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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.
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."
League of Legends pro player banned for jerkiness
Fantasy MOBA League of Legends is (in)famous for its boorish player behavior, so much so that Riot Games even tasked a group of 30 developers and scientists with finding a way to get the game's expansive community to play nice. The firm has apparently given up on reforming one player, though, as it has handed down a permanent ban to pro gamer Christian "IWillDominate" Rivera for his "tendency to engage in verbal abuse and insults, his lack of cordial demeanor, and his treatment of less-skilled players." Rivera, who is a member of Team Dignitas, has been brought before LoL's player tribunal nine times, and Riot reports that he has also engaged in "repeated incidents of similar behavior outside the game." The company's announcement acknowledges the effect the ban may have on Rivera's career, but it says that "no other professional players in North America approach this individual's harassment score," and "promoting good sportsmanship and improving player behavior is a mission that's extremely important to Riot."
New League of Legends video details preseason three patch
Between tournament seasons is a good time to introduce changes to League of Legends, and Riot devs are adding plenty to the MOBA during preseason three. To give players a sneak peek of what to expect, Joshua "Jatt" Leesman and Ryan 'Morello" Scott host an eleven-minute video outlining various changes coming to items, masteries, and the jungle. Items received quite the overhaul in this patch. Not only were new items like the Muramana added, but others were removed (namely the Heart of Gold). Some items, such as The Black Cleaver, were reworked. The devs also discussed balancing the game to give support roles more gold and lessen their ward burden as well as make various jungle strategies more viable. Masteries have also been moved around, and the utility tree has been spiced up. Check out all the details in the video after the break.
MMO Blender: Larry's anti-power-creep MMO
On Tuesday, I suggested ways to get rid of power creep in MMOs. You know power creep: the constant treadmill of stats that keep getting better and strong but ultimately start to feel like more of a grind? It's very annoying to long-term players, and I'd imagine that it's frustrating to game designers because it's time and talent wasted when game content is no longer useful to anyone. In my quest to find the ultimate MMO, I have searched for game elements that reduce the amount of power creep but still come together to support a themepark game. Let's be honest: Sandbox games might suffer power creep, but because most sandboxes are skill-based, that power creep is not as prevalent or can easily be mitigated by tweaking classes. But themeparks are linear by design, and to remain fun, they have to retain part of that linear quality. Progression and continually racking up numbers and achievements is enjoyable to a large number of MMO players, otherwise it would be games like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies dominating the market, not World of Warcraft. Believe it or not, there are online games that have done a tremendous job of trying to defeat power creep, but unfortunately, they do not exist as one game... until now in my Anti-Power-Creep MMO!
Cryptic, Riot, and more weigh in on free-to-play growing pains
Anyone adamantly wanting a return to gaming where a handful of publishers and platforms run the show might need to acquire a time-machine to do so. In a recent article, various development studios -- including Cryptic Studios, Riot Games, and EA -- discussed the growth of free-to-play and how the model is affecting the games industry as a whole. According to these publishers, there's no argument that F2P will become a major force in the industry. Cryptic Studios COO Craig Zinkievich remarked that although F2P is stigmatized as evil in the social market, the recent influx of titles has gotten the core gaming audience more excited about the model. More consumer excitement, of course, leads to higher-quality games. Sean Decker, VP of EA's Play4Free label, noted, "The good thing about so many companies moving into the free-to-play space is that it's great for the players: the quality of graphics are going up, the quality of the gameplay is going up." However, in the rush to capitalize on F2P, some are going to crash and burn. Zinkievich said, "I think there will definitely be failures within the next 12 to 24 months. Many who are entering the market right now are doing it as almost a money-grab." He added, "But subscription is dead. [Star Wars:] The Old Republic was the biggest possible swing for the fences. There is no longer any argument over whether that can be done. Free-to-play is the way of the future. It is the new world." Does that include console gaming? According to these folks, yes.
League of Legend finals get some serious viewership
If you're a League of Legends fan, odds are good you know all about the championships that took place recently. If you're not, however, you might be wondering whether or not this was really a big deal or just something the fans are fixated on. Turns out that it was kind of a big deal after all, as Riot Games has revealed that the live coverage of the finals was watched by over 8 million individuals, including more than 2 million from Korea. Physical attendance for the tournament sat at roughly 8,000 people, with over 24 million hours of League of Legends watched during the playoffs and the finals. If you're trying to wrap your head around all of that, you can get some sense of what the tournament was like by checking out the recently released recap video just past the break. And if you're one of the people watching the whole way through, hey, you've clocked up enough hours watching the tournament. Five more minutes won't kill you.
Riot killing bad League of Legends behavior with science
Riot's well aware of the fact that it has an awful community on its hands in League of Legends. Fortunately for all concerned, the company is killing the problem with science. Team Player Behavior is a group of 30 developers tasked with reducing negativity, abuse, and offensive language, and it includes PhDs in statistics, human factors psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. "We're never going to come to a place where there's no toxicity in League of Legends," says Jeffrey Lin, LoL's lead designer of social systems. "We're never going to get there. But we're finding different strategies [for situations where] if toxic behavior happens, how do we shield players from it? How do we reduce the frequency of it?" Riot is tinkering with solutions ranging from the recently released honor system to turning off chat by default. The company has also seen some success with its tribunal system, and Lin cites an instance where a 10-year-old LoL player responded positively to the disciplinary action handed down via a Riot reform card. "I showed [the boy's response] to the team and I said 'can you guys see the difference you're making in peoples' lives? This is not about games anymore, you guys are impacting these players,'" Lin explained.
League of Legends claims title of 'most played video game in the world'
This past week, League of Legends' Season Two Championship was sidetracked by a cheating scandal that left some fans feeling alienated. Now, on the eve of the finals, Riot Games has released a load of statistics to highlight the fact that LoL is indeed a popular competitive game worthy of its place in the MOBA pantheon. The title boasts over 70 million registered summoner names hailing from more than 145 different countries. LoL has also declared itself the most played video game on the planet, averaging over one billion monthly hours world-wide. Other graphs include comparisons of daily active players (12 million) and peak concurrent players (three million). Check out all of the stats compiled in the infographic after the cut. [Source: Riot Games press release]
GDC Online 2012: SWTOR, Diablo III, Koster honored in GDC Online awards
Wednesday night saw the Game Developers Choice Online awards being handed out to MMO, social, mobile, and free-to-play games. Star Wars: The Old Republic came away with the awards for best online game design, best online visual arts, best online technology, and best new online game. Riot Games won for best live game, the audience award, and best community relations for League of Legends. Raph Koster was officially recognized with an online game legend award, and World of Warcraft received a hall of fame award. Blizzard also scored with Diablo III, receiving an award for having the best audio for an online game. The award for best social network game went to Draw Something, and thatgamecompany won an online innovation award for Journey. Massively sent two plucky game journalists -- Beau Hindman and Karen Bryan -- to Austin, Texas, for this year's GDC Online, where they'll be reporting back on MMO trends, community theory, old favorites, and new classics. Stay tuned for even more highlights from the show!
Riot apologizes for League of Legends tournament issues
If you peek, you did cheat -- or so sayeth Riot Games. The studio came forth to address several issues with this past weekend's $2 million League of Legends tournament, including allegations of cheating by participants. Viewers noted that tournament players were looking at competitors' minimaps on the large screen, and Riot admits that it didn't do enough to keep that particular temptation at bay. VP of eSports Dustin Beck apologized to LoL fans: "We're trying to deliver an extraordinary experience for viewers, and yesterday didn't live up to our goals. In hindsight, the potential visibility of minimap screens for players was a mistake." Riot is rescheduling the problematic matches and promised that the remainder of the tournament will be minimap temptation-free. Beck also mentioned that the team is looking into several disconnects that happened during the event. As an apology for what happened, Riot is granting all players double influence points for 24 hours following the finals match on October 13th.
League of Legends adds player-driven 'Honor' system
While reporting poor sportsmanship and offensive behavior during matches in League of Legends is standard, Riot Games has added a new feature to the game by which positive behaviors will be recognized. This new system, dubbed simply "Honor," will give players the tools to tag folks with a permanent thumbs up for making the gaming experience enjoyable. This new system has four categories that players can be rated on. At the end of a match, participants can indicate whether someone was helpful, was friendly, displayed teamwork, or was just an overall honorable opponent. Each player's Honor is recorded in his or her summoner profile and displayed for all to see. In the future, Riot Games might also reward those summoners with the highest honor.
PAX Prime 2012: Riot and the North American regionals
It's a good time to be a League of Legends fan. With the European regionals at Gamescom and North American regionals here at PAX Prime, there's plenty of excitement. The Riot team is gearing up for big changes in Season Three while continuing to support its incredibly large community. We sat down with the busy and gracious Associate Producer Paul Bellezza to talk about what Riot is looking forward to in the near future.
Riot investing heavily in e-sports, creating new LoL-focused pro league
It's pretty obvious that League of Legends is a bona fide phenomenon at this point. What many gamers may not have known, though, is just how big Riot's free-to-play behemoth has become. The company has just unveiled a new level-up initiative that aims to take the entire e-sports scene up a few notches via the creation of a new LoL-focused pro league. The league will feature salaried teams from multiple countries, regular streamed matches with television-quality production values, and what Riot calls "the largest, most ambitious investment in e-sports ever made by a video game developer." The format for the new league mirrors traditional sporting leagues by way of regular season matches followed by regional playoffs and a world championship. You can see a trailer for the new league after the cut. [Source: Riot press release]
