How is Valve killing Dota 2 atmosphere?

Dota 2 is a game which got out in 2005. But there were even earlier versions of the game. In general, it is not so important, but we should keep in mind that the game has become very popular in 14 years. But there is a problem – if before people played it for pleasure, now everybody is obsessed with money you can get from Dota 2. And it is killing the atmosphere of the game which all of us used to like.

1) After the release of the second version, the game became even more popular in the world. Everything went well for the first 2-3 years. The game was free, nobody pumped out money from players. But Gabe got gripped by greed, and he decided to introduce sets for heroes. Here it began. Pleasure from the game was disappearing. Different events started to spring up. Young gamers spent days playing the game not to win and get some joy, but to get an item for a hero.

2) Okay, it could be swallowed, but there appeared MMR. On the one hand, it is a great thing which let us divide the players in accordance with their level of the game. But it killed Dota atmosphere. Fun and pleasure of the game disappeared at all, being replaced by sweat.

3) But it also could be endured. But no, Gabe wanted more money. He decided to put compendium in the game. And it could be great, as now compendium really helps to win. For instance, the time which is shown to make a stack of neutral creeps. Of course, why should you make players think, why should they train if they can pay and their level of the game will increase in several times? V1lat has always been proud that unlike League of Legends, you cannot buy skills in Dota. How are the games different now?

4) We should add the fact that the game still remains unfinished and imbalanced as it was at the very beginning. In fact, eight years could be used to think up something presentable. At least to balance the landscape, but no, the map changes again and again. So what can we say about items and heroes? There is its own imbalanced hero and item at each new patch. Moreover, the strength of an item is defined by how frequently it is bought but not by its parameters.

5) And, finally, devil-may-care attitude of Valve towards regular players. They may listen to professional players, but a regular Dota player does not have any voice. If you don’t like Dota – stop playing it, if you don’t like the update – don’t play. Many professional Dota players also don’t like updates, but they are silent as Valve can punish them seriously for that, and the money is huge in esports.

That is why Dota popularity has reduced, and no matter how you update it, more and more gamers will leave it again and again.