Heroes of Newerth makes my Neck Hurt! This game is addictive! I don’t know why I play this game so much. The game itself is setup as some kind of twisted mix between Warcraft 3 and football…NO JOKE. You pick a hero and play on a team and then go back and forth trying to score a “Touch Down” by getting to the opposing team’s Great Tree or Sacrificial Shrine. You also get “First Downs” by destroying enemy towers. The game takes about 30- 55 minutes every time you play a match and that doesn’t usually count the time you spend in the lobby and pre-match screen waiting for the game to start and character selection. I think the reason why this game makes my neck hurt is because you have to be in a constant state of attention in order to play and not get served by the enemy team. One misplaced right click on the screen can cost your hero to get killed and can put your team at a disadvantage for an entire game. Basically, this game is an hour of stress every time you play it.
But is it fun? I’d say it is pretty fun. Here’s an article that I wrote about Heroes of Newerth and how I wanted to start waking up early. How did it go for waking up early? Well I woke up early today, but I surely didn’t play Heroes of Newerth last night. That game drains my brain. But why does it hurt my neck. Well, the problem is that when you play the game, you don’t usually play just one round, you usually are playing with friends and talking with them via Ventrilo and after you win or lose you want to play again…and again. After a while you need to go to the bathroom while your character is dead and respawning and you are trying to hurry and take a leak at the same time and that experience is bad times, and when you come back your base is being attacked and your friends are like, “Where are you! Get over here and spider this scout!”
After playing one game of Heroes of Newerth I feel like I’m in a small fog. My eyes are kind of squinty and you feel an overwhelming desire to drink San Peligrino and eat Ritz crackers. After two games I begin to feel like I’m being sucked into my laptop and there is a tingling sensation and the base of my nerve stem. After the third game my neck starts to hurt and feel sore. It almost like that episode of Star Trek Voyager, where Janeway has aliens that are invisible that are sticking needles in her head causing pressure. Well in my case it’s like I’m sitting in a movie theater with crappy seats because I came too late to see Avatar or something and the angle is crunching my neck.
Is Heroes of Newerth going to cause you neck pain? I don’t know. Maybe. I suggest taking breaks every hour or so. Because pounding the game out over and over again not only is dumb because there are better things to do, but you will be giving yourself stress and disguising it as fun even tho it’s just an excuse for seeing some death animations of enemy heroes. The most fun part of the game is when people bicker and yell at each other anyway. Here’s a video where two people are yelling at each other on Heroes of Newerth.
-Tyler
PS: If you want to check out my Blood Hunter Guide then click here! It’s a little outdated but it still shows the basics.