r/DeadlockTheGame • u/Axis251 • Feb 24 '26

Discussion A tweet that has me thinking.

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I don’t know if Riot can copy what valve has created with Deadlock. The atmosphere and setting so what I think makes deadlock so enjoyable. Yes the gameplay is amazing and the moba aspects are great but I just don’t think riot will even try to copy valve and make a deadlock clone. What is all y’all’s thoughts.

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u/thecomicguybook Violet Feb 24 '26

Not Riot specifically, this tweet is just a jab at Valorant. But there will come another multiplayer game that takes inspiration from Deadlock and there will be a whole discourse about it sold to you by people who do not care to get you to click on a youtube video.

I think that if Deadlock does anything for the gaming scene at large I really hope it is to make other games get their heads out of the sand and implement fun movement mechanics that are more complex.

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u/Secretlylovesslugs Feb 24 '26

Deadlock is the kind of game that could only be made by a studo like valve. The fact that the game is free to play with 0 monetization yet and has been running stable like this for so long is incredible.

If the payment is testing out the Alpha jank I'm totally fine with it.

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u/timmytissue Feb 24 '26

It's wild how the discourse of league vs Dota do rarely mentions that Dota lets you play all the heroes for free. Riot has always had some of the most terrible free to play monetization of any company. Maybe only surpassed by Blizzard with hearthstone.

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u/cool_slowbro Feb 24 '26

Riot players actually think it's normal to have most characters locked out in your competitive multiplayer game.

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u/_Valisk Feb 24 '26

I saw someone practically begging for Deadlock to add something similar because it gives them a sense of progression and forces them to practice a handful of heroes.

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u/drododruffin Rem Feb 25 '26

If people want that, they could instead ask for hero mastery to be added, like Blizzard had in Heroes of the Storm and eventually added to Overwatch.

Never liked that some of the characters were locked in a competitive game like this or other MOBAs, I want a fair and even playing field.

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u/timmytissue Feb 24 '26

Yeah but even so, wouldn't it be a plus for them not to be locked?

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u/cool_slowbro Feb 24 '26

Yes. My point is that Riot players are so used to Riot's ways that instead of going "hey shouldn't this entire cast just be...unlocked?" they accept it as is and it has become the norm for them.

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u/TestIllustrious7935 Feb 25 '26

Riot brainwashed their playerbase so hard that whenever someone asks why characters in League have to be unlocked everyone says it's a good thing and gives sense of progression.

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u/Ar4er13 Lash Feb 25 '26

I mean, because anyone who played league for any amount of time usually has all the heroes they want, and one tricking is incredibly popular even in dota, so those pricks don't care at all.

I ofc. appreciate just having all heroes for free, but that is largely non-factor when I am choosing which game I want to play (as somebody who still plays Dota, LoL and HotS, depending on mood).

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u/Successful-Coconut60 Feb 24 '26

You’re genuinely a robot if you think any of Riots games have even close to a terrible free to play model. You just don’t play any games at all. While league champs used to be kinda expensive in game it’s literally never been a problem and almost no one has ever bought champs with real money. It makes very little difference for most players cause they play sub 30 champions and almost no one is playing 100 different champs in their first 100 games

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u/Ok-Letterhead7729 Feb 24 '26

If you think RIOT doesn't have a terrible F2P experience then you must have started after the Runes system was phased out.

Not only could you not play most champs, but there was a stat based system that dipped heavily into that same free currency used to unlock champs. It would be the equivalent to DotA charging you points to unlock facets. And sure, the points are "free" but thats less points available to unlock the roster.

Even if you were maining a single position you would need multiple rune pages and rune sets to be competitive. Even if you mained a single champion you likely needed multiple rune pages.

The saddest part of all is I actually liked the system, but instead of making it more accessible or non monetized they just scrapped it entirely.

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u/Successful-Coconut60 Feb 24 '26

Brother I’ve been playing league since 2012. I know runes were a shit experience, they are also gone so I don’t know why that would be apart of why riot is currently a bad experience. League threw free skills at the playerbase by way of hex tech boxes so much and for so long that when they wanted to nerf them they literally got the most pushback they’ve ever gotten and had to change it back. Tell me what other F2P games do you even get free skins, and all the skins are possible to get barring an extreme few.

They’ve gotten more greedy lately with the gacha bullshit but that’s largely ignored cause it’s like 5 skins.

I’m saying if you think League, Val, or TFT have actual bad F2P experiences you don’t know the industry, you don’t play the game, or you’re just entitled out of your ass.

There’s 50 other North America games with worse monetization, OW sells their “good” skins in limited time buddles that are 25 dollars each in an FPS. You’ve never looked at an MMO which isn’t free, needs a sub, and expansions. Haven’t played sport games, CODs, FGs which are all “premium” games which cost money and then have more micro transactions that are essential to gameplay. It’s just objectively not true if you compare it to my games. Val has better monetization then fucking CS like can we be serious

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u/Teusku Feb 25 '26

Val has better monetization then fucking CS like can we be serious

Name one gameplay element you can buy in CS. Or overwatch. Or marvel. Or dota. Like you can call me entitled but I personally dont think its too entitled to think having access to the main draw of the game is too much to ask

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u/timmytissue Feb 24 '26

Look I can only speak of my own experience. I played some league and I could only play the free champs. That wasn't a good experience. You boot up Dota for the first time and you have 120 heroes owned. How is that not better??

Idk how you can defend riot on this lol. Valorant I couldn't play any new heroes if I come back to the game.

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u/Successful-Coconut60 Feb 24 '26

I’m just saying sure if the only thing you want from a game is to play the heroes that say locked then it’s a major issue. I’m just telling you as someone that actually plays and engages with these communities, no one cares. You just play whichever free pool and buy who you want very quickly. You can even look at the reddits (people who love to complain especially about monetization) and it never comes up because it just doesn’t matter. I would love for every character to be free I’m not saying that it’s a good thing, I just think when you make a critique it should be an actual one that people care about or else it’s just dealing with your personal experience only

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

Lmao, I played league for 2000 hours and dota for 2000 as well. I can tell you the locked champions feature bothered me throughout my entire time playing league. And I was a one trick.

If i ever wanted to try a champ out or learn how they work or even see if I liked them...guess what thats about 30 games I needed to play right then if not more.

A lot of people care about this obviously if your final point is "make a point people actually care about" then its just dumb

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u/Successful-Coconut60 Feb 24 '26

It’s not dumb because I’m telling you the feature is objectively bad theirs no argument, it doesn’t really matter cause people don’t care about it. That’s why it’s the way it’s been and why it’s never changed. You can dislike that, I don’t care, I’m just saying it’s not a very valid critique if two of the biggest games in the world with player bases that love to complain about everything, almost never ever complain about it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

Validity of a critique is determined by how many people complain about it? Seems dumb to me.

And plenty of people have complained about it, like right now

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u/TheElo Feb 24 '26

The ones who complained about it have already quit the game.

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u/timmytissue Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

Could you explain to me why and how people don't care? Because I quite enjoyed valorant but I stopped playing because as time passes the game becomes more and more locked for me.

It seems like you're saying the dedicated fans don't care. And that's fine. But what about people who come in late or leave for a bit. And idk how you can fail to see this as a selling point for valve games. The games are actually free to play.

I mean I would say they don't complain about it because they see it as a normal business model and probably haven't gotten into valve games.

There's also the fact that because you can't play every hero, they can't balance the drafting around every hero being available. So that vastly changes how they balance the game. It makes them make every champ very similar to each other and fit into a specific mold.

I have played every hero in Dota. Every hero has its own right unique playstyle and needs to be available.

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u/Baamzyy Feb 24 '26

I agree with you on this, but youre going to get dogpiled for this on a valve-based subreddit. The only part of Deadlock that is unique to Valve is the level of effort the devs can give without the pressure to ship the game and turn a profit. Adding voiceline interactions between every character is an insane and awesome feature, but just thinking about how much it would cost to get Matt Mercer in the studio everytime they add a new character makes my head spin.

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

Valve hired folks who arent name recognized and its been awesome for them.

Maybe dont get matt mercer to play an iconic character of yours that you know will need voicelines in the future

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u/scrafem Feb 25 '26

??? Brother matt mercer is literally in deadlock, hes drifter. And also yuri lowenthal and erica lindbeck voice characters. Valve isn't just hiring randoms off the street, they're hiring big names too.

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u/Successful-Coconut60 Feb 24 '26

Yea they will do their normal valve thing and it’s fine. Riots biggest problem has always been their greed, which even in the gaming industry is like mid level compared to stuff like activition or any Asian developer every. Riots greed is that they don’t want any game to not see the profits of League/Val so they don’t keep games alive that are making smaller amounts of money. Even so all their other games are so obvious side projects if you know anything about the company anyway

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u/renan2012bra Feb 25 '26

Wait, so you're saying only Valve can create a game and not profit with character releases? But didn't the dude you agreed on said no one buys champions with real money? Then if no one buys them with real money, how is Riot profiting from their sale?

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u/renan2012bra Feb 25 '26

One of the main reasons I stopped playing League back in 2015 (or 2016, I don't remember and I can't find when I last played on any League stats website for some reason) is because of locked champions. The only League champions I found somewhat fun were Rengar, Zac and Wukong (though the latter wasn't really my favorite or anything) but I got bored of playing only those 3 and wanted to try other options but I couldn't unless I grinded a shit ton of games only to give a single character a try.

There wasn't even a demo mode at the time and even when they eventually added it (10 years too late), it was exclusive for the champions you already owned, making it absolute useless for me.

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u/New-Independent-1481 Feb 24 '26

The problem is that the paid champion model causes gameplay balance problems. There's a reason why almost every champ in League is super generic and easily interchangable with half a dozen others, and their unique mechanics are barely more than a gimmick. It's because if they were highly specialised, they would be gamebreaking if you didn't own a champ counter. Additionally, it creates a perverse incentive to fuck up your game balance to sell champs. That should never, ever, ever, ever exist.

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u/Jakota_ Feb 24 '26

I know a lot of people that have bought a decent amount of champs with real money. I’d believe that it doesn’t happen as much now as they have refined the system for getting them over the years. But to be a boomer, back in my day there weren’t chests or events or anything. It was just play the game and slowly progress towards unlocking one at a time, while also needing to invest in rune pages + runes to slot into those rune pages as they were separate from masteries. Modern runes in league are basically the old masteries streamlined, then 3 extra stat selections you make is the old runes streamlined as well. You also couldn’t edit runes in draft (masteries you could) so you needed a decent number of pages with different configurations, which all cost the player.

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/symbolsix Feb 24 '26

Sure, but do you think the Deadlock monetization will look more like DOTA or more like League when it launches?

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u/Dracvich Feb 25 '26

Dota 100%
I just hope the prices for the vast majority of the cosmetics (we'll also be getting a cosmetic system like TF2 or Dota 2 most likely) are cheap enough that you can buy loads of them without breaking the bank. Unlike in CS2 where anything above dark blues can at best cost you a pretty penny, and at worst go for thousands of dollars (and i'm saying this as someone who likes CS skins and knives and such).

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u/HAWmaro Lash Feb 25 '26

As long as you're ok buying sets on thr steam market, itll probablly be, I have tons of sets in dota for heroes i like but I mostly buy them for like 30-60 cents a couple of years after they come out. I used to drop 10 bucks or so on the compediums every year though.

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u/coffeeholic91 Deadman Danny Feb 24 '26

Very true, the idea of having so many systems and skill expression would never make it past the board meetings at Riot Games

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u/Veriosity Feb 24 '26

Specifically this is because valve is not publicly traded, so they don't have to justify everything to a bunch of thirsty shareholders. This is why they are one of the few companies in the business that can do whatever-the-fuck.

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u/Grytlappen Feb 24 '26

They wouldn't be able to do this without Steam, their endless money generator.

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u/AntoniousTheBro Feb 25 '26

This. Valves entire freedom comes from the v fact they have a multi billion dollar mint printing cash for them. Valve time is entirely driven by the fact as developers they have the freedom to take a break and work on something else rather then get out a product to market.