Because we truly believe that the Workshop is the most incredible engine for funding a free-to-play game that has ever been conceived, and some of us have been a cheerleader for the model to everyone we've met since we started contributing to the game. It's a completely community driven effort on both the side of the creators and the consumers. It is, at its best, a successful signature product of Valve experimentation and implementation, something that should be nourished and grown, cared for and held up as a legitimately amazing form of a successful UGC driven economy.
It has empowered 3D and 2D designers, both amateur and professional, to take full charge of their own designs and compete in an environment filled with other top-grade artists from around the world. It has given artists who might have problems fitting into a standard rigid work schedule, for reasons physical, medical, or mental, a platform on which they can not only support themselves, but thrive.
We've always assumed the success of Workshop artists, the community, and Dota 2 as both a game and an esport, would all go hand-in-hand. It has become depressingly clear over the past eight months that Valve, or elements within Valve, think this is not the case.
If the Workshop was to fail as a full-time job prospect, we would expect and want that to be a result of a market dive, the failure of cosmetics we create to drive the economy of Dota 2, and not seemingly artificially imposed cuts to our share of the revenue to line other pockets or avenues for undisclosed reasons.
After all the above, for many of us, the Call to Arms for the TI7 Collector's Cache represents a final breaking point of the Dota 2 Workshop. Those of us who manage to get something in it may be able to continue doing this through the year into a further uncertain future. Those of us who don't are going to have to call it quits.
We don't have any sort of leverage, and we have essentially been ignored by Valve. And some of us fear that, if we were to continue to press the issue with them, we might get essentially blacklisted from the Steam Workshop, so we have been left with little choice but to bring this matter to your attention directly, in a collective manner.
We hope that, with attention brought to this issue, we can see some systemic change, and even maybe a better future for Dota cosmetics as a whole.
