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Hi, and welcome to the ValveTime news.
Each week, we'll bring you the biggest talking points regarding Valve Software and the community.
Now, the news:
After the free Steam weekend for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive last Friday,
Valve have officially revealed the "Overwatch" initiative,
a community-run program to help improve policing of in-game behavior.
While no official blog post was released to announce the initiative,
a new FAQ page was added to the main CS:GO website which explains how the new system will function
in a large amount of detail.
The concept will allow the community to partially regulate itself by deputizing experienced and proven members
as "investigators" who will be permitted to review reports of disruptive behavior
in order to identify whether reports are valid or not and what should be the appropriate response.
Investigators will be chosen based on a variety of factors, including win ratio, steam account age,
number of total hours played, behavior record, and much more.
Once selected, investigators will be able to review submitted cases via a new "Overwatch" option on the main menu,
with each case containing around 10 minutes of recorded footage featuring the suspected or accused player.
Investigators will then be able to submit their own decisions based on the footage shown,
which will allow suitable bans or other punishments to be handed out if enough investigators agree
that the accused player is guilty.
The investigators will be given scores based on the number of cases that they have judged
and their personal effectiveness in reaching an agreed conclusion.
According to the FAQ page, this new system is currently undergoing a controlled beta
to appropriately adjust features for added reliability and accuracy.
For more information on this interesting new development,
be sure to head on over to ValveTime.net for our full write-up,
or check the FAQ page on the official CS:GO blog,
both of which are available via links in the video description.
This week's Dota 2 update was particularly light on content in order to avoid causing any unnecessary complications
during the on-going International 3 Eastern qualifier,
which is set to return for its second phase on May the 28th.
Mousesports managed to beat DD.Dota last Sunday to become the champions of the Western qualifier,
successfully securing their place in the main International 3 tournament,
which is set to take place in August of this year.
DD.Dota are set to face the runner-up of the Eastern qualifier the night before the International begins
in order to compete for the final Wild Card slot in the main event.
The International 3 HUD awarded to all compendium owners was released early this week prior to the official weekly patch going live,
so be sure to check your backpack if you have yet to do so.
The patch itself introduced a series of new cosmetic item sets for
Beastmaster, Chaos Knight, Clinkz, Leshrac, Lycanthrope, Phantom Assassin, Razor, Rubick, and Weaver.
Three new couriers were also introduced, including Maximilian the Beetlebear,
which is rewarded to purchasers of the "Raidcall Dota 2 League Season 3 Pass";
Yonex's Rage, an Invictus Gaming themed dragon;
and Shagbark, a cute and cuddly Nature's Prophet-themed pet
designed and created by CyborgMatt, Anuxi, and several other famous personalities.
Strict Chinese censorship laws prevent violent content, including blood, gore, and skeletons, from being shown,
which has prompted Valve to create alternative "Low Violence" assets for the separate Chinese client.
This week's update included low violence variants of
Ancient Apparition, Bane, Clinkz, Doom, Huskar, Lich, Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Pudge, Pugna,
Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Skeleton King, Undying, Visage, and a variety of icons for multiple abilities and items.
If you'd like to read more about this week's Dota 2 update,
or if you would like to take a look at any of the new art assets,
be sure to head on over to either ValveTime.net for our full write-up,
the Dota 2 blog for the official changelog, or CyborgMatt's patch analysis.
Or you could be awesome and check out all three!
Minor updates were also released for Left 4 Dead 2 and the Left 4 Dead 2 beta earlier this week,
both of which were accompanied by a supporting blog post discussing the changing face of the game.
While the updates themselves weren't particularly large or exciting,
the blog post discusses how the new Extended Mutation System can be used
to simply and effectively create new game modes and scenarios without extensive coding.
The Left 4 Dead team also attached a small section of code to the bottom of the blog post
in order to highlight how useful the new scripting system is
and to show how easily modders can replicate Left 4 Dead 1 gameplay in mutation modes,
including the removal of Left 4 Dead 2 enemies, weapons, characters, and items.
Links to the update changelogs and the blog post on the official Left 4 Dead website will be included in the video description.
After a little over a month and a half of silence, the Source Filmmaker blog was updated earlier this week
to announce that Day of Defeat: Source has been added as a large optional DLC pack.
If you own Day of Defeat: Source, the pack can be easily installed by selecting "Install Day of Defeat Content Pack"
from the File menu within the Source Filmmaker.
Once installed, the pack will allow users to access all of the assets from the main game in the SFM,
including all maps, models, weapons, scripts, sounds, and much more.
The blog post on the SFM website also included a long discussion regarding the original "Day of Defeat: Prelude to Victory" trailer,
which was originally released back in 2005.
The discussion revolves primarily around how the Valve team were only just getting their footing with filmmaking at the time,
as the Prelude to Victory trailer was the first short film created and released using the toolset,
which can be seen throughout the simplistic trailer as it features no animation set,
no posing, no set dressing, and no advanced lighting,
unlike all modern SFM-created shorts for Portal 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2.
And no, just because Valve re-uploaded to the "Prelude to Victory" trailer on their YouTube channel earlier this week,
does not mean that some kind of new ARG has started. Please stop speculating.
We've included links to the Source filmmaker update changelog and blog post in the video description.
For this week's discussion, let us know in the comments below which content pack
you would think would be interesting to see released next.
Which would you prefer and why?
Many of you may remember a pair of Altas and P-Body scale replica figurines we showed on the show a few months ago.
While the figurines won't be shipped until Q4 of this year,
pre-orders for the finished models were officially revealed by merchandise creators 3A on Saturday, May the 25th.
The fully posable, one-sixth scale models, shown here, can be purchased for $190 each,
and are also available for purchase as a pair for $340.
While we haven't seen any mention of limited stock,
we can only imagine these extremely high quality figurines will sell out fast,
so head on over to the official store via a link in the video description to place your order.
Soon after pre-orders were opened for the Portal figures,
3A revealed a blurry image of the first prototype for an upcoming Team Fortress 2 figurine.
There isn't a whole lot more to say,
as I'm sure any Team Fortress 2 fan can tell what the figurine might be just from looking at the image currently on screen.
We'll keep you up-to-date with any future updates regarding 3A's Valve-themed products.
GameTheory creator MattPat released his second Valve-themed episode in a row earlier this week.
In this most recently-uploaded episode, Matt takes an in-depth look at Portal's companion cube
in an attempt to unearth a dark secret.
We recommend you take a look,
even if we feel this episode isn't nearly as interesting or well thought-out as the Pyro video we mentioned a few weeks ago.
Put it this way: any avid Portal or Valve fan will be able to spot the holes in his theory from several miles away.
That brings us to the end of another ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up.
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Thanks for watching and bye for now.