Tag: dominion release (Page 2 of 3)

      Dominion is live again for an unspecified amount of time

      September 23, 2011 /

      Dominion was just enabled on live North American servers for the third day in a row, this time for an unspecified amount of time. I spent a lot of time with the new map yesterday during the extended beta window, so I’ll probably only play a few games today.

      I’m really curious about Riot’s release strategy for the new map. At this point, Summoner’s Rift has sort of lost its luster. I’m sure I’ll want to play the old map here and there, but with something new in front of my face, it’s hard to justify spending 20-30 minutes farming up so I can have 10 minutes of teamfights. I’d much rather have 20 minutes of solid action to enjoy.

      The problem, now, is that I’m currently on my third day of Dominion. On my live account. With all my champions. On the same servers I would otherwise be playing on. That’s not really a beta. And now that I’ve been exposed to Dominion for extended periods of time, I kinda want to stick with it. The times that it isn’t on Live just make me frustrated that it isn’t available. Basically, the “limited beta” feels more like a soft release. Even though the word “beta” has been used, the client and even the champions remain the same, so it just feels like a released game that I can only play some of the time.

      That said, I know the reasons for the downtime are stability related, and I’d much rather see Dominion release to a stable platform than release and get 12 hours of server downtime for 12 hours of uptime. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the release is bittersweet – I’m really enjoying Dominion, but I’d love for it to be available all the time.

      Dominion, league of legends, News

      More Dominion thoughts and impressions

      September 23, 2011 /

      It is now 1:30 in the morning and my head is still buzzing from the Dominion beta. Though the beta was supposed to end today around 4:30PM EST, it was extended until sometime after midnight. I can honestly say I spent most of that time playing the Dominion beta. It was a total blast – addictive in a way very few games that last only 20 minutes can be. It’s like a shooter, but with the bonus appeal of unique characters, character progression, and the complications that come with team composition. I think it will be nice to talk for a minute about just how much good Riot has done with this game mode and why I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on it again.

      Let’s get one thing straight: Dominion is Riot’s best product to date. I will stand by that until I see a strategy so infuriating that I’m ready to call it quits. Until that time, though, Dominion rules. Playing League of Legends on Summoner’s Rift was always a lot of fun, but in the MOBA world it was the evolutionary equivalent of a tadpole growing flippers. Those flippers were shiny, but the MOBA tadpole could already swim pretty well.

      Dominion is the proper, get-out-of-the-water-and-start-breathing-oxygen step in the process. This is the kind of battle arena I’ve been looking for. It is fast paced. It is incredibly active. It is as physically thrilling a game as I’ve played in a very long time.

      For a while, I wondered if Dominion was the right play for Riot, especially if it released next to so many other high profile games. The release window is actually what makes Dominion a fantastic product. Riot knows it can’t keep our attention. Riot knows we will be playing Diablo 3 and Battlefield 3 and DotA 2 and SWTOR. It seems Riot also knows that we will want a break from those games, too, and the 20-minute Dominion matches fill that role perfectly. Dominion can easily become the default wife-is-in-the-shower or got-a-few-minutes-before-class game.

      Now it all boils down to release. I’m so impressed with Dominion that I don’t really care how it happens. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if Riot just flipped the beta switch and left it on tomorrow. I’m relatively certain that won’t happen, but the fact that it was running for a majority of the day leads me to believe we’ll be seeing it soon. I mean soon as in the actual definition of the word. Like probably early next week. I know, it feels so far away, but honestly, Dominion is worth a few days wait.

      Dominion, league of legends

      Dominion Beta opens today – first window at 11AM EST

      September 21, 2011 /

      Can it be? Could good news beget more good news? Yes, dear friends, as the title of this post suggests, the Dominion beta does indeed start today, with the first window starting…now!

      I’m actually loading into a game as I type this. I’m playing Zilean, hoping that his speed will bring the kind of mobility and pain that you need for Dominion to work.

      Alrighty, first game was a win. Went into the second game as Teemo and did really well in the early game but was up against a Jax. That champ could very easily break this game mode from what I saw (mind you, in one game). I’m going into a third game now playing as Jax to see what I think.

      If you’re at home, jump online and get into some Dominion. It’s been a blast so far!

      Dominion, league of legends, News

      Dominion to see limited beta release for all players

      September 18, 2011 /

      Dominion Crystal Scar.

      Tamat announced at the end of last week that Dominion will be playable in the near future as part of a limited beta. Basically the game mode will be enabled during off-peak hours for anyone to play, but only for a limited amount of time.

      I like the idea; it will be nice to get our hands on the game type early and hopefully the data will help produce a smooth release. As always, though, the issue is timing. You may remember this sort of thing happened with Twisted Treeline. It was available in limited doses early on, but there was a pretty significant gap between the first look at Twisted Treeline and its actual release.

      That’s my big worry with Dominion. I already posted that it might get pushed back until October, but let’s consider a timeline in which testing gets started this week. I would imagine we’ll have at least two weeks of testing, followed by at least one week of development based on gathered data, followed by another week of internal testing before deploy. That’s four weeks, which puts us into the middle of October. Honestly, I think that’s best case scenario. It seems totally plausible to me that Dominion won’t fully launch until November.

      I really hope that’s not the case. Dominion looks like a blast, but I’m not sure it will be able to keep all of my attention once we’re in the thick of the fall release schedule.

      Dominion, league of legends

      Dominion potentially delayed until October

      September 6, 2011 /

      Things have been extremely quiet at Riot headquarters of late. The forums have been utterly devoid of red posts concerning Dominion, the end of Season One, and the beginning of Season Two in the last week or so. This wouldn’t be all that shocking – Riot has always struggled to provide good communication about timing – but we had been hearing about those things and in quantity for the three weeks or so prior.

      From the time Dominion was announced until about three weeks ago, Riot was pumping the Dominion hype. We got the Dominion minisite, gameplay vids at the major gaming news outlets, plenty of screenshots, and chances to play the game at several industry events. We saw Rioters play pros, Rioters play Rioters. We got excited.

      Next we were told about the end of Season One and the rewards that end entailed. For the first time since the launch of Season One players had something more than just winning/losing/farming IP to worry about. It was a great announcement, and hopefully a challenge a few people enjoyed as much as I did.

      This past week, though, it was dead silent. I thought that meant Dominion was on the way. I thought that meant we’d see it before Q4 of this year, which is when every other game I’ve been excited about for the past several years is coming out. Sadly, that’s probably not the case. RiotRara finally posted in the forums today regarding the timing of Riven and the patch that follows her.

      Here’s the quote:

      Riven, and the changes within her patch, will be coming next week. As we previously announced, Season One will conclude with our next scheduled game update. Therefore we will also be calculating the Season One Ladder rankings and rewards during downtime for this patch.

      Additionally, there will be an extra week (3 weeks total) between the Riven patch and the patch to follow. This extra time will ensure we bring you the best content possible in League of Legends.

      I can’t imagine “best content possible” is code for anything other than Dominion. Three weeks from next Tuesday is October 4th. I’m not impressed, Riot. Not at all.

      Development, Dominion, league of legends, News, Patches

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2025 Fearless Gamer

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑