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Samuel L. Jackson voices the objectively best announcer pack for Heroes of Newerth
You're going to play Heroes of Newerth now. It's the best game of its type, and that's simple fact. No, stop going on about balance or game mechanics or anything else in the world. Heroes of Newerth has an announcer pack in which all of the clips are voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, and if you think there's any other reason to play or not play a game, it's time for you to step back and re-evaluate your life choices to date. Jackson's announcements are... well, pretty much exactly what you'd expect from the terms "Samuel L. Jackson announcer pack." You can check them out past the break, although we should warn you that if your workplace or home has an issue with shouted profanity, you might want to turn down the volume. For everyone else, click past the break and enjoy the new pack.
Neverwinter's Velasquez on lockboxes, Foundry, and Module 2
Here's an interesting thought we've all had from time to time: What if that stranger you've grouped with is actually a developer in disguise? If you've played Neverwinter, you might have already had this encounter and not even known it. Cryptic Studios Lead Producer Andy Velasquez confessed that he plays his main character -- a Tiefling Devoted Cleric -- on a separate, unknown account so that he can enjoy the game like everyone else. "I'm not special there," he said, "I'm just another player." Now that Neverwinter's had a season to launch, settle down, and add its first major update, we wanted to touch base with Cryptic about the progress of the title. We called Velasquez to chat about the ups and downs of development, the ever-present lockboxes, and a few tantalizing teases regarding Module 2.
Raging League of Legends players win 35% fewer matches than average
Riot Games recently pushed live an interesting, stats-driven look at the way players in League of Legends win games, and the conclusion is simple: Teams that work together tend to do better than those that do not. According to the video, "sportsman-like players" win over 1.7 million more games each day than average players. The video also explains that "rage doesn't win games," noting that the win rate for zero-rage teams is 54%, while teams with three keyboard-smashing players sink to 46%. The numbers get worse from there. Players who avoid flaming in chat and instead work to refocus their team see higher win rates overall. Riot also tracked the way individual players rank based on behavior. Players with a positive record of behavior win 10% more games than average players, while players with a history of community reports win 35% fewer. The decline generally starts with one loss, which starts the raging, which in turn causes more losses. Check out the video after the break to see the stats in action.
Hi-Rez CEO: Without SMITE, Tribes would have 'closed down'
Hi-Rez co-founder and CEO Erez Goren took to Reddit yesterday to deliver a message about his studio's history and its plans for the future. Discussed in the post were challenges of making a profitable game (Global Agenda, for example, lost money throughout its lifespan) and some of the reasoning behind recent decisions made by Hi-Rez about its biggest titles. On the subject of Tribes Ascend, Goren explained that the decision to go free-to-play was made in an effort to give fans easy access to the game. Goren noted that the game broke even "at best," though some financial concerns may have been the result of poor monetization strategies. According to Goren, Tribes Ascend launched to good reviews and a positive community response, but nothing Hi-Rez did could stop players from leaving the game over time. Goren also answered calls for mod tools and accusations that Tribes development was shuttered due to the success of the studio's new MOBA, SMITE. Goren explained that Hi-Rez's development platform does not support modding and that developing the feature set would represent a massive cost to the company, and noted that without the successful development of SMITE, Tribes likely would have been shut down along with the studio itself. According to Goren, the success of SMITE is "very unusual" but has allowed Hi-Rez to expand its team and to find financial stability. Hi-Rez feels as though the future of SMITE is bright, and is dedicated to making it "the best MOBA game in the world" through continued development and partnerships with publishers like TenCent.
League of Legends poaches EVE Online lead designer
It's EVE Online's loss and League of Legends' gain as Kristoffer Touborg said that he's moving from CCP to Riot Games. The former EVE Online lead designer announced the news on his Facebook page, praising his former job while anticipating "something new" with League of Legends. "It's been an incredible five years, working for a company I love, on a game I love. Not a lot of people get that opportunity, but I did and I'll always be grateful that CCP let me work at a place where I'd get up every morning and be happy to go to work," Touborg said. "You can't do the same thing forever though and I feel like after more than five years, it's time to try something new." Touborg has nothing but excitement for his new position: "A few years ago, my overwhelming interest was the EVE universe; now it's League of Legends and the competitive scene there. To everyone at CCP, it's been wonderful and I would happily do it all over again. To everyone at Riot, I'll see you soon."
PAX Prime 2013: Riot Games' Whalen Rozelle on LoL Season 3
I was really excited to step into Riot's press room on Friday at PAX Prime. We had just finished the first series of matches of the day, and it was pretty exciting to talk to people about the matches yet to come. But I don't think anyone was more excited to talk about League of Legends' e-sports scene than Whalen Rozelle, or RiotMagus as he's known on the internet. As the senior e-sports manager at Riot, he's tasked with making sure that events run smoothly, and I took the opportunity to ask him about the format for Season 3 -- especially improvements over Season 2 and the lessons Riot will be taking into Season 4.
Government bans female League of Legends characters at Iranian tourney
League of Legends players will be short a few fighters at Iran's World Cyber Games tournament that's scheduled to begin on September 12th. The Iranian government has its knickers in a knot over some of the MOBA's more scantily clad femme fatales, and so tourney participants will have to do without the services of champions including Ahri, Miss Fortune, Lulu, and dozens of others. Kotaku reports that WGC Iran may be forced to shut down the tournament altogether if it doesn't comply with the ban, though it's worth noting that a few female avatars are "under consideration for tournament play."
The Soapbox: Actually, that really isn't an MMO
In last week's edition of The Soapbox, Mike Foster argued that online gaming has evolved over the past few years and that the term MMO should be expanded to cover other online games like MOBAs. He examined the blurred dividing line between new online games and the classic MMOs of yesteryear, and he made the controversial argument that Call of Duty and League of Legends should now fall under the MMO umbrella. I found myself disagreeing with many of Mike's arguments and wanting to make additional points of my own, so this week I'd like to offer a few counter-points on the same topic for debate. The MMO market has certainly evolved since Massively was founded, with some pretty big innovations in gameplay and new ideas like the free-to-play business model taking hold. As much as people like to complain about a lack of innovation in the games industry, the same level of experimentation and evolution has hit industry-wide. Call of Duty has borrowed unlock and XP systems from the world of orcs and dragons, and League of Legends came from nowhere to be at the forefront of a global MOBA revolution, but neither of them is an MMO by any stretch of the imagination. In this in-depth opinion piece, I break down the definition arguments surrounding the term MMO, offer a reasoned view of where the line can and should be drawn, and look at why Massively covers games other than MMOs.
League of Legends compromised; North American accounts and transactions accessed
Riot Games has just issued a letter to League of Legends players revealing that North American account information has been compromised by hackers. According to the message, usernames, email addresses, "salted password hashes," and real names were accessed. Riot insists that password information is unreadable but that players with easy-to-guess passwords might be at risk. Also accessed were hashed and salted credit card numbers from around 120,000 transactions made in 2011. Riot noted that the payment system in question has not been used since July of 2011 and that it is "taking appropriate action to notify and safeguard affected players." If your information was affected, you will receive an email from Riot. All North American players will be required to change their passwords "to stronger ones that are much harder to guess." In the meantime, keep an eye on your accounts for any suspicious activity.
The Soapbox: That's not an MMO
You may not be aware of this, but Massively is a website focused primarily on massively multiplayer online games. It's kind of what we do. However, the world of MMOs in 2013 is far different from the world of MMOs in 2007, when the site was founded. The niche has changed and the games industry has evolved. There was a time when "online" told you everything you needed to know about a game because there was really only one type of online game. You knew in picking up an online game that you and some friends would be leveling, looting gear, and slaying dragons. It took a while for developers to notice that online play was actually a thing that could work in more than one particular format. Nowadays, online games range from traditional MMORPGs like Guild Wars 2 and RIFT to MOBAs like SMITE and League of Legends. There's no clear definition for what an MMO is or isn't because so many games are massive, multiplayer, and online. Maybe it's time to embrace MMO as a broader term than previously thought.
League of Legends steels itself for patch 3.10
How do you know when a patch is a big deal? How about when its designation ends with a zero and when it has its own seven-minute preview video. League of Legends patch 3.10 has both of these, and while it's not yet live, players can check out the full patch notes and patch video to prepare for the changes. Patch 3.10 begins with a nerf to Elise's spiderling pets and her rappel range. It goes on to make Twisted Fate's passive fit his gambling theme better, make a few jungle tweaks, take runic bulwark out, and add a new mid-level magic resistance item to the game. You can check out the 3.10 preview video after the jump.
Hi-Rez's Todd Harris argues Tribes: Ascend is a 'complete' and 'content-rich' experience
We reported earlier this week that Hi-Rez decided to stop updating Tribes Ascend in favor of user mapmaking tools because the studio feels that the Tribes experience is "complete" as-is. In a follow-up interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Hi-Rez's Todd Harris has now discussed the development hiatus in more detail and answers some tough questions on extant issues with game balance. He argues that not only is the game complete, but it's already feature-rich and a bargain for the price. Since launch, we added 54 new weapons. We added a new game mode, a new leveling system, custom servers, server browser, shielded base assets, 29 new maps – all free – and all that in a brief period of time. We also added an option for people to pay one price and get all the weapons. I don't know of any other free-to-play game, other than our own SMITE, that has that option. It's free-to-play, but it does have a twist. You can get all the gameplay elements for the price of a normal game. It's fairly complete in its content. Harris also tells RPS that a new tutorial would be only a "modest improvement as far as new people sticking with the game"; instead, he says, he hopes to facilitate community resources. But mostly, he appears to believe the game has already found its audience. "The days of major changes in the game are behind us," he says. What about insinuations that the studio bit off more than it could chew? Harris explains that the studio has three small teams working on multiple games and has learned "learned the value of focus." According to Harris, Tribes has supported itself commercially and profits were always returned to the game's development. Even so, the studio is focused on the MOBA space: "SMITE is doing well enough that it's justifying a large amount of resources on it . . . we see the biggest studio opportunity on SMITE."
Uncle Sam: League of Legends pros are pro athletes
"The United States government recognizes League of Legends pro players as professional athletes, and awards visas to essentially work in the United States under that title," Riot e-sports manager Nick Allen tells Gamespot. Allen says that international tourney organization is now much easier, though getting the initial batch of visas was a "lengthy process" that required a lot of legwork in order to provide enough proof to satisfy government officials.
Still no spectator mode in the works for WoW arena
While there are many changes in store for the arena in patch 5.4, there are still no development plans for a spectator mode according to EU community manager, Nakatoir. The latest blue post on the matter reiterates much of what we've heard before -- that yes, a spectator mode would be awesome but would require great number of resources to develop. Thus it's not currently in the cards. Nakatoir -- Spectator mode and the esport scene in general I don't deny that getting a working spectator mode would help with community ran competitions and tournaments and it's one of the reasons that we would like to have one. Understand that this is something we know that players want and it's something that we would like to provide to you. We simply have no plans at this time to implement such a feature, but when we are able to implement this feature we'll be sure to let you know about it. source Given the incoming arena and PvP changes slated to arrive in patch 5.4, one might expect the demand for a spectator feature to increase, but who knows for sure? What do you think? Would having spectator mode increase your interest and participation in arena? Do you think the WoW eSports community would grow if there was a dedicated spectator mode like the ones found in StarCraft 2 or League of Legends?
Riot is apparently a really good place to work
Business Insider has teamed with Glassdoor.com to publish a list of the 25 best tech companies to work for, according to those companies' own employees. Reviews and ratings were compiled spanning the past 12 months, and only companies with more than 25 employee reviews were considered. Riot is the only gaming company on the list, but the League of Legends studio places a respectable fourth thanks to glowing employee feedback. "The company takes ridiculously good care of us, and tries every step of the way to make sure we're engaged culturally, intellectually, and socially with the industry and each other. It's by far the best place I've ever worked," gushes one staffer.
Todd Harris confirms no more development on Tribes: Ascend
If you've been a fan of Tribes: Ascend, we hope you're happy with the current state of the game -- or that you like SMITE just as much. In response to a user inquiry, Hi-Rez Studios head Todd Harris announced that there are no major updates planned for the game within the next six months. The studio's current resources are devoted first to SMITE, then to Global Agenda 2, and beyond that a full-on sequel to Tribes: Ascend is more likely than a major content patch. While Harris goes on to mention that there are additional maps being worked on, he states there is no definite date for release, if indeed these maps are ever released. While support for servers and the existing game is not in question, the long-term health of the community without further content is questionable. And with no developers working on a sequel, even that seems rather unlikely at this point.
Anonymous donor posts 500K bail for jailed League of Legends player
Two weeks ago we reported that a teenager from Texas was incarcerated last March after his comments on Facebook during a verbal exchange with another League of Legends player were deemed terrorist threats by authorities. Jailed for months, Justin Carter has been in solitary confinement after repeated assaults by other inmates and on suicide watch due to depression. After reading about Carter's plight, numerous folks have stepped forward to sign the petition for the boy's release. Another anonymous donor has come forward and donated $500,000 to the family to meet bail, allowing Carter to return home until his court appearance on the July 16th.
The problem with F2P is dishonest product marking, says David Paris
Game developer David Paris has penned a new blog at Gamasutra focused on the stigma of free-to-play business models. Paris, whose bio lists him as the builder of the world's first subscription-based internet MOG (Valhalla), says that there's nothing inherently wrong with F2P that more honest product marking won't fix. And thus we come to the core of the problem - the lack of honesty about how much impact IAPs [in-app purchases] have on games. The truth is that F2P monetization is frequently very much about concealing exactly this impact from its players so that we will either play until we are so invested that we will cough up and pay, or so that we'll provide an audience for the whales to lord it over. Burying pay-to-win mechanics under an initial layer of skill-to-win, providing advantages that become required for competitive play, roadblocks or surprisingly reduced game functionality tucked underneath paid barriers that weren't obvious when you started. He cites League of Legends and Marvel Heroes as games that do it right and wrong, respectively, though he does criticize LoL for failing to offer an all-the-content-for-a-single-price option.
League of Legends video previews 3.9 patch
As is wont to happen, patches bring change. And League of Legend's upcoming 3.9 patch is no different. In the latest video patch preview, Riot Games highlights some of those incoming alterations to the popular MOBA. This time around Draven is the first in line for a nerf bat makeover. Deemed an unfair champion (thanks to his unmatched early game damage), the team toned Draven down by modifying his passive ability. Next up, LeBlanc is actually getting buffed up to improve her flexibility. And finally, Oracle's Elixer and wards are getting a few changes; kill gold for a ward will be split between the player that finds it as well as the one that kills it, and Oracle's Elixer will persist through death, but have a shortened duration and reveal radius. You can catch all the details in the video after the break. [Source: Riot Games press release]
Texas teen still in jail after February League of Legends argument
Texas teen Justin Carter has been in jail since March 27th due to comments he made on Facebook that stemmed from a February confrontation with another user in League of Legends. Carter, 18, reportedly posted "oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still beating hearts." According to his father, his next two lines of text were "lol" and "JK." After a Canadian woman saw the Facebook post and called the police, Justin Carter was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat, Gamespot reports. Carter faces up to eight years in prison. Family and friends have started an online petition asking for his release as well as adjustments to anti-terrorism legislation.
