Make an official fan vote system for community heroes

[horatio_svetlana]

You could put the vote system in the actual game and restrict it to players who've logged over 50 matches and in good standing. Make it require a format to discourage low effort suggestions, like requiring a hero portrait and visuals of each ability along with fully thought out abilities, plus some written out voice lines of the hero talking to every other hero.

It wouldn't be a democracy where the most votes puts the champ in the game, you could even keep the results private beyond showing the popular heroes. It'd be more like a general consensus on champs for consideration by Valve. There's so many good suggestions it seems like a waste to let the good ones get buried.

 

[gibnewitems]

Overall, I agree. I just have one caveat.

Make it require a format to discourage low effort suggestions, like requiring a hero portrait and visuals of each ability along with fully thought out abilities, plus some written out voice lines of the hero talking to every other hero.

Absolutely not. Artwork should just be an optional enhancement to a concept, not a full-on hard requirement.

Some of the best hero concepts that I have ever read on this forum had stock images, or even zero artwork. By forcing people to add artwork to even have their concepts considered for this new system, you are essentially gatekeeping a largely text-based medium to just the digital artists, or someone willing to shell out money for a commission.

Don't like AI art? Too bad, you're going to see a lot more of it on these forums after you force people to add art to their hero concept. I don't like AI, but I would bite the bullet and immediately pay for a Grok subscription if I was suddenly forced to add visuals to my concepts.

Other than that issue, I want a system that highlights community hero and item concepts. In fact, it would probably be wise to not include artwork within highlighted concepts, to keep it fair for concept makers that can't or just don't want to add visuals to their concepts.

 

[horatio_svetlana]

Absolutely not. Artwork should just be an optional enhancement to a concept, not a full-on hard requirement.

Some of the best hero concepts that I have ever read on this forum had stock images, or even zero artwork.

I can fully see both sides of the argument and I'll admit that shelling out $80+ to an artist just to pitch a hero is restrictive and will be discouraging. However I've actually gone through 60,000 game screenshots and trailers on steam, and have to go through hours and hours of mediocre audio theater to find literally less than 10 good things to listen to, and let me tell you that short barriers to entry DO help weedle out the garbage so it's not just a flood. It's not so much about visuals as it is about forcing people to put in some work and stick with it for a few days instead of just banging something out in an hour and putting the interpretation work on Valve. And pushing someone to learn to draw or higher artists isn't a bad thing in my opinion. Also banning AI images would be nice but I don't know the mechanics of always identifying if it's AI.

There could be a category that's just "Text only" pitches of full champ descriptions that could be voted on for coolest, and then any artist that wants to can draw the higher votes. Visuals however I feel help pitch the hero really well in a way that just text doesn't.

Other than that issue, I want a system that highlights community hero and item concepts.

Yeah this suggestion could also apply to item concepts and even ability pitches.