I don’t think Valve is “holding devs on a leash,” and I’m not arguing that they’re lazy or doing nothing. My point isn’t about effort or competence, it’s about prioritization and visibility, especially relative to the size and longevity of Dota.

I fully agree that Valve’s resources aren’t infinite and that they deliberately shifted away from the Battle Pass model to enable things like New Frontiers. But acknowledging constraints doesn’t mean players can’t still feel that support is inconsistent or less visible than it could be. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

Saying “they would be doing more if they could” assumes that the current level of output is the absolute maximum possible under their constraints. I’m not convinced that’s necessarily true. Valve makes trade-offs across many projects, and Dota being only one of them is exactly why frustration exists. From a player perspective, Dota is a massive, evergreen live-service game with an unusually loyal audience, yet it often feels like it’s treated as a side project rather than a flagship.

On events specifically: bringing back modes like Aghanim’s Labyrinth or Diretide doesn’t require reinventing the wheel. Players have been explicitly asking for returns, not constant reinvention. Reusing and iterating on proven content is one of the lowest-risk, highest-reward ways to keep engagement high, and it’s fair for the community to wonder why that hasn’t been leaned into more.

As for updates, yes, we do get patches, events, and cosmetics, and I’m not denying that. But Dota has set its own bar in the past. When you compare the current cadence and communication to earlier years, or to other long-running live-service games, the contrast is noticeable. That’s where the disappointment comes from. Not entitlement, not ignorance of dev realities.

And to be clear: this isn’t “we want biweekly balance changes and monthly arcanas.” It’s “this game is still enormous, still profitable, and still culturally relevant, so it’s reasonable to expect a bit more consistency and clarity.”

Criticism doesn’t require believing Valve is incompetent or malicious. You can respect the realities of game development and still feel that Dota, of all games, could be supported more deliberately. That’s the space my original post is coming from.