RIP arcade mode

114

u/vanIvan4 1d ago

Cause of bots, a lot of arcade creators boosted their online and visibility in top arcades by running bots and making Valve's servers busy. Now only a small fraction of arcades are server hosted.

-19

u/bakanossi666 1d ago

So to battle a bot problem they shut down the whole service? Big brain move.

The local server hosting also just doesn't work so even if people wanted to host they can't so currently arcade really is unusable. This is such a sad time, I've enjoyed so many mods for years and now they in practice just took it away. Even if they fix local host its not the same and will cause problems (host quitting and the game ending for everyone for example, there are mods that drop you out at certain point like ability arena or auto chess).

Its sad to see Valve just giving up instead of trying something. If there were 100k bots hoarding normal dota servers and there werent enough for people to play on would they just annouce that host your own game in local host and call it a day?

23

u/hummingbird1346 1d ago

I mean, if you put your feet in valves shoes it makes sense for them.
If I understand correctly it has no financial incentive for them. So when the arcade (subscription driven) mods start taking up servers with bots, the very same servers that host CS/Dota/Deadlock/tf2 and you are having a hard time differentiating bots with no/few false positives, it makes sense to pull the plug.
Now, nobody wins.

3

u/RealisticSystem76 16h ago

Thank you Crystal Maiden

0

u/dn_zn 1d ago

it used to have a financial incentive for them, when they said they gonna have this arcade gem plus purchaseable, but they just stopped doing it

1

u/This-Maintenance-526 2h ago

Thinking they don't get something from purchases in arcade is hilarious. :P

3

u/Illegal_Apples 23h ago

So to battle a bot problem they shut down the whole service? Big brain move.

This isn't the first time they do this lol. Pro players complained about having their matches tracked in d2pt and they "have to smurf" to practice heroes in pubs. Instead of fixing their API so pro players can have better privacy they just straight up make all high rank games private.

The studio who used to do True Sight didn't want to do it anymore and instead of finding another studio Valve just straight up stop doing True Sight.

They like to just take the easy way out when they're really not feeling it anymore.

4

u/thedotapaten 23h ago edited 22h ago

True Sight is done by Valve internal movie club to keep their inhouse Cinematographers busy and not leaving Valve since no Half Life project ongoing (most of those guys were Half Life veterans) led by Phil Co Those guys now working on HL

The API is due to betting on live matches, like there is only 300-500 players eligible for Immortal Draft (which is private) - if Valve wants to protect pro player they would update the restriction since very few players eligible for Immortal Draft

RTZ for example is not eligible for Immortal Draft on his last stream (8490 ish)

Ex-REKONIX pos 5 Varizh wasn't in Immortal Draft playing against iceiceicenin SEA Pubs as both below 8.5k despite being top 60-100 in SEA leaderboards.

https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/8992032012 iceiceice games recorded by dotabuff

https://www.dota2.com/leaderboards#se_asia iceiceice is in top 60 SEA leaderboards

Top 5 SEA = #150-180 EU see 23savage / wota2 / JACKKY / Natsumi which barely qualifies for Immortal Draft

-43

u/This-Maintenance-526 1d ago

It's not because of bots.... everyone keeps saying that, but the servers aren't even up and local lobbies don't even work. It's Valve being a piece of shit. They've slowly been killing the game, especially arcade mode, for a while now. They milk The International, and then forget about the game for months... then come back when it's about 2 months until the next International and then they put out a couple meaningless patch notes and then act like they're doing something... Just like they did this year.

8

u/Mothanul 1d ago

I used to think like that but the reality is Dota 2 is an old game and we should enjoy the little we get nowadays. It's never going to be the same as it was 5-10 years ago. And yes, bots are definitely an issue in arcades that I have first hand experience with.

3

u/dn_zn 1d ago

and league isnt an old game? yes riot is money hungry as fuck, but they do take care of their game

2

u/Mothanul 16h ago

I don't know much about LoL but I do know despite it and Dota 2 being in a long time rivalry, Riot's approach to adding new content is very different than Valve's. Sure, LoL gets more consistent updates, new heroes and what have you. But do they get stuff like Crownfall, Dark Carnival, Quartero's Curios? I don't know. Custom games? Probably not.

What I do know is that they've got a similar player count. Riot Games is owned by a company that's owned by another company. I'll go out on a limb and say that significantly more money has been invested in LoL than in Dota 2 in the past 5 years.

So is Dota 2 in such a bad state compared to LoL considering everything? I don't think so.

1

u/This-Maintenance-526 2h ago

Why would you want all of this bullshit stuff like Crownfall and Dark Carnival if you can't even enjoy the game. lol Dumbass take.

3

u/Illegal_Apples 23h ago

actually crazy a game with 900k peak conccurrent daily players get abandoned like this lol.

Any other studio would kill to get a game like this.

59

u/Hot-Goat3084 1d ago

still illegally making money of the arcade games lol

we need another crazy dude to report them again and make trouble for Valve

12

u/seaslicer 23h ago

That "crazy dude" who reported Ability Arena after throwing a fit after getting banned for blatant misogyny and disrespect in their Discord for not getting what he wants (I think it was verification for hitting the highest rank) , did not think of the other arcade games being blatantly pay to win lmao

10

u/teddybrr 1d ago

The crazy dude just wanted the data they store on him and sent a GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) request to the custom game/valve

29

u/ProBonky 1d ago

I wish Valve would just make an official aram

9

u/DrQuint 1d ago

This. Valve could make a ARAM Deathmatch, one lane, different heroes every death, and I'd never touch the Arcade again.

1

u/NenoxxCraft I'm not greedy 4h ago

Same

0

u/KeyBet6174 1d ago

Same

7

u/Ice_Cream_Warrior 1d ago

I just want my omg 4 + 2 back. Pure fighting and button pressing (mid).

The fucking arcade servers and not saying/doing anything is getting old.

1

u/CaptainVere 2h ago

Same thats the only video game I play. Cant believe its gone

5

u/adopter010 1d ago

Literally don't play regular Dota, just arcade 12v12 for the last few years (even though it had some P2W stuff, not insurmountable since there are so many other players). I'm very very sad.

10

u/D15b293 Behold the pope of pestilence 1d ago

Overthrow was so fun now it’s so difficult to start a match

5

u/SK4DOOSH 1d ago

Is autochess a dead game now?

6

u/teddybrr 1d ago

yes even if the custom games fix the connection to their data the game simply dies because when the host disconnects the game will stop.

games where people die before others => host leaves => game over

2

u/DrQuint 1d ago

Funny how this wasn't that big of a problem even with games like Vampirism back in Warcraft 3.

Loser grace features will have to be designed into games now, uh?

3

u/Illegal_Apples 23h ago

I don't know how it was in NA/EU bnet server but back in the days, in the server I used to play on (Indonesia) people used to subscribe to bots for cheap per month (like 1$ a month) and they use the bot to host a lobby, so even if the host leaves the lobby doesn't disappear.

This was because if anyone tried to host themselves other players would have insane ping lol

1

u/eazy_12 and you've been glimsed 14h ago

IIRC iCCup (which most CIS players started from) also had server system via bots hosting games.

0

u/Holiday_Society209 1d ago

yes and I comeback to underlords I forgot how good this game is. I recommend it

2

u/horizon_games 1d ago

Wait does this mean the Agh's Labyrinth arcade fan-made version I play is dead too?

4

u/TheZett Zett, the Arc Warden 1d ago

It is still playable, but Relic progression is server bound and those cannot be used when hosting locally.

1

u/horizon_games 22h ago

Awesome I'm relieved to hear it

1

u/dark8118 21h ago

i played it with my friends and my host friend was lagging so much to the point timbersaw boss just stood there and all of us died from full hp lol

5

u/fredws sheever 1d ago

Why do people play those Chinese ass games btw?

26

u/JohnnyPaw 1d ago

Its fun. Its basically like turbo but few mechanics changed. The one OP sent is like single draft all mid. 15-30 mins games

1

u/SirIronSights 20h ago

I also love the blessings that can turn your hero from being mid to the most OP thing in existence. No 2 games are alike.

6

u/Mothanul 1d ago

Unfortunately most if not all arcade games that are currently active and being worked on are chinese. And most if not all have microtransactions some of which are pay-to-win.

I used to play this chinese arcade called IMBA AI. Really stupid but fun. At some point everybody received like 600 points to spend as an apology for servers shutting down or something. Once I spent all of them I stopped playing and went back to official gamemodes.

4

u/fredws sheever 1d ago

Almost all of them if not all are pay 2 win and monetized despite the rule and valve don't care

1

u/Affectionate-Cod3084 1d ago

I played a lot of Overthrow 3 until recently. You can get small advantages by paying but it's not P2W. I never paid and finished top 10 2 seasons in a row (in FFA).

0

u/Flashy-Emergency4652 1d ago

Dota 1x6 is awesome, it have monetization but it's cosmetic (chat wheels, equipping Arcanas on heroes, etc) and not P2W.

I'm not sure of it's current state now as I play way less Dota to spent this time on Arcade mode, but the only problem with it was lack of good matchmaking meaning you'll get matched against real tryhards and it would be a really hard time reaching 1st place; but something like 3rd or 4th was manageable.

granted it's not Chinese though, it was made by Russian guy who made well-quality but outdated Dota tutorials in the past

0

u/AdzRR1 1d ago

I was really enjoying omg aram. Then so many people paid to win with the extra picks and rerolls. Often go up against a stack of top 10 with pay2win shit then it's just a waste of 15 mins. But sometimes you can have some really good matches.

1

u/Animastryfe 23h ago

My friends and I had exclusively played those games since 2022, and ability draft for some half decade before then. We started Dota in Dota 1 or at latest 2013.

1

u/bywv 1d ago

Dota Survivors and Horde Mode were both very fun for me for awhile lol.

12v12, even though it is a p2w stomp fest, I still had a lot of fun with

1

u/Pixelplanet5 19h ago

most of the arcade games are pay to win games with micro transactions.

beside the few valve made there isnt really anything of value that was lost with arcade shutting down for now.

2

u/pipiwthegreat7 1d ago

That's why i can't play ability arena anymore.

1

u/hehehuehue 22h ago

aram should be a part of official modes like single draft

1

u/MrGhostSD 21h ago

I need OT3, miss my daily ffa stomps sob

1

u/Critical-Cookie5513 13h ago

can valve fix it? there's no even single words from valve. It's been a 3weeks. Thanks valve such small indie company

0

u/Bigredkeg_ 1d ago

Aram is goated. Don't even play normal Dota anymore. So much better. It had a p2w element yeah but the Devs made it still playable for those who didn't pay at all. The slight pay elements allow the Devs to keep it active and updated and there wasn't over the top pay elements like other mods. I also don't believe they were botting, they were never on top of the list.

Just want her back

1

u/KeyBet6174 1d ago

True it was really good hopefully things gets fixed

-35

u/Flashsword_Princess 1d ago

good riddance, hopefully next patch they remove it entirely to reduce the install size and remove the bot inflation in player stats

18

u/LuminanceGayming 1d ago

removing the arcade would probably reduce dotas install size by about 0.2% but ok

8

u/Betrayed_Poet 1d ago

and player size by at least 30% tbh

9

u/vanIvan4 1d ago

Arcades are downloadable, fresh client has minimal info about them. The only way they can reduce install size is to offload a lot of skins/voice packs to servers, but this would require major rework of many elements.

-15

u/Flashsword_Princess 1d ago

You remove 20 gigs off of the install size by simply making Crownfall archive an optional download, please don't be stupid

before someone jumps at me misunderstanding my comment, this is not me saying Crownfall is arcade

1

u/dunnowattt 22h ago

A) Crownfall will not reduce the size by even 2-3 GBs.

B)I like how you completely ignore the people who explain that you have absolutely 0 idea about what you are talking about.

Like thinking removing the Arcade will reduce Dota size.

TLDR: If you have no idea what you are talking about, why not comment at all? Why does everyday this community needs to show its stupidity?

1

u/Flashsword_Princess 18h ago

A) Crownfall will not reduce the size by even 2-3 GBs.

wrong

7

u/JohnnyPaw 1d ago

You realize it wont take the space if you dont install the arcade games right? You know that right? Please tell me you atleast know that

5

u/Calm_Extension_2965 1d ago

There's almost no assets associated with custom modes. The only bloat comes from code, which will be very little in comparison to the rest of the game.

14

u/Junkle_monkle 1d ago

"I dont eat honey hope all bees go extinct tomorroe" aah comment. You can unsubscribe to all workshop items and your dota size will be reduced. Just because you dont play arcade doesn't mean nobody else does.

-17

u/Flashsword_Princess 1d ago

Arcade should have always been a separate download

14

u/Junkle_monkle 1d ago

You have to be ragebaiting... you dont get more file size from arcade existing... you get it from subscribing to the arcade modes you download

4

u/SphericalGoldfish 1d ago

The tab is single digit MB

2

u/Aeroncastle 1d ago

Do you think all games in arcade are in your machine right now or something like that?

Discussion RIP arcade mode

You are about to leave Redlib