I feel like everything that's happened to TF2 is just a sneak peek into what will happen once Valve ships Defense of the Ancients 2.
The question is, how will they balance a hardcore gaming community which hates paying to get better (stats-wise) items vs monetizing F2P? Will they charge only for cosmetic items, or will they drive away their core Dota fanbase?
I've suspected this for a while as well. I think many of the features we've seen released in tf2 has grown directly out of the development of DOTA2. Valve has practically admitted as much in the past by saying tf2 is a place where they experiment.
Let's consider:
* Replay system
* Training system
* Coaching System
* Microtransactions
* Trading interface
* Community Submissions + submission royalties
Who knows what else? At this point, I think tf2's success is going to influence DOTA2, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if DOTA2 is released free to play.
I probably won't ever play DOTA2, but I'm thankful for all the improvements to tf2 over the last few years. I'm just hoping for some mainly bug fix patches to be released soon as this point.
TF2 is a glimpse into that - you can pay for weapons that are different, but not strictly better.
The Degreaser flamethrower in TF2, for example, is a non-stock item that lets you switch weapons faster, but also reduces the burn duration of enemies you set on fire.
Hell, you don't even need to be trying to monetize to screw this up. See: Modern Warfare multiplayer and its propensity for handing strictly better weapons to veteran players, resulting in even more lopsidedness in matches.
The question is, how will they balance a hardcore gaming community which hates paying to get better (stats-wise) items vs monetizing F2P? Will they charge only for cosmetic items, or will they drive away their core Dota fanbase?