Free Game No Bitching - An Opinion on Valve’s Notorious Silence Around Dota 2

It has been irking fans of Valve's flagship games, such as Dota 2 and CS:GO, to see the company respond lukewarmly or at times with silence to game updates and esports issues. The emotions that come along with such issues are oftentimes fleeting. They get put into words and then archived in a couple of Reddit threads. The fact that Dota 2 is free to play also means that many of these issues do not carry the weight that they should, as players tend to return to playing, and eventually things quiet down.

And while this approach has thus far been effective for Valve, it may not be sustainable. Now more than ever, Dota 2 fans are irate with the company's lack of communication over issues like the Supporters Club delay, the humdrum Nemestice Battle Pass, the unsettling Spectre Arcana, and more.

So when the community gets agitated more than ever before, issues pile up, and it feels like certain actions from Valve need to be taken to alleviate the agitation. One has to wonder - does Valve need a Dota 2 community manager?

Why is the Dota 2 community unhappy with Valve?

Before we get to opinions and possible solutions, it's important to take stock of what exactly the community is mad about. The next few paragraphs are meant to consolidate and summarize all the complaints in the recent past that have seemingly fallen upon deaf ears at Valve’s headquarters.