Update 8/11/2013: Valve have finally let the community know what’s going on with Diretide.
As you may have noticed, Diretide – the Dota 2 Halloween event – has not happened this year. Instead, we got more hats. Hurray for hats.
The Dota 2 community has not taken this lying down. When annoyed, the Dota 2 community has a tendency to refer to Valve as Volvo… and now the Facebook page for Volvo (the car manufacturer) is being spammed with GIVE DIRETIDE comments. Brilliantly, though, Volvo appear to have actually responded. “Valve, hats are great, but the people want Diretide!” Assuming that’s legitimate: give whoever wrote that a raise, please. And whoever wrote this Tweet.
Naturally, that’s not all. An enterprising individual phoned up a Volvo dealership in Seattle to ask about Diretide, and plenty of other pages are being spammed with GIVE DIRETIDE (including the Facebook page for Barack Obama and the subreddit for Volvo), but the community has also taken to other venues to express its displeasure. Dota 2‘s Metacritic page has been flooded with 0/10 reviews lamenting the lack of the seasonal mode, which have thus far dropped the game’s user score to 4.1 – and, frankly, I expect it to fall further before this blows over.
Thankfully, Valve have been quick to respond, and have hahahaha no just kidding, they haven’t said anything at all. In all seriousness, this raises some interesting questions about just how serious a liability Valve’s total lack of communication with the community is. While the company has a history of being completely silent until they’re damn certain of anything (except release dates) the fact that they now have large, active communities for games which need regular updates and attention means that they need to actually talk to the public. If Valve had said a few weeks ago – or, hell, even on 31 October – that Diretide wasn’t going to happen, the backlash likely wouldn’t have been so large. But the silence? The silence is infuriating, insulting, and indicates a complete lack of respect for the community surrounding the game.
Taking Valve Time into account, I expect that we will see Diretide 2013. In February 2015.
