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SMITE schools us with tutorial video
Getting a handle on MOBA-style games can sometimes be tough, particularly if you're brand-new to the genre. That's why Hi-Rez Studios has created an eight-minute tutorial video for its upcoming SMITE: for purely educational purposes. If it so happens to get you totally excited about the game, well, it's not the devs' fault, now is it? The video explains both the ins and the outs of MOBA gaming in general as well as SMITE in specific. Players are walked through a 5v5 match between the gods. Some of SMITE's particulars are important to note, such as how the game is played in third-person over-the-shoulder view and relies on skill to hit targets (versus locking on to them). You can get your beginners SMITE certificate by watching the video after the jump. Certificates are completely fictitious and will be mailed seven to nine weeks after course completion. Make sure to also read about our recent hands-on impressions of the game!
The Summoner's Guidebook: Why last-hitting is important
We've covered last-hitting quite a bit in previous editions of the Summoner's Guidebook. However, a lot of people new to the MOBA scene don't understand the importance of last-hitting. I don't mean that they don't understand the importance of the action within the game; I'm sure we all understand that getting gold is a good thing. But last-hitting is important from a design perspective too. I think League of Legends (and MOBA games in general) are better because last-hitting is a part of the game. I didn't always feel this way, of course. When I was a MOBA nooblet, I thought last-hitting was an unnecessary PvE element in a competitive PvP game, and it took away from the game's clear objective: taking enemy turrets. When I really sank my teeth into LoL, last-hitting finally clicked. It's a really critical element of the genre, and this week, I'll explain why.
Universal Monsters Online is a thing
MOBAs seem to be the hot new thing, with games like the indie SmashMuck Champions following in the footsteps of heavy-hitters such as League of Legends and Dota 2. Now we can add another one to the list, as Bigpoint Games has announced an in-development MOBA centered around some unlikely champions: classic Universal Studios movie monsters. That's right: In the upcoming Universal Monsters Online, players will be able to go head-to-head with one another as iconic movie monsters, including Dracula, the Wolf-Man, Frankenstein's monster (and his bride), and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Gameplay details are scarce, but if you happen to be in the game's target demographic of classic-horror-movie-buff-slash-MOBA-gamer, head on over to the game's official site and have a gander.
Guardians of Middle-earth brings MOBA to XBLA and PSN
Monolith Productions has one of the most varied histories in video game development. The studio first cut its teeth on first-person shooters, finding a cult hit in the popular No One Lives Forever series. Then, it was a vast experiment with The Matrix Online, before coming back to shooters with the Fear and Condemned series of games. And now, the company's trying to reinvent itself yet again with two licensed downloadable titles for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment: first Gotham City Imposters from earlier this year, and now Guardians of Middle-earth.Guardians of Middle-earth is a weird one. It's a licensed Lord of The Rings title, starring characters from Tolkien's series. It's a MOBA game, similar to League of Legends or DOTA 2, featuring Tolkien's characters fighting it out across a battlefield full of AI-controlled troops. And it's a complicated, deep online multiplayer title, designed for competitive play."What's so weird about that?" you ask? It's being developed only for consoles.%Gallery-157247%
League of Legends accounts compromised
Given League of Legends' immense popularity, we knew it was only a matter of time before a large-scale hacking attempt succeeded against Riot Games' MOBA juggernaut. The firm sent out an email this weekend notifying EU West and EU Nordic and East customers that their account details may have been compromised. PC Gamer reports that players' "email addresses, encrypted account passwords, and dates of birth have been leaked." Riot bigwigs Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck posted an apology on the EU West forums and implored users to change their login credentials, as "more than half of the passwords were simple enough to be at risk of easy cracking."
The Summoner's Guidebook: Time as a resource in Dominion
I feel that time is the least understood concept in all of gaming. People in World of Warcraft or other MMORPGs talk about how they "farmed something for free" all the time. Obviously, this is a fallacy, as a gamer's time is worth something. In League of Legends, time is a very important factor. I'm not talking about the time you have to play the game, although we could talk about it on a macro scale and do time-to-IP graphs for their silliness value. Instead, I'm talking about the actual time in-game that you spend accomplishing goals in a given match. In Summoner's Rift, the goal for the first 10 or 15 minutes is to get as much gold and XP as possible. If you can directly deny the enemy time by harassing him out of lane, you're taking away his time, which effectively takes away his gold and XP. As the game progresses, time is still traded for gold, but it's also traded for the other team's time (via teamfights). If your team manages to win a teamfight, the enemy cannot affect the battlefield and your team is free to take objectives. This week, we're going to talk about time in Dominion. While time is a fairly complicated thing in SR, it is even more complex in Dominion. There are many different things to do with it, and there are no easy decisions about how to spend it. If you're interested in learning more about how to better make those choices, read on!
The Summoner's Guidebook: Dealing with Heimerdinger
When I was a League of Legends nooblet, I latched onto Heimerdinger during a free week and found him really fun. He was my first taste of bottom lane Dominion play, and he contributed a lot to my early wins. I felt pretty invincible as bottom lane Heimerdinger, and while he was highly gankable, I used it as a way to practice flashing to escape. A lot of my mid-levels were gained by playing Heimerdinger. In Dominion, he's a strong bottom pick, though he has a lot of weaknesses that can be exploited. On Summoner's Rift, he's a strange pick that nobody knows where to place. We'll talk about either case this week and some things you can do to handle them.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Improving your game through spectator mode
I love spectator mode. Since the patch introducing it to League of Legends, I've had the opportunity to observe top-level players and even my own friends. If you ever wanted to learn how to play like a pro, you now have your chance. High-level games of Summoner's Rift are just a few mouse clicks away, and if you're a little mentally fatigued from playing the game, you can sit back and enjoy some high-level play. It was one of the best updates thus far for League. Watching high-level streams or spectating high-level games can dramatically improve your game if you know what to look for. This week, we're going to cover some of the ways you can improve your game by stealing strategies and techniques from top players.
The Lawbringer: Blizzard and Valve settle on DOTA
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, and esoteroic topics that slip through the cracks. One of the highest-profile disputes in the gaming industry has come to a settlement agreement. Blizzard has agreed that it will back off from Valve's use of the DOTA trademark for commercial use, while Blizzard retains noncommercial use of the term for modders, map creators, and the community revolving around the game. In addition to the commercial/non-commercial separation, Blizzard has officially changed the name of its upcoming Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard All-Stars, so expect a new branding push soon. At the end of the day, I am still bewildered as to why we're fighting over DOTA, an acronym and phrase that comes packed with baggage and various connotations. Back in 2010, Rob Pardo told Eurogamer essentially that trademarking DOTA was a slap in the face to the community that created the genre, and for a company that built a great deal of its success on mods, it seemed genuinely out of place for Valve. While everything is always about money, sometimes things are about money just a little less. With its own products announced using the DOTA name and former-DOTA developers having joined S2 Games and Riot Games to create Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends respectively, the MOBA genre is healthy.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Putting together a good team composition
Although it would be nice to win all our games on the merits of skill alone, a lot of matches of League of Legends are won or lost at the character select screen. While individual champion balance is always in flux, the synergies between champions matters far more. This week in the Summoner's Guidebook, I'll give you some advice on picking characters that complement your team's strengths. Remember that a champion is only as good as you can play him or her, and a better champion doesn't ensure victory -- it just makes victory more likely. This is League of Legends, though, and we should take every advantage we can get.
New MOBA SmashMuck Champions fights its way into closed beta this month
Watch out, MOBA fans: A new challenger has appeared! Indie game developer Kiz Studios announced in a press release today that its upcoming MOBA title, SmashMuck Champions, is set to enter closed beta this month. Of course, if you're anything like us, you're probably wondering what the heck a SmashMuck Champions is. According to the game's official site, the title is "a free-to-play action/strategy game featuring online multiplayer combat" in which players "build and train their own SmashMuck teams... to do battle in the toughest sport on Planet Muck." Gameplay-wise, the game seems to be your standard MOBA with a few not-so-standard twists. The addition of persistent champion gear plus interesting new mechanics such as stat-boosting training routines aim to put a new spin on the old formula. But hey, you don't have to take our word for it. The game will be entering closed beta testing on May 27th, so if you're a MOBA fan looking for a new thrill, just head on over to the game's official site and sign up for yourself. Oh, and while you're at it, don't forget to check out the game's latest official trailer after the cut. [Source: Kiz Studios press release] %Gallery-155368%
The Summoner's Guidebook: Getting out of Elo hell
"Elo hell" is a term that gets thrown around a lot in League of Legends. If you're actively working to improve your skill at the game, either you've been in Elo hell or you are still there. The term comes from the Elo rating system that League of Legends uses for its matchmaking. Because matchmaking has to deal with three or five players on each side, there's a lot of potential for a bad match. In Elo hell, this is exacerbated by players who have inflated ratings due to wins they probably didn't deserve. At the higher ratings, matches tend to improve in overall quality despite the smaller pool of players. It is virtually impossible to maintain 1600 Elo or above (top 10%) without being somewhat decent at the game. While weaker players can occur in any matchmaking level, they are still two advanced players who know the game. At 1300 Elo (top 50%), there's a very large chance that a matchup inequality is an intermediate player battling an opponent who has no clue what he is doing. Elo hell is extremely frustrating because nothing worse is having your chance at winning taken out of your hands and put in the hands of a terrible player.
The rules have changed: Suiting up for Super Monday Night Combat
As free-to-play games are constantly changing, traditional reviews can't really do them justice, so Joystiq relies on a series of unscored review diaries to record our experiences with them. Today brings part one of our Super Monday Night Combat diaries. In the future, the American dream is a crowd cheering a brutal battle for cash, prizes, corporate endorsements and bacon. Can't have the American Dream without bacon, after all. At least, this is the world Uber Entertainment has created in Super Monday Night Combat, the follow-up to 2010's (regular) Monday Night Combat. The premise is still the same: Opposing teams of 'pros' must escort regularly spawning A.I. bots to the enemy Moneyball, first team to destroy the enemy Moneyball wins. Bots are the only thing that can take a Moneyball down, but they have to survive through a staunch line of turrets, vicious arena bots and of course, several classes of aggressive (and perhaps insane) opposing players.These classes all have special skills and abilities specific to their role, from the whimsical, Italian support class who can heal and place defensive turrets, to a giant gorilla in a pinstripe suit that can hurl flaming barrels. There's a mascot that can be beaten, shot and otherwise maimed for power-ups, announcers trying to sell products to the audience, and a weather-controlling blimp that can turn the tide of an entire match for the right price. All typical sport stuff, really.%Gallery-132035%
League of Legends mastery point exploit fixed, banhammer incoming
We all know that League of Legends breeds a fairly competitive community, but unfortunately there are players out there who don't let little things like rules and common decency get in the way of their desire to win. A number of such players were recently found to be taking advantage of an exploit that allowed them to place more mastery points in a given talent than they would legally be able to, thereby giving them an incredibly unfair advantage. Riot Games' Lead Community Manager, Tamat, stopped by the forums today to let everyone know that "that's bull****" and that it's not going to be tolerated. The post goes on to state that a fix for the exploit has been implemented, and the studio is about to lay the smack down on the guilty parties. Tamat says that the studio has "comprehensive logs and data" that have been used to identify the players who used the exploit. Riot is "going to be taking firm action against their accounts." May all the exploiters meet a swift and terrible demise at the hands of Riot's banhammer. For the full details on the matter, head on over to the official post on the League of Legends forums.
League of Legends runs Make-A-Wish charity campaign
The Make-A-Wish foundation is a charity that helps make seriously ill children's dreams come true. Several months ago, Riot Games worked with the foundation to bring 17-year-old League of Legends fan and cancer sufferer Joe up to the studio where his favourite game is made. Riot was so inspired by Joe's visit that developers decided to give back to the Make-A-Wish in any way they could to make more children's dreams come true. Following on from the success of community donations to the Red Cross during Japan's earthquake and tsunami, this week Riot announced a new donation drive in support of the Make-A-Wish foundation. "From now, May 4, until 10:30 a.m. PT on May 18, 2012, Riot Games will donate 100 percent of the RP sale price for Joe's favorite champion, Jax, and his Jaximus skin to Make-A-Wish. To make it easier to help, we'll also be lowering the price of both the champion and skin by 50% during this period."
The Summoner's Guidebook: Dealing with rage and bad players
Like any competitive multiplayer game, League of Legends induces its fair share of rage. People hate to lose. When your team is only three to five people, each contributor has a distinct identity, making it very easy to single out that feeding Ezreal. Compared to a game like Global Agenda, where teams are very large and individual contribution is harder to measure, League of Legends makes blame very easy to assign. This week in the Summoner's Guidebook, we're going to talk about the effects of nerdrage on your team and how to deal with those violent emotions in a more productive manner.
Red 5 Studios CEO denounces consoles and publishers
"Who needs publishers any more? I certainly don't. I couldn't care less about them at this stage," said Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern. In a candid interview with Eurogamer, Kern ripped into both consoles and publisher-led models as relics on their way out the door. Kern said that the pressure that publishers put on studios are death to the industry, resulting in either "an indie game or... a massive AAA, IP-backed sequel with derivative gameplay." He thinks that there's no middle ground, and it disturbs him how many studios fire staff right after a game launches. Instead, the man behind Firefall believes that the free-to-play model puts the power back in the hands of the developers who then can concentrate on making games without having to kowtow to the publishers and distributors. "Look at Riot Games and League of Legends. They have more users than World of Warcraft does. That's crazy. And they don't have a publisher," Kern said. Citing the expense and sluggish reaction of console development, Kern also predicts that mobile and PC gaming are on their way to take over the field. "Something has to change," he concludes. "Consoles, I believe, are dead."
League of Legends' World Championship is worth a cool three million bucks
League of Legends' hold on the e-sports community appears to be going strong, especially if we're judging based on the sheer size of the prize pool up for grabs in this season's World Championships. How much money will players be competing for this time around? Something to the tune of three million bucks. The folks over at PC Gamer got the opportunity to sit down with Riot Games' Vice President of e-sports, Dustin Beck, to have a chat about the upcoming League of Legends World Championships and the competitive gaming scene as a whole. The interview includes some insight into the game's success in the e-sports circuit as well as some discussion on the various teams and strategies we can expect to see on the tournament level at this year's championships. For all of the sweet, juicy information, just head on over and check out the full article.
League of Legends adds spectator mode, tweaks champions
Riot has released a couple of new videos detailing some changes incoming with League of Legends' next patch. First up is a five-minute clip that walks through the thought process behind changes like magic resists per level, adjustments to the Master Yi and Ryze champions, and tweaks to various ability power items. The second video is all about spectator mode. There are a number of ways to spectate on both your friends' matches and those of high-skill featured players. There's also a three-minute delay on the proceedings, so would-be cheaters are out of luck. Jump past the break to see all of spectator mode's features as well as more on the Varus patch changes. [Source: Riot Games press release]
League of Legends announces full release of Spectator Mode
League of Legends players, go make some popcorn and grab a drink because the game's spectator mode is almost ready to go into full release. After the game's next patch, players will be able to spectate League of Legends games in a variety of ways, and they can enhance the experience using a number of nifty features. If you just wanna watch your friend's game and see how he does, no problem. All friends' games will be watchable just by right-clicking their names on your friends list. There's a three-minute delay on the playback, though, so don't try any tricky business. If you're jonesin' for some high-level play, the featured games menu will let you watch the games being played by top-ranked League players around the world. If you wanna analyze their matches, you can rewind, slow down, and fast forward previous footage, allowing you to scrutinize every gank in excruciating detail. Riot Games was nice enough to put together some footage of the new feature in action, as well, so you can check that out right here for the full details. [Source: Riot Games press release]
