Marci – Valve’s newest Masterstroke?

Valve has beautifully transitioned Marci, Mirana’s sidekick from the animated series Dota: Dragon’s blood, into a hero. An innovative concept to say the least, the cute sidekick is available for Dota 2 players to enjoy, and all the credit goes to Valve.

Marci is cute, fun and has a strong personality. Did I forget to mention cute?

I love how Valve has successfully captured the whole “sidekick” essence of Marci and capitalised on the emotions of the community by psychologically naming one of her abilities as sidekick. 

A stunningly subtle touch, of course. How else could you possibly get across that she is a sidekick? As the old saying goes, tell but never show. Wait… never mind.

It only adds to the charm and gives Valve the leverage to cross market the game to the existing audience and to new audiences by the show’s rising popularity on Netflix. It also allows Valve to introduce unique concepts to the game and address potential customers.

Brilliant, right? Who doesn’t love advertisements in their game? I was just thinking, “man, Dota is great, but how will I ever get my fix of Dota without playing the game? If only there was some tie to an animated series I don’t care about.”

Reminds me of this quote: “Come to my lair, said the Spider to the Fly.”

No brownie points for guessing correctly. Valve being the Spider, and we being the Fly.

Setting up the stage for milking more out of a cash cow, Valve finds ways to earn some additional pocket change, to fund their small indie team of developers and perhaps maybe hire a community manager one day or even better, pour one extra ounce of the truckloads of money into the tier 2/3 pro scene.

Hahahaha, yeah. That’ll happen.

Back to the topic on hand: Marci’s conceptualisation is a bang on addition from Valve that shows them in a new light. They are bringing a visualised concept to reality in the video gaming world, and introducing new characters from outside the traditional concept as is prevalent in Dota. 

This gives Valve many tailwinds to experiment and keep the game fresh in one way or another.

A simple concept executed wisely creates wealth, and Valve are masters at that. At least, the wealth part. They’re exceptional at it.