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[Dreams-Visions]

As someone who would like to get into Dota, but is scared off by the unpleasant side of the community, I'd really like that.

As would I. I was not ready for the contrast between the Dota2 community and the TF2 community. Where TF2 is almost always good-spirited, relaxed and pleasant, Dota2 is almost always irritable, mean-spirited, and harsh. Rarely advising. Rarely asking for advice. Regularly fighting or threatening to quit or do something destructive.

 

[Takamura-San]

As someone who would like to get into Dota, but is scared off by the unpleasant side of the community, I'd really like that.

Playing Dota2 as a noob is like being a worm at a frat... but worse.

I'm still enduring my trial by fire.

 

[BeesEight]

dota 2 to come free with purchases of episode 3

Lol, Dota 2 will actually come out.

I'm hopeful that Valve won't lock away Heroes. They can probably already make a shitload off cosmetic items.

They won't lock away heroes. They already know they can make a ton of money off pointless cosmetics. And they will make so much money.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

I'm hopeful that Valve won't lock away Heroes. They can probably already make a shitload off cosmetic items.

I agree. I don't even mind if they have an early access tier for people that pay. If someone wants to pay $1-2 to play a hero a month or two ahead of me I'm cool with that. As long as all heroes are generally available for everyone.

 

[JWong]

"Twist" means you have to pay for every letter you enter into the chat.

 

[CornBurrito]

Playing Dota2 as a noob is like being a worm at a frat... but worse.

I'm still enduring my trial by fire.

Playing DOTA2 as a noob is only bad if you don't play with cool people you know.

"Twist" means you have to pay for every letter you enter into the chat.

If you are playing DOTA you should probably be using a mic anyway. People typically only use the chat to type "gg" at the end.

 

[Archie]

http://www.dota-utilities.com/2010/05/icefrog-q-session-4.html

[Valve] shared the same aspirations towards building a long term and sustainable community without having short sighted business goals that end up hurting the quality of the game.

The odds of Valve selling heroes is essentially nil.

 

[close to the edge]

this game is gonna make them illegal amounts of money

Especially if they get it going in China.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

If you are playing DOTA you should probably be using a mic anyway. People typically only use the chat to type "gg" at the end.

Assuming people speak engrish.

 

[undu]

Assuming people speak engrish.

да

 

[Takamura-San]

Assuming people speak engrish.

Well I speak Spanglish.

So... tomato tomatoe.

 

[Deadstar]

My guess is that if you are seen as a valuable player, HL2: Episode 3 will show up in your Steam games list.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

да

The other day I got stuck in a 45 minute game with kids speaking Portugese (?) and spamming

"jajaajjjjajajajajajjajjjajaja"

And drawing dicks and tic-tac-toe boards on the minimap. Non-stop. And of course we got wiped out. lol

45 minutes!

 

[Schweinehund]

Valve can't sell heroes.

Having a full hero pool is integral to game balance especially in ranked queuing.

If valve wants people to switch over from dota 1, especially the asian demographic, they cannot have locked heroes.

 

[Orayn]

Valve can't sell heroes.

Having a full hero pool is integral to game balance especially in ranked queuing.

If valve wants people to switch over from dota 1, especially the chinese demographic, they cannot have locked heroes.

We'd probably know by now if they were using that model, thanks to all the community data mining.

 

[BeesEight]

We'd probably know by now if they were using that model, thanks to all the community data mining.

Nor would it even be consistent with their business history or current practices. I'd be willing to bet my TF2 hats that the full pool will be available.

 

[kewlmyc]

Considering how much money Valve has made with TF2 going free to play, I wouldn't be surprised if all of Valve's future Multiplayer-based games were free to play with payable items in game.

 

[dave is ok]

Think they'll charge for the new heroes they add after the initial 103(ish)?

 

[Orayn]

Considering how much money Valve has made with TF2 going free to play, I wouldn't be surprised if all of Valve's future Multiplayer-based games were free to play with payable items in game.

And if they keep the microtransactions focused on cosmetics, convenience, and customization while making access to the substantive content free, it's a great model.

Spoiler

F2P Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Redux with Episode 3. BELIEVE!

Think they'll charge for the new heroes they add after the initial 103(ish)?

Not a chance. Valve cares too much about Dota's competitive balance to put up pay walls like that.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Think they'll charge for the new heroes they add after the initial 103(ish)?

No.

 

[BHK3]

I'm really happy to hear this news. I can't wait to pimp out my skeleton king then help some noob and get rewarded.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

I'm really happy to hear this news. I can't wait to pimp out my skeleton king then help some noob and get rewarded.

SK with a Pirate hat? I am in.

 

[BeesEight]

Think they'll charge for the new heroes they add after the initial 103(ish)?

No. Valve has a long history of free content updates and they stand by their philosophy that constant free support garners more money in the long run. Even the inevitable different maps and game modes will be free.

 

[eosos]

As long as you don't have to pay for heroes this should be great.

 

[kewlmyc]

And if they keep the microtransactions focused on cosmetics, convenience, and customization while making access to the substantive content free, it's a great model.

Spoiler

F2P Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Redux with Episode 3. BELIEVE!

I'd play it. It would also be great if Counterstrike GO was F2P.

 

[injurai]

I'd play it. It would also be great if Counterstrike GO was F2P.

I can pretty much guarantee CS:GO won't be free to play. It does't provide any good way to monetize it after being free, at least with out really pissing off people. You would get auto-ban vanilla servers all over the place.

Not to mention it's coming to consoles, so having two different models would just not happen.

 

[JustinBB7]

I can pretty much guarantee CS:GO won't be free to play. It does't provide any good way to monetize it after being free, at least with out really pissing off people. You would get auto-ban vanilla servers all over the place.

Not to mention it's coming to consoles, so having two different models would just not happen.

There are already hints found for a store in it though. Different skins for the player models/weapons can work just fine. And with the infrastructure already in place with Steam Trading/Steam Workshop it would be stupid not too. They make too much money from it.

 

[BHK3]

No. Valve has a long history of free content updates and they stand by their philosophy that constant free support garners more money in the long run. Even the inevitable different maps and game modes will be free.

Except for what happened with left 4 dead.

I'd play it. It would also be great if Counterstrike GO was F2P.

It won't, not every MP valve makes can be free. Plus it's a very hardcore shooter, I don't think the feedback would be all that positive.

 

[BeesEight]

I can pretty much guarantee CS:GO won't be free to play. It does't provide any good way to monetize it after being free, at least with out really pissing off people. You would get auto-ban vanilla servers all over the place.

Not to mention it's coming to consoles, so having two different models would just not happen.

I don't think they'll have console and PC communities shared though. Didn't Valve try that once and found that PC players have a huge advantage over console with keyboard and mouse?

I haven't been following CS though, so I really can't say.

Except for what happened with left 4 dead.

Ohoho.

 

[Archie]

The PS3/PC cross play in CS:GO was cut.

 

[injurai]

There are already hints found for a store in it though. Different skins for the player models/weapons can work just fine. And with the infrastructure already in place with Steam Trading/Steam Workshop it would be stupid not too. They make too much money from it.

The PS3/PC cross play in CS:GO was cut.

Hmm, maybe I'm wrong then. Cs w/ hats will be utter madness however. The aging Cs junkies will not be happy with this. I couldn't care too much either way but a store seems weird to me for that sort of game.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

My only wonder is if there might be something of a mismatch between the people that are likely to play this game and the people who are likely to buy microtransaction goods. I've always gotten the sense that the more hardcore bought more sparsely (with exceptions), while the more casual palyers made up the bulk of the F2P transactions.

With this game having a fairly steep learning curve and a legendarily awful community, I wonder the degree to which a lot of the people who might be willing to buy cosmetic items will drop the game before they get that invested.

 

[opticalmace]

The twist is you will give Valve your money.

 

[injurai]

Except for what happened with left 4 dead.

You do realize how that whole ordeal went down right? Turtle Rock was developing a source game, and Valve decided to buy them out to get rights to the game. L4D1 was published and released under Valves name, and the Studio Broke off of Valve to go on their way.

Valve now owning the franchise decided to make the greatly improved game L4D2. They added a significant amount of source engineer features that were missing in the first game and developed new technologies. This is on top of the new content which was just as much as what was originally in L4D1. For free they have brought the L4D maps back into the second game for free, which requires redoing the way the Director handles the flow of the game.

Say what you want about the 1 year dev time, just realize that the work was there and you could have easily gotten 50% during one of the sales.

 

[Jackl]

Maybe:

Negative rep score= pay for basic access?

Positive Rep score= Free Premium access?

Neutral= Basic F2P features?


I don't know. What he mentioned sounds weird.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

I've spent about $30 on LoL in the three weeks I've played it, so I'm pretty sure Valve will get my money (and I will happily give it to them).

 

[kittens]

This sounds really interesting. Not sure if I like it, but it's definitely compelling.

 

[Kade]

If you are playing DOTA you should probably be using a mic anyway. People typically only use the chat to type "gg" at the end.

As well as "feeder fuck", "uninstall" and "ur bad".

 

[HoosTrax]

I've always gotten the sense that the more hardcore bought more sparsely (with exceptions), while the more casual palyers made up the bulk of the F2P transactions.

At least in TF2, that's not really true. Particularly with the "Strange" variant of weapons. These weapons have normal stats, but additional stat tracking counters for things like "players killed", "players headshotted", "buildings destroyed", etc. And these counters are displayed during killcam sequences to the player you've killed. So for that reason, these weapon variants are highly sought after by the hardcore crowd for vanity reasons.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Glad to see confirmation of this. I couldn't see Valve handling it any other way, to be honest, not if they want it to be come the dominant MOBA in e-sports.

In a perfect world this would stop people from calling lol casual and dota serious.

 

[HK-47]

I actually like the idea of a system that rewards nice people and punishes assholes, the horrible communities are what's holding these games back.

No, the structure of the game is what is holding the community back. Its an inevitability that the community become toxic given how dota plays.

 

[HK-47]

There is no way Valve are going to charge for heroes, the game isn't designed with the model in mind (like LoL) and it'll just piss off the majority of the community.

Its also a horrible model that just seems good on paper.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Maybe:

Negative rep score= pay for basic access?

Positive Rep score= Free Premium access?

Neutral= Basic F2P features?


I don't know. What he mentioned sounds weird.

TF2 already has a coaching feature. So, for example, it's not hard to imagine there being mechanics (like rep accumulated from commendations, from being helpful to newbs by coaching them, etc.) causing matchmaking to place you with people of similar rapport. Hopefully resulting in:

1.) Decent people being placed in more friendly, pleasant matches.

2.) Indecent people wanting to improve their conduct so that they too can play with said decent people.

Not having to play with shitty people (in both conduct and play ability) will be a fantastic motivator.

No, the structure of the game is what is holding the community back. Its an inevitability that the community become toxic given how dota plays.

I disagree. It's the people who make the community, not the structure of the game.

Even when people are playing like shit, I try to find ways to encourage them or offer advice/help. Decent people accept advice. Shitty people say, "fuck you" when you offer advice. Shittiest people say "fuck you" when you say, "GLHF". Those people can enjoy playing with people just like them. I shouldn't have to, as I'm not only a pretty good player, but I'm also a helpful player to newcomers at every opportunity.

Life is too short to be a perpetual dickhead. Let shitty people be shitty among each other. I applaud Valve for looking to address this issue head-on.

 

[JustinBB7]

Hmm, maybe I'm wrong then. Cs w/ hats will be utter madness however. The aging Cs junkies will not be happy with this. I couldn't care too much either way but a store seems weird to me for that sort of game.

Don't think it will be hats, there was concept art of like 40 or so different looks for the player models, including female ones. They could make a store and sell those kinda things. Weapon skins, Announcer packs like in Dota 2, maybe music or something. It could happen. Just because TF2 has silly hats doesn't mean all their other games will, Dota 2 items so far look great and fit perfectly within the style of the game. They could do the same with CS and only make items that fit on a more serious note.

 

[Archie]

CS:GO being F2P would help foster a larger competitive community, and Valve seems really keen on #ESPORTS now and days.

 

[Jake Tower]

I remember Gabe saying he wants there to be a way to reward helpful members of the community and 'punish' those not so helpful (griefers, etc.) aside from banning them, by somehow having them pay more.

I conceptualized it as the 'Shawn Elliott tax.'

Edit:

Gabe has talked about this before, he threw out an idea of charging people if they ruin other players experience like say mic spamming. It was said in jest but the principle is there. Reward people who take the time to help others and enrich the experience/community, cast aside/punish those who fuck things up.

This was what I was thinking of.

 

[Helmholtz]

Glad it's free. It pretty much has to be if it wants to come close to competing with other MOBA games.

 

[deleted]

So we already know the following things will be implemented in the game:

• Announcer packs (for everything, only you can hear them)
• Announcer packs (for your killstreaks - everybody else can hear them)
• Cosmetic Items (for different parts of the heroes body)
• Strange Items (counts different things you do, like placing wards)
• Hero Skins
• Courier Skins
• Hex Skins (different Animals etc - connected with "shitty wizard" I think)
• Taunts

Seems like Valve have the money part covered

 

[Visualante2]

I would have thought maybe they'd have some sort of elite type membership, where serious Dota players get access to more statistical data, community features, streaming.. but Valve sees games as a service, and I'd doubt they'd want to do that.

I'm really struggling to see what they can do besides charge for characters. Which'd be shit.

edit. Above post seems to suggest it's mostly superficial things. I'm okay with that.

 

[Hylian7]

I would have thought maybe they'd have some sort of elite type membership, where serious Dota players get access to more statistical data, community features, streaming.. but Valve sees games as a service, and I'd doubt they'd want to do that.

I'm really struggling to see what they can do besides charge for characters. Which'd be shit.

edit. Above post seems to suggest it's mostly superficial things. I'm okay with that.

Yes, cosmetic stuff, and the "valuable players" thing is probably something about this.