Category: league of legends (Page 5 of 163)

      What’s next for MOBAs?

      January 19, 2012 /

      Invoker.

      Tomorrow is a big day in the gaming world. Tomorrow, more than a million people will have made a decision to either renew or cancel their subscription to SWTOR. I say it’s a big day because Star Wars was heralded by many as the “next generation of MMOs.” In my experience, it’s little more than single-player RPG wrapped around a near exact clone of a seven-year-old game. Nearly everyone I know who was interested in the game at one point either cancelled at pre-order or have cancelled in the first month. I think a lot of that can be attributed to the lack of innovation — people just know the current MMO scene too well for even a kickass license like Star Wars to save a game.

      How does this relate to the MOBA/ARTS genre? MOBAs are about to be in the same position SWTOR is currently in. There are several highly successful models in the genre, but for something to be successful in the next few years, I think it will really have to innovate. I’ve been looking forward to DotA 2 for a long time, but I know the map and most of the heroes so well that I still find myself bored with the experience. Blasphemy, I know, but I like a little variety and sometimes the hero list just isn’t enough.

      For a while I thought Dominion might be the answer, but a few months after that map launched it started to drop off the radar. Obviously I don’t have usage stats, but I know they aren’t what Riot would like them to be. I still enjoy Dominion on occasion, but it just wasn’t enough.

      One thing I would really like to see is game mode variety. The original DotA had some truly fantastic variations (my personal favorite was -dmarem). I would love to have different options for games with similar developmental arcs to a Classic Summoner’s Rift or DotA match with some different game mechanics.

      What do you see for the future of the genre? Will we be stuck with a branching DotA-clone, LoL-clone future or is the next big MOBA development something else entirely?

      Development, DotA, league of legends

      LoL for Mac: a community effort

      January 19, 2012 /

      Sad Mac.

      I’m sure many of you remember the lengthy rant I posted the day Riot cancelled the Mac client. As was clear from my post, I think Riot handled the situation very poorly, and they haven’t had an answer for the Mac users since. I had heard rumblings of a community-driven LoL for Mac project, but I just looked at the project and I am damn impressed.

      A player by the name of “Boompje” hosts the LoL for Mac project, a community effort to bring League of Legends to Mac players. I’m not sure how it all works, nor can I honestly figure out how Riot hasn’t issued some sort of cease and desist (he is asking for donations, after all). What I do know is that I would buy Boompje and his team a beer if I could find them. I don’t play League on a Mac, but the fact that they are willing to devote personal time to supporting Mac players is absolutely fantastic.

      I am, however, concerned for the future of the project. I don’t know the legal ramifications of the LoL for Mac project, but I would imagine there are some issues involved with distributing a version of the client for an unsupported operating system. Perhaps some of the legally and technically educated among you can offer some insight here. I would imagine, though, that Riot needs to protect its IP, and I would imagine this violates the terms of use agreement in some way.

      All the same, show those guys some support. They’re doing the community a great service.

      Current Affairs, league of legends

      Sejuani Champion Spotlight is live

      January 18, 2012 /

      Riot posted the Sejuani Spotlight late last night, giving us the first look at the League’s first mounted champion. I wasn’t all that excited about Sejuani until I saw the way her mount moved around. I have to say, I’m a little sad it took Riot this long to make a mounted champion. Sejuani looks awesome. Yes, I said awesome. I’m not talking about her skills, just the way she actually looks running around. I would really like to see more champions like this – the animations are just very, very cool.

      As for her actual abilities, it’s tough to say. I only had one game with her today. I was surprised to find that her Shyvana-style AoE scaled with her health. In the single game I played I laned top against a Lee Sin and actually held my own. He definitely underestimated my tankiness and control, which allowed me to rocket ahead fairly early in the game. Unfortunately, my team’s comp wasn’t great and our Wukong disconnected somewhat late in the game. We ended with a surrender.

      I will probably try to get a few more games in with her over the course of the week, so keep an eye out for an impressions post. Though I did enjoy my playtime with her, I would like to see her get a little more Leona-style tankiness rather than the big health, medium damage she currently has. I could see a damage-dealing, Trinity Force build doing fairly well on her, as unfortunate as that is to say. We’ll see.

      Champions, league of legends, Patches

      Sejuani reignites the sexy-female-champion debate

      January 17, 2012 /

      Female Champion body types.

      I can’t remember exactly when it started with League of Legends, but some time ago the classic “Why is every girl a barbie-proportioned stripper?” question started to pop up. Despite arguments on the other side of the fence (“What about Poppy?”), I think the argument holds a lot of weight. The diversity of female champion design in League of Legends could be described as falling anywhere on the scale between “tragic” and “nonexistent.” I’m going to try to avoid getting into the argument much because, frankly, it’s overdiscussed by a group of people who aren’t serious about it and underdiscussed by the people who really care. What interests me is the range of responses Riot employees give as reasons for continued stream of bimbos.

      A good place to start is at this thread, which is where I got the image above. The interesting thing here isn’t that the champions tend toward slutty archetypes, but more that the body type is exactly the same, regardless of tier. This was a much more interesting analysis to see than the typical “OMG LOOK HOW BIG HER BEWBS ARE.” I would love to see a witch/hag champion that has some crusty old woman flavor. I also love the silhouette of a large, ogre-ish woman in the top right.

      The really weird parts of this discussion come courtesy of Riot employees, like Ricklessabandon, who says, “while i’m totally okay with seeing variety in form, i don’t really like the idea of having diversity just for the sake of having diversity. that is to say, i wouldn’t want an old chick just because there are too many 20-somethings in the roster–that’s not a good reason in my opinion. i’d want an old man/woman only if we had a good story concept and the best fit happens to be an older person. the main problem i’d want to avoid is aesthetics replacing part/all of a champion’s character, and i think that’s harder to do when you set out to create a character for the sake of adding diversity to a roster.”

      What he neglects to address is that the roster is almost exclusively 20-somethings, and that for the most part there is no character design that backs this trend. Why wouldn’t a woman capable of wearing full plate mail be a little thicker in stature? Would trained warriors really be such waifs? Annie, one of the few characters that bucks the trend, is also one of the few characters for which there is actually a character-driven reason behind her aesthetics. That’s to say nothing of the fact that story doesn’t really have a place in League of Legends. I’m not saying character design/flavor isn’t important – it is – rather that Riot shouldn’t be waiting for a cool “story” to design some different champions.

      I’m going to leave a link to another thread through CLGaming’s redtracker because it will allow you to see the original post and IronStylus’ red response. This also contains links to two Kotaku articles that are worth a read if you’re interested in this stuff. I’ll end my discussion here, though. Let me know what you think in the comments.

      Image Credit: Lunakuneko on the official forums

      Current Affairs

      Sejuani ability list announced

      January 16, 2012 /

      Sejuani.

      As expected, Riot announced Sejuani’s official ability list this weekend. It looks like the Tanky DPS rumors were partially true. Her kit sounds like she’s meant to be a pure tank. Let’s have a look at this boar-riding beast of a champion.

      Frost (Passive) – Sejuani’s basic attacks apply Frost, reducing enemy Movement Speed by 10% for 3 seconds.

      Arctic Assault – Sejuani charges forward to deal magic damage and apply Frost to enemies. Sejuani stops upon colliding with an enemy champion.

      Northern Winds – Sejuani summons an arctic storm around her which deals magic damage to nearby enemies every second. Damage is increased against enemies affected by Frost or Permafrost.

      Permafrost – Sejuani converts Frost on nearby enemies to Permafrost, dealing magic damage and increasing the Movement Speed reduction dramatically.

      Glacial Prison (Ultimate) – Sejuani throws her weapon, stunning the first enemy champion hit. Nearby enemies are stunned for a shorter duration. All targets take magic damage and are affected by Frost.

      On the whole I think Sejuani has a decent kit, though there is the usual ambiguity with regard to how some of her skills work. For instance, can she cast Permafrost if nearby enemies don’t have the Frost debuff? I would hope so. Forcing her to rely on hitting targets to use her primary nuke would really hurt. I could also see her ultimate being incredibly frustrating to land properly. I’m also curious about its range.

      If anything, I think Sejuani’s strength will depend on the usability of her charge. Her abilities sound like they synergize fairly well, but none of them matter if she can’t get close enough for a Frost debuff.

      Keep an eye out for her this week. I’ll be giving my impressions as soon as I have a chance to play her.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, Patches

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