Nothing is sweeter than the taste of victory after you've been beaten to a bloody pulp for months before you get your first win in a tough game like Dota 2 or Counter-Strike... I'm told. Technically I still haven't won anything, but it's bound to happen sooner or later, right? What game took you a long time to master?

"Accessible." Did you just lose all interest in any game I'm about to talk about? Well, prepare for a sudden and surprising reversal: this article is about some of theaccessible games around. If you're looking for a gaming experience that'll put you through the meatgrinder and mash your brain until it looks like thoroughly used chewing gum, as you walk through the fire of learning its complex mechanics and nuances over a period of months, PC gaming is practically a gold mine. And mastery? Years. Here are a few of the best, why they're worth spending your blood, sweat, and time on, and a few tips for what you can do to get a running start when you first start out on the long, hard path to glory.: CS 1.6 is where the hardest of the hardcore tactical shooter players have dwelt since 2003. To these guys, the slight accessibility tweaks in Counter-Strike Global Offensive are, well, offensive. They've memorized every corner of every map, every team strategy, and every individual weapon tactic that nearly a decade of constant high-level competition could dream up -- many of which Valve and the original Counter-Strike mod team never could've seen coming.: There's no room for error. Rambo tactics simply won't work. Teamwork, finesse, and absolutely precise aim are. In a world of multiplayer shooters where everyone seems to want to play Captain Lone Wolf Commando Man, it's incredibly refreshing to see them punished for their arrogance. CS 1.6 is tense and unforgiving, but exceedingly rewarding once you finally come to grips with its nuances.: Ultimately, developing the lightning-fast reflexes and dead-eye aim required for success is something that can't truly be taught. For the purpose of improving individual skill, though, these two quick videos will help you get up to speed on basic techniques and the relative effectiveness of each weapon. Each gun has its own recoil, and correcting for that is absolutely necessary if you're going to score the all-important headshots. Also, both crouching and standing still vastly improve aim relative to running and gunning, and a couple techniques (displayed in detail in those videos) allow you to stay in a state of near-continuous movement while also keeping your weapon steady. After you've gotten the hang of that, you might be able to find a team willing to take you on -- that's where your learning will truly begin. Remember: always communicate, and expect to die a lot.: EVE has a reputation for being incredibly player-driven and political, but that side of CCP's space-dog-eat-space-dog, Goonswarm-eat-all universe doesn't even really even surface until after you've spent some serious time figuring out the basics. Certainly, CCP's improved the tutorial experience over the years, but getting past the tip of this MMO's interstellar iceberg is still an utterly glacial experience.: EVE's almostplayer-driven. Wanna have a record-breakingly colossal space battle for no good reason? Go for it. Feel like taking part in a massive operation to bring the entire galaxy's economy to its knees? CCP won't stop you. And then, of course, there are enough tales of amazingly elaborate corporate sabotage to make the totalitarian government from Firefly and Serenity seem vaguely appealing. It's a wild west in space, and if you play your cards right, a land of opportunity.: First things first: you will lose your ship. It'll happen pretty quickly -- as explosions tend to. This, however, isn't the end of the Universe. Ships in EVE are fairly disposable, and understanding this makes it feel far less hostile in the early goings. Beyond that, make sure to join the Help and Rookie Help chat channels -- advanced players may treat you like a floating hunk of scum or outright take advantage of your newcomer status, but help's only a message away. Also, the community's put together some incredibly useful resources. For instance, BattleClinic will help you with optimal loadouts for ships, and here's a chart that will give you some direction on your path through EVE's utterly overwhelming sandbox. StarCraft and StarCraft II aren't the most complex RTSes out there, but their players range from comically incompetent to completely insane. High-level StarCraft play is like slathering yourself in honey and walking into a bear cave. Can you stop a Terran 1/1/1 into Marine+Tank? Can you execute a 7-Roach Rush into Baneling Bust? Do you know HerO's 2 Gate Stargate ? If that sounds like gibberish, you are not ready. Unless you knowwhat you're doing, you're going to get eaten alive in minutes.: StarCraft strikes a near-perfect balance between cerebral long-term planning and tide-turning, blink-of-an-eye craziness. Truly competitive matches can go on for an hour, yet stay terrifically nerve-wracking the entire time. Also, come on, it's StarCraft. If you've been a PC gamer for long, hearing the phrase "You must construct additional Pylons" is like a warm glass of milk to you. A warm glass of milk poured down your ear.: Sure, you can dive straight in and let StarCraft 2's matchmaking pair you against the other newbies, but if you're looking for a shortcut to serious-business play, start by studying at the feet of the masters. Super-knowledgeable shoutcasters like Day[9] will break down strategies in easy-to-understand fashion, and you can see tons of high-level pros doing battle over at IPL MLG , or GOMtv Once your first moves are second nature, bots are your friend. They're still trying to hurl your base into the Sun and turn all your Ghosts into actual ghosts, but they're pushovers compared to the real deal and a great punching bag to test your build orders, rushes, scouting runs, base harassment, and other tactical basics against. Only once you've got those up to speed should you wade into live servers' deep end and start to build up your ranking toward the Platinum, Diamond, or even the ultra-elite Master leagues. No, you'll probably never match pros for sheer actions-per-minute (unless you're some kind of hundred-armed squid monster) but their tactics are still well worth understanding.: Well, first off, just look at it. ASCII graphics certainly hold a certain charm, but they aren't exactly easy to read. Hidden within are a billion ways to fail and no actual win conditions. Failures range from simple cave-ins and drownings in flooded mines all the way up to a Bronze Colossus rampaging through all your defenses to wreak havoc to goblins ambushing your supply caravans until you starve. It's all random, and it's maddeningly complex. The short version? This is a game that differentiates between garbage and refuse. Yes, they are: Here's the thing: the best Dwarf Fortress stories rise from the ashes of horrific crash-and-burn failures. On top of that, dwarves frequently do things you'll never even see coming. I, for instance, have heard tales of deranged dwarves hacking up their brethren and smithing their bones into weaponry. Seriously. Need more? Check out this colossal, incredibly intricate illustrated account of a fortress that awoke an ancient evil and paid a terrible (and also hilarious, but mostly terrible) price.: Once again, the community rides to your rescue. Before you do anything else, check out Dwarf Fortress Wiki's Quickstart Guide . It won't turn your ramshackle society into a mighty subterranean utopia over night, but it will give your dwarves a fighting chance to survive through their first few nights -- which is, of course, a good first step. So think of this as a tutorial. Beyond that, experiment! Dwarf Fortress is essentially a series of dominoes that, when toppled, somehow set off countless fireworks displays, Cirque Du Soleil performances, and apocalyptic natural disasters. It's at its best when something happens that you simply haven't planned for. Embrace the madness.: While Riot has had great success in making League of Legends a fairly user-friendly MOBA, Valve's Dota 2 makes no compromises. It's an almost completely loyal update of one of the most hardcore games of all time: Defense of the Ancients, and if you can't pull your weight in the lanes you can expect to be beaten up by the enemy and verbally spat upon by your own teammates. There's tons to learn: a hundred heroes to choose from (108 are planned for launch), each with their own quirks and abilities to learn. Then you've got to figure out how to build yours up as you level, how they interact with other heroes on your own team, how they match against enemy heroes, whether they're a carry or disabler or tank or pusher or jungler or or or...: You never stop learning. No, Dota 2 will not go easy on you when you first start. But even once you've grown beyond total uselessness, there are still so many tactics and techniques to pick up, practice, and eventually master. The breadth of this thing is positively absurd. At many points, you'll probably be overwhelmed and maybe even frustrated -- but never, ever bored.: The first thing is to find a hero you like and stick with them. Bots will help with this process, too, as MOBA communities can be a bit... let's call it "harsh." Dota 2's bots will give you a run for your beginner's money while also providing the sort of warm, nurturing environment that only a soulless, calculating AI can create. After that, see if you can play with some friends. Yes, guides are helpful, but DOTA's definitely a far better experience when you have patient people who are willing to walk you through the basics. And if you can't do that, just be honest. Let your teammates know that you're new. If you run in and ruin everything in total silence, it's going to piss people off. But many players are more willing to help than you might think, so set the record straight.