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PAX Prime 2014: Strife learns from the past
S2 Games is a big believer in learning from the past. Whereas many other MOBA developers are creating their very first such title, S2 already has a MOBA -- Heroes of Newerth -- under its belt. Taking key lessons from that experience, the devs are creating what they call the next generation of MOBA: Strife. Strife was definitely in full force around PAX Prime this weekend. The team had not only a prime spot by the show doors (complete with a mechanical dragon that players could ride) but a spot at a local grill where prizes and cosplay repairs took place. My key question for the devs was, "What makes Strife any different from the dozens of other MOBAs on the market?" This question led into a discussion of how the team has been pulling the best elements from the genre while discarding what didn't work -- denying, for example, is not a part of Strife in the least, nor is the commonplace "last hit" mechanic. Instead, Strife seeks to be enjoyable both as a MOBA and as a single-player experience. The solo content was put in to flesh out the story of the world (MOBAs have story?) and give players a different kind of experience between matches. I was also interested in the pets that characters can acquire and wield for their special abilities. Strife went into open beta this past weekend, so give it a whirl and let us know what you think! Massively's on the ground in Seattle during the weekend of August 29th to September 1st, bringing you all the best news from PAX Prime 2014. Whether you're dying to know more about Warlords of Draenor, The Elder Scrolls Online, Landmark, or any MMO in between, you can bet we'll have it covered!
Strife has entered closed beta
S2 Games has announced that its "second generation free-to-play MOBA," Strife, has officially shifted into closed beta. Fans of the genre will recognize S2 as the studio behind Heroes of Newerth, which itself is among the litany of games cast from the original Defense of the Ancients mold. According to the announcement, Strife is "focused on giving players an environment where they're competing with enemies, not their own teammates." S2 claims that existing MOBA issues like in-team toxicity, fighting over shared resources, and drama over designating roles have all been alleviated through the game's design. Strife's closed beta is not region-specific; invites are going out to players across the globe. The game is set for launch some time in 2014, and beta sign-ups are currently live on its official website. For a closer look, check out our hands-on with the game from August. [Source: S2 Games press release]
Developers respond to Riot's streaming restrictions for pro players [Updated]
Riot Games' new contract with professional League of Legends players prevents those players from streaming certain games during the LCS (League Championship Series) season. Banned titles include Dota 2, Hearthstone, Awesomenauts, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and many, many more. News of the contract broke earlier this week. Since that time, a couple of developers associated with games on the banned list have responded to Riot's rules in letters to website OnGamers, which broke the original story. Here's a clip of the lengthy response from Awesomenauts co-creator Jasper Koning: We are disappointed to see Riot impose restrictions on the spare time of its LOL Championship Series players. It's understandable Riot as a company wants to protect its interests, but the way they're doing it now is decidedly unsportsmanlike, anti-competitive, and it sets a bad precedent. And here's S2's (Heroes of Newerth) Marc DeForest: We view eSports differently - it is a platform for competition, growth, and the collective celebration of video gaming passion. We do not view it as a leveraging tool for anti-competitive and monopolistic practices. S2 Games will continue to support the eSports idea as a whole, not just our own specific interests in it. Riot has confirmed the terms of the contract but has not responded to further updates or fan criticism. [Update: Riot has announced that it is changing LCS players' contracts due in part to community feedback. Under the new rules, players will be able to stream any games they want as long as they are not accepting sponsorship from other studios to promote those titles.]
Samuel L. Jackson voices the objectively best announcer pack for Heroes of Newerth
You're going to play Heroes of Newerth now. It's the best game of its type, and that's simple fact. No, stop going on about balance or game mechanics or anything else in the world. Heroes of Newerth has an announcer pack in which all of the clips are voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, and if you think there's any other reason to play or not play a game, it's time for you to step back and re-evaluate your life choices to date. Jackson's announcements are... well, pretty much exactly what you'd expect from the terms "Samuel L. Jackson announcer pack." You can check them out past the break, although we should warn you that if your workplace or home has an issue with shouted profanity, you might want to turn down the volume. For everyone else, click past the break and enjoy the new pack.
PAX Prime 2013: S2 Games shows off Strife
I was pretty interested to see S2 Games' newest venture into the MOBA genre, Strife, at this year's PAX Prime. It's a more newbie-friendly take on the traditional DotA concept while still retaining high levels of complexity and a high skill cap. S2 Games has learned a lot of lessons from Heroes of Newerth, and I spoke with creative designer Doug Houserman about what the team is bringing to the table to make Strife a better game.
Crushing MOBA community strife in S2's Strife
Strife isn't just part of MOBAs; soon it will be a MOBA. As we revealed earlier this morning, S2 Games' new game is being designed from the ground up with a more positive community in mind. For new and old MOBA players alike, I join you in a collective heck yeah! Marc Deforest, Chief Executive Officer of S2, spent time with me at a recent press event chatting about how community-driven design is shaping Strife as a game and what it means for the player. By the end, I decided he wasn't a feeder and Strife is probably one of the most thought-out new additions to the genre in years.
Massively's hands-on with Strife, a new MOBA from S2 Games
My team is struggling. We've managed to hold our own after a nasty fight in the bottom lane, but then a message appears on my screen: Krytos is coming. The team at S2 Games had warned me about this giant ape and his tower-neutralizing, minion-stomping abilities. But there he was with the enemy team following in his wake. This is Strife, the new free-to-play MOBA from the company that created Heroes of Newerth. The three-lane-based gameplay might look familiar from the top down, but a giant ape is just one of many interesting mechanics Strife is utilizing to help create a more enjoyable and flexible MOBA experience. Oh, and did I mention the pets and the crafting?
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]
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.
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.
All heroes in Heroes of Newerth will be free as of tomorrow
The free-to-play fantasy MOBA Heroes of Newerth just got a little more free. Starting tomorrow, all of the heroes in the game will be free to everyone. S2 Games has announced that the entire pool of 107 heroes will be unlocked for play all the time when patch 2.6.11, aptly dubbed All Heroes Free, goes live on July 20th. This new system replaces the current one in which the pool of 16 free heroes rotate weekly. Players who purchased a released hero within 15 days of the patch's launch will receive a refund. In addition, any player who has ever purchased a hero with real-world currency will receive an exclusive new super robot avatar, Mecha Gemini. Legacy players will also be rewarded for their loyalty by earning more rewards for each match played. [Source S2 Games press release]
The Soapbox: League of Legends is the new World of Warcraft
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Every now and then, a game comes out of nowhere with such incredible financial success that it causes the games industry to completely lose perspective. All it takes is one game to start raking in the millions for developers, publishers and investors to stumble around with dollar signs in their eyes for years to come. Innovation grinds to a halt and everyone starts blindly copying whichever game just hit the jackpot. It's like some huge industry-wide superstition takes over and convinces people that if they do the same dance the same way, it'll rain again. World of Warcraft has consistently had this effect since shortly after its launch in 2004. To this day, several studios per year excitedly announce yet another fantasy MMO that lifts its entire feature set and every gameplay mechanic wholesale from World of Warcraft as if it were a model for automatic success. The same thing is happening again in online gaming today, not from MMOs but from MOBAs, a new genre based on the competitive gaming classic DotA. Developers are still chasing the massive money made by yet another hugely successful game, and this time it's League of Legends.
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.
Heroes of Newerth goes free-to-play, keeps freeloaders separate
The increasingly crowded Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre (MOBA for you acronym junkies) has one standout star: the free-to-play League of Legends, whose developer just announced it's surpassed 15 million registered players, with 1.4 million of those playing daily. In an effort to boost its player base of "460,000 unique active players," fellow MOBA title Heroes of Newerth will also be adopting the free-to-play model, says the game's developer S2 Games. "With the transition to free-to-play we're opening HoN up to new audiences as our players can now easily introduce the game to their friends," S2 Games CEO and co-founder Marc DeForest told a press release. The HoN model will feature three account types: Basic, the most, uh ... basic account, is what new players get immediately upon signing up; Verified status is reserved for players who drop real coin on Goblin Coins, the in-game currency, or surpass "a certain threshold of play time" if that's how you roll; and lastly, Legacy status is reserved for users who've already purchased the game prior to today's free-to-play announcement. "These accounts receive a lifetime of free access to all HoN heroes and are able to play in Verified Only games, to ensure that experts and beginners are separated." Want in on that Legacy action? Sorry, "Legacy accounts can no longer be purchased." Of course, being free-to-play means there's the requisite microtransaction business model under the hood. While Legacy players get all the characters for free, Basic and Verified players will have access to "a rotating pool of 15 free heroes" with the option to purchase more. S2 is also segregating the player base (similar to what the Team Fortress 2 community is doing itself): "Players with Basic accounts are only eligible to participate in one mode of matchmaking," the press release states, while "Verified and Legacy accounts are eligible to queue up in matchmaking for Verified Only games allowing them to play in higher quality games with more experienced players." With MOBA titles coming from Valve (Dota 2), Blizzard (Blizzard Dota), and Petroglyph (Rise of Immortals), the genre is about to either greatly expand or bear witness to a lot of failed project launches.
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.
Heroes of Newerth free to play this week
Maybe you're a fan of the developer behind Heroes of Newerth (S2 Games, creators of the Savage series) or "Defense of the Ancients," the Warcraft 3 mod that inspired it, but haven't tried it for yourself. Maybe you've been waiting for just the right nudge to push you out the plane door and send you plummeting into HoN's waiting arms. Consider this your shove: S2 is running a free-to-play event from now until Monday, August 9 and registration is live right here. Still clinging to the edge of the plane like an obstinate gremlin? We've got a little more persuasion for you in the form of an exclusive trailer after the break.
Savage 2 gets free content update, Linux client
Developer S2 Games recently announced two enhancements to its independently published PC FPS slash RTS slash RPG, Savage 2: A Tortured Soul. So, what's new for the game IGN said combined the "team-based action of games like Tribes and Battlefield with an original fantasy setting and a ground-level RTS mechanic"? For starters, the "first of many" free content updates drops a new unit, new maps, clan support, an achievement system (replete with customary clever names), obligatory bug fixes and more.Also available: a Linux client, which should appeal to gamers on that admittedly not-gaming-heavy platform who appreciated the original Savage's Linux client. If you're hoping for a Mac OS X release, the developers have said, "Depending on Sav 2's success, we may port to Mac OS – however, at this time, we are not." Regardless, if you're interested, you can download either the Windows or Linux client and play for up to five hours for free; after that, you can purchase the full game for $30. Any Savage 2 players care to offer their reports? Sound off in the comments.Read – First of Many Free Content Updates for Savage 2: A Tortured SoulRead – Release of Highly Anticipated Linux Client for Savage 2: A Tortured Soul
Not-so-secret projects probed
FiringSquad has done its best to out 18 high-profile "black ops" projects currently in development. While the site's sleuthing skills might not be up to par with Mr. Holmes', the report does a good job of rounding up under-the-radar titles that are begging for some attention.We'd like to direct the spotlight on two studios in particular: Tim Schafer's DoubleFine and Bungie expats Wideload, which are responsible for Psychonauts and Stubbs the Zombie, respectively (both titles landed in our top 10 'gems' of last generation). The two developers are hard at work on new projects; and with DoubleFine striking a publishing deal with Vivendi, its next game is sure to stir up more buzz (when it's time) than Majesco managed to generate for Psychonauts. Also, we can't wait to see what Warren Spector and Junction Point have under lock and key. Keep those ears (and eyes) glued to the street!
