News Tencent acquires League of Legends developer

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/02/07/tencent-acquires-league-of-legends-develope/1

 

In your review you stated you'd revisit it once it implemented many of the changes which were "coming soon".

Having done that it is now a much more complete game than when it was reviewed, time to re-visit it perhaps?

It would make sense to go and see why it has overshadowed HoN would it not?

 

It's something I do want to do and will try to get around to in the near future.

 

If you do revisit it, get ready to type in chat /ignore enemy It's unfortunately one of my most used commands.

 

Only problem is, the changes that were "coming soon" then are still "coming soon" now.

 

Shop? Season 1? They have both been implemented, the review was alot earlier than you think. The shop wasn't even open for instance..

The only big coming soon that is "needed" is the Replay/Spec Mode function. The new map and graphic overhaul are coming but they are luxury features, they aint needed.

 

$400 Mil for a DOTA clone? Craziness!

 

I disagree. You can already spectate and replay a game, to an extent, using streaming websites. It's not perfect, but it does the job. The new map however, is something the community seems to be screaming for. I do agree about the fact that the graphics overhaul is a luxury.

Hopefully with the backing of Tencent, they'll be able to speed up production of everything except the champions.

 

Hmm well my enjoyment comes from the competitive scene and at the moment a new map is just "meh".

I do hope that it is how the have said and that Riot get to continue as they are except with more resources available.

Some big cash tournaments coming up this year, will be interesting to see!

 

currently one of the nicest games out there actually...
I currently prefer to spend 1h playing a match in League than spending 1h in an Heroic in WoW...

 

The problem is shared between the community and the learning curve - problems that still exist in WoW, but by the time you're ready for heroics/raiding in WoW you've gone through 80+ levels of quests and dungeons, plenty of time to familiarize yourself with your character. I thought the WoW community was bad, but it's not even worth attempting to get comfortable with LoL based on the dialogue I've seen and experienced in-game.

Combine a terrible community with the clunky user interface and LoL has the makings for an elitest jerks forum of their own. If you haven't fully researched your character and build good luck being competitive after the first 15 minutes of a match, and there's very little variation between characters within the same class. This means any given group of five mates can throw together a group that is virtually unstoppable on a straight push; combine two tanks, a couple stealth and/or a magic/ranged unit and it's hilarious unbalance.

 

Zephyr to use your WoW reference. Once you are level 30 on LoL you have a familiarisation with all the champs aswell, the community is also a much nicer place at level 30.

The WoW community is rather hostile too, i only started playing WoW at Christmas and have lost count of the amount of times i've been insta-gibbed by a level 85 when i was just going about my quests.

 

LOL = poor mans HoN

 

Hey Ab, nice to see you campaigning for this .

What Ab's said is pretty much spot on with regards to the difficulty curve... Like all games, it takes time and patience in order to get truly "good" at a game (be it learning all the camping spots in an FPS, or the different viable champion builds in League), anyone thinking that they can jump in and play "competitively" needs to rethink that.

The main thing that League does right is how it eases you into the games by offering a limited pool of Champions to select from which limits the amount of variation in the game at low levels and as you play more games, you get exposed to more characters and tactics etc. which increase your knowledge and understanding of the game.

I'm sorry, but that's completely bull. Ab and I have roughly 1000 games each under our belts, we've played in 5 man prearranged teams with voice comms. both separately and together, and i think i can speak for both of us when i say there are times despite how "decent" and "organized" our team may be, we've been completely and utterly demolished by an opposing team (admit it Ab ).

Was this because they had some stupidly overpowered combination of characters which is impossible to stop? No. If that was the case, there wouldn't be such a rich competitive scene happening.

As with the majority of happenings like this, it's simply because we either got outplayed, or they enacted their game plan better than we could. They positioned their Carry so it was awkward to focus them down, or they properly chained together their disables on an important teammate meaning they were disabled for the majority of the teamfight. As with all strategy games, the team that fails to adapt properly, or quickly enough is often the team to lose.

That's a little extreme isn't it? After playing enough games, you'll soon see that there's a reason why some picks are more competitive than others.

Sure, there are characters where you can be like "Oh they're both ranged and build like Physical Carries", but that's pretty much where the similarity ends between two champions since their skillsets often dictate why they're chosen and what role they can provide for the team.

I'm sure you could provide an example of two champions you think have "very little variation" and me and Ab would be glad to point out the differences between them, in how they're played and why they're chosen.

It's nice to see that your second post on bit-tech was so informative and enlightening... you must feel very strongly about the subject to have put so much time and effort into that post.

But on a side note, why is it that whenever League of Legends is mentioned, some (but not all) HoN players feel the urge to somehow belittle the game? Is it somehow linked to purchase justification reflex? Just because you paid $30 (i believe?) to play the game, you now feel like your game is immediately superior to any competitors?

I guess it's linked in with the "bad" community comments from before, but in reverse, all i generally see from League players is "I prefer League instead... it's free" (or words to that effect).

 

Your right, perhaps I should elaborate.... I didn’t think anyone would actually read these comments...

I play both HoN and LoL on an almost daily basis and I did dabble with DoTa for a while a few years ago, admittedly I wasn’t very good.

I find in HoN you need an in-depth knowledge of the game, the items and the heroes in order to have a successful game, everyone likes to win right? Whereas in LoL.... well I typically grab a game if I don’t have time for a full HoN game(tend to last longer), I want a more light hearted experience or I’m fed up of losing at HoN and need my win fix. I don’t even know the heroes or the items well but this doesn’t stop me from winning game after game...and I’m not a good player by any means. I simply find the game easier than HoN

I guess you get what you pay for, HoN - no idea what I paid for it and no idea how much it is now, but I did buy it and as a result I have a more in depth and rewarding experience when compared to LoL.

LoL on the other hand I feel is 'basic' in comparison, which is reflected in the price...free....and also lets them get away with unresponsive browser style menu's.

If your looking for a Dota remake then you can pay a few ££'s for HoN or skimp out and play LoL

Ill probably never read these comments again so not sure why I’ve even bothered to reply.....

Good day