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Scott Hartsman pontificates on the future of MMOs
We hadn't heard a peep from Scott Hartsman after he left his position as executive producer at Trion Worlds... until now. The former EverQuest II and RIFT lead spoke with Forbes not about where he's going but about where he thinks the MMO industry is heading. Hartsman sees the increased cost and competition of MMOs becoming a major problem as more time goes by: "Can companies keep up with the expectations and each generation of MMOs costing more and more? It's an arms race that no one can win, it's not sustainable in its current direction." He also thinks that we've hit a cap on the number of people willing to subscribe and that the newer (read: free-to-play) models are providing attractive, flexible alternatives for a wider playerbase. "It's all about finding business models that serve larger numbers in a fair way," Hartsman said, pointing to League of Legends as an example of how "friction-free" an entry to a game can be.
Mac users join the League of Legends fray as open beta starts today
Just over a month ago, Riot Games announced that the long-desired Mac version of League of Legends was not a pipe dream but actually in active development. Today the studio threw open the beta doors and invited Mac users to grab the client and experience the same exact service that the PC players enjoy, from features to bug fixes to new content. Of course, Riot would appreciate all feedback, as the client is still in beta. Skeptical about the validity of this beta claim? Understandable, since the last attempt at creating the Mac platform disappeared almost a year and a half ago. To assuage your doubts, Dr. Mundo offers this video endorsement, viewable after the break. [Source: Riot Games press release]
League of Legends kicks off third season of e-sports
League of Legends is about ready to begin its third season of the League Championship Series, and this time Riot Games is bringing a few interesting changes to the field. Season 3 goes live on February 7th for North America and Europe and features four-days-per-week of streamed e-sports as teams battle to become the best -- and bring home the dough. For Season 3, Riot is fiddling with the structure to make a new league ranking system that should offer a "greater sense of progression." Players will battle it out in six tiers of similarly matched teams until the cream rises to the top. To help all players understand the changes, Riot's provided a handy infographic and FAQ covering the pertinent points. There's also a goofy promo video of players running around an empty stadium in slow-motion, and you know you want to see that. It's after the jump. Thank us later.
Heroes of Newerth's 3.0 update has arrived
Heroes of Newerth's 3.0 update is finally here! As we reported earlier this month, S2 Games hopes its latest mega-patch will make the popular MOBA title "more accessible than ever" by focusing on the new player experience via a revamped walkthrough. There's also an in-game Learnatorium boasting a series of tutorial videos and a new system of player-controlled AI bots that allow new players to ease into the game before tackling a human opponent. S2 has also added a referral program and a new report-a-player system, both with the goal of making HoN's community the best in the MOBA space. Finally, we've embedded the latest HoN dev diary video for you after the break -- and don't forget the exclusive lore trailer we brought you last week! [Source: S2 press release]
League of Legends enforces 'zero tolerance' policy on test server
Riot Games is cracking down hard on noxious player attitudes and actions on League of Legends' public beta environment (PBE) server. The studio admits that it has not done enough to enforce player behavior guidelines on the server. Riot also says that this ends now. "Our take-away message today is quite simple," the studio posted. "The PBE has zero tolerance for toxicity, and change is coming." The studio says that the PBE is a premium server that should function under higher standards, and as such the devs are working on ways above and beyond the norm to enforce and improve player behaviors as well as hold players accountable for their actions. One of the new features is an automatic system that will deliver bans to so-called toxic players, starting with 167 such bans today.
Riot Games issues lifetime bans for League of Legends players
Riot Games has been trying its hardest to clean up some of the more toxic members of the League of Legends community by handing out year-long suspensions to some of the worst offenders. But sometimes it's not enough to have a time out. Khaled "StunnedandSlayed" Abusagr and Nicolaj "Veigodx" Jensen aren't banned from the game for a year -- they've been banned from the game and all tournaments forever, and any subsequent accounts they create will be immediately banned as well. Simon "Rayt3ch" Näslund has also had his account banned and is barred from tournament participation for one year, but his future accounts will not be flagged as kill-on-sight. These bannings will force Team Solo Mebdi out of the qualifying rounds for the League of Legends championship, as the loss of the players pushes the team below the minimum necessary number of members. It's an aggressive step toward cleaning up the notoriously vile community, although it remains to be seen what the lasting impact will be from these bannings.
Mac client in testing now for League of Legends
Although League of Legends sports a hefty player base, Mac users have been noticeably absent since the previous Apple-only beta shut down in September of 2011. Associate Producer Steve Mieczkowski has announced that a new Mac version is on its way. And once it goes live, both versions of the client will receive all content, features, and bug fixes simultaneously. The Mac client is currently playable on the game's Public Beta Environment, and it will enter an open beta phase when developers are confident with the results from the PBE test. However, players needn't wait for the open beta to try it out; in fact, Mieczkowski encourages folks to download the PBE from the official site now and help by offering feedback and finding bugs.
Massively Exclusive: Heroes of Newerth lore trailer
There's a lot to be excited about for Heroes of Newerth's 3.0 update -- believe us, we've been there. S2 wants to up the frenzy level a little more, however, which is why the studio delivered a steaming hot cup of trailer for you to savor. The video mostly concerns itself with providing a thematic background to the characters' conflict and a snippet or two of the world's backstory. It then shifts into groovy slow-motion gameplay footage, although it seems over all too soon. Get pumped up for HoN's 3.0 update by watching the trailer after the jump!
A newbie in Heroes of Newerth: How patch 3.0 improves the MOBA experience
My first experiences in the MOBA genre went something like this: "What do you mean last-hitting and how come these towers keep shooting me? I'm a hero, for freak's sake!" to which my teammate would respond, "Quit feeding and die in a fire." It was a confusing and tumultuous time. Thankfully, the genre has taken a turn for the better, adding more in-depth tutorials, bot matches, and various other aids to help new players transition into the game and beef up the competitive numbers. Heroes of Newerth is no exception. S2 Games is preparing to globally launch (yes, everywhere at the same time) patch 3.0 on January 31st, 2013, and it will include a lane full of visual enhancements, bots with customizable AI, and a stronger emphasis on teaching new players the ropes. Could HoN establish itself as the MOBA for new players of the genre? We trekked to a demo in San Francisco last week to find out.
Two more League of Legends players banned for jerkiness
Riot has banned two more League of Legends pros for excessively adolescent behavior. Last December the company sent Christian "IWillDominate" Rivera packing, and now Illyas "enVision" Hartsema and Damien "Linak" Lorthios are joining him in exile. Both players will be banned from both this weekend's LCS Season 3 Qualifier and LCS play next year according to the ruling on Riot's forums. enVision has been reported in a whopping 29% of his matches, which PC Gamer says is six times more than the average EU LoL player. He has also been punished 18 times, including two account bans, throughout his LoL history. Linak boasts a 20% report rate and, like enVision, has a peak harassment score in the worst .06% of all EU accounts.
League of Legends implementing new league system for Season 3
Season 3 is on its way for League of Legends, and just like the previous seasons, players will be fighting for position in the ranked tournaments. However, this next round of ranked play comes with a twist: Riot Games is implementing a new league system. Why the change? To make competition even more compelling and play more meaningful for everyone. Instead of just one single ladder for folks to climb, players will belong to a league within one of six different tiers based on their skill. Leagues will be comprised of up to 250 players broken into five divisions (except for the top Challenger tier). Players can rise and fall within the divisions and even work their way into a new league at the next tier. The new system is detailed in the infographic after the cut; click the image to see the full-res version. And for even more details, check out the official FAQ.
Goldrush: Another new datamined battleground?
The good folks over at Adriacraft have been busily mining through the data in the Patch 5.2 PTR, and unearthed another new battleground map! Adriacraft's Stevan informed us that this map is currently titled Goldrush BG, which, given the titles of Eye of the Storm (Netherstorm BG) and Gilneas BG for, well, Battle for Gilneas, it seems relatively likely that this is another new battleground map. Looking at the map itself, which Adriacraft have provided an overhead screenshot of, this seems like a far smaller map than the previously datamined Defense of the Alehouse. It's likely for 10 or so players, and appears to have, or intend to have, two bases, as well as at least two resource nodes. Given the name of the battleground file, it's possible that these are gold mines, but from the map there are three small golden bits in the middle, also visible at five seconds into the video, so perhaps it's a spawning node capture. Stevan also informed us that there are human models in the patch 5.2 PTR files, and therefore speculated that this battleground could have NPCs in it, bringing gold to players, who might have to defend resources that allow the NPCs to carry out their task. Or, to bring my own speculation into it, perhaps there are mines or nodes that can be captured, which permit players to ferry gold back and forth, and the NPCs mine up the nodes or gold. Naturally, this is datamined information, and should be treated accordingly, not as confirmation of any new element of the game. But, it's fun to speculate, and encouraging indeed to see new PvP content appearing in the patch 5.2 PTR. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Sins of a Dark Age plans to evolve the MOBA genre
Over the past few years, the Defense of the Ancients-inspired MOBA genre has spawned some of the biggest games on the planet. League of Legends has become one of the most played PC games in the world, and both it and Dota 2 now pump millions of dollars per year into competitive tournaments. It looks like MOBAs are here to stay, but the genre is still relatively young and there's plenty of room to experiment with new gameplay. Upcoming MOBA Sins of a Dark Age plans to evolve the genre with the addition of a new Realm Quest feature. At random points throughout a match, quests may spawn that change the rules of the game and provide new opportunities for conflict. Developer Ironclad Games, known for its Sins of a Solar Empire franchise, hopes this will add a new strategic level to the game that favours players who can adapt to changing circumstances and take advantage of the opportunities that quests present. Sins of a Dark Age will be free-to-play on release but you can join the closed beta now by purchasing a Founder Edition package. Read on for our interview with Ironclad co-founder and producer Blair Fraser on the Realm Quest system and plans to support competitive gaming in Sins of a Dark Age.%Gallery-175225%
Early DotA Battleground footage revealed
Adriacraft.net has revealed initial footage of Blizzard's DotA styled battleground, Defense of the Alehouse, reportedly arriving in patch 5.2. This is very basic footage, without the internal decoration in most cases, but gives a brief idea of the layout and feel of the battleground. Initial observations would be that it's definitely a large battleground, which is to be expected, possibly indicating that it could be for more than 10 players. Given that all the recent battleground additions have been 10-player, this would be welcomed. This overview map defined by Leviathon indicates the same, it's definitely a decent-sized map. There appear to be two defined areas, and lots of bridges in certain points. Of course, it should be noted that these are very, very early PTR datamined images, and should not be considered final. Lastly, I really enjoy the name of this battleground, and its not-so-subtle reference to Defense of the Ancients! Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Jukebox Heroes: Christmas music
Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the staff at Jukebox Heroes! When it comes to the season, I have to admit that I'm a bit of a Christmas music junkie. Not nearly as bad as some I know, and I'm totally for a ban of hearing such music in public spaces before Thanksgiving and after New Year's Eve. I just love how it's so cheery and makes me feel warm in my tummy. A couple of months ago when I realized that this column would fall on Christmas day, I entertained the notion of just featuring MMO Christmas music. That seemed a bit silly to me; there's no way that there could be more than a scarce handful of tunes, right? It turns out that there's quite a bit, actually. So whether you're celebrating, taking some time just to game, or bored out of your gourd, why not hit the jump and see how MMOs have contributed to the enormous library of Christmas music?
League of Legends spotlights Vi, gets spotlighted by hacker
Do you solve all of your problems via punching? Do you think that the core problem in your life isn't that you try to punch your way through problems but that you aren't punching hard enough? If so, the latest champion spotlighted by League of Legends might be right up your alley. As spotlighted in the video just past the break, Vi is a champion devoted solely to finding punch-related solutions to problems, with a variety of tricks for enduring damage, closing range, and generally punching her way through trouble. Unfortunately for both Vi and Riot Games, less-punchable trouble may be on the horizon for the game. The unidentified hacker who recently broke into Heroes of Newerth has made statements indicating that League of Legends may be his next target, although how much of this is a genuine threat and how much is bravado remains to be seen. While this new video might inspire you to punch around a bit more in LoL, you may want to decouple any personal information from your account first.
Heroes of Newerth gets hax0red
It's that special time again -- you know the one we're talking about. The time for all of us to think about our behavior and see how we measure up. It's not Santa that's come to town; it's a security breach! Heroes of Newerth's database has been infiltrated, giving someone access to account and login information. According to an announcement on the game's login page, players are "encouraged to change any passwords that were shared with [their] Heroes of Newerth account" and to not change their HoN password at this time. As everybody does at every single security breach, we'd like to reiterate the importance of using strong and unique -- more unique than strong, if you've got to pick between them -- passwords for all of your accounts. Password managers are your friends.
League of Legends' analytics, data backend detailed
If you're a League of Legends nerd who understands the jargon surrounding computer networking and online analytics, you might find a new Slashdot piece on Riot Games of interest. The company's monstrous MOBA success features 70 million registered users, 32 million of whom log in and stress the firm's hardware infrastructure every month. Riot currently boasts dozens of engineers and support staff to manage "more than 500 GB of structured data and over four TB of operational logs every day." It wasn't always so, as the company began with a single data analyst. "We were a scrappy startup and wanted to get our game out the door. Analytics wasn't an afterthought, but we didn't have many resources for it initially, and so [we] started with one mySQL instance, running queries and downloading them to Excel," explains engineering director Barry Livingston.
League of Legends adds mermaid champion, may be heading to Steam
There's a mermaid swimming into League of Legends, but we severely doubt it's the dinglehopper-loving variety. Later today, Riot Games will be introducing Nami the Tidecaller, an offensive support champion, as the latest addition to the game. Nami's skills are well-balanced between water-based attacks and team support. Some of her skills, like Ebb and Flow, do double duty by hurting the enemy and helping teammates. Her ultimate ability is Tidal Wave, which damages, knocks up, and slows any enemies in its path. In other League of Legends news, it looks as though the title may be on its way to Steam. This comes as an eagle eye spotted the game in Steam's database. While you mull that over, check out Nami's debut trailer after the break!
Riot producer: Addressing bad League of Legends behavior is 'a major focus for us'
A couple of months ago we reported on Riot's decision to assemble a 30-man development team to address adolescent behavioral issues in League of Legends. Now, hot on the heels of a high-profile banning incident involving Team Dignitas pro Christian Rivera, Gamasutra has interviewed LoL lead producer Travis George about the Player Behavior and Justice team (known internally as PB&J), which includes both game designers and academic researchers. George and Riot are hopeful that incentivizing good behavior and throwing a couple of PhDs (in neuroscience and behavioral psychology) into the mix will enable the firm to get a handle on the MOBA title's nefarious community, which was described as a "worldwide problem" in recent player surveys. "You can apply really good research and science techniques to almost anything," George explains. "The trick is just finding what you want to actually spend the time on, and that's where the sentiment for players comes in as a huge guiding factor to that."
