Fake player numbers. Infested with fake players and not hitting it for the mass.

[Tighty-Whitey]

Deadlock is not hitting it for the old Valve audience. If you ask any player from the old times, players who bought "Orange Box" or even those who bought games dating back to the early 2000s, most of them all tell you that they don't want another MOBA from Valve. It is quite understandable as for years people have been asking, patiently waiting for new Half-Life installments only to be left near the broken trough, if we were to put the dismay of the players into perspective. Speaking about players, Deadlock is currently filled with fake players, but not those fake players we've seen in Team Fortress 2 for years now, but the players sitting in main menus and doing nothing but inviting more and more users into the game. This makes up for the majority of the Deadlock's playerbase and it is quite problematic. There aren't many actual players who enjoy the game, we are only seeing a tendency of the player count getting boosted only by the people trying to cash-in on the invite system valve have set up. There also should have been more warnings that many players will scam other players for invites and for real money, there should have been a warning that situations like this might occur, but none of it is there, therefore it is quite dangerous. Valve are better off making the game fully available to everyone at that point in time now that everyone knows about it, but no one turned out to want to actually play the game because no one is enjoying the core gameplay due to its flaws.

Update

To put things into perspective, for those unaware, it has been proven countless times that the player numbers in Valve titles are mostly fake. In Team Fortress 2, a game that was plagued by a bot infestation for many years, the game was essentially unplayable and "botted", ruining the experience of players and putting a lot of questions about Valve if they truly cared about the game's state. At some point and that is many years later, the bot infestation issue was fixed, but it only gained traction after the second community mass calls to "fix" Team Fortress 2. This is not the first time the game was plagued by fake players. At some point and that is more than 10 years ago, trading, cases (equivalent to lootboxes) were introduced in Team Fortress 2, which only popularized the monetization aspect of videogames that we see today. Back then, people created specific servers to "farm" for drops that players get randomly through certain intervals of time. They are called "idlers", this is one of the first times if not the first time in history when the farming idlers showed up as players have been trying to do everything they possibly can to get items that could actually cost something. The game was infested with such idlers and they still, to this day persist in both TF2 and CS2.

However, it goes way further than that, as the recent Valve's action to ban bots in Team Fortress 2 still shows that the player count not only was boosted by the bots, but it is entirely fake at the essence. It turns out that the numbers displayed for all Valve titles are simply incorrect and are either simply idlers or user accounts that stay in the main menu and don't actually play the game or, which is a high possibility, someone at Valve exploits and actually changes player count numbers all by themselves to give the illusion to players and other Valve employees that their games are doing fine, so that they wouldn't have to work on new games. (which is a lot harder than supporting an existing game with minor updates) Those Valve employees would then think that games they have, have enough players for them not to make newer games and that they gain just enough money from their existing titles, when in reality, Valve's main revenue is coming from other places and maintaining Steam. It has been proven by many users, even video makers that Team Fortress 2 has fake players. An entire website has been set up that scans for all existing players on all servers, even official servers and it is quite clear by looking at the statistics alone that the game is infested with fake players:

https://teamwork.tf/community/statistics

As we can see here, the numbers of the actual players differ to the players displayed on Steam. If some employee at Valve intentionally alters the player numbers, then this is a pretty big scam to program players to think that the game is popular and it gives said players enough dopamine and "confidence" just by looking at the fake numbers to give them an incentive to play the game, when in reality, Steam numbers have nothing to do with reality. It is easy to draw parallel to other Valve games, in CS:GO, while searching for a match, we could see in the game itself that there are less players actually playing on the servers (not only official ranked, but all servers that the interface displayed during a search in the game itself) and with all the idlers, hour boosting users that certain third-party software makers are developing, it is clear that the majority of the Counter-Strike's player numbers are idlers, trade bots and such. Counter-Strike actually still has user-hosted bots and had for a long time where they were and are still trying to get item drops, just like when TF2's first drop system was introduced.

With Left 4 Dead, an exact same story, it is possible to simply look at the player numbers in two seperate features of the game, the matchmaking lobby browser and a server browser. One checks for an existing lobby and connects you to a lobby host, doesn't matter on which server he is, user doesn't see an actual server while connecting to said lobby, only a vague description of what the campaign is and how many games are available, while another function is a traditional server browser that we normally see in many Valve games. If we were to look at all servers we would see the same picture as in Team Fortress 2, the actual players actually playing the game, their numbers are nowhere close to what Steam displays to convince players of a fake player number. That game, just like many other Valve games is infested with fake players.

As for Deadlock, Valve had created a function that they are using to attract more players into the game. They themselves by using a monopoly they established on Steam are essentially shoving the game in front of people's faces and using Steam and Valve logo as a way to popularize the game and lure more players. No marketing is needed for them on that part, when we compare other games who don't get as many players as Deadlock, it is important to remember that they have no features at their posession to simply force the game on people just like they did with Deadlock. Valve not speaking about their game at the time of writing doesn't change anything when they throw invites left and right, they see no need in that. The game is also infested with players, bot user accounts that stay in the main menu and send invites (same invites that we see on Deadlock's steam discussion page at the time of writing) which they send people for money. The entire system that Valve had established in their prior games, the attitude they allow for bots to stay in their games and artificially boost player numbers shows that believing numbers of a corporation that can artificially change player numbers for their own game is not the right thing to do. Sometimes it's about coming to terms with reality rather than believing the fake information that a corporation can create out of thin air based on the systems that they've themselves created.

[Tighty-Whitey]

İlk olarak Harryhenry tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Tighty-Whitey tarafından gönderildi:

it's already clear as day that the deadlock's player number is fake and inflated, we already discussed this, thus, as you said, it is soliddd.

Where is this proof of fake and inflated player numbers?

the proof is what valve did in TF2 and in this game upon closer inspection. there we can see that fake player numbers persist in deadlock just like in cs infested with trading bots and dota 2.

[Taitvenom]

İlk olarak Tighty-Whitey tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Harryhenry tarafından gönderildi:

Where is this proof of fake and inflated player numbers?

the proof is what valve did in TF2 and in this game upon closer inspection. there we can see that fake player numbers persist in deadlock just like in cs infested with trading bots and dota 2.

Bro do you play anything besides Deadlock Discuss Forums?

[Harryhenry]

İlk olarak Tighty-Whitey tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Harryhenry tarafından gönderildi:

Where is this proof of fake and inflated player numbers?

the proof is what valve did in TF2 and in this game upon closer inspection. there we can see that fake player numbers persist in deadlock just like in cs infested with trading bots and dota 2.

The TF2 situation had actual numbers and research backing Zesty Jesus' claims, he didn't just say "oh they're all bots, trust me dude" and leave it at that. Where is the proof in this "closer inspection" of Deadlock you're claiming?

[Slant]

This Russian really hates the game. I wonder if he's upset about anti-cheat software.

Oh yeah, Слава Україні! ♥♥♥♥♥.

[Seiro]

Valve can't code...

It's what happens when you stop making games and your whole identity becomes loot boxes.

This should be expected. If you were expecting something else from an unoriginal idea, made by a company who hasn't had an original idea in several decades, you're just fooling yourself.

Valve is a trash company, anymore. The past is the past, and sitting around with rose tinted glasses won't make now or the future into that.

[Tighty-Whitey]

İlk olarak Seiro tarafından gönderildi:

Valve can't code...

It's what happens when you stop making games and your whole identity becomes loot boxes.

This should be expected. If you were expecting something else from an unoriginal idea, made by a company who hasn't had an original idea in several decades, you're just fooling yourself.

Valve is a trash company, anymore. The past is the past, and sitting around with rose tinted glasses won't make now or the future into that.

yes valve cant code, can't make good games and only has fake player numbers in their games. it's sad.

[Harryhenry]

İlk olarak Tighty-Whitey tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Seiro tarafından gönderildi:

Valve can't code...

It's what happens when you stop making games and your whole identity becomes loot boxes.

This should be expected. If you were expecting something else from an unoriginal idea, made by a company who hasn't had an original idea in several decades, you're just fooling yourself.

Valve is a trash company, anymore. The past is the past, and sitting around with rose tinted glasses won't make now or the future into that.

yes valve cant code, can't make good games and only has fake player numbers in their games. it's sad.

Again, do you have any actual proof for fake player numbers in Deadlock?

[CyanCatMan]

İlk olarak Harryhenry tarafından gönderildi:

Again, do you have any actual proof for fake player numbers in Deadlock?

They don’t. Move on.

[smalldog]

i'm so curious as to what you hope to achieve with this? you've spent massive amounts of time and energy talking about the player count of a game in semi-closed alpha stage, made by a company you apparently now hate and which you've played for less than 5 hours.

i cannot think of a less sensible hill to die on and yet here you are, 683 comments later, still plugging away. Please help me understand why this is

[Saxon Hale]

İlk olarak Data tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Specimen tarafından gönderildi:

AI generated post as always :magxd:

I think I've broken the program that's running it.

That explains the out-of-place rant.

[Saxon Hale]

İlk olarak Harryhenry tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Tighty-Whitey tarafından gönderildi:

yes valve cant code, can't make good games and only has fake player numbers in their games. it's sad.

Again, do you have any actual proof for fake player numbers in Deadlock?

I think he's ranting on the wrong game.

[Saxon Hale]

İlk olarak Harryhenry tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Tighty-Whitey tarafından gönderildi:

yes valve cant code, can't make good games and only has fake player numbers in their games. it's sad.

Again, do you have any actual proof for fake player numbers in Deadlock?

Don't listen to him. He's a disgrace of TF2 fans.