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Referral FAQ - Dota2.ca

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Dota 2 is fun!

Well I was going to initially write some short and straight to the point post about people's arguments about Dota 2 being hard and not fun and blah blah blah, then it kinda went into a long rant about Dota 2, and stuff. Well I decide since I wrote a bunch of nonsense anyways I mind as well post it.

As most of you people know that there have been articles written that bashed on Dota 2 for being a game that has ancient game mechanics that does not have a place in the new era of “Action RTS” games. Dota 2 punishes players too harshly for deaths, forces you to do many tedious things and having over complicated heroes. I will offer counter arguments for those points and other arguments that people have voiced or have complained as well. I will refer to Starcraft 1 and 2 examples so that I can attempt to make a comparison to Dota 2 to make the point a bit more clear and explain things better. For people who are not familiar with Starcraft at all I will try to explain to the best of my abilities as if the person does not know anything at all, and they are total “noobs” to Starcraft. I will also make comparisons with Dota 2 and League of Legends to contrast two different games. I will hope that people will read this and change their attitudes towards Dota 2 and have a more enjoyable experience and have fun playing the game.

Let’s start with some background for Starcraft 2.

Starcraft 2 is the most popular online game in terms of just sear number of players and the number of competitive tournaments. No game at this current time comes close to Starcraft 2’s popularity for E-sports events, or even the number of people who watch and stream the game. Its success is based on the first Starcraft game which boomed in Korea during its recession to become the most popular played and watched game in the country. In Korea they even have TV channels just dedicated to Starcraft, which shows just how popular this game is in that country. The game is basically about building armies, harvesting resources, and destroying all the opposition’s buildings and become victorious. There are 3 main races; Terran, Protoss and Zerg. Each race has their own unique units and has their weaknesses, and strengths. The game is very deep and each match has different outcomes, and different build orders, strategy, and unit compositions. So no matches are ever the same. This was the excitement and the joy of just watching a professional level game of Starcraft 2. Just to see what people can do in Starcraft 2 fascinates observers, the amount of skill required to mimic what some of these professional gamers is really high. It just seemed the sky was the limited on what some of these players can pull off. Not all Starcraft 2 watchers played the game themselves, some are people who never even played the game and they still enjoy watching just as much as others who have poured countless hours into playing this game. Starcraft 2 continues to grow and get more and more viewers as time goes by.

Now time to dive into the main arguments.

Dota 2 has been heavily criticized for being too unfriendly to new comers to the game and being very hard to learn since you have hundreds of heroes and many items that did many things, and had many purposes for purchasing them. This argument, people have said that would be the downfall of this game and people after being too frustrated will just not play this game anymore and move on to another game like League of Legends. This reason alone will stagnant Dota 2’s player base and will cause it to never come close to League of Legend’s popularity, just like many other really complicated games like Natural Selection, Eve Online, Red Orchestra, and etc. (all are very hard games to learn and play and have small player base) . This argument almost sounds ridiculous and silly. Complication alone is never a reason why people don’t play a game. Just look at Starcraft 2, this game is very complicated and is almost as hard or harder to be very good at, as Dota 2. You have to know many builds orders, understand how each units work and what they do, know what your opponents are doing and what they plan on doing, timing attacks, how to control your units, hotkeys, counters, and the list almost seems to go on and on. You know by now that this game will need some serious amounts of time to understand this game intimately and be very good at it. I mean sure you don’t have to watch and read countless tutorials on the game to actually play it with enjoyment. You can be in Bronze league (lowest player bracket) the whole time, playing Starcraft 2 blissfully and still have fun. It’s up to decide if you want to improve or not, and bother to spend a lot of time learning the game to its fullest extent. You can do the same with Dota 2, as well. You don’t have to watch videos on Youtube on how to become better, or go on Playdota and read every single hero guide. You can have fun playing the game at low levels, and still feel that the game is worth playing for just the enjoyment’s sake. For almost any game you can make this argument for and Dota 2 is no different. If the argument of a game being too complicated and not fun was true, Starcraft 2 would have never been as popular as it is now.

The pinnacle argument for complication being anti-fun would be the Dota 2 heroes themselves, using Invoker as the prime example of that. People say he is a hero that is hard to play and overly complicated for no real reason at all. They say a hero (or champion) should be easy to use and learn, so that everyone can have fun with playing those heroes instead of being frustrated by using heroes that have abilities that are hard to use or execute. Players who have spent more time playing with the hero will have an unfair advantage compared to other players that have not. People that are not familiar with what the hero will do poorly against them, and will not have fun playing the game, compared to some who actually knows what that hero can do and what abilities it has. When I read this, it seems to not make any sense at all. Of course people who have play a hero more than another person is going to better with it, and have a better time facing them as well. If you put time into learning something (which does not need your whole life time) then the payoff is greater. Like many other games you have to learn how to play and then devote sometime into it if you plan on getting better. If that’s not for you then don’t play the game, there many other games out there that don't need many hours of play time. Let’s take this example of Starcraft 2, if you play Zerg all the time you would be much more familiar with units and the build orders for them. Let’s say you face someone who plays Protoss but have not play against Zergs often or even know what their units do. Since the Zerg player which is you, knows the ins and outs of its race, knows how to deal with the Protoss. The Zerg player has more knowledge and experience, so the player proceeds to beat the Protoss player. Is it unfair or anti-fun that the Protoss player who hasn’t faced against many Zerg players, or haven’t played Zerg doesn’t know how their units work, or their build order? The answer is no. You play the game and you learn from how Zerg players play and what each of the units does, what their timing attacks and build orders are, and you improve from that. Just because someone has spent more time playing a particular race more doesn’t make it less fun for people who didn’t, it’s simple as that. If you want to have fun in a competitive game then you have to learn different aspect of the game, and that comes from experience. The same applies to different or complicated heroes, you just going to have to learn what they do, and act accordingly.

I would like to point out that League of Legends has also a huge “anti-fun” factor that is the game and which I think is a horrible game design; the levelling system and runes. If you don’t want to put any money into the game then it will take a lot of your time to actually acquire all the necessary things to play the “real” game and be at the same level and have no handicaps. The small advantages that need you to level your account and acquire runes have big effects on the gameplay. I know you won’t run into some that is ranked higher than you with the max level and all runes but if you do face someone with more levels and runes then you, they have an advantage over you. They can beat you by simply just having those advantages which are unfair and not fun. The level and rune advantages can feel that you are facing someone in Dota 2 with full inventory items and you having no items at all (ok maybe not that drastic, but you get the point). In the early game it’s pretty small advantages but never less they have the edge over the opponent and even if they are better, the person with the advantage will win the lane. I think this is almost worse than someone not knowing how a complex hero works, or feel handicapped because they are playing one and have no clue. At the very least they don’t have anything that would give them a disadvantage from the game from the start. If a high level player plays the complex hero it will start the same as if a compete newbie plays one. The only difference really is the players themselves that makes the hero powerful or weak. With all “Action RTS” games like Dota 2, having a levelling system doesn’t work very well, and should be only in games like World of Warcraft where the game is based on levelling and acquiring items. The other problem with skill builds and runes in League of Legends is that it forces players to know how to build certain heroes and what runes to use with each of them. You can’t simply use one set of builds to work perfectly with all heroes, and have to go on websites to see what are the “best” builds are. You do the same with Dota 2, there are good builds with skill levelling and items which is also in League of Legends but you don’t do this pre-game and everyone has access to these skills and items. This can be considered something that isn’t fun and it adds more complexity to the game?

The idea that complexity of a hero that makes it not fun to play can be the same if the hero were simplified and have no variation from another one. If the ability feels the same with just different particle effects then it’s not a different hero. People after a while will realize that there is little difference between the heroes and have played and see the same things over and over again. This will get old fast and will not be fun anymore. There are only so many things that you can add to the game that will be simple but different from all the other abilities. Sure you can make an ability that is single target but do different amounts of damage, with a slow, or damage over time, or a debuff and etc, but it will feel similar to another ability. This is why Dota 2 differs on its overall game design and development over time, it adds variations that are new and are fun. Each hero in Dota is very unique and fits in many different roles, that why the meta game constantly shifts.

The next big reason that makes Dota 2 anti-fun is the harsh punishment for dying in the game. Dying in any game is not fun but it’s part of every game. Each game has different ways of punishing players for dying and that can be anything from a long wait time to losing a chunk of money. Losing a big amount of gold for dying and the killer gaining it, is the reason that people say makes Dota not fun. That is simply not true, and I would say it’s more frustration on the player who dies often. Frustration can be experience from any game, and League of Legends is no different. Sure you don’t lose gold for dying but does it mean that they are not as equally frustrated and not having fun? No one wants to die 10 times in a row to the same person, that is simply not fun (for the killer it’s probably fun). Simply having the punishment more bearable does not make it more fun and better than punishing someone more. I know the deaths in Dota 2 can snowball faster and can lead to game that might to be impossible to come back from, but they are still possible. How is it fun to have a team upset you when you have the massive kill advantage, and rob you of your victory not due to skill or being outplayed but simply because the other team is not punished enough (in League of Legends, more you kill them, the less gold you get). I think that is simply wrong and does not create for more fun or excitement when teams can just comeback from a dire situation undeserving. The penalty and reward system in Dota is implemented so it reward players that kill other heroes and put themselves in at an advantage, which allows the team to be one step closer to victory. If you successfully killed the other team and up by 20 kills, do you not think it’s fair for the losing team to be able to win, simply because they weren't punished enough? I don't think so. The winning team has outplayed the other team, and maybe even picked better, but very deserving of the victory. That to me is what fun is supposed to be, and that is being rewarded for killing other heroes. No one finds losing fun but that’s the reality of the game and every game that is competitive. Simply making the punishment for death much less doesn’t make it more fun and fair at all.

Now we will dive into the mechanics of the game.

Everyone knows that Dota 2 is trying very hard to replicate the same mechanics of WC3 Dota and keep it true to the original. Some people have said that these mechanics are out of date and needs to change in order for the game to stay fresh and creative. The mechanics that is mainly argued against is the ability to deny creeps/hero/towers. The main argument is that I seems to be over counter-intuitive to do so, because why in the world would you kill your own creeps, it's your own ally. You wouldn't kill your own team, would you? Well of course the logical answer is no, but I mean this a video game for fuck's sake. It's a game mechanic in the game that adds more depth to the game, there is skill involved when trying to last hit and deny. It's playing mind games with your opponent in the lane, and trying to outwit them, so that you can gain small advantages in the game. It may seem a tedious thing for some people to do but it's the nature of the game, I mean some hero just need to get lots of farm to acquire the items they need to be powerful, that can be tedious to some as well. If you hate doing that then this game genre is not for you, because farming is a very important aspect of the game. Denying in Dota 2 seems to be a counter-intuitive thing to do, but when we look at Starcraft we have many game mechanics that may seem like that way as well, but does not makes the game less fun or make no sense to do. Take for example at every starting minutes of a game match in Starcraft. Does it seem intuitive to send out a worker to scout every spawn locations on the map, to find the enemy? Not really, because why the fuck is the worker not mining resources, or building something? Seems to not make sense right? Well of course it doesn't, but it's a very basic skill to learn and have because finding the spawn location is very important, and can influence what strategy is used. Another counter-intuitive mechanic would be building placements, which is very important if you play Protoss, and Terran. Blocking off choke point with important buildings such as Supply Depot (building that gives you more supply limit to build more units), and Barracks (building that produces units), seems to be counter-intuitive it's a mechanic that was discovered and used because it added another element to the game. Now with this block off you won't have a million Zerglings (very cheap and fast units that Zerg players can make) flooding into your base and killing you straight up. If it wasn't for counter-intimate mechanics then the game would become very stale, and old very fast. Counter-intimate mechanics adds depth to the game and adds more interesting elements.

Hopefully for people who have bothered to read it, would find that Dota can be fun for anyone that would choose to play the game. Dota 2 is a very deep game and it will take a very long time before you get decent at it, but what game doesn't take time to master and be good at. The reward for improving in Dota will defiantly show and you will find the game to be even more enjoyable. Enhance your experience with Dota 2 by grabbing some friends, making some new ones, join a Dota 2 community that is friendly, helpful and inviting. I promise you that you will have fun and play a game that will exist for who knows when... probably till the end of time.

Having more knowledge is the reward, not the lack of.

-Fayth

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Feast! - Dota.com Blog Entry

Thanksgiving is upon us, so we’re keeping this week’s update small. With so many Dota 2 tournaments cropping up lately we’ve been spending some time expanding our tournament features. Our latest update brings the first of these, adding save/load functionality to private games. Every minute a new save file is automatically created. This happens in the background so you won’t notice it. The lobby leader will be able to load any of the saved games from the Game Setup option when creating a new lobby.
Tomorrow marks the start of Dreamhack, one of the biggest LAN events in the world. Their Dota 2 tournament includes both local and international teams, and should make for some exciting games to watch. You can find more information and coverage over at Dreamhack’s website or Gosugamers.net.

Source: http://blog.dota2.com/2011/11/feast/

It's very nice that they are putting more features relating to tournaments uses. I also like the save feature just in case if something catastrophic happens like the power going out or something crazy like that. You never know right?

Also very excited to watch Dota 2 at the Dreamhack event! It features many games and many streams check it out guys!

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SK Gaming announces Dota 2 team

SK Gaming announces a Dota 2 team, consisting of the Danish players from the team previously known as monkeybusiness.



Source: http://www.sk-gaming...xmonkeybusiness

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Blizzard President Disapproves Of Valve's D...

In a Eurogamer interview at BlizzCon, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime has reiterated the company's opinion that Valve should not trademark the term DOTA.
Valve has moved to trademark the term for its game Dota 2, a direct sequel to the hugely popular Warcraft 3 mod. Blizzard is developing its own version in the form of an official StarCraft 2 mod, which it is continuing to call Blizzard DOTA.
Asked if Blizzard was in talks with Valve, Morhaime told Eurogamer that he wasn't able to comment, but added: "We're very friendly with Valve. So yeah, we do talk to Valve."
But he then went on to repeat the stance first outlined by Rob Pardo at last year's BlizzCon. "I can share that our opinion about the situation is that the DOTA name really should belong to the community. I think that it's been part of the Warcraft 3 community for a very long time, and we would like to see the community continue being able to use that name, and having an exclusive mark owned by a competitor doesn't feel right to us."

Source:http://www.gaminguni...ance--6743.html

I really think Blizzard is making these statements because they know they should have trademarked the game themselves but were too slow to do so. The Dota pretty much still belongs to the community and has spawned number of Dota Clones, and some of these games have direct/similar hero clones as well.  I think Valve will get the edge in the Dota game development and I really don't think Blizzard Dota will be big as Dota 2. Also SCII has Dota clone maps already (SOTIS, Hero ATtack). Until we see more of blizzard Dota I don't think it'll be popular as LoL or Dota... or even HoN (sorry to say). Also Blizzard Dota seems to deviate a lot of the original gameplay and might turn people away from the game.

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EG acquires Dota 2 team

The North American esports organization, Evil Geniuses, has announced the recruitment of an obscured, yet highly-anticipated Dota 2 team, featuring an international line-up. Included in this line-up are Amel 'PlaymatE' Barudzija Jimmy 'DeMoN' Ho, Rasmus 'MiSeRy' Berth Filipsen, Clinton 'Fear' Loomis and Pers Anders 'Pajkatt' Olsson Lille. This team will travel to China soon, where they will have an established, two-month boot camp and participate in a series of tournaments with maximum potential, are valued upwards of $200,000.

These players are no strangers to one another, as they have played with different variants in several successful teams. Fear, DeMoN and Pajkatt were a part of the world-class Nirvana Int, through out its rocky sponsorship history. DeMoN also competed alongside MiSeRy and PlaymatE in Meet Your Makers, where they secured fourth place, along with $80,000.

For the Americans, this will be their second stint in Evil Geniuses, the first of which involved the all-American roster that ended in late 2009 and was a catalyst for the birth of Nirvana.

Statement from Evil Geniuses CEO, Andrew Garfield:
"We’re happy to welcome back Clinton and Jimmy to Evil Geniuses in a new game and in a new time. DotA 2 is already building a lot of momentum, and we’re looking forward to witnessing our new team become a powerhouse in the competitive scene of the game."


Statement from Team Captain Clinton 'Fear' Loomis:
"We’ll be beginning a new chapter with one of the most renowned names in e-sports: Evil Geniuses. EG came to us with their intention of wanting to sponsor a DotA 2 team, and what their plans for DotA 2 were. Shortly thereafter, my team and I knew EG would be the only company capable of providing us with what we need to be able to continue to compete at the highest levels in the game. With EG’s enthusiasm for the game and with the roster that we have, the possibilities of our success are immeasurable."

Source: http://www.sk-gaming...res_Dota_2_team

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Three new heroes!

Looks like 3 more heroes are going to released in the next patch: Skeleton King, Broodmother, and Queen of Pain. They are also going to add a pause feature to the game which will be nice when someone disconnects or someone that needs a quick washroom break. I like how Valve is taking note of the ESWC tournament (that change from Dota to Dota 2) and trying to not effect the game too much. Kudos Valve.

Now that you’ve got some practice against Riki, you’re ready to carry a gem against Broodmother. Who better to carry it than Skeleton King? And if you have a King, you need to have a Queen.

We’ve also added the ability to Pause the game. Each player can currently pause the game 3 times, and as always we’ll iterate over the ruleset as you guys test the feature and get us feedback.

With ESWC coming up on Sunday, we’ve kept most other changes in the game to a minimum. These new heroes will be enabled in Captains Mode after the tournament is over but are available for regular use in Matchmaking. You can root for your favorite team over at Gosugamers for a chance to win a beta key.

Source: http://blog.dota2.co...-loves-company/

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Valve's solution to leavers and new hero?

Valve just announced that they are currently gathering data on leavers in Dota 2, and will probably implement some sort of punishment system for excessive leavers in the game. Note that I am just speculating at the moment that they will issue punishments just like every other MOBA/Dota type of game out in the market now. With the application of punishments for leaving, they are hoping they can curve the amount of rage quitters in the game, who just ruin the game for others. I'm pretty sure they will not punish people who have legitimate reasons for leaving such as emergencies. It's a video game after all and if you have to leave then leave, there are more important things at hand then you shouldn't feel obliged to keep playing. They have acknowledged that people might go afk or leave due to situations beyond their control, so they did factor that into the equation. Valve is probably not going to put people in a position where they feel coerced into staying in every game, but address players that leave for no reasons at all and ruin games often. So it should not effect the majority of the player base. We do not know what kind of punishments that they will issue or even if they will use punishments as a form of incentive to keep people staying in a game no matter how grim. Comebacks are not impossible to pull off even if your early game ending strategy doesn't work. The opposing team can always make a big mistake and throw the game away.  I will trust Valve that they will make a just system and one that works, no matter how they go doing it.

There are many reasons why players leave or go AFK. Aside from the obvious ones, there are many rare cases: they may get an important phone call, they may be having configuration issues with their computer, their team mates might be saying horrible things to them, they may get up to open the door for the pizza guy and accidentally lock themselves out (yes, someone at Valve actually did this). Some of these reasons are fundamentally undetectable to the game.

So, like all thorny design issues that can’t be play tested internally, this is something we’ll be working on for some time in public. We think it’s a key problem in Dota 1 for us to solve in Dota 2, and hence, it’s too important for us to just rush into. So far we have been focused on gathering data about what’s really going on. Now you’ll see us starting to venture into additions that actually perturb the system. As these come on board, we’ll be measuring each carefully to make sure it’s making the overall ecosystem better, not penalizing legitimate players or missing those who are out to hurt other player’s experiences. As a result, don’t be surprised if we measure something we’ve released and then choose to remove it after we have the data. It’ll be an ongoing process for us as Dota 2′s player base expands, but it’s one we’re not going to stop working on until you tell us we’re done.

Source: http://blog.dota2.com/

The title of the post on the official Dota 2 blog is named "Steeled and tempered.", and people have speculated that Rikimaru The Stealth Assassin is the new hero that will be released this Thursday. "Steeled and tempered" is a phase that is used by Rikimaru, and is found in the sound file that is found in the beta client. This is only a speculation and the title could do nothing with the new hero that is going to be released or if they do decide to release a new hero on Thursday. The indication does point out to a release of a new hero since Valve has been making it a habit to release a new one each week.

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Cosmetic items and in-game store comfirmed.

With the availability of the beta client through leaks and the lifting of the NDA from valve, people been releasing and finding out some interesting information. This text file from pastebin.com reveals a lot of items and a in-game shop. There is a poster on reddit who commented on some of the text strings found in the file: Clickhere. The in-game shop text defiantly points out that there will be a in-game shop indeed. This string of text shows us some of the categories we can expect from the shop when it's released:

// Store UI
"Store_New_Items" "New!"
"Store_Bundles" "Bundles"
"Store_Gear" "Gear"
"Store_Tools" "Tools"
"Store_Effects" "Effects"

Through file browsing, people have found that there are item slots for heroes similar to the item slots in Team Fortress 2 (Head, Melee, Action, etc). There even seems to be a taunt slot  too (TF2 has one too) which is assumed for different types of taunt sounds and animations, maybe something similar to custom taunts in Heroes of Newerth.

Item slots:
"LoadoutSlot_Weapon" "Weapon"
"LoadoutSlot_Head" "Head"
"LoadoutSlot_Shoulder" "Shoulder"
"LoadoutSlot_Arms" "Arms"
"LoadoutSlot_Armor" "Armor"
"LoadoutSlot_Belt" "Belt"
"LoadoutSlot_Neck" "Neck"
"LoadoutSlot_Legs" "Legs"
"LoadoutSlot_Gloves" "Gloves"
"LoadoutSlot_Taunt" "Taunt"

"LoadoutSlot_Courier" "Courier"

Taunt text string from the Dota 2 text file:

"DOTA_HeroTaunt_Key" "Use Taunt Item"

Custom Sniper taunt also found:
"DOTA_AnimTaunt_SniperTaunt" "Sniper's Taunt"
"DOTA_AnimTaunt_SniperTaunt_Desc"    "Celebrate a sweet kill or a big play by showing your excitement to your enemy. He won't mind."

People also have found that there will be alternative models for couriers as well, which people have gone nuts for when Heroes of Newerth added them. It is a great addition for customization of the game and hopefully they'll sell and make some really cool ones (Flying Zeppelin anyone?).

Example of alternative couriers in Heroes of Newerth:


With the success of the in-game shop in TF2 there is no reason valve won't implement it in Dota 2, and the text file and the item models defiantly shows us that Dota 2 will indeed have one. Also if some of your guys remember the place holder model of the "shitty wizard" and was wondering what the hell in the world it was. Well it might be a model that you can choose when a player is "hexed" by a spell, like the sheep stick. There is even audio from heroes that say "shitty wizard": Link here. Might be used when you use the shitty wizard hex, or it could be just for fun.

Text description of the shitty wizard:
"DOTA_Custom_HexModel_Wizard"    "Wizardly Transmorphication"
"DOTA_Custom_HexModel_Wizard_Desc"   "Converts an enemy into the most hated being in the known universe: the wizard.\nWhen equipped, this item replaces your hex animal with a horrible wizard that would never make it into wizard school because he is the worst, I hate him so much."

Also something interesting appeared in the text file and people have been speculation what it might exactly be.

“DOTA_Trial_UpgradeItem” “DOTA Premium Upgrade”

Some people think this is the indication of Dota 2 becoming a F2P game, and the upgrade is for unlocking the trade feature of the game. Again, something that Team Fortress 2 has and been implemented when it went from a pay game to free to play.

Q. Who has a premium account?

If you've ever spent money on TF2, you have a premium account. This includes purchasing the game before it was Free-to-Play, activating a retail version of the game, or making a purchase in the Mann Co. in-game store.
Source: http://www.teamfortr...etoplay/faq.php

It is not too crazy to think that Dota 2 will be F2P and for this genre of this game it works perfectly well. Think of League of Legends and how it got such a huge player base. Most of the people didn't even know what Dota was and people started to pick this game up and play it.

If the "DOTA Premium upgrade is anything similar to the TF2 one then it would simply allow you trade items with other players. This upgrade is usually used to stop people from exploiting the fact the game is F2P and people can create new free accounts. In TF2 people could in theory collect items from multiple accounts and trade them to one account. The premium upgrade stops this practice.

It can also be like a Premium upgrade as in getting exclusive items or hats or something along those lines. It might not be F2P account upgrade at all.

Another speculation is that it might be like a trial or demo of the game where you get limited features of the game and if the player likes the game they can upgrade it to the full version of the game. Something like what the Starter Edition of Starcraft 2 is doing.

Whatever it is, we can only truly know when the game finally releases.

Here are some items models that people have found so far:
Note: Yes some of the items are purple. These aren't finish and probably are just placeholders for now.

Axe with 2 custom Armour and axe (lol).



Dazzle the Shadow Priest with a bone necklace.


Kunkka and his badass bandana and peg leg. He also has some cool pirate hats, the Royal Admiral’s Bicorne and Tricorne of the Drowned. He also has a Bone necklace similar to Dazzle's one above. Lastly his harpoon called the Wavecrester. A lot of models revealed for a Hero that isn't available yet and doesn't have a full model!







Enigma with his baller gold bracelet.


Windrunner with her sexy red hood.


The new hero, the mother fucking Juggernaut with his terrifying mask.


The beastmaster and his beastly bone shoulderpad.


I really think having customs items and stuff like that is a really neat addition to the game. People who are casual players and aren't really into the competitive aspect of the game, can defiantly enjoy the collection of in-game items. People fucking go nuts over hats in TF2 and it does absolutely nothing for the gameplay. Custom items are a great addition to the game, it keeps people playing the game, and might attract more people to Dota 2.

Also custom items can create an market place for people to trade items. This can create a whole new aspect of the game where the game itself is not the main focus. In-game economic system similar to MMORPG games can attract some players who love to "buy and sell" virtual goods. Take a look at this spreadsheet with TF2 item values on them: click here and take a look at the trading forums: here. There is a pretty big market for TF2 items and I can't see why Dota 2 can't be the same. What is even more interesting is that you'll be able to trade Dota 2 items for TF2 items and vice versa if you wish to do so. This all assuming that Dota 2 will be integrated into the steam trading inventory.

I don't think valve is going to do this, but I never want any of these items to have any kind of attribute or have an affect the gameplay or balance in anyway. So far as we know all the items are just for cosmetics, so hopefully they don't change their minds or anything.

We all know that adding micro transactions for the sole purpose of giving an player an advantage is a really bad thing and tends to alienate other players who cannot or do not want to purchase those advantages. I understand that League of Legends is very successful with selling little advantages in attributes with their "Champions" but I really think it's a bad thing for a competitive game like Dota 2.

Valve is not know to give away unfair advantages to people by selling items, so I don't think there is much to be concerned about.

I just cannot wait to see what kind of selection we will have from the in-game shop and hope to see great additions in the future.

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