Several weeks ago, Valve ran a special event for “Dota 2”, their most popular game and the most popular title on Steam in general. While it was intended to be fun and exciting for everyone, it actually didn’t run very smoothly, as most players ended up disappointed with the way Valve had planned and subsequently executed it. Despite that, player numbers for the game remain high, and there is no indication that it will get any less popular in the future.
The main issue people reported with the event was with the game’s servers, which were severely strained by the sudden extra traffic caused by players, with many being left out of the game with an error message. And then, those who could actually get into the game were presented with strange gameplay changes, some of which were described as “pay to win”, a controversial design strategy in the gaming industry.
The traffic problems stemmed from the way the special event worked. It was triggered at random periods spread through the day, and when it occurred, there was a 10-minute period during which players could join a game and end up being placed in the special event, the Year Beast Brawl. While that idea may sound good on paper, its execution was actually less than flawless.
As soon as an event was triggered, pretty much every player was scrambling to join a game within the next 10 minutes, and as a result the game’s own players effectively performing a DDOS attack on it. While everyone was trying to join a new game, the servers became overloaded, and in the end few players could actually find a match and enjoy the new experience.
The game was also changed with the addition of the Year Beast, which charged down lanes dealing damage along its way, and could be made more powerful by spending a special currency on it. Many players were displeased with this particular addition, calling it unfair and unbalanced, and stating that it completely ruined the game for them. Players were forced to gather “Ability Points” in order to make their teams viable.
And yet, currently, “Dota 2” has over half a million active players, peaking at around 800,000. It leads the Steam rankings by far, followed by “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” with around 350,000 players, and the recently released “Cities: Skylines”. “Team Fortress 2” has fallen significantly, with around 50,000 active players at the moment, even though it used to be one of the most popular titles on the platform. But for “Dota 2”, the game’s popularity seems to be going up all the time, augmented by Valve’s special touch with the community.