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The MMO Report: Scorpion Lobster Battle edition
Today's MMO Report is all about League of Legends, the amazing arena-based... what? Never mind -- Casey's not talking about League of Legends, just to spite "some guy." Well, there goes the whole show. I guess if you want to hear about how RIFT messed up its first ever event, then he might talk about that game. The newly announced class for The Secret World made the show. Somehow some silly race from Guild Wars 2 known as the Charr was good enough for Casey to cover. It seems the only redeeming factor of the show is a crazy Scorpion Lobster Battle sent in by a watcher. (Don't ask.) Anyway, if you really want to catch the latest episode of the MMO Report despite the lack of League of Legends talk, jump past the break or hop over to G4TV to see Casey Schreiner in his full high-def glory.
Razer, Intel, Tencent to bring Switchblade gaming device to China
Just in case you were worried, it looks like Razer's Switchblade ultra-portable PC "concept" is totally, really real -- in China at the very least. Razer, Intel and Tencent have announced "a strategic partnership aimed at expanding the entertainment possibilities for Chinese gamers" based around the Switchblade. Several of Tencent's titles, including League of Legends and Dungeon Fighter Online, will be optimized for the Switchblade and its magical keyboard. There's still no release date for device, with the three companies only promising that there will be updates in "the months to come." That's probably for the best, as we're fairly certain that the ability to play League of Legends at any time will bring civilization to a screeching halt.
League of Legends Season One championship announced with $100,000 in prizes
For anyone who has ever wondered what the whole "league" part of League of Legends was referring to, Riot Games has announced the season one championship, which will be held at this year's Dreamhack Summer event in Sweden this June. The season one circuit will end on May 2, at which time Riot will choose the world's top eight teams (three from North America, three from Europe and two from South East Asia). These teams will be flown to the Dreamhack event and compete for three days beginning on June 18, culminating in the championship round on June 20. Riot hasn't specified exactly how much the winning team will walk away with, though there is a total of $100,000 in cash prizes up for grabs. And to think Mom said "those free internet games" wouldn't get you anywhere! Lest a flight to Sweden is a bit too much for your pocketbook to bear, the championship matches will be available via live streaming.
Ask Massively: The face of hatred edition
Wii Fit Plus is the devil. It is a devil that I fight with on a daily basis, and I fight it by running for a long stretch at a time, and yet for some paradoxical reason I have never defeated it. The only reason there are no screaming obscenities in this opening paragraph is that I'm not allowed to dip into blatant cursing. Also, I've dropped about 20 pounds over the past four months, so I can't say that it's not having an effect. But seriously, balance board, no one cares if my center of balance is 0.1% to the right. Shut up. This week's Ask Massively is a fairly meta edition of the column, as our questions concern the other major face of hatred on display: the comment system. We're also fielding questions about the plethora of online games that aren't quite MMOs but aren't quite anything else either. As always, you can leave your questions in the comment field or mail them to ask@massively.com.
PSN, League of Legends charity initiatives bring in big sums
PSN users and League of Legends players have demonstrated the power of really easy participation in charity initiatives. From March 19 through March 31, the PSN charity drive, which allowed users to donate to the Red Cross directly from their PSN wallets (and get a special theme as thanks) raised ¥109.6 million ($1.3 million) worldwide for Japanese earthquake relief. Riot Games diverted 100 percent of the proceeds from sales of the discounted "Champion Akali" character and a special Nurse skin to charity from March 21 through March 27. As a result of this initiative, Riot raised over $160,000 for the Red Cross. Display those Nurse skins and PSN themes proudly! ("Display your nurse skin proudly" sounds really creepy out of context.)
Japan relief roundup: League of Legends and a special Final Fantasy Tactics
Companies, organizations and individuals connected to the games industry continue to come forward with offers of support for the ongoing rescue and relief operations in Japan. We'll be collecting the latest opportunities to lend a hand in end-of-day roundups like this one as they're announced. Head past the break for details on the today's happenings. If you'd prefer to donate to the efforts directly, you can always do so through the American Red Cross (www.redcross.org).
League of Legends adds Co-op vs. AI mode
Riot Games has announced that a new mode has been added to League of Legends. The new Co-op vs. AI mode allows players to team up against an opposing group of computer-controlled opponents. The mode features "newly overhauled" AI and two levels of difficulty, and still awards players with XP and IP (points used to make in-game purchases). Riot's Travis George promises the AI will "put up a fight" and will use "coordinated teamwork and advanced tactics." In case you don't believe him, Riot posted a video recap of a recent match played by its own staff, in which the people who made the game lost handily to their own creation. Find the video after the break.
Riot Games' Marc Merrill on the Tencent acquisition and the future of League of Legends
Last year's "focus," if you can assign such a thing to the Game Developers' Conference, was probably Zynga and its Facebook games, but for 2011, there was one company that kept getting brought up in the hallways and various panels in San Francisco: Riot Games. Not only did the makers of free-to-play MOBA League of Legends clean up at last year's GDC Online awards, but last week, the Riot booth was constantly surrounded with developers, all wanting to get in on one of the quickest-growing companies around. Riot President Marc Merrill kindly sat down to chat with Joystiq about the game and the company, and we talked about the recent acqusition by Chinese giant Tencent, why Riot is growing so fast, and what's next for the game affectionately dubbed LoL. And yes, LoL players, we asked about Magma Chamber and the Mac client.
Riot Games confirms Tencent majority buyout
Riot Games has confirmed that a majority of the company was bought by China's Tencent, putting its stamp of approval on rumors of the deal last week. Brandon Beck, Riot's CEO, is quoted as saying that "Tencent's investment will provide our talented team of designers, developers and community staff with additional resources to focus on innovating around League of Legends and launching new projects that push the boundaries in the gaming space." Financial Times has a nice analysis of the deal -- it sounds like this agreement will help both sides, as Riot will not only get that nice cash infusion of a rumored $350 million, but also invaluable assistance and insight for what it was already hoping would be a nice overseas adoption. And Tencent, of course, gets to lay claim to League of Legends and any other titles that Riot developers, along with the huge microtransaction-based revenues that go along with them, both here and eventually overseas. Plus, this is a sign of the growing trend of Eastern publishers picking up Western companies to develop content for the large audiences over there. Chinese publisher The9 recently bought another Blizzard spinoff, Red 5 Studios, for $15 million, and Japanese firm DeNA picked up iOS developer ngmoco for $400 million as well. Western audiences are big, but Eastern audiences are bigger and, as a result, there's high demand for well-developed games in that market.
Raptr report analyzes DC Universe Online players
Raptr, a social networking app for gamers, has turned its eyes to DC Universe Online players in a recent report. By breaking down player demographics, the site was able to piece together common trends and paint an overall picture of the DCUO playerbase. So who is playing DCUO (while using Raptr)? The first bit of surprising news is that these gamers aren't necessarily superhero fanatics, at least not according to the other types of games they play. These players didn't tend to have City of Heroes and Champions Online as their other go-to games in the top 10, for example. Actually, Raptr found that DCUO players are most likely to be into the MMORPG genre as a whole, as well as multiplayer games like Call of Duty: Black Ops and League of Legends. The report speculates that there may be a connection between DCUO's fast action gameplay and these other titles: "While there are a number of MMORPGs listed, it's interesting to see some FPS, and RTS in the mix. This could be because DCUO prides itself in being a deep MMO mixed with action-oriented gameplay more akin to RTS or FPS games." World of Warcraft and EVE Online were the two biggest MMOs that DCUO players also enjoyed, while these players found themselves stealing time away from WoW and Aion to head over to DCUO for their gaming sessions. You can read the full analysis over at Raptr Tracks.
Reports: Chinese online giant Tencent acquires majority stake in Riot Games
China's biggest Internet company, Tencent, has reportedly acquired a majority stake in Los Angeles-based Riot Games for the sum of $350 million. Tencent has already acquired a number of other Western properties, including Crytek's free-to-play FPS and Take-Two's NBA 2K Online, and also runs the QQ messaging service, boasting over 600 million-plus users. Riot makes League of Legends, the free-to-play DotA-style multiplayer title, and has said it will stay in Los Angeles and continue to "aggressively" hire through 2011. This deal likely won't affect the day-to-day of League of Legends (or any other titles Riot has under development), but given Tencent's contacts and assets in China, Riot will likely get a lot of help in spreading its games to players overseas. The transaction is still subject to regulatory measures, but is expected to close within 30 days.
World of StarCraft modder offered interview by Riot Games
Despite World of StarCraft mod creator Ryan Winzen having videos of his work removed from YouTube after Blizzard requested as much, the ingenious gentleman was offered a job by League of Legends developer Riot Games this past week. Pixelated Geek picked up on the back and forth in its own comment section between Winzen and a Riot Games employee identified as "epak", in which the Riot Games employee said, "Ryan, I'd like to speak with you about potentially working for Riotgames (League of Legends). You can contact me directly at [redacted] since I think you're awesome." The interview offer was confirmed by Riot Games design director "Zileas" on the developer's forums, where he notes, "I shot him [Ryan] an email recently asking if he was interested in exploring an opportunity here. As to what comes of that, who knows -- that depends on the mutual fit and his own goals." Mr. Winzen, for his part, is ecstatic. " I've waited my whole life for something like this. I feel like I'm in a dream man ... been up for 36 hours straight with all this craziness going on ... How did this even happen?" If you'll excuse us ... we've just ... there's something in our eye.
[Updated] Starcraft MMO modder wins the internet with a job offer from Riot Games
Modifying video games is nothing new. Most mods are overlooked by game developers because a good chunk of them are not malicious and the modders themselves aren't looking to break the game; they just want to improve it in some way. However, yesterday, we reported that a talented modder named Ryan created an MMO mod using the Starcraft II engine calling it World of Starcraft. Blizzard had the trailer for the mod pulled from YouTube citing copyright infringement, but no other contact was made. Ryan attempted to make contact with Blizzard regarding the issue, but was directed to another department leaving the issue unresolved for the moment. There is, however, a silver lining in all of this. The popularity and quality of the mod caught the attention of Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends. A developer from Riot contacted Ryan via Pixelated Geek offering him a job. This was later confirmed as an actual offer on the League of Legends official forums. Lead Designer Tod "Zileas" Cadwell said this: "When I see a modder with a lot of drive that has done something cool, I tend to contact them. I shot him an email recently asking if he was interested in exploring an opportunity here. As to what comes of that, who knows -- that depends on the mutual fit and his own goals." Cadwell believes the legal issues do not extend beyond the name of the mod, so it is very possible Ryan will be living out his dream as a game designer. Sometimes dreams do come true. [Update: We want to clarify that Riot Games is only talking with Ryan at this point, and no actual job offer is pending (despite previous reports).]
League of Legends admin fired after streaming misuse of power
Riot Games has fired a customer service representative who live-streamed his misuse of administrative powers during a League of Legends bout. VE3D reports the employee verbally abused a player and inappropriately banned him. Riot Games' community relations director Steve Mescon announced today the employee is no longer with the company and it will be reviewing internal policy and training procedures to "prevent such incidents from happening in the future." Another incident for the employee-related community relations nightmare file.
Alleged Valve employee speaks out on DotA co-developer
An alleged Valve employee seeking to air grievances with his employer and one specific employee has taken to an anonymous blog titled "The Truth About IceFrog." In it, the person -- supposedly working on "an unrelated project" from "IceFrog" -- describes not just a poor working environment with the Defense of the Ancients co-developer (whose real name is said to be Abdul Ismail), but also details "something fishy" regarding his past. Though "IceFrog" apparently told colleagues and Valve execs he never worked at S2 Games -- developers of Heroes of Newerth, a DotA clone -- a handful of online evidence suggests he did at one point (DotA co-developer Steve "Pendragon" Mescon even outright states as much). Furthermore, the anonymous blogger likens "IceFrog's" actions to being "the CEO of McDonald's (DOTA) looking for a job at Burger King (Riot Games), then working for Fatburger (S2 Games), then quitting and going to work for Wendy's (Valve) but outright lying to Wendy's (Valve) of involvement with ANY previous employer," adding, "In the corporate world, this would be the equivalent of stealing trade secrets." As announced this morning, "IceFrog" is currently working on Dota 2 for Valve. When we contacted S2 Games to confirm whether or not a man named Abdul Ismail or "IceFrog" ever worked there, we were repeatedly told, "No comment." Valve representatives didn't mince words, saying only, "It's fake," while League of Legends developer Riot Games offered, "At no time did Abdul Ismail, or anyone known as 'IceFrog,' work at or for Riot Games in any capacity." Now if you don't mind us, we can't fight the sudden urge for a fast food burger. If you've got first-hand knowledge regarding any of the accusations, feel free to drop us a line.
GDC Online 2010 brought in 3,000 offline attendees
GDC Online -- formerly known as GDC Austin, but still held in the Texas town -- welcomed 3,000 attendees interested in online and social gaming this year. The show will return to Austin, Texas on October 11-14, 2011, at which time it'll be known as "GDC Zynga" -- kidding, maybe. Highlights of the convention included the inaugural Game Developers Choice Online Awards, along with some revealing revenue details from MMO developer Turbine and the 3DS's ability to use the Unreal Engine. Check out more from GDC online by following this: handy-dandy GDC Online link.
GDC Online Award winners announced, League of Legends wins big
Last night in Austin, Texas, the creators of some of this year's biggest and boldest online games were honored during the Game Developer's Choice Online awards ceremony. In particular, Riot Games and its heavyweight debut title, League of Legends, took home half of the awards up for grabs, including Best Online Technology, the Audience Award and Best New Online Game. It also took home "Best Game With a Title That Reads 'LOL' as an Acronym," but that's not ... a real thing. That's a thing we made up, just now. Check out the real list of real winners after the jump.
Game Developers Choice Online Award nominees announced
The nominees for the first-ever Game Developers Choice Online Awards, which will be presented during the similarly named GDC Online on October 5 - 8, were announced earlier today. The list of candidates reads like a who's who of heavy hitters in the online gaming space, such as World of Warcraft (nominated for the Best Ongoing Live Game award), Star Trek Online (nominated for Best Online Visual) and League of Legends (nominated for ... like, everything.) Winners will be announced and accolades will be distributed at the conference on the evening of October 7. To see who's in the running for what, check out the full list of nominees posted after the jump.
League of Legends for Mac still expected this fall
You might remember that, back in early June, I met with the guys from Riot Games to play the Mac version of their free-to-play, DotA title, League of Legends. At the time, they said that they expected to release the title on our platform sometime "later this year," after they'd finished up their work with the big Season One update. Now, however, Season One has been out for a little while, and our readers are getting a little antsy -- where's LoL for the Mac? Riot tells us that it's still coming. The game did get delayed longer than expected, but in an official statement, we're told that they "are putting some final touches on the Mac product and expect to ship by this fall." Season One was the priority, even while we were being shown the preview for the Mac version, but "now that it's out," Riot says, "we can focus on finalizing the Mac client and other upcoming features." That sounds good. Since I first played the game for that preview, I've become a big fan; it's a quality version of the Defense of the Ancients mod for Warcraft III, and the fact that it's free to play on the PC (or in Bootcamp, if you can't wait any longer) is just icing on the cake. We'll keep an eye out for the Mac release and let you know when it's ready.
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite pseudo-MMO?
In recent years, the field of games that could conceivably be referred to as MMOs has exploded. Naturally, there has to be a cutoff at some point, and we here at Massively use finely tuned metrics to determine what does and doesn't qualify. (Our magic 8-ball is exceptionally tuned.) But just below that are games that are very similar to an MMO, even if they don't quite make it there, and with the border so fuzzy, players are bound to cross over. Naturally, what constitutes a pseudo-MMO versus a full game is going to be a very subjective line, and there are games such as Global Agenda and MAG that straddle the line aggressively. So what game do you enjoy that's similar to an MMO, but doesn't quite make the cut? Is it one of the two aforementioned games? Are you still of the mind that Guild Wars isn't quite there but is still a lot of fun? Or do you dig on something else entirely, like League of Legends?
