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But most old players, I'm sure, switched for a completely different reason.

I'm that guy from Uzbekistan, let me clarify: the issue isn't the amount of 3 dollars, but the difficulty of sending them; you either need a Visa Gold or send it unofficially through someone.
IMHO they switched for the same reason they play Jebus Cross - lots of troops, sprinkled with goodies, you feel like a god, crushing everything in the first few days. PvP-like templates, on the other hand, are just geared towards results/sportsmanship; 2nd level, 9 stacks at the start objectively reduce randomness, auto-bans everywhere like in Europe.
Many anti-SoD-ites are like Hitler, the same negativity from bad roads in this your sectarian outdated Soviet-Rash.

Iamsamstan

Firstly, I'd start by saying that the top players in SoD and Hota are practically the same people, or thereabouts; this suggests that at the very least, the same people understand the gameplay of both versions better than others.

I'd even guarantee that if you transplanted all HeroesWorld players to Diablo/CS, the rankings would change insignificantly; wit and motivation are the main skills in any endeavor.

Secondly, regarding SoD's non-linearity, the vast majority plays on 6lm10a

It's hard to call that a problem with SoD. I don't know what's wrong with these people, why eat a cactus. Well, run a generator, look at 10-20-30 layouts - /post/737799/

Thirdly, (firstly) the Hota generator completely outperforms the SoD generator. Many people on streams don't even understand what a "block" on the road is and mistake any level 1-2 neutrals standing on the road for one, while in SoD there are blocks of strong monsters everywhere that are impossible to break through without losses.

Not a problem, we'll make a plugin so that every hero gets Artifact of the elements from the start, we'll live large.

Fourthly, I don't really understand why not make it 100% 3 stacks in SoD; after all, it makes the start easier for any Castle.

It was done, but even 2 guaranteed stacks were rejected by militant Old Believers. A province thing, they didn't get it..

Sixthly, it's stupid to criticize one version or another, because everyone has already decided what to play, and those who say, I'm fundamentally for Hota and against SoD, are far fewer than those who are true SoD-ers.

Let's say tomorrow the government says: children of mixed origin and their parents get 10k$ a year. In about 20 years you'll be in a zoo, but it's stupid to blame anyone: it's all fair, everyone chose for themselves.

It really does resemble a sect - the lack of optionality and the ability to disable Hota's innovations (as was implemented in WT - the ability to play WT under SoD).

This is called anal fencing - The Master wanted only Hota, without the possibility for SoD players to use the lobby's features.

The common principle everywhere was the same - the truest version is not the canon from 1999, but the version that is accepted in competitive tournaments.

Those games are for balance and sport, but Heroes is a different class of game, for gameplay and atmosphere. These two don't intersect afaik; you make it balanced - you get chess or modern games where it's impossible to build an unplayable class/skill combo, you always win everywhere; you make a story - you get (as in life) strong and weak options.

No matter how many times I tried to force myself to switch to Hota, it only made me want to delete the game

It took me 3 times, and only because I got tired of waiting 4 hours for an opponent in SoD.

So essentially an "improved SoD" had already been "created" multiple times - it's just that for various reasons the created versions don't satisfy everyone.

That's normal: for example, not all Tolkien fans accept fan-made porn based on LotR as canon.

it's just old age
the ability to step out of your comfort zone and learn new things decreases every year

Or aesthetics. You can always call a person who doesn't accept rap / AUE / LGBT / skinny jeans@lumber-beard old. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those, I treat gay people normally).