bloodline-champions
Latest
The Soapbox: League of Legends is the new World of Warcraft
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Every now and then, a game comes out of nowhere with such incredible financial success that it causes the games industry to completely lose perspective. All it takes is one game to start raking in the millions for developers, publishers and investors to stumble around with dollar signs in their eyes for years to come. Innovation grinds to a halt and everyone starts blindly copying whichever game just hit the jackpot. It's like some huge industry-wide superstition takes over and convinces people that if they do the same dance the same way, it'll rain again. World of Warcraft has consistently had this effect since shortly after its launch in 2004. To this day, several studios per year excitedly announce yet another fantasy MMO that lifts its entire feature set and every gameplay mechanic wholesale from World of Warcraft as if it were a model for automatic success. The same thing is happening again in online gaming today, not from MMOs but from MOBAs, a new genre based on the competitive gaming classic DotA. Developers are still chasing the massive money made by yet another hugely successful game, and this time it's League of Legends.
[Updated] On the eleventh day of giveaways, Funcom gave to me...
[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Thanks to everyone who entered!] On the eleventh day of giveaways, Funcom gave to me... eleven prize packages! On the tenth day of giveaways, PerfectWorld gave to me... ten grab bag items! On the ninth day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me... nine SWG mementos! On the eighth day of giveaways, Enjin gave to me... eight guild-wide gifts! On the seventh day of giveaways, NCsoft gave to me... seven years of memories! On the sixth day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me... six retail packs! On the fifth day of giveaways, Trion gave to me... five subscription codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... four pet items! On the third day of giveaways, Wargaming.net gave to me... three premium years! On the second day of giveaways, BioWare gave to me... two warring factions! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! We're almost finished with our 12 Days of Giveaways, but Funcom is making sure we approach the end in style with a series of prize packages guaranteed to excite both Age of Conan and Bloodline Champions fans. We have five gift packs each containing one year of premium account status for Age of Conan, a Bloodline Champions starter edition, and one thousand Funcom points. Five more packages contain a Bloodline Champions starter edition and one thousand Funcom points, while our final prize is a Titan edition of Bloodline Champions. Ready to enter? Read the contest rules for eligibility, then leave a comment letting us know why you love Funcom's games and should be one of our winners. The deadline is tomorrow, December 24th, at 7:00 p.m. EST, so be sure to enter before then. Good luck!
Funcom and Stunlock Studios to sponsor Bloodline Champions tournies
Funcom and Stunlock Studios know that Bloodline Champions was just made for the tournament circuit, which is why both companies are sponsoring a pair of gaming events in May that feature this popular PvP battle arena. First stop on the trail is this weekend's TooManyGames expo, an indie gaming event in Philadelphia that's running from May 6th through the 8th. The Bloodline Champions tournament begins on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. EDT, and any interested combatants can preregister on the website or sign up at the door. Later in the month comes Digital Overload in Baltimore from May 27th through the 29th. Digital Overload is a giant LAN party, and with Funcom's sponsorship, it's hosting a Bloodline Champions double elimination tournament that's free to enter. To help promote Bloodline Champions and encourage the playerbase, Funcom and Stunlock Studios plan to continue to sponsor and host events around North America this summer.
Bloodline Champions begins the battle with Season 1
"Our biggest update yet!" the promotions for Bloodline Champions shout at us in an all-caps font. If you're a fan of this wildly popular online battle arena, then Season 1: The Battle Begins will have you pumped up for the next evolution of this game. The keystone to this update is a new Bloodline: the Reaver. The Reaver is a melee fighter who wields a horking big sword and stops at nothing to dominate the battlefield. E-sport warriors should appreciate having this frenzied warrior in their inventory. Players participating in Season 1 can take part in a ladder tournament system, through which they can earn exclusive items by fighting their way to the top. The Season also introduces emotes to the game, two new maps (the close-quarter Altar of Dorn Zweig and the huge Ruins of Razmorg), and additional store items. Stunlock Studios even put together a Charitable Champions Pack -- which includes an exclusive avatar and title -- to help the disaster relief efforts in Japan, as 100% of the proceeds go toward this effort. You can read more about Bloodline Champions' huge update over at the official website, and make sure to check out our first impressions of the game!
Massively revisits Bloodline Champions and gets pwned
The last time I visited Stunlock Studios' Bloodline Champions, I was impressed but not very turned on. Sure, it worked well, and despite its only semi-original art design, it looked good enough. It just wasn't really my game. I'm not a PvPer, and I'm certainly not an arena-combat type of guy. Yes, I enjoy a good romp in the pits once in a while, but arena-type games just seem repetitive. Well, that was back in the early release or beta of the game. Now that I have returned, I have found a much improved, smooth, and more full-featured game. I can even say that I had (gasp!) quite a bit of fun. Granted, I was not able to play many games, simply because during the day it seemed that only the European players had any games available -- and even those were generally locked out -- but I played a few that made me feel, well, kind of tough. Click past the cut and let me explain.
Massively interviews the Bloodline Champions crew
Bloodline Champions is an exciting arena-based PvP game brought to us by Stunlock Studios -- pretty darned impressive stuff for such new developers, if we do say so ourselves! We took a quick look at it a while back, if you want to catch up first. While our abilities were nowhere near up-to-snuff, it was still obvious that many players were already enjoying the heck out of the game. In fact, if you look at the game's Facebook page, it's obvious that many gamers are enjoying it. But we wanted to know more, so we fired off some questions to the team. Luckily, they decided to answer our questions before hacking us to pieces. Read on!
First Impressions: Bloodline Champions
Bloodline Champions, a new arena-based combat game from Stunlock Studios, asks only one thing of the player: to kill. Unfortunately for me, I am better at balancing bicycles on my nose than I am at pwning noobs, so I was a little hesitant in trying the game. I decided to puff out my chest and hit the download button. What I found was about what I expected, but made with care. The game is "tailored for esport," meaning that it is made to allow players to repeatedly knock the crud out of each other while racking up kills and stats. If you ever ran the World of Warcraft arena over and over in the hopes of filling out your wardrobe with "welfare epics," then you have experienced a game much like Bloodline. There are several "bloodlines" to pick from, each with its own set of unique abilities, spells and looks. Many of the bloodlines compliment each other, and forming an efficient team of killers requires communication and dedication. During my stint within the arena, I found myself (and my team) being murdered over and over again by much more tightly knit gangs of players. After a match or two, the pattern and strategy of the members of the opposing team quickly became apparent: they actually talked to each other and discussed tactics. What a strange concept to me. I tend to come to fights somewhat randomly. Well -- very randomly.
Funcom publishing Stunlock's 'Bloodline Champions'
Age of Conan and The Secret World publisher Funcom has announced a publishing deal with Sweden-based Stunlock Studios AB for the PC multiplayer arena game Bloodline Champions. Under the deal, Funcom will operate and provide support for the 10-player online combat game. The deal has more significance than just bringing Bloodline Champions to audiences, though. While Stunlock will retain ownership of Bloodline, Funcom has also agreed to purchase a minority stake in Stunlock. It seems likely, then, that it will work with Funcom for future titles. If you'd like to see what Funcom's money is going into, you can try to get into the current Bloodline Champions beta here. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until "late 2010."
