> What about Starcraft Arcade, which makes use of Blizzard-provided tools to heavily mod the game?
Starcraft 2 is not recent anymore. Out of WoW, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch, it is the only one.
> Valve announced workshop tools that would allow users "to create, play, and share custom maps and game modes for Dota 2."
Announced about half a year ago with no apparent progress? And the game has already been out since 2013 with a hefty 1 year "beta" where anyone that wanted an invite could easily get one?
> * Starcraft 2 is not recent anymore. Out of WoW...*
Starcraft 2 is still quite heavily played, and an expansion is still in the works.
I don't see how you can say Starcraft 2 is not recent, and then use WoW to further your point, when that game was released many years prior.
The fact that Dota 2's workshop tools are still in alpha is irrelevant. The fact is, there is a healthy, modding community within Dota 2, and this is being officially supported by Valve. It is also growing all the time, which contradicts your point that we are "headed for the dark ages of PC gaming".
> Announced about half a year ago with no apparent progress? And the game has already been out since 2013 with a hefty 1 year "beta" where anyone that wanted an invite could easily get one?
The valve mod tools are based on source 2 and already work, though they are in an early state. I've played maps made using them - anyone can - they're in the DOTA 2 workshop. Valve has said the dev tools are paused while they port the main DOTA 2 client to source 2 so the client doesn't need to close & boot source 2 to play user-made content. I'm not a game developer, but I'm told the current source 2 map maker is excellent if buggy & poorly documented.
It's possible Valve will release Source 2 for the client and never update the tools, but that seems unlikely. They've made an enormous amount of money off user-created content, and I expect they'll want to continue to add to that revenue stream (as well as it being the cool & decent thing to do).
What about Starcraft Arcade, which makes use of Blizzard-provided tools to heavily mod the game?
http://us.battle.net/arcade/en/
> No modding in Dota2.
Valve announced workshop tools that would allow users "to create, play, and share custom maps and game modes for Dota 2."
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/discussions/-1/3522031560...