Dota 2

[SuperTaz]

I finally got enrolled in the Dota 2 beta. Did anyone else get in today?

 

http://www.playdota.com/forums/

 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/570/

[xX_Renegade_Xx]

Nope, I've been waiting for one for a while so not getting my hopes up.

[MaydaX]

I got into the beta too. I filled out that survey a long time ago for shits and giggles :P

[MaydaX]

Introducing the Dota Store

 

June 1, 2012 - Dota Team

 

Today we’re announcing that Dota 2 will be free to play, and contain an in-game store where you’ll be able to buy fancy gear to customize your heroes. From the forum threads we’ve read over the months since The International, it’s pretty clear that this won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone out there. There are a variety of smaller details that we’ve decided to put together a FAQ to help with, but we wanted to address the two most common concerns right away:

• Dota 2 will not be a pay-to-win game. All the items in the store are cosmetic, and don’t affect gameplay.
  
• All of the heroes will be available free of charge. We believe restricting player access to heroes could be destructive to game design, so it’s something we plan to avoid.
  

We’re really excited about this. As we’ve explored cosmetic customization for heroes, we’ve been finding that we can use it to broaden our lore, and expand on the characters. We’ve received a lot of positive responses to the unique hero voices in the game, and the window they give you into each hero’s personality. We think this will be another avenue where we can expand in that direction. Here you can see some examples:

As mentioned above, we’ve put together a FAQ that covers concerns we’ve seen out in the community, and our plans for addressing them, and you can check that out here. As always, take a look and send us your thoughts. If we’ve missed anything, make sure to let us know.

Dota’s always been a game where the community has had an extremely active role in driving it forward, from the huge amount of feedback that Icefrog receives to the number of suggestions posted in the hero ideas forums. We wanted to make sure that Dota 2 expands on that community interaction even further, to the point where players can directly contribute to the game itself.

So today we’re also announcing that Dota 2 is now part of the Steam Workshop. If you’re not familiar with the Steam Workshop, it’s a place where fans can upload content they’ve created for a game, and other players can vote and comment on it. The development team then takes those uploads and releases them as official parts of the game itself, and the original fan creator gets a slice of the sales from the in-game store. In the first year alone over 3.5 million dollars was paid out to TF2 fans who’s creations are now a permanent part of the game.

If you’re a Dota 2 fan with some artistic skills, here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor of what’s sure to be a vibrant community for years to come, and be able to contribute directly to the game you’re already playing non-stop. If you’re still working on your art skills, you can still contribute massively by looking over the submissions as they arrive, and giving the thumbs up to ones that you’d like to see in your games.

 

http://blog.dota2.com/2012/06/introducing-the-dota-store/

 

 

• Dota 2 will not be a pay-to-win game. All the items in the store are cosmetic, and don’t affect gameplay.
  
• All of the heroes will be available free of charge. We believe restricting player access to heroes could be destructive to game design, so it’s something we plan to avoid.
  

 

Found the two points refreshing. Replace Heroes with Maps and you could apply the exact same thing to FPS games. I've only been playing PC games for over 10 years, what the f*ck do I know right :P

[SuperTaz]

Dota 2 Tournament Coming

 

 

Valve have revealed their plans to support full tournaments within the Dota 2 client. In a post on the Dota 2 blog, the team describe how players will be able to pay for access to live matches and replays that run in-engine. The money raised will be split between Valve and the tournament organiser in a similar manner to the Steam Workshop. This functionality is due to launch later in the week.

 

The Defence tournament will be the first to use the system, which Valve say is just the beginning of the game’s support for competitive play. “This won’t be the end of our features for tournaments, or players, but we think it’s the right first step – helping tournaments become more financially stable helps all the players participating in them.”

 

Valve aren’t trying to force out traditional stream-based casting, stating that “[they'll] continue to do the best we can to support them. Some customers will always prefer to use their web browser to watch matches.” They’re paying particular attention to the needs of tournament sponsors, who need a way to declare their support and display advertising.

 

The other major new feature will be Teams, which allows a group of players to declare their affiliation formally within the game. Dota 2 will detect when two teams are playing and make appropriate changes, such as displaying team logos and banners. Ultimately, this will be expanded to include Team vs. Team matchmaking.

Earlier in the week we rounded up a number of the Workshop items that we’d like to see added to Dota 2. Do you think Valve’s support for in-game tournaments and player-made add-ons has what it takes to give Dota 2 the advantage?

[xX_Renegade_Xx]

I got into the beta too. I filled out that survey a long time ago for shits and giggles :P

 

Got my invite today so meh :P