling attitude, where decisions are based on Exp, hp, mana, and how much exp a creep feeds the enemy, rather than seeing life (albeit a very short one) from a creep's perspective. Mass manufactured in a factory they call 'barracks'. Helpless to control yourself, you throw yourself at the risk of your own life at the towers, at the enemy. You have no worth.

On the issue of Euthanasia for heroes. It is not commonly seen, mainly because it is impossible to do so most of the time, until a hero's health drops below a certain limit. I have no doubts that removing the prohibition to attack each other, a team, if sufficiently owning, will inevitably turn upon themselves and consume each other in a selfish race to the top. Though an extent of teamwork is required, once there is no threat nor sufficient challenge to unite the team, it commonly falls apart as the former comrades fall upon each other like hungry vultures or hyenas. That is what the essence of DotA is about: self-interest. The crux of the fun in it lies in the satisfaction of getting tower kills, hero kills, creep kills, and of course, team kills, if you can achieve it. Players are not above killstealing each other. Without the prohibition to attack each other at full hp, what is to prevent them from reverting to cannibalism should there be no external threat? Because that's what it is. Cannibalism. Attacking your teammates for your own benefit, so that they won't ks you, so that you can gain more exp, etc. Another crux of dota lies in conflict. And killing.

Which brings me to Assisted Suicide. Not so much suicide as such, but rather, assisted killing. Your own teammates. When your teammates own so much, they decide to aid in your death for the fun of it. Tiny tosses his ally in fountain (rather reminiscent of someone I know). Vs runs into the enemy, and swaps his ally in. Hook. Nightmare. Astral imprisonment. Controlling your ally's chicken and getting it killed. The list goes on. The poor victim can do little more than curse helplessly, or leave the game.

Mass Murdering. DotA, unlike other games like CS or Half-life, commonly does not let you experience the blood and gore firsthand, unless you scroll down all the way into the midst of the fighting. You are disconnected from the battlefield, all the skeletal remains look so tiny from up above, and all the gory details are hidden due to a combination of censorship, inadequate graphics, and distance. You watch dispassionately, or even delight in mass murdering, as you watch those tiny yellow numbers float up. Because it's not the pathetic corpses of ghouls you see, it's not the agonised, dying gasp of the druid you hear, but the gold that you value most. The skeletal remains fade away far too quickly for them to make a lasting impact on you. Each treant on the frontlines are completely identical. They died? They'll come back again. No difference. They are the walking firewood if you ever need some warmth.
And heroes? they leave no corpses. Their souls drift off and dissipate, and you engage them in the battlefield again a few minutes later. Deaths make no lasting impression. Not at all. You take those lives casually without the slightest tinge of remorse. That is, after all, what you are supposed to do.
(I admit: I am guilty of taking as much as 450 lives in a single game. I am a mass murderer. My teammates are thus guilty of aiding and abetting mass murderers. Who isn't? Even noobs aid murderers by feeding.)

Skeletons or corpses do not last very long in DotA. Those that actually last are heroes themselves. You kill them all the same. No difference.

Suicide. If within their means, heroes will definitely do it if there is no other choice. Reluctant as they are to end their own lives, they are willing to do so if it means spitefully denying the enemy of exp and gold. That is their self-value. How much they really mean to themselves. A hell lot more than other creeps, or heroes, but less than that of denying their enemies. Admittedly, there are those who sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Pushing barracks, or helping to kill. But if given the ability to do so, and given that there is no other way to escape, there is no other more pressing, or urgent urge should you be on the brink of getting killed by the enemy. Suicide. In fact, it is imperative that you do so. It is for the greater good. All brainwash.

There are very few heroes in DotA who can actually kill themselves. Techies is (in case you're wondering, is is grammatically correct, even though it's techies) one of them. Sacrifice yourself for the greater good. How noble a sacrifice. Of course, getting hero kills in the process is just a small bonus. Reminds me of terroristic suicide bombers.

But other than techies, pudge, and one or two others, it is very hard, almost impossible to kill yourself. At the very least, if your team is far away and cannot kill you, you go to Roshan and beg him for a small favour. Just a few whacks. It is thus so, that I propose if DotA players cannot be persuaded to change their mindset of dispassionate killing, where lives are worth nothing, measures should be taken to end their pitiful suffering and eternal frustration in being unable to kill themselves. After all, the life is yours, it is your basic right to take it (some may argue otherwise, but for the sake of argument, let us assume that this holds true for DotA). It is also vital for one to preserve one's self dignity in ending one's own life, instead of being humiliated in needing your teammates to end your life.

Hence, I propose that a new item be added. This shall be called the Dagger of Hara Kiri. When activated, you kill yourself. Simple. Not dissimilar to likeaseal mode, it will cause untold frustration and anger, together with a lot of swearing on the part of your enemies, before they buy this Dagger too. Should this Dagger be released for sale on the market, black or otherwise, it will definitely become one of the most popular goods for sale, and producers will reap vulgar amounts of profit. But not only that. It will teach DotA players to focus on pushing, rather than trying to kill, to focus on strategising and fighting a war, rather than focusing on murdering people one by one simply for the delight and joy one gets in the killing. Not to mention the mana too, if you're a Sadist like the necrolyte. Or health, if you're a bloodthirsty psychopath like the Bloodseeker. Or the maniacal Nevermore next door with a penchant for soul collection. Sado-masochists like Leshrac aren't that much better either.
Sure, it will cause an uproar and much unpopularity, as well as the possibility of riots, resulting in many people quitting DotA. But those people that quit DotA are not the strategists or team players; they are the ones who live for the joy of killing. They are the violent psychopaths like me. They are the ones who derive joy and intense pleasure from owning the enemy. They are the serial rapists. If they are addicted to DotA, it is the killing, the murdering, the killstealing that delights them. They are better off weaned from DotA, and spending their time on healthier pursuits like getting a life. Like endless, tireless, repetitive mugging. That would be a worthy hobby.

Interestingly, DotA and its lack of close up graphic violence and gore is what enables young children to relax and recreate (the benefits of which cannot be understated), to escape from their increasing pressurising lifestyle without damaging their mental psyche with all the blood and gore of death. It is what preserves their innocence, and protects us from cultivating a next generation of bloodthirsty, violent psychopaths. Because with each agonized death, they look Death straight in the face and do not recognize it. Because the concept of dying, the real death, is totally foreign to them (I daresay they do, however, know the meaning of all expletives and vulgarities uttered on Bnet). All hail Censorship.

I hope this topic comes out for SAT tomorrow.