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iPhone 4S launch in China draws large crowds, unnecessary violence and SWAT teams (video)
No Apple product launch is complete without long lines, frustration and utter exhaustion. Unfortunately, the arrival of the iPhone 4S has escalated this reality to a new level in China. We're now reading reports of fights breaking out between competing gangs of scalpers in the country, each hoping to get their hands on large quantities of Cupertino's latest smartphone. The conflicts have been significant enough to attract the attention of Chinese police, and we now hear that the Apple Store in Beijing is keeping its doors locked in attempt to make the crowds leave. While we've yet to hear of any significant injuries, it seems the company's storefront is now coated with plenty of eggs. If you're interested to keep track of the unfortunate situation, you'll find more coverage below and a video after the break.
Congressman gamer supports Riot Game's anti-SOPA stance
SOPA is an extremely hot-button issue on the internet right now, with politicians, companies, websites, and individuals coming out for and against this controversial piece of US legislation. It's so important that many game studios have broken the unwritten rule of not commenting on politics to state their positions on the matter. Riot Games is one of these studios that have piped up to oppose the bill, as CEO Brandon Beck posted a lengthy reasoning as to why SOPA would harm League of Legends specifically, and he asked players to help stop it from being passed into law. "While we do support efforts to prevent online piracy, the current form of this legislation comes at far too high a cost for us, our players, and online communities across the internet," Beck writes, citing examples as to how the game could be taken offline and the community dismantled if the SOPA were wielded against LoL. Interestingly enough, Colorado Rep. Jared Polis, who is himself a League of Legends player, replied to Beck in support of Riot Games' stance: "I'm particularly concerned that SOPA might stifle the kind of innovation that brings us games we love, such as LoL. The bill makes it far too easy for angry competitors to sue good law abiding companies out of existence." Polis says that he is drafting an alternate piece of legislation to combat internet piracy without SOPA's potential abuse. [Update: If you'd like to encourage other companies to blockade SOPA, you might be interested in the online petition aimed squarely at Electronic Arts.]
League of Legends pops the cork for Lunar Revel
Feeling the doldrums of winter settling into your bones? Missing the colorful lights and excessive sugar dosages of last month? The good news is that there's still a great holiday to celebrate this month -- the Chinese New Year -- and League of Legends is totally on board with any excuse to party. Coming to the game is the brand-new Lunar Revel holiday, which is "a time to celebrate the possibilities of the future with the coming of the new moon." Not only will the game be decorated with cheery lanterns, but Riot Games is adding some new goodies to enjoy, including special consumables in the store and unique skins for Talon, Sona, Wukong, and Lee Sin. The devs say that this marks the beginning of many cultural-themed holidays as they go on a "world tour" to highlight the many countries that play League of Legends. You can get an advance sneak peek at the new Lunar Revel costumes in the gallery below. [Source: Riot Games press release] %Gallery-126155%
MV Guide: January 9-15, 2012
MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During our streamed events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule!
Over one percent of League of Legends players have been banned
Handling antisocial behaviour has always been a problem for online game developers, and MOBAs like League of Legends certainly get the worst of it. The inherently team-based nature and slippery slope gameplay in MOBAs makes it very easy for one antisocial player to ruin a game and cause your team to lose. The problem is normally tackled head-on with a report tool and a suite of hired GMs, but what do you do if your game is free-to-play and has over 15 million registered players? It would be impractical to hire thousands of GMs to police a community of that size, so Riot Games came up with an alternative in the Tribunal system. The Tribunal allows players who have played enough games to reach level 30 to vote on whether to take action against a reported player. Once enough votes are tallied, either the player is pardoned automatically or his case is submitted to a smaller GM team to await punishment. The system went live earlier this year, and Riot has now revealed how incredibly successful the system has been with the publication of some very interesting banning statistics. The biggest shocker is that a whopping 1.4% of LoL's over 15 million players have been banned with the system, a workload that far exceeds the capacity of a traditional GM team. Ninety-four percent of players submitted to the Tribunal are punished, with about 50% of them never reoffending. Skip past the cut for an image showing these and other statistics, and stay tuned to our weekly Not So Massively column every Monday for more LoL news and updates.
League of Legends' Viktor wields science for evil
Meet Viktor. He's your basic nice-guy scientist who has one teeny, tiny bad experience and decides to turn his entire life into comic book villainy. Feel sorry for him or don't, he's going to rend you limb from limb either way. Viktor is the latest champion on League of Legends' drawing board, and Riot Games has given us a sneak peek at the awe and terror that he will bring to the game. Viktor is written as the creator of fellow champion Blitzcrank, but is a wee bit upset that his work got stolen from under his nose. Instead of joining a therapy group, Viktor turned his body into a robotic slaughter apparatus and is out for some good ol' fashioned revenging. Viktor's passive ability, Evolving Technology, allows players to purchase an item from the store to modify his bonus to suit the players' needs. He can also shoot a beam that bounces back to him as a shield, set up a Graviton Field to slow and stun enemies in his immediate vicinity, and fire a massive Death Ray that cuts through multiple foes. His Chaos Storm is neat as well, allowing Viktor to send out a cloud that silences and damages enemies caught within it.
League of Legends releases Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox
Back in September, Riot Games was so excited about an upcoming League of Legends champion it had barely begun working on that it released the concept to fans far ahead of schedule. The champion later became known as Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox, and last week we got a sneak peek at her abilities and the balance changes that would be accompanying her arrival. That patch went live this weekend, and Ahri has now been officially released. In a new champion spotlight video, LoL's resident strategic expert Phreak discusses each of Ahri's abilities in detail and gives tips on playing the champion effectively. Ahri is a mage assassin, able to dish out considerable damage in a short space of time. After landing a number of spell attacks, Ahri's next spell will hit with a huge bonus to spell vamp. By sending an Orb of Deception through a whole wave of enemy creeps once the spell vamp buff is active, Ahri can heal herself for a significant amount. Her ultimate allows her to quickly dash around the field of play, either to chase down a fleeing champion or evade pursuit. Skip past the cut to watch the full champion spotlight video in HD, and stay tuned to our weekly Not So Massively column every Monday for more LoL news and updates.
League of Legends to introduce big changes with the Ahri patch
Riot Games has revealed that the long-awaited League of Legends champion Ahri the Nine Tailed Fox will be coming in the very next patch. In addition to heralding the arrival of the new champion, the Ahri patch will introduce some major gameplay changes. In a new patch preview video, lead champion designer Morello and spotlight announcer Phreak discuss the biggest balance and gameplay changes coming in the next patch. Twisted Fate's attack range will be increased, and he'll now be able to manually pick a target for his attack once he locks a card. This should prevent cards hitting the wrong target and make him better able to harass in a lane without leaving himself exposed. Tryndamere receives a much-needed nerf to his self-heal as he tends to have a full rage bar when he's doing well in a lane and the heal ends up being much too powerful. The "perseverence" mastery in the utility tree is being removed and replaced with an old "strength of spirit" mastery that converts maximum mana into bonus health regeneration. With the removal of dodge runes, Phreak and Morello also discuss some new ones being added to make the game a bit more interesting. Skip past the cut to watch the full patch preview video, and stay tuned to our weekly Not So Massively column every Monday for more LoL news and updates.
League of Legends discusses jungling changes in patch preview
If you've been following the recent updates on League of Legends, you know that the Riot Games staff has been working to diversify the current metagame with updates to the mastery tree and a complete overhaul of the dodge mechanic. The Riot team is now looking to continue the trend toward improving jungling with the Volibear patch. A whole slew of changes aimed at lowering the skill and rune requirements for jungling and making jungling decisions more complex are slated for the next patch. In addition, the dev team is planning a total rework of Sivir (probably at least partially because of the planned dodge changes). Check out the video after the jump for more specifics!
League of Legends announces the start of Season Two with new video
The time has finally come, League of Legends players: Season Two is upon us. And to commemorate the occasion, Riot Games has released a video recapping the events of Season One and introducing players to what they can expect in Season Two. Season Two's tournaments, for those not in the know, will reward players with 5 million USD in prizes, so if you've got the skills, there's money to be made. To check out the full video, just click on past the cut.
League of Legends trailer shows off new Vladimir model
There is a monster in all of us, according to Riot Games, and the company is capitalizing on that blood lust with a revamp of its Vladimir champion in League of Legends. The Crimson Reaper was originally released in July of 2010, and today Riot is giving the Blood Lord a makeover that features a "new and intimidating model," new voiceovers, new animations, and new spell effects. "If you'd like to indulge your dark side by living out fantasies of holding the lives of your enemies in the palm of your hand, Blood Lord Vladimir should help slake that thirst," Riot's website says. The company has also released a new teaser trailer for the champion, which you can view after the cut.
League of Legends surpasses 11.5 million active players
It looks like League of Legends has really hit the big-time. In a press release today, Riot Games announced that its popular free-to-play MOBA title has surpassed 11.5 million active players. To put that into perspective for you MMO gaming folks, when Blizzard last announced its World of Warcraft figures, the game weighed in at about 10.3 million active players. To put the icing on the cake, Riot notes that League of Legends has about 1.3 million players at peak times each day, whereas the current game du jour, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, reports about 250,000 concurrent players at peak times on Steam. Needless to say, Riot Games is more than pleased with this turn of events. The studio's CEO, Brandon Beck, attributes the game's success to the players, saying that "the incredible passion and dedication of our players is positively inspiring. Our community's boundless enthusiasm is why they are central to every decision we make at Riot." So good work, League of Legends fans, and good luck to those of you looking to make a name in Season Two. [Update: Click on past the cut for an enormous infographic detailing more stats on this milestone.] [Source: Riot Games press release]
MV Guide: November 14-20, 2011
MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During our streamed events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) We've got some exciting MV TV news this week: We're changing the channel! We've moved to Twitch TV, and we think you're going to love the new look. You can still access the old livestream archives at our Livestream.com channel, but beginning today, everything new will be shown and saved on our Twitch TV channel. Ready to see what's on MV TV this week? Follow along after the jump and take a look!
League of Legends prepares for Fizz patch
All this week, Riot Games has been releasing snippets of information on upcoming League of Legends champion Fizz, the Tidal Trickster. Fizz's mechanics preview gave a first glimpse into the sea monster's skills, including his ability to dodge attacks with his trident and to call a shark to eat the target enemy. A new art spotlight video gave us our first look at the champion and showed off both his signature trident weapon and one mean-looking shark. Today Riot published a patch preview video for the upcoming Fizz patch, detailing all the other changes coming with the update. Ranged carry champions are the focus of rebalancing efforts in the coming patch, with Caitlyn, Kog'maw and Graves being nerfed and Corki, Miss Fortune and Tristana due for buffs. With tournament season approaching, Riot is being careful to make these changes very minor to avoid upsetting current lane balance. Sona's auras are being nerfed a little, which isn't a surprise as Sona's usually the obvious choice for support. The season two summoner spell changes we discussed earlier in the week will also be going live with this patch, along with revamped mastery trees. Skip past the cut to watch the full video in HD.
League of Legends announces ranked team system
Changes are coming to League of Legends' ranked team structure. Riot Games announced today that it is going to be introducing a brand-new feature: ranked teams. Players can form a premade 3v3 or 5v5 team, give it a name, and track its progress as they work their way up the ladder. Team ratings will operate independently of the members' individual ratings, thereby making the new system a true "measure of you and your friends' ability to work together in a competitive environment." More information will be made available closer to Season 2's launch.
League of Legends turns two, reskins Fiddlesticks
It's hard to believe that League of Legends is two years old this week, but time marches on and so does the requisite birthday celebration. Riot has updated its website with an anniversary post and the game itself boasts a new legendary skin for Fiddlesticks, also known as "everyone's favorite Harbinger of Doom." The special model will dent your wallet for 975 Riot points (what, you didn't expect to pay for your birthday gift?!) and it boasts "new and sinister" sound effects on all the champion's abilities. Party hats and balloons are also part of the package, as are some "frighteningly festive" spell effects. As always, more info is available on the official League of Legends website.
Riot Games announces LoL's Season Two Circuit, Spectator Mode beta
Riot Games has announced that the League of Legends Season Two Circuit is on its way to North America and Europe, and we've got some details on what players can expect from it. All live events from this point forth will award the top eight competitors in each event with Circuit Points. At the season's end, the top players from each region will go on to face off with the rest of the world at the League of Legends Season Two Championship, which features a prize pool of a whopping 5 million USD. If you're a pro LoL player who has already participated in events such as the Intel Extreme Masters or Major League Gaming tournaments, don't worry. Riot will be retroactively awarding points to the top players from those events, though it's important to note that players can only earn points from events that take place in their region. The long-awaited Spectator Mode has also entered limited beta. During designated testing periods, players will be able to jump into a game as a spectator and watch the action unfold. The feature is limited to custom games for now, but Riot stresses that "like all things League of Legends, there are still plenty of updates to come." For the full details on the Season Two Circuit and Spectator Mode, head on over to the official announcement at League of Legends' official site.
Riot releases new art and screenshots for League of Legend's Graves
Riot Games recently released its latest League of Legends champion, and the ranged damage-dealer known as Graves has proved popular with players thus far. The company is looking to keep its new gunslinger in the spotlight, and to that end it has released several new pieces of concept art as well as a gaggle of screenshots of Graves in action. The one constant in all the shots -- aside from various versions of the BFG9000 -- is damage, and whether the new champion is throwing smokebombs, spraying cone nukes via his buckshot ability, or chasing down other champions who've decided to run away, he'll be pumping out a lot of damage (and he'll look good doing it). You can learn more about Graves at the official League of Legends website, and be sure you check out the art and screens below. [Source: Riot press release] %Gallery-126155%
League of Legends unearths harrowing Halloween skins
It's not too late to sign up for Riot Games' Institute of Horror, brought to you by League of Legends and your deepest, darkest nightmares! During the Harrowing event, fright-proof players can enjoy Halloween goodies and decorations sprinkled around their favorite maps. Skin collectors (ew) will be delighted to hear that there are four frightfully fascinating variations to nab, as Annie, Blitzcrank, Nidalee and Nocturne now boast a spooky makeover. These will be available as soon as the patch goes live. Unfortunately, these skins will be gone once the Harrowing is over, so get them pronto or forever hold your peace. You can view League of Legends' severed-tongue-in-cheek Harrowing trailer after the jump.
MV Guide: October 17-23, 2011
MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively's Livestream channel. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During livestream events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, livestream events are subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule!
