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

I'm sure everyone saw this coming. Pretty great news - I've been playing the beta for a little while now and quite good.

Mod Edit by Sweep: There's a full list, with pictures, of the changes over on this blog over here:

So how much is a champ skin in refined.

I'm glad they took the "all heroes free forever" stance. And it looks like items are purely cosmetic, too. Everyone wins!

Time to get hats on hats on hats

Can someone explain to me what the fuck is with some people? I saw this story on a few other websites and some people are losing their shit. For those who don't know, you can drop $40 for early access. Along with the early access though, you get 2 full sets of cosmetic gear and a courier. Apparently, some people think Valve is greedy for doing this and I'm sitting there like "when the game launches, all the heroes will be free forever. As of right now, you can either wait or pay. How the fuck is Valve being greedy?"

What the hell do people want? If you don't want to pay then wait. It'd literally be the same thing you were doing before this announcement.

But I digress, the store along with the free hero announcement are nothing but good things in my mind. I just hope they add gear for for my favorite characters soon. For the amount of time I put into this game, I'm willing to drop money in a heartbeat.

Well, now that it is 100% assured that all heroes will be available all the time i am completely relieved and will support this as much as i can.

Go valve!

Then again there was little doubt in my mind the heroes would ever be pay to play.

@BabyChooChoo: Well i can see why some people would say that for a free to play game and asking that much to get into the beta. Then again it isn't like other betas haven't done this but i must admit 40 is pretty steep. And i haven't checked how much a set it so(might be 10 for access and 30 in skins or 30 in access and 10 in skins) But i kind of think that anyone who really really wanted a key. Got one by now from valve, from the playdota forums, from one of the thousands of giveaways a friend who did get into the beta.

Edit: Seems you also get a courier in the bundle that sells around 7-9€. So there is more value there. Although this doesn't mean you wanted it still.

@BabyChooChoo said:

Can someone explain to me what the fuck is with some people? I saw this story on a few other websites and some people are losing their shit. For those who don't know, you can drop $40 for early access. Along with the early access though, you get 2 full sets of cosmetic gear and a courier. Apparently, some people think Valve is greedy for doing this and I'm sitting there like "when the game launches, all the heroes will be free forever. As of right now, you can either wait or pay. How the fuck is Valve being greedy?"

What the hell do people want? If you don't want to pay then wait. It'd literally be the same thing you were doing before this announcement.

But I digress, the store along with the free hero announcement are nothing but good things in my mind. I just hope they add gear for for my favorite characters soon. For the amount of time I put into this game, I'm willing to drop money in a heartbeat.

Oh you have no idea... Some people play Dota1 as their only primary game, worship IceFrog as a messiah and have no idea who the heck Valve is. They think Valve is some greedy money grabbing company that is taking advantage of IceFrog, forcing him to make certain changes and that he is the only person standing against the big scary corporation for the people for a pure Dota. I'm not kidding, there are people in the Dota community that think that way.

Already too invested in LoL (250+ dollars invested. Don't regret a dime.) to play this seriously/a lot... but damn F2P and all heroes always free is pretty nice. Good move by Valve.

@supamon said:

@BabyChooChoo said:

Can someone explain to me what the fuck is with some people? I saw this story on a few other websites and some people are losing their shit. For those who don't know, you can drop $40 for early access. Along with the early access though, you get 2 full sets of cosmetic gear and a courier. Apparently, some people think Valve is greedy for doing this and I'm sitting there like "when the game launches, all the heroes will be free forever. As of right now, you can either wait or pay. How the fuck is Valve being greedy?"

What the hell do people want? If you don't want to pay then wait. It'd literally be the same thing you were doing before this announcement.

But I digress, the store along with the free hero announcement are nothing but good things in my mind. I just hope they add gear for for my favorite characters soon. For the amount of time I put into this game, I'm willing to drop money in a heartbeat.

Oh you have no idea... Some people play Dota1 as their only primary game, worship IceFrog as a messiah and have no idea who the heck Valve is. They think Valve is some greedy money grabbing company that is taking advantage of IceFrog, forcing him to make certain changes and that he is the only person standing against the big scary corporation for the people for a pure Dota. I'm not kidding, there are people in the Dota community that think that way.

I wish I could be there the day they discover Activision or Electronic Arts, or reality in general.

I'm glad they've allowed all heroes to be free.

Not sure if even this is going to warrant me switching over from LoL. I think I prefer "softcore" MOBAs.

So excited for this announcement. Already purchased Stumpy and got 6 or 7 games in and got some items. We all knew it was coming, it just was a matter of when. I think the most interesting thing about this move is that the truly creative people who want to create content, can create content. I played the shit out of LoL and spent an easy 300+ bucks on that game, however skins came out maybe 7 to 10 a month. And my favorite hero, Cassiopeia, never got any new skins over a 9+ month period! I was always so bummed because Annie got a new skin every 2 weeks, yet Cassiopeia or Orianna never got anything. With people creating content we should see a huge variety of items for all of the heros.

One thing to note about the heros, if they didn't give every all the heros the game would have died and everyone moved back to Dota 1. Dota is built upon the idea of picks and bans, if they limited peoples heros then the balance would be tossed out of the window. The game is built upon the idea of your team picking / banning the proper heros, picking the proper counters, and executing the specific style of strategy your team is doing. If they limited heros, Anti Mage and Lycan would just wreck every single pub game and no one would play anymore.

As far as the 40$ buy in, that is fantastic. You get a chunk of items, a courier, and a beta key. When I got my beta key, they were still selling for about $80-$150 and people were buying them left and right. The price has normalized to about $40-$50 now, so at $40 it is a good value. People can stop getting scammed and hopefully the people who really want Dota 2 can now get in on it.

I just noticed there's an "Early aceess" bundle for £25.00. Which implies at some point the beta will end and to start playing the actual game you will need to shell out actual moneys.

I appreciate I'm part of the problem here, but I can't not be playing Dota. I just hit 400 hours and there are no signs of this train slowing down.

I feel like all I see in free to play games is people wanting to play everything and not paying. I understand the business model but some people seem to act offended that there is any monetisation in a game that they are playing for free. I see it all the time in Super Monday Night Combat. Also the Giantbomb/Tested crew talking about hats in Team Fortress 2.

@Sweep said:

I just noticed there's an "Early aceess" bundle for £25.00. Which implies at some point the beta will end and to start playing the actual game you will need to shell out actual moneys.

I appreciate I'm part of the problem here, but I can't not be playing Dota. I just hit 400 hours and there are no signs of this train slowing down.

Damn son. I've clocked in 200 and I thought that was tons.

@Zero_: I'm going to be so fucking broke.

I got into the DOTA 2 beta a while ago, but haven't played it yet apart from 5 minutes in a match against bots. I really need to learn how to play it because it looks fun but is super daunting.

Saw the free-to-play thing coming, but I'm surprised they chose to make all the heroes free; I'd have though that would have been what they'd monetize.

It's really quite ballsy and extremely admirable that they are just selling cosmetic addons. I suppose they know better than me, but that seems like a bad way to make money.

@face15 said:

Saw the free-to-play thing coming, but I'm surprised they chose to make all the heroes free; I'd have though that would have been what they'd monetize.

It's really quite ballsy and extremely admirable that they are just selling cosmetic addons. I suppose they know better than me, but that seems like a bad way to make money.

It's Valve. They have more money than some countries.

@Sweep: I think us suckers will play so much that we'll pick up everything so we don't need to buy. :)

@face15: All the heroes being free is less business and more gameplay design - DoTA1 and as an extension DoTA2 are so fine tuned to a balance that having games without some heroes is literally game breaking.

It's only a matter of time before I break down and buy one of those stupid couriers.

@face15 said:

Saw the free-to-play thing coming, but I'm surprised they chose to make all the heroes free; I'd have though that would have been what they'd monetize.

It's really quite ballsy and extremely admirable that they are just selling cosmetic addons. I suppose they know better than me, but that seems like a bad way to make money.

I haven't played LoL so I don't know how it works there but in Dota if you are missing a you might as well not play (unless it's alchemist, no one likes him).

@Sweep said:

I just noticed there's an "Early aceess" bundle for £25.00. Which implies at some point the beta will end and to start playing the actual game you will need to shell out actual moneys.

I appreciate I'm part of the problem here, but I can't not be playing Dota. I just hit 400 hours and there are no signs of this train slowing down.

I feel your pain, I am creeping up to the 550 hour mark. The "early access bundle" actually gets you a beta key. I think that is there for people who haven't gotten a Dota 2 invite. At that price, it cuts into the "black market" of Dota 2 key selling and Valve gets a cut.

Fuck, so I just got 2 crates playing. I think I can convince myself not to buy those damn keys...

@Zero_: That's how they get you...

Fuckssake I am going to spend so much money on this fucking game T___T

@Zero_ said:

Fuck, so I just got 2 crates playing. I think I can convince myself not to buy those damn keys...

That is what I told myself... All I got was a lousy common.

Well I guess I'll check this out. Really interested how far they go with "free heroes". Dose that mean free heroes forever or will they be doing the LoL route and introducing new heroes. Hopefully all the money stuff is cosmetic since I can than stop myself from spending money.

• Valve Game
• F2P
• Hats

I'm in.

@MrMazz said:

Well I guess I'll check this out. Really interested how far they go with "free heroes". Dose that mean free heroes forever or will they be doing the LoL route and introducing new heroes. Hopefully all the money stuff is cosmetic since I can than stop myself from spending money.

Free heroes forever.

@MrMazz said:

Well I guess I'll check this out. Really interested how far they go with "free heroes". Dose that mean free heroes forever or will they be doing the LoL route and introducing new heroes. Hopefully all the money stuff is cosmetic since I can than stop myself from spending money.

Dota is built upon the idea of you having access to all the heroes. Even if you were missing 5 of the 109 heroes (I think that is the current Dota 1 total) then you are put at a major disadvantage.

Valve has already gotten me to drop $20 on items. Got some chests so I needed to buy keys...then I had to get Stumpy the greatest courier of them all...Damn you Valve.

@IndieFinch said:

Valve has already gotten me to drop $20 on items. Got some chests so I needed to buy keys...then I had to get Stumpy the greatest courier of them all...Damn you Valve.

Yo i'mma let you finish Fearless Badger is the greatest courier of all time.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

@IndieFinch said:

Valve has already gotten me to drop $20 on items. Got some chests so I needed to buy keys...then I had to get Stumpy the greatest courier of them all...Damn you Valve.

Yo i'mma let you finish Fearless Badger is the greatest courier of all time.

Baller Imp yo

Also looks like our friend Greg Kasavin has bit the Dota2 bug as well from a comment on Reddit:

SG_Greg 47 points ago

I'm not sure what's the last new idea/mechanic that really wowed me though the game I've been playing the most this year is Dota 2. I haven't been this hooked on a competitive multiplayer game since Super Street Fighter IV -- I just love it.

@Zero_: Dayum thats a nice courier.

I just want my damn Lich items!

Guys I think we should make a thread to share our steam names. That way us duders playing Dota 2 could stay conected. Maybe even make a group. We could arrange tournaments and stuff like that. Who´s in?

@Zero_: I want that courier the flying stump isnt doing it for me.

I want a Broodmother Christmas skin where Broodmother is wearing a Santa hat and all of her broodlings are wearing antlers.
 
 
I"m very glad that Valve went this all champions free forever style. I'm sure they'll get loads of money off of people buying hats and shit, and this way the game stays a lot more competitively balanced than some others
 
 I remember when LoL first came out being pretty impressed that you could buy everything gameplay wise with fakebucks earned in game.  And that was good, this is just even better. Free to Play games have really evolved into legitimate things over the last couple years and not just awful pay to win scams.