Halloween has come and gone, and yet Valve didn’t tell anyone what it was up to. Problem is, last year in 2012, Valve released a modified version of the standard map as a festive gift, and failed to do so this year.
If you don’t know what DotA 2 is, that’s ok. I’ll cover that for the Place to Be Nation soon enough. In the meantime, you can GET WHOOPED-er, I mean, play for free and see what it’s like for yourself.
Concerning Diretide, it is important to know that the map/mod was popular because it was shorter than the average game of DotA 2 by twenty minutes and was arguably easier as players gained gold and experience faster (DotA fans might remember “EM” or “Easy Mode” from the DotA 1 days). Most importantly, however, is that after every match, players would be rewarded with a significant chance of scoring easy cosmetic items which can be traded or sold for treasure chest keys , worth ~$2.50 each (unless you have the hookup like I do and can get them for $1.50). Riskier traders might try for real cash.
Last year, DotA 2 veterans and novices alike played Diretide almost exclusively while the map was active in order to maximize chances of acquiring hot commodity items. Many items were awarded and accumulated, so players were looking forward to Diretide this year.
Meanwhile, Valve said nothing. The results were…fascinating. Players and fans took to the internets spamming the following:
༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE: ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE:
on Twitter, Facebook, message boards, and pretty much anywhere possible where people would read, including Metacritic where 0’s were spammed for DotA 2’s rating. Even a car company Volvo got involved!!!
While most people would reply, “WTF is Diretide?” the spam campaign proved effective. Valve has issued an apology, explaining that employees were so busy with another yet-to-be-disclosed project which will be included in the DotA 2 update, that even when it did not come out in time for Halloween as originally planned, they had completely forgotten about Diretide. And apparently, the entire DotA 2 community for whom which they were creating all of these new additions. In defense, Valve says that they simply could not “turn on” Diretide, because all of the patches and balance adjustments made to the game over the past year had broken the original mod.
All of that said, they have heard the cries of fans, and will include Diretide in the next patch.
Wait! What does Valve mean by “we forgot”? A multi-million dollar company “forgets” about an opportunity to attract more potential fans and thus, increase profit margins??? Well, I suppose that’s certainly one benefit of working in an environment where there are no bosses.
Of course, the fans are willing to forgive. After all, we all know that Valve operates on Valve Time.
༼ つ ◕◡◕ ༽つ DIRETIDE GIVEN
