Custom modes for Dota 2: Valve intervenes in the “Wild West”.

08/12/2023 at 08:45 by Jusuf Hatic – In Dota 2 there is an opportunity for third-party developers to monetize their mods and earn money with alternative game modes. Valve now seems to be a thorn in its side, because the mod developers have been given a deadline to stop monetization.

Not only can you play a round of classic MOBA action in Dota 2, but you can also play quite a few alternative game modes thanks to mod tools provided by Valve. One of the most famous of these is Dota Auto Chess, the success of which has spawned some imitators such as Teamfight Tactics. In recent months and years, however, more and more custom modes have appeared that offer content such as cosmetic skins or even the Battle Passes, which are frowned upon in the community, for real money, even though the mods come under a non-commercial license.

So far, Dota 2 developer Valve has had a rather long line on this topic, transforming the mod scene into something of a “wild west”, but as SteamDB founder Pavel Djundik explains, that’s about to change: On Twitter announced Djundik that Valve has given those mod developers with such third-party games a deadline of August 17th to stop monetizing them. In addition, the scope of the monetization should be disclosed in full by region and payment method.

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As a result, the first developers have already completely shut down their Dota 2 mods, which is welcomed by the Dota 2 community on Reddit – after all, there are many users among the comments who accuse the mod developers of pure money-making with pay-to-win accuse mechanics. However, there are also a few dissenting voices calling for support from Valve for “legitimate developers”. The Dota Auto Chess mentioned at the beginning is mentioned as an example, which also offered paid additional content in its first versions. The open letter to Valve explains that the current “wild west” in the custom mod universe should not be continued under any circumstances, but an official way to monetize such alternative modes would be desirable. Whether Valve actually responds to this is also described as unlikely in the comments.