Dota 2 looking to address AFK players

Valve's upcoming action-RPG sequel, Dota 2, may include some measures to address the issue of players leaving matches early. While the developers acknowledge that there are certainly some understandable instances in which players leave a match prematurely (citing one Valve employee who locked himself out of his apartment when dealing with the pizza guy), Valve notes that "it's fundamentally unfulfilling for everyone," if a significant number of matches "end prematurely, for any reason."

Valve has just been gathering data about the problem up to this point, but a recent post on the official Dota 2 blog warns players that in order explore potential solutions, players will "see us starting to venture into additions that actually perturb the system."

As such, players are asked to keep in mind that certain additions that the developer makes to the game may eventually be removed once the necessary data has been gathered. That said, there's no word yet about what these new additions to the game might entail, but the blog assures that data is being gathered to make "the overall ecosystem better, [while] not penalizing legitimate players or missing those who are out to hurt other player's experiences."

"It'll be an ongoing process for us as Dota 2's player base expands, but it's one we're not going to stop working on until you tell us we're done," Valve notes.