DotA 2 Free to Play - Leavers and Greifers Pay?

DotA 2 Free to Play

DotA 2 now officially announced as free to play. While being free to play DotA 2 plans to do things differently from both HoN and LoL.

Nothing concrete has been stated on how DotA 2 free to play will work but there are hints by Gabe Newell the co-founder of Valve in a yet to be release podcast. The podcast will be released to the public today (April 20) at 15:00 EST at 7 Day Cool Down (7DCD). In this podcast Gabe Newell said:

"It's going to be free-to-play -- it'll have some twists, but that's the easiest way for people to think about it."

As well as becoming free to play Gabe Newell talked about a more persistent social aspect to DotA 2. Rewarding those who are a proactive force in the community. Gabe Newell explains:

"It's just a question of coming up with mechanisms that recognize and reward people who are doing things that are valuable to other groups of people."

"...think of individual games as instance dungeons of a larger experience, if that makes sense as a concept."

This is to make players actions follow them after the game providing long term rewards for their actions.

DotA 2 Free to Play: Speculation

From Gabe Newell DotA 2 is free to play and will have some kind of social record. Maybe something like EBAY that people rate you 1-5 stars based on your in game performance. Or maybe you get an upvote or a downvote similiar to Reddit, leave a game? Down vote. Feed a game? Down vote. Carry your team to a win? Upvote. These are some possibilities to add more social responsibility to DotA 2.

What about financial responsibility? With games like DotA 2 there are often leavers, feeders and greifers but what if Valve made its money by charging these people in the form of fines. You leave a game? $10 fine. You feed a game? $10 fine. You yell at your teammates all game? You guessed it $10 fine. Could this be the twist Gabe Newell mentioned? Creating a free to play for those who contribute positively to the community and a pay to play for the ones who hurt the community.

Imagine a DotA 2 without feeders, griefers and leavers. If DotA 2 could put an end to these players it would be unstoppable. This however is just idle speculation, share your opinion and speculation in our forum here.

TLDR: DotA 2 announced free to play. DotA 2 will use a different free to play model from HoN and LoL. Nice players in the community will be rewarded. Speculation - Greifers and leavers have to pay to get their accounts unbanned / restored to good status.

Source - http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/4/20/2961883/dota-2-will-be-free-to-play-with-a-twist

Written by Trevor on April 20, 2012