Paragus Rants

Rants, reviews, and interviews from an MMO veteran and guild leader.

Author: Paragus1

Rant: The Endgame

Endgame seems to be a hot issue on the site these days, especially with the release of TOR and people starting to reach the endgame.   It's a topic that comes up everytime a new MMO comes out, and honestly it is probably one of the most important aspects of any MMO.   Ironically it is one that people following upcoming games don't really seem to stop and think about when they start sipping the kool-aid for the next MMO they are looking at.

MMO's are games that most players want to play for the long haul.   The developers are in most cases charging us a monthly fee, so it's in their best interest that we as players keep playing for a very long time.  This is fundamental to the MMO genre, but for some reason developers seem to be missing the boat here, and players drinking the kool-aid never stop to look at whats at the bottom of that glass they are drinking from.

The current theme park model of MMO that we have seen come through here the last few years seems to be the most vulnerable to falling into the trap of a bad endgame.  Think about how many years these guys are spending making these games, and the insane amount of cash being throw around to make these MMO's, especially in the case of TOR rumoring to be several hundred million dollars.  Yet with all this time and money being poured in, these developers are using these resources in the most inefficient way possible in terms of how they make their content.   The time and money spent making these scripted one time quests on the linear railroad, compared to how long it takes us to complete them is a horrible formula for long-term retention.  It's not that the theme park can't do this, it's just that the approach lately has been way off.

I always read on the forums here and even in the articles about talking about that guy who rushes to the end game and to enjoy the ride.  Well I am that guy, and allow me to tell you why exactly it is that I do this.  Countless AAA flops have come down the pipeline the last few years and we all fall victim to them.   My guild members get the MMO itch so we jump into the next big thing.  I want to know...no...I need to know if the endgame is viable for long term play.   Not just for myself, but them.   If I get to the endgame and it's paper thin and severely lacking, I need to let them know.   Each one of my members is investing dozens and dozens of hours into this game to get there, and if it turns out to be a bust, they need to know about it.   Dozens of hours multiplied by dozens of members is a crap ton of time I can be saving people.  If this can be discovered by the end of the free month it's even a more compelling case because I can save my friends the cash as well.

Spare me the bullcrap about enjoying the ride.   The ride in the modern theme park MMO is nothing more than running from quest hub to quest hub down a linear hallway, listening to some derp of an NPC spew some nonsense on how he needs me to collect flowers 30 feet from him, or come up with another excuse why 10 rats need to die.   It's not enjoyable, it's not a ride, it's a tedious series of chores masked as "quests" that are not epic or meaningful.  If I am going to be doing chores for some mythical payday at the end of the tunnel, I need to know that is was somehow worth it.   I want to know that at the end I can participate in something bigger and interesting while having some way to push my limits and advance my character.  If there's nothing there and I can spare my friends the pain, I will.

Look, if you are going to spend years making this game and it's only going to take me 2-3 weeks to get to the endgame, I don't think I'm being unreasonable to expect there to be something to do.  These games are supposed to really get going once you hit the level cap, not end.  If I wanted a game to over at max level I could play another number of single player RPGs and spare myself the fee.   But these aren't singleplayer games, and there is a fee usually.  See where I am going with this?

There are thousands of us playing on a given server in any given MMO and developers just aren't tapping into the best source of content they have, us.  This is where the developers are really failing because people like to compete inherently. This is also why I am such a strong advocate for PvP to be a major feature in MMOs, not tacked on as an afterthought.  Getting that character you have been fine tuning and putting him against another thinking person is content that keeps on giving.   All the developer needs to do is intelligently approach how to create an environment that encourages people to keep fighting.  

On the flip side you have the PvE focused games that fall flat in the endgame department as well.  These guys are releasing PvE focused games with a miniscule amount of end game PvE content, or the content there is so easy that a moron can faceroll right through it and complete it without being seriously challenged.  If your MMO is all about PvE and it's not challenging, you will never be able to create it at a rate where players will instantly devour it, and it won't be meaningful.  In older PvE MMOs like Everquest or even FFXI, there is a sense of accomplishment and a badge of honor when you were sporting that hard to obtain item.  Competition between players exist just as much in a PvE focused game as in PvP focused ones. If that desired item is growing off a purple epic tree that anyone can pick one off of, it really isn't as exciting or appealing is it?  The entire concept of welfare epics needs to be replaced by challenging content so that there are bragging rights.

Endgame is one of the most important MMO features, and for some reason it's the one the developers seem to be talking about the least.  If you aren't talking about it and showcasing it, then I think you're hiding something.  The endgame should be explained right next to the other "next gen" features because it is the sales pitch as to what I am buying for that monthly fee.  This is why I will rush to the endgame, and for the sake of my friends and guildmates to see what's behind the curtain.  If there is nothing there you can bet your ass I'm going to tell everyone I know that your joke of a ride isn't worth taking because it goes to nowhere.  We see this happen over and over again and yet these guys keep spending more and more money on the same failed formula.  It doesn't matter what fancy big name IP you try to dress it up in, it's the same empty crap and it's why I think we are going to continue to see the monthly fee fade into obsurity.

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

Tribes Ascend Impressions

The Tribes series was undoubted one of my favorite FPS franchises when I was younger.   I spent countless hours playing both Tribes 1 and 2 back in their hayday, and like many Tribes fans I was saddened when I saw what happened to the series after this point.   It was probably for this reason that when I was accepted into the closed beta for Tribes Ascend months and months ago when it was very exclusive, that I just filed the email into my saved box and forgot about it while I focused on playing through my backlog of other games on Steam that I had picked up through the holiday sale season.

At this stage Tribes Ascend is still technically in "closed beta", but for all intents and purposes anyone can get a key to play the beta by liking them on Facebook, or buy visiting any number of gaming websites.  It wasn't until last week when some fellow Inquisition members got into the beta and nagging me that Tribes Ascend might not quite be the debacle I was expecting.   Having finally cleared most of the games in my backlog, I decided to fish out the email I filed away months ago and go take a look.

For those who don't know, Tribes is a first-person shooter series of games that take place in a futuristic setting, where two teams play pretty intense matches typcially of capture the flag.   There's a lot of things that sets Tribes apart from a lot of the other FPS games out there, primarily the focus on air-based combat through the use of jetpacks combined with a physics system that allows players to "ski" across the large open landscapes and down hills at very high speeds.  This creates a very unique dynamic that really sets the combat apart from a lot of the other stuff out there.  Tribes Ascend seems to have retained this aspect of the game very well from the original two games.

Aside from all of this, there is something that sets Tribes Ascend apart from not just the previous titles as well as the other games out there, and that is the pricing model for the game.  Hi-Rez Studios seems to have opted for a free-to-play model for the game that almost exactly mirrors that of League of Legends.   Much like LoL, you can opt to spend real money if you want and be able to unlock some classes faster, but you could also not buy money and unlock them anyways just by playing over time.

That's right, I said classes.  Older Tribes players might remember being able to choose between playing a Light, Medium, or Heavy armor type from the original games, and to a degree these exist in Tribes Ascend.  There are in total as of the time I am writing this, 12 classes that feature a variety of different preset builds that span across the 3 different armor types that seem to be geared towards offering a specific type of utility to the team.  Some of the lighter classes that have less life but faster speed are geared towards trying to grab the flag or long range sniping, while the opposite end of the spectrum has the slow moving heavy armor classes that can take a lot of damage but lack mobility making them good defenders.

For better or worse, one point of controversy is the fact that you can't customize your classes loadout like you could in the older games (at least in the current version of the beta).  At first I was a bit apprehensive about this because I did like to be able to fiddle with my kits to find the optimal loadout for my playstyle.  The counter arguement is that this often led to a lot of people just taking the same optimal loadout and not having the diversity.  While I am still torn on this I can understand both sides of the debate, and whether or not this changes by the end of the beta, it hasn't detracted too much from the fun I've been having so far.

Game matches can hold up to 32 people per match (16 vs.16) which isn't too shabby.   At the conclusion of each match, experience points and tokens are awarded based on a variety of factors which seem to in part related to your performance and the length of the match.  Tokens are a currency you accumulate on your account that can be spent on unlocking the other classes.  The game only gives you 2 medium classes to play with when you first start playing, the rest have to be unlocked via tokens or gold, which is the currency you get for spending real money.  Obtaining the cheapest heavy armor and light armor classes are not overly expensive, but many of the more advanced classes beyond this can be quite pricey in terms of tokens and will require you do play a fair amount to grind out what you need.

Experience points serves 2 purposes.   The first being that they go toward ranking your account up much like you would have in Battlefield or CoD.  At the present time, there is no real reward for ranking up except bragging rights as it really only acts a symbol of how long you have been playing.   Your rank does seem to be factored in to determining who the match making throws you in with, so that newer people will be more likely to fight other newer people.

The second aspect of experience is that it's stored up on a per class basis to be spent unlocking passive talents in a tree much like you would see in an MMO.  Unlike other talent trees, you are not forced to only pick one path.   Tribes Ascend will let you unlock everything in the tree assuming you play that class extensively enough.  The talents themselves however are not earth shattering or game changing to the point where someone with less invested won't be able to beat someone with more, player skill still trumps all.   In most cases the bonuses add a only few percentage points to certain aspects of your class such as a few more ammo, life, % run speed, or energy used for the jet pack.  At the very bottom of each classes tree you can unlock perks that once available can be used on any class you own.

As far as the game modes go, both Capture the Flag and Deathmatch are fun in their own rights.   Capture the Flag is a very team oriented game where a team can work together on a variety of fronts to help win the match aside from actually grabbing the flag.   Setting up a good defense and defenders are critical, while others may opt to sneak into the bowels of the enemy base compound and try to sabatoge the enemy by destroying the generator powering all of their turrets.  This is the mode where the various classes really have a chance to shine because each is really tailored to have its own niche in this mode.

Deathmatch is a completely different beast all together, but one that I found myself liking a lot more than I thought.  Basically the two teams of 16 each are dumped into a large landscape with the sole purpose of fighting each other.  The bad news about this mode is that a lot of the niche classes you would use in CTF seem initially to be a lot less viable, and as a result you'll see a lot of people playing the basic soldier and ranger classes most of the time.   The good news is that this mode is pure mayhem and really puts you into the center of a massive dog fight with people flying and chasing each other while trying to out maneuver their prey.  To mix things up there is a single flag that gives the team carrying it double kill credit on each kill.  It makes for some intense moments if you are the guy with the flag as everyone starts coming after you, and some funny moments when the flag falls on the ground and the mad scramble to grab it ensues.   Shooting the flag with an explosive weapon sends it bouncing around like a hot potato and it makes for quite the brawl.

Overall Tribes Ascend has a lot of potential from what I've seen at this preliminary beta stage.   There is still a lot of missing parts in the beta, but the core gameplay is solid.   I'd definitely recommend checking the game out if you are looking for something to play or are a fan of the older games.  If you end up liking the game and think it's something you will want to play, you will be happy to hear that everything you earn and unlock during the beta will carry over to the release version, so no wipe is planned.  It's fun and it's free, so you have nothing to lose really.  If you decide to play it and want to come find me, add me to your friend list as "Paragus" and maybe I'll see you on the battlefield.  You can also catch me streaming my gameplay live from time to time on my channel below.

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

My Favorite Games of 2011

The end of the year is upon us, and while it hasn't been that great of a year in the MMO department (in my opinion), there has been quite a few good games this year I think for gamers in general.   I wanted to wrap things up for the year here and just gloss over some of the games I've played in 2011 that I felt really delivered a great gaming experience and value.   These are not ranked in any particular order.

Terraria

This game literally came out of nowhere for me.   A $10 dollar steam game that is on sale all the time, has really been one of the best values of the year for me in terms of hours played per dollar spent.   While I wrote about Terraria briefly back when it first came out, this game really deserves another mention.  

Terraria is basically what happens when Minecraft and Metroid have sex and produce a child.   Randomly generated maps that are absolutely huge give this game massive replayability as you never get quite the same experience twice.  The price tag is dirt cheap, and the developers are cranking out free content patches on a regularly basis that make the game better and better with every update.   Consider the fact the the original game at release was made from scratch in about 3-4 months time, and it's exciting to me to see where this game will be in a few months or a year or so down the road from where it is now.   If you ever see this game on sale on steam you'd be a fool not to snatch it up immediately.   The multiplayer is a blast with friends, and with an optional hardcore mode with permadeath, you will laugh and cry as you and your friends have their dreams shattered trying to defeat all the games bosses and survive the newly expanded endgame.

League of Legends

I think this was an absolutely massive year for League of Legends.   While the game actually released before 2011, this year brought a ton of new changes to the game in terms of a new game mode with Dominion, their Tribunal System for players policing other players, and their consistent bi-weekly updates.

A lot of companies are very shy when it comes to talking about the numbers of people playing their game, unless that number is massive.   Riot has literally seen their playerbase grow on an exponential basis this year with the number of registered people playing games of LoL topping out upwards of 30 Million plauyers globally.   Whether you like the game or not, League of Legends has become the new WoW and is the elephant in the room when it comes to MOBAs.  It's free to play pricing model is astounding and prevent players from buying power, and I expect that LoL will continue to enjoy a lot of success in the future.  Cost to play = free, hours played = countless.   That's good value right there.

Dungeons of Dredmore

Here is another indie game that snuck up on me, again brought to you via Steam for only $5 when its not on sale.  Dungeons of Dredmore may not be the prettiest looking game, but what it lacks in graphics it makes up for in gameplay and fun.

If you have ever played a "rogue-like", then you pretty much know what this game is all about.  You create a character by chosing a handful of skills from a list and test your meddle in a randomly generated dungeon that features 10 massive floors (+5 more if you get the DLC) full of monsters and booby traps.  Combat is turn-based on a grid system, and permadeath makes death's sting something you will fear.   Of course there is the option to play with permadeath turned off, but it pretty much defeats the purpose of playing a rogue-like, and pretty much makes you a bitch in my book.  A game that is sure to suck hours and hours form your life and leave you shrieking aloud when your character perishes 8 or 9 floors deep.  With varying difficulty levels and a ton of achievements, the game has great replayability and a good sense of humor as it is loaded with many pop-culture references to help lighten the mood when you have the pistol in your mouth because you drank from a water fountain that turned out to be acid.

The Binding of Isaac

Here is another $5 indy Steam gem brought to you by the sadistic developer who brought you Super Meat Boy.  Similar in many ways to Dungeons of Dredmore, Isaac is a rogue-like that is a lot less RPG and a lot more action and also has permadeath.

The game has you being turned loose into randomly generated dungeons and plays exactly like the original Zelda from the 8-bit NES.   Heart Containers, bombs, and coins included, you'll make your way to the bottom of the dungeon through random rooms, random floor layouts, find random items along the way, and even fight random bosses.  Unlike Dredmore which saves your progress when you are done for the session, Isaac forces you to play through the entire dungeon in a single sitting.   The good news is that a playthrough is much shorter than Dredmore and can usually wrapped up in around 40-60 minutes depending on your luck and how methodical you are.  The game is also based on the premise that you will be playing through it over and over, as each time you win the dungeon, it becomes harder.    The more you play, you also unlock new items and bosses that will have a chance to appear on future playthroughs.   There is a lot of meat here for achievement chasers, and for the pricetag you will probably get your money's worth even if you only play through it a few times.

Battlefield 3

Sorry if you are a Call of Duty fan, but Battlefield 3 is the premier FPS right now.  Frankly, I can't  even will myself to play another FPS that doesn't have destroyable terrain after Bad Company 2.  BF3 takes that mechanic and applies it to a game that is grander in scale in every way.

Giant maps with every game mode available in each one, this game literally has something for everyone.   Aside from it being one of the best looking games I have ever seen on my monitor, the audio is some of the best I've heard.  I saw on ad once that made me laugh that took a jab at CoD asking why call for an airstrike when in BF3 you are the airstrike.  I really just don't see how from a gameplay perspective, the competition can do it better.   Sure the game has its warts with the stupid Origins bullshit, but the game itself really is the FPS to beat right now in terms of online multiplayer.  The newly released Karkand map really takes the favorite map of most Battlefield fans and takes it to a new level. 

Skyrim

Game of the Year awards from some of the major sites, and justly deserved.   This is the premiere single-player experience of the year.  If you even remotely enjoy single player RPGs, this game is a must have.

Skyrim offers all the things we expect from an Elder Scrolls game with its massive open world, interesting quests, staggering amount of content, and sets a model in many areas that I think most MMO players would love to see developers of this genre pick up on.   I did a lot of quests in this game and played multiple characters, and out of all those quests there were very few that were as uninspired and tedious as the standard MMO "quest" we see today.  Almost everyone I know who bought this game played it and started over immediately with another character, that's a sign of a good game.   It's also intersting to me to hear how everyone is playing the same single player game, but everyone has stories about their playthrough that are so different from the next guy.  Just an absolutely stellar gaming experience that you really can't afford to not play.

Portal 2

I was gifted Portal 1 on Steam having never played it before, and I fell in love with the game right away.   My only beef was the game was over too soon.   Portal 2 really was one of the more memorable gaming experiences of the year.

Portal 2 took everything about Portal 1 and expanded on it.   The game had a much better story, and the length of the game was greatly expanded to make it feel like a real game and less of a mini game.  Tons of new mechanics introduced to the games many puzzles really made you wonder how you were going to get through a room when you first walked in.  In addition to this the co-op was a great deal of fun, although I do wish it were a little longer.  Overall and great game that is well worth picking up if you see it on sale, which most likely will be quite often.

Dark Souls

Have you ever played a game where you honestly felt that the people making it hated your guts?  If you haven't, you should check out Dark Souls.   Following the tradition of punishing difficulty, this game offers a very challenging gaming experience not for the weak-hearted.

Looking beyond the challenge, the game also provides an amazing single player console experience that shouldn't be missed if you are up to the challenge.   The game pretty much drops you into a world of shit and turns you loose to try to explore and figure what the hell is going on and how to stop it.   While there is a progression to things, the game opens up frequently letting you decide the order in which you'll tackle some of the horrors that lie within.   If the game wasn't hard enough, you have the threat of having other players come into your game and try to kick you when you least expect it, but on the flip side you can call for backup to help tackle certain encounters in the game.   The real icing on the cake however is that while Dark Souls is one of the best console games this year, the ending is probably the worst I have ever seen given how hard it is to beat.   I literally felt the develops spitting on me through my TV after beating it as if to say, "You might have won somehow, but f$#k you anyways!".

Dungeon Defenders

I've never really played or been a fan of the tower defense type games, but I ended up picking up Dungeon Defenders out of sheer boredom waiting for Bf3 to come out and the fact that half of my friends on Steam were playing this.  I was really surprised how much fun this game was and the amount of play someone could get out of this game.  Something about the sillyness of a situation where you are holding off literally thousands of monsters with your friends just makes for a hectic and fun experience.

Basically this game is the 3D version of tower defense but with a lot more rolled in.   You create a character from one of the classes and you team up with other people and try to conquer the various maps.   Each character class plays completely different from the next, and each has a role to play and brings something to the table.  On top of that, you get to create a build for your class spending skills points as you level up to either focus on tower building stats, straight character DPS stats, or a hybrid.   The game also features a random loot generator, and each item of loot can be leveled up.   I guess the game is somewhat of a grind game at it's core, but the gameplay never really made me felt like I was grinding because of how fun it was.  Between playing all of the classes, playing with the different builds, finding the best gear, leveling that gear, and trying to complete the dozens of missions and challenges at varying difficulty levels, Dungeon Defenders really gives you a lot to see and do for it's $15 price tag.  On top of that, the devs are constantly adding new stuff to the game very regularly and many times for free.

That about wraps it up for 2011.  If you see any of these games on Steam for the holiday sale I give them all a thumbs up.  While I am hoping that 2012 will finally deliver us an MMO worth playing again, there definitely has not been a shortage of great titles to play outside the genre this year.  I do find it kind of funny that some of the best games I played this year were price between the $0-$15 price point and made by indie developers.  Don't get me wrong though, I enjoyed the big name games like Skyrim and Dark Souls, but the hours don't lie.   I find that I have been getting for more hours played per dollar spent hitting up the indie games this year, and many of these games I am still playing even now because of regular free content updates.  I think there is definitely something to be learned here from some of the big house developers.  See you next year!

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

Rant:  The Old Republic

I already know what you're  thinking, "not another TOR article",  believe me when I say I can't take it anymore either.  Let's face it, TOR is slated to be the next big thing on the MMO scene so you're going to be subjected to every derp's opinion on it.  I've sat and watched quiety reading and digesting everything TOR related the last few weeks, so here is one more derp sounding off.

If you read the title of this, you probably realized on your way in here that the "TLDR" version of what is beyond this point can be summed up by a simple "I don't like TOR".  If the foam is starting to accumulate around your mouth at the thought of someone not liking your new precious, save yourself the torches and pitchforks to run me out of town, I'll go wait in exile happily with the rest of the people who just can't take the insanity anymore because I know in the end most people will figure out what the sane among us already know.   If you like where this is going and ready to ride this storm out with me, come gather around the fire friend.  If you can't handle it, just click your bookmark in the browser to your favorite TOR fan site.

The one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how fickle the MMO community is, and how astonishingly short memories are when it comes to watching what happens to every MMO hype train that passes through this station with all the fanfaire.  The Old Republic is the poster child of why I haven't been able to bring myself to seriously commit to an MMO for the last 2 years.   Am I the only one sitting here completely dumbfounded by the fact that people don't realize that the TOR train looks almost identical to the last dozen that came through here?  This is MMO insanity.   We are literally doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

I know it's Bioware.   I enjoyed Dragon Age and Mass Effect as much as the next guy.   I know it's Star Wars, or at least it is supposed to be.   I know they spent more on this game than any other MMO ever made to date.  But when you remove your emotional attachments from the IP, the company making it, and all the other bullshit, it is the same game that has come through here time and time again that has ended with massive burnout in the 60-90 day mark.

What really baffles me is how hard they doubled down financially to make what is a glorified Star Wars mod of an MMO that walks exactly in the footsteps of the previous games, footsteps that lead right over a cliff.  Reports are they spent well over $100 Million, and I'm just scratching my head trying to figure out where all the money went.

So we got the same generic UI as the previous MMOs, actually worse in some ways because it lacks some of the customization functionality of the others.  We have a weaker character creation and customization than we saw in some of the previous games.  We have the same generic facerolling combat system ported over.  We have the same quest content designed for lowest common denominator that involves our hero / sith lord collecting animal hides.  We also somehow managed to turn the prospect of PvP on an intergallactic scale and reduce it down to Hutt Ball.  So by looking at this we can clearly conclude that they didn't spend the bulk of their cash on the actual gameplay, because every other MMO debacle has done all this for a lot less money.

What is supposed to set this game apart? Is it the story?   The story that pretty much puts you in the same place regardless of the choices you make?  I sure as hell hope for their sake that they weren't counting on the voice acting to keep people paying month after month.  What is it about the story that justifies them collecting a monthly fee?  Skyrim offers everything TOR does in terms of voice acting and story, and at the same time gives you an massive open world, real quests that don't make you feel like a UPS driver trapped in a galaxy far away, and no monthly fee to boot!

How much of their massive budget did they spend reskinning Star Fox and putting into this game just for the sake of saying there is space combat?  The only thing missing is having Peppy's face popping up on the screen telling me to do a barrell roll.   They managed to get the most open environment known to mankind, outter space, and even turn that into a linear on the rails theme park ride akin to space mountain.

I just can't help but think that TOR might be the greatest wasted opportunity the MMO genre has seen in years.   You literally had one of the greatest IPs ever created, one with so much lore that it is nearly impossible to consume it all.   You had the biggest budget an MMO has ever seen to make this glorious IP into a reality, and you squandered it by making a dumbed down reskin of every failed MMO before it, and you did it on the hopes that your fate would somehow be different than theirs.  It's not even a theme park vs sandbox arguement.  I can understand the appeal of a theme park game, and I don't mind one every now and then.   It's the fact that Star Wars deserves better than this, and the fact that they took the low road in all the areas that count the most that actually keep people playing.  To me, this type of dumbed down gameplay does not justify a monthly fee.  If you removed Star Wars from this game and it had to stand purely based on the merits of gameplay, this would be an intergallactic failure and be seen for the mediocrity that it truly is.

Don't get me wrong, if you enjoy TOR and maybe you are new to the MMO genre and find it fresh, I don't think any less of you.  But as someone who has been around the block a while and seen a lot, I'll be the asshole and say I hope TOR ends up just as bad as all the games that came before it that did the exact same thing.  The madness needs to stop with this genre and with the amount of money at stake here in TOR, a failed TOR will send a resounding message to future bottom-peddling developers that going down this road is not worth the investment.  Unfortunately for the rest of us going into exile to watch this one from the sidelines, it probably won't be the case.

Flame on...

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

League of Legends: Interview with Riot Games #3

A lot has happened since my last interview with the folks over at Riot.   If you have been following League of Legends at all, you have no doubt heard about their new Dominion game mode as reviews have been pouring in.    In addition to the new game mode, Season one has finally concluded and the players now find themselves in Pre-Season 2 as things start to ramp up for the launch of the next round of competition. 

Riot's Design Director, Tom Cadwell AKA Zileas, has once again stopped by for an exclusive Q&A with me for the community here at MMORPG.com.

1)  There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the announcement of the new game mode Dominion.  Players are already in the process of trying to speculate which champions will have a strong presence in gameplay style Dominion offers.   The 3v3 mode currently in the game has a core group of champions that seem to be overly strong, and there are concerns that this could be the case for Dominion.  Is there anything you can tell us about how Riot is approaching champion balance as it relates to Dominion to help it from having the same issue Twisted Treeline has in this regard?

Watching the development of the metagame on Twisted Treeline was very much a learning experience for us, and we brought a lot of what we learned with us to the development of the Crystal Scar. On Twisted Treeline, for instance, high-durability, melee damage dealers emerged as dominant because the reduced teams size prevented them from falling quickly to focus fire. To prevent a similar phenomenon from developing on the Crystal Scar we decided to re-envision the item shop to adjust the arsenal available to our different categories of champions.

When you visit the item shop on your map of choice you’ll find that some items are only available for purchase in Classic mode and some are only available for purchase in League of Legends: Dominion. These sweeping changes in item cost and availability give us the option to make map specific balance changes to tweak the overall performance of a group of champions should they emerge as dominant in one game mode or the other.

2)  There was some surprise from the community when Riot announced that the new map was not Magma Chamber, but instead turned out to be Crystal Scar with Dominion.  Can you tell us a little bit about why Riot decided to change direction and go with this new capture and hold type game mode instead, and can you comment on whether or not the Magma Chamber concept has been abandoned completely?

A lot went into our decision to switch gears from Magma Chamber to the Dominion game mode and its accompanying Field of Justice the Crystal Scar. For starters, we wanted our next major project to be more of a departure from the Classic League of Legends gameplay. While our preliminary testing on Magma Chamber showed some promise in changing up the metagame in interesting ways, at the end of the day, we aimed for a more groundbreaking new experience.

3) What is the likelyhood or the criteria on whether or not players will see the new Dominion game mode be added as an option for ranked play?

We definitely plan on supporting a ranked ladder for League of Legends: Dominion. Just as with Twisted Treeline, however, this new ladder will be separate from the ranked play on Summoner’s Rift. An official launch date for the Dominion ladder hasn’t yet been determined, as we would like to give our community the chance to explore strategies and learn Dominion first.

4)  With the first Season of League of Legends coming to an end, when do roughly expect to see Season 2 kick off and will players finally get to see a normal draft mode by the time the new season gets underway?

As you may have noticed, between the end of Season One and start of Season Two, we have enabled Normal Draft Mode. While we haven’t announced a specific start date for Season Two yet, look for news on that front soon.

5)  In all of your tournament broadcasts each side is allowed to ban 3 champions each for a total of 6 bans, where currently only 4 total bans are permitted.   Does Riot plan to increase the number of bans in ranked play for Season 2 to what we are currently seeing in the championship tournaments?

Our banning system is flexible enough that we can adjust the number of bans permitted per team pretty readily. For the consistency of competition, however, we decided to leave the number of bans at four in ladder play for the remainder of the season.

Now that Pre-Season Two has begun, we have a little more flexibility to experiment and decide just how many bans each team should get during the champion selection process. Ultimately, there’s plenty of time for us to adjust our banning system in ranked play before the ladder competition in the new season official begins.

6)  Passive Gameplay has been a stated problem by members of Riot staff as an issue with the current metagame.  How does Riot plan to work towards reducing passive gameplay and make it more attractive for players to play more aggressively, especially in the early game which is becoming somewhat of a farmfest?

League of Legends already has pretty exciting play, but our developers are looking continue making it more active, which is an ongoing process. Our recent changes to support champions were geared toward reducing the level of safety that they provided to their lane partners in order to reward aggression, ganking, and teamplay over babysitting and early-game farming. It’s unlikely, however, that any one change that we make is going to suddenly transform the overall metagame in such a drastic way. Rather, this is a high level goal that we’ll reach through a series of progressive changes over some time.

Additionally, there’s a delicate balance to be struck there, since the laning phase is very much part of gameplay in Classic League of Legends. In League of Legends: Dominion, on the other hand, the concept of a laning phase doesn’t exist, and that’s going an important differentiator between the two experiences. Rather than completely eliminate this integral part of the Classic gameplay experience, we want to overhaul this phase of the game to make it more exciting.

7)  Riot has made mention on several occasions that there is a stealth rework in progress to help make characters like Evelyn and Twitch not promote tower hugging and passivity.   What can you tell us about the progress / release timeframe of the stealth rework and what stealth will look like for characters like these once these changes go live?

The design of these new mechanics is an ongoing process, but in its current incarnation these changes will separate our current stable of stealth champions into two pools: invisibility champions and stealth champions.

Champions such as Shaco, Talon, and Akali who have limited or short duration surprise mechanics will fall into the category of invisibility champions and have their ability sets more or less unchanged.

Characters with longer duration stealth abilities such as Twitch and Evelynn will be undergoing some significant changes. Instead of being completely invisible, these champions will now be invisible to Sight Wards (although Vision Wards will still spot them as normal) and will be visible to enemy champions when they have closed to within a reduced sight range. To aid them in stalking their adversaries these champions will have an indicator added to their interface that warns them when they are drawing closer to being spotted by an enemy.  

8)  After our last conversation, we have seen a few of the champions you mentioned last time undergo a rework of their abilities (Tryndamere / Kayle).   Which champions are currently on Riot's radar right now in terms of being prime candidates for a rework and why?

At Riot Games we very much believe that game balance is an ongoing process. As such, we’re always interested in the way that the overall metagame is evolving and the effect that it’s having on our existing champion lineup.

A couple of champions that we’re currently taking a closer look at are Veigar and Jax. Veigar’s ultimate does a heavily varied amount of damage based on his opponent’s total mana pool. As such, as we add more and more champions to League of Legends who utilize alternate resource systems, Veigar’s ultimate is essentially losing utility.

Jax’s hallmark ability, on the other hand, keys off of his dodge chance. Not only does that add an uncomfortable element of randomness to this ability, but it also tends to pigeonhole him into limited item and rune builds that focus on this one particular stat, whether or not he’s in a situation where that wouldn’t normally be his strongest defensive stat.

    
9)  We got a chance to see observer mode in action at Dreamhack and some of the other major events and it looks like it's in really good shape.   What's holding you back from releasing observer mode right now and do you expect it will be ready for the start of Season 2?

While we believe that Spectator Mode is an important part of coverage for our major competitive events and are willing to offer it for use on our tournament realm for this reason.

Like all features of League of Legends, however, this is an ongoing project, and as we continue to patch and update the game, Spectator Mode will continue to improve and develop. Once it meets the stability and feature requirements that we have for large-scale use, it will be made more widely available for use.
 

10)  Are there any plans in the foreseeable future to add some sort of team functionality or clan support?

We are definitely aware that there is room to improve on the social features of the PvP.net client, and we would like to do so in the future. We are hard at work at some great features along these lines, but until they’re ready for prime time we’re not ready to make any official announcements.
 

We certainly appreciate Zileas taking time out of his busy schedule with all that is going on right now in League of Legends.   I for one am looking forward to keep an eye on Dominion to see how the ranked meta game ends up turning out as both the pros and peons alike theorycraft various strategies.  Dominion is officially turned on permanently, so if you haven't had a chance to check it out I'd highly recommend it.  The games are much shorter than classic mode on Summoner's Rift and the action starts right out of the gate without any real farming or laning phases.  If you have previously tried League of Legends and maybe didn't care for it, the new mode warrants a second look considering how completely different it is.   If you are still one of the few people out there that hasn't tried the game yet, what are you waiting for?   It's free to download, free to play, and might just turn out to be your next main game.  If you do play, tune into the livestream or look me up, and I'll see you on the battlefield.

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

League of Legends: Dominion Impressions

Riot announced recently that they would be opening up their upcoming "Dominion" game mode to beta testing to the general public during certain preset times. I was finally fortunate enough to have one of these windows open to beta test the new mode during prime time hours when I am at home and able to play. I just spent the night machine-gunning games of the new game mode with friends, so I wanted to check in and just talk about some of my impressions after a night of trying it out finally.

Right out of the gate you are started at level 3 and 1300+ gold to kick start the game into high gear. Even standing at the spawn waiting for the countdown to start, I  noticed that my exp bar at the bottom was constantly ticking up due to a global buff exclusive to this game mode. The strategy starts right away as you decide the best combo of items. The increase in starting cash is a huge leap from the standard 5v5 mode which only starts you off with 475 gold. Do you rush your boots to get to the points faster once the game starts, or do you start building combat items for the inevitable fight that will happen within the first minute? The possibilities here are huge for theory crafters to sink their teeth into, and factor in the inclusion of completely new items and the choices and strategy is even more compelling.

Dominion is not just about about capturing and holding points, it's about combat, lots of combat, and combat right out of the gate. This is a massive contrast to the standard 5v5's on Summoner's Rift, where games start out usually with a laning / farming phase poking at each other. In Dominion when they turn you loose, you are charging head first into a fight usually within the first minute of the game. No poking, no farming, and towers whose damage is drastically less than then the classic game make for a real balls to the wall brawl.

Some other major differences I noticed from playing was the fact that it was pretty rare in most of the games to end up in a situation where all 10 people in the match were in the same fight. Most of the combat is on a smaller scale where you often will find yourself in 1v1 and 2v2 battles. Chances are if too many people are in a single spot, an opening exists for the other points to be captured due to being unattended. Combine this new game dynamic with the fact that combat is literally happening all the time, I found some characters obviously were very useful in this mode while some others were lacking in effectiveness.  I didn't see any support champs during my games, and I suspect they will be a bit less viable since a lot of the fights end up being so small in scale.

Rammus as an example seemed to be a good choice because his ability so power ball around at high speed allows him to get to open points and capture them quickly. Mobility plays a big role, so champions with some sort of movement speed increasing abilities do have a new found utility. I found myself trading in my flash for ghost as it seemed vastly more useful. On the other hand, due to the fact that skirmishes are usually smaller, some champions who thrive in these types of situations can be strong. Akali seemed to be on the ban list in most of the draft mode Dominion games I played, and after a few games with her in it I can understand why people do this. Of course at the same time, it could just be the fact that people are adjusting to the new mode and aren't really sure how to deal with new metagame of Dominion. I noticed one game a Cho'Gath had a hard time because of the dominion dynamic, getting killed frequently was problematic for him due to being unable to build up feast stacks and get large. The lack of creep farming and strong towers to hug really changes the game a lot.

The longest match I think I had all night went somewhere around 22 minutes, which is definitely a welcome change when I don't have the time or willpower to commit 30-45 minutes for the average game in the classic mode. Dominion literally floods you with money and experience passively while you play, which keeps the action going and your character advancing very quickly. The fact that the game feeds you so much farm can be beneficial to certain champs whose viability depends on heavy farm and maybe were not as desirable in the classic mode.

Overall though, my verdict from what I played is that the new game mode is a ton of a fun and a refreshing change to the classic Summoner's Rift.  If you played League of Legends at got burned out, or just didn't really care of the playstyle of the game, I'd recommend firing the game back up once the new mode comes out and give it a try. I think my only concern going forward is what Riot's approach will be for balancing certain champs in relation to their strength or lack there of in this mode. I guess it is to be expected though that just as there are many champs who aren't great picks in classic, the same will be said for Dominion. If you haven't tried League of Legends yet and are sitting around waiting for the next big MMO, I recommend you give it a look considering it's completely free to download and play.  If you did get a chance to play Dominion, drop your feedback below.

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

The Viability of Free to Play

One of the hot topics these days seems to be the various iterations of the payment models a lot of games are experiementing with in terms of games being free to play with some form of side cash shop.  While it has been a topic on this site a lot, it's something that never really caught my attention.   Ironically, I've spent the last year playing League of Legends and never really stopped to think about the actual value of the entertainment I was getting.

For those who don't know,  League of Legends is a free to play game and features a cash shop that sells various things that don't really make you any stronger in the game.   Real money spent in Riot's store will be able to get you things like different skins for the various champions or enable you to outright buy a champion which could already be earned for free with a little playtime.  When I first started playing the game I told myself that given the nature of the store, I really had no plans on spending any real cash in the store because frankly I didn't HAVE to in order to compete, and doing so would not increase my chances of winning any matches.

After about a few weeks, I decided to spend 5 bucks at the store to buy a champion I really wanted as an impulse decision, and I felt like a sap at the time for giving them money when frankly I didn't need to.   I could have easily earned that champion after a day or so of playing.  As the weeks and months went by, I slowly cracked again giving them $10 this time just to get some skins of one of the champs I played the most.   Again I felt kind of guilty giving them money when I didn't need to, after all that skin isn't going to help me win any matches.

While all of this was going on, one by one, every so often, one of my Inquisition guys would mention in passing that they were giving Riot a few dollars as well for whatever.   As the months passed by, my guild stopped bringing it up, but it was evident that it was still going on because I would keep seeing my friends showing up into matches with new and interesting looking skins for their favorite champs.  The lack of admission from my guild really got me thinking that everyone was feeling pretty guilty about spending money on a free game and getting no advantage from it, but it kept happening.   And just as my 5$ turned into $10, I soon found myself giving them $20 every so often.  People in vent would swear that THIS was the last time they would give them money, and yet the new skins kept showing up.

We would frequently wonder why the hell are we spending money on a free game, and how much have we really spent?!   Well a few weeks ago, Riot patched the PvP.net platform the game runs on, and added a tab to the store where you could view your entire purchase history using the in-game currency, and a neat little button that shows just your real life money spent.   I didn't want to click it because of the guilt accumulated over the months and year I've been playing, but collectively as a guild we all pressed it and posted our totals on our forums as sort of a coming out of the closet to see just how deeply invested we all were in this "free" game.

The totals went a little something like this...

Paragus: $80

INQ Member 2: $95

INQ Member 3: $110

INQ Member 4: $135

INQ Member 5: $190

INQ Member 6: $270

Wow.   As bad as I felt about spending $80, I had people in my guild who had spent well over triple that!  Ironically a recent patch change in the PvP.Net now only shows a history of real money spent going back only 30 days.  As the collective wave of guilt started to wash over us, I decided to take a step back and think of this in terms of what this would equate to in terms of a standard pay to play MMO.

15 Months playing League of Legends / $80 spent = $5.33 / month in MMO terms

Now let's assume I had been playing a pay to play MMO for those 15 months...

Initial Purchase of $50 + ($15 monthly fee X 14 Months since first month has no fee) = $260

So at my investment, League of Legends has actually only costed me 1/3 of what an MMO would.  The most serious spenders in Inquisition are only slightly higher than standard MMO.  Not too shabby I guess. When we read between the lines here, there is one major underlying point to this.   While League of Legends is a free to play game, everyone in my guild opted to spend money on it at some point to varying degrees because they felt the game was a great value and they ultimately feel fine supporting Riot because they believe in their product.

The bottom line seems to be that not only is Free to Play a vaiable pricing model, but if it is handled properly it can actually yield just as much if not more money than what pay to play games are pulling in, and the lack of commitment through fees can help lure in tons of potential customers.   This rings more true when applied to the MMO genre when you factor in that there hasn't been an MMO released in the last seven years that has held the attention of my guild for more than 3 months, which definitely puts a damper on the amount of cash those companies are getting.  Where does this all lead exactly, I'm not too sure.   I'm looking over the horizon right now though at games like Guild Wars 2 and now Planetside 2 who may be going down this road and I can understand it especially if the product end up being solid.  People seem more than happy to reach into their wallet to support something that provides them with a real entertainment at a great value.  Maybe Riot is the exception, but could this be the path forward?

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

League of Legends: Interview with Riot Games #2

It's been 3 months since my first conversation with Tom "Zileas" Cadwell, the Design Director for League of Legends. During the course of the these last few months a lot has happened in terms of the game's development. League of Legends season one is now in its twilight, the milestones of the redesigned patcher has been reached, and countless balancing changes and reworks have been ushered into the vast roster of champs that grows with their bi-weekly patch cycle. Today Zileas returns here for a little Q&A on a variety of topics.

1) The summoner ability "Flash" seems to be a frequently debated topic on the forums in terms of what role it should have in League of Legends.  Some argue that it provides too much of a get out of jail free card, while others claim that it is critical to the viability of certain champions.   What is Riot's stance on the role of Flash and does Riot have any plans to make any more changes to it in the foreseeable future?

While Flash has probably been one of the most hotly debated topics in League of Legends history, because of that controversy, it has also been one of the gameplay elements that has seen the most revision. Remember that, when the debate began, flash had more than twice the range, a shorter cooldown, and could be used to dodge projectiles. Because of this, it was nearly impossible for players to execute ganks on pushing opponents if their flash was up, so gameplay tended to stagnate when the ability was down because aggressive champions were too scared to push.

After all of these nerfs, Flash no longer has that sort of “get out of jail free” vibe to it. Some champions, however, relied heavily on Flash to execute daring, aggressive attacks, and we have always liked that element of Flash’s gameplay. For this reason, we’re now pretty happy with the gameplay that the summoner spell promotes, and there aren’t any further plans to remove Flash right now.

2) It's been about 10 months since the launch of Season 1 for League of Legends, and there has been a continuous stream of new champions being added every 2 weeks.   Currently ranked play in allows for banning of a total of 4 champions between both teams.    With the constant addition of new champions to the League of Legends roster, are there any plans to increase the amount of bans in ranked play?

There are a lot of implications to increasing the number of bans in ranked play, particularly with the number of free champions that we currently make available to all players. Players who at any point in time have fewer than 14 champions available for play are barred from ranked play on the 5 v 5 ladder. If we were to increase the number of bans, that could potentially decrease the number of players allowed onto the ranked ladder. While I can’t state for certain that we will never increase the number of bans available, there are a lot of factors to consider, and we don’t have any plans on doing so at this time.
One thing worth noting is that we remade a lot of the more problematic characters, and try to stay ahead of ending up in situations where players pretty much have to ban a particular character.

3) For a few months players have noticed a faded-out button at the top of the PvP.net interface for achievements.   Where is Riot at in terms of adding this functionality and can you provide a sneak peek into the types of things players might be seeing in there?

Achievements have always been on the long list of features that we would like for League of Legends to include at some point in the future. When we redid the user interface for Season One, that was simply the right time for us to start planning ahead for where we might display certain information. While we do plan on having achievements for our players to unlock, there are many features that we are more focused on at the present time. For instance, we just rolled out the release of our new PvP.net Patcher, which was one of the major technical hurdles preventing us from developing a polished Replay system.

4) Over the last few months your team periodically has gone back to examine champions and performed some drastic "reworks" to bring some of the lesser viable champions back into viability.   What champions are currently on the table being examined for a possible rework and why?

We are constantly evaluating our pool of champions to assess how they fit into the game given new developments. Since League of Legends is updated so often, there are always candidates for revision on the table. Most recently, we revisited Alistar and Gangplank. Some of the champions we are currently considering for somewhat major changes are Kayle, Tryndamere, and Jax, though we do not have planned release dates for any of them at this time.

5) On the topic of balance, Riot sometimes draws criticism from the community regarding certain champion "Tier Lists" from people who participate in high Elo play as a potential measurement of balance.  What is your take on these lists from the top players and to what degree are balance changes based off of them and players in the highest levels of competitive play?

At Riot Games we always attempt to community feedback into consideration when making changes to the game. And while tier lists provided by high level players can certainly be a resource utilized by our designers, most players who post them are already members of our Council. The Council exists to provide an avenue of contact through which our designers can interact with high level players for feedback.

Remember, however, that we have a lot of players, and balance feedback from the very top isn’t the only thing to which we have to pay close attention. Some champions that aren’t problematic in the highest levels of play, and often don’t feature high up on these tier lists can still cause a lot of grief for players in lower ELO brackets. For this reason, it is important to take a holistic approach to game balance, and ensure that you are providing an enjoyable experience for players of all skill levels.

Also, we have to weigh the US and EU metagames, which often have disparate qualities. We play games in both environments to compare them against each other, and sometimes we will address issues that are dominant in Europe, and it may not necessarily make as much sense in North America, and vice versa.

6) One of the lost features that has never seen the light of day brought up by older members of the community is the inclusion of some form of Clan Support.  Is this a feature that is currently on Riot's radar right now and if so how high of a priority is it?

Support for Clans and other social structures are definitely something that we want to have in the future, especially given how social League of Legends can be. Presently, however, there are other, more critical updates that we are working to bring our players first.

7) It's been a few months since you guys revealed the Tribunal system for players to police other player in the community.   What sort of incentives will there be for players to participate in the new system and how far off do you think the system is going live.

The Tribunal is now live! We are extremely excited to see all the player anticipation that has been building surrounding Tribunal, and we hope that many players will choose to help keep the League of Legends community a friendly and fun place to play.

As for incentives, players are being offered a small bounty of Influence Points for each case that they judge with the majority. Since players should be able to handle many cases in a given day, we believe that this will provide them with another source of game currency for their civil service.

8) Last time we spoke you mentioned that the graphical upgrade would be the next major step in the development process before new maps would be brought into the game.  Are you in able to give us any kind of update on how the graphic overhaul is progressing and do you expect it to have a serious impact on the system requirements to play League of Legends?

Since we think of League of Legends as a living, breathing service, the goal for our upcoming graphics update is to ensure that the game remains relevant in every way for a long period of time. Equally important, however, is our goal of keeping League of Legends accessible to the broadest audience possible.

Our hope is that through the graphics overhaul we will be able to allow those players with high end systems to take advantage of some of the latest graphical features available, while still supporting lower graphics settings that will allow players with less powerful machines to continue playing. And while the Shiny Update is progressing nicely, we aren’t yet at a place where we’re comfortable talking about a definitive release date.

9)  With new update to the patcher now live you mentioned here last time, how much closer are we to seeing some activity in regards to replay functionality?

Replays and Observer mode have been highly anticipated features that we have been looking forward to being able to build for our players for a long time. Now that we’ve removed the primary barrier for their development, we can begin to build a feature that we think will truly live up the quality that our players expect from a League of Legends feature.

While we are aware of just how excited players are for this features, we need to be sure of two things before they can be released: first, they must be future-proof since we release new content on a bi-weekly basis, and second, they must provide a phenomenal user experience. While the new PvP.net Patcher does remove a number of technical hurdles, there is still a lot of development work to be done.

10)  Is there anything behind the scenes that goes into determining the type of champions Riot puts out every 2 weeks in terms of the role they play (DPS, Tank, Support, etc) ?

We always have a wide pool of champions in development, and a lot goes into determining the timeline leading up to a champion’s release. The most critical factors are: does the champion fill a role we currently need, does the champion look good, and, most importantly, is the champion fun to play! But there are plenty of other factors that might affect a champion’s release. For instance, we thought that April Fools’ Day presented us with a unique opportunity to interact with our community surrounding the release of Lee Sin, the Blind Monk, since he already had a passionate fan base from his first appearance back in a trailer during closed beta.

A character’s art and abilities go through a lot of iteration before they get scheduled for release, and our most important mission is to ensure that we are delivering a fun, high-quality product for our players to enjoy. If a champion doesn’t look as though they’re going to deliver everything our playerbase wants, we’re never afraid to go back to the drawing board. Some, like Lee Sin, make an appearance at a later date when we’ve had time to put in some more work on them. Others may find some of their more successful elements working their way into the concept of another champion.

Once again I'd like to thank Zileas and the folks over at Riot for taking the time out of their busy schedule to sit down with us today. I am looking forward to watching the ongoing evolution of League of Legends as Riot continues to add new features. The tribunal is truly a sight to behold and participation in it is almost as fun as playing the game itself, you can read about my experience and impressions with it HERE. If you still haven't played League of Legends and want to see what all the fuss is about, I'd recommend you check it out considering it free to play.

Paragus Rants
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

League of Legends: The Tribunal

The day of reckoning has finally arrived over in League of Legends as Riot Games has rolled out their brand new Tribunal system. Today I want to talk a bit about this new system and give a little bit of a walk through of how it looks and works. With over 3 million games of League of Legends being played every single day, the backlog of reports against players from other players would be enough to bury and customer service department hopelessly to be able to process them all. This new system now allows player reports to be reviewed and judged by a jury of their peers.

The entire concept of the Tribunal bring up a new and very interesting dynamic in the world of gaming. Anyone who has played a game like this for any serious length of time has no doubt come across someone who completely ruined one of their games by going AFK in mid-game because they said their cat was on fire, or decided to intentionally feed the enemy team to ruin the game. The tribunal not only let's players feel a sense of empowerment and justice by voting to punish the scum of the community, but it also provides a comical (or horrible depending on your point of view) look at the worst of the worst humanity has to offer. Once enough votes have been collected, the case gets a quick final review by Riot and if your vote coincides with the final judgement your account gets rewarded in the way of IP (the currency used to in-game to unlock champions and runes).

Once you sign in with your account and begin, the very first thing you are presented with are a series of guidelines letting you know what sort of criteria you should be using to pass judgement. Most of the criteria is self-explanatory but in short you are asked to be familiar with what the reportable offenses are and to take the time to look over each case to make sure punishment is warranted. As an example, four people could have joined a game together and the fifth player as an outsider. Those four could then all report the fifth to spite him giving the impression at a glance that a premade group was trying to frame a solo player. Finally my favorite part is a warning to prepare you for the possibility that you might see some colorful language inside the files...

"Chat logs and other materials presented as evidence in Tribunal cases may contain language best described as vulgar, rude, offensive, uncouth, impolite, course, crass, colorful, or just downright objectionable. Please note that this content does not represent the views or opinions of Riot Games or any of our partners, and that by participating in the Tribunal you agree to accept responsibility for any exposure you might have to content of this nature."

Once you agree to the terms you'll find yourself face to face with you first case. The case files contain a wealth of information about the game in which the player was reported, probably more than the average scumbag and rager would have expected. (CLICKY for big picture) At the top of the page we can see all the stats for the player that game including everything from their kill / death ratio, item builds, level, time played, minions killed, even his DPS. Since most of the people who end up in the tribunal have been reported on multiple occasions outside of a single game, there is even a drop-down box at the top to go back and look at the person's previous games in which they were reported as well to see if the person is a habitual offender.

Below that in the next section, we see the actual reports from the players in the game. The report section shows you how many people in the game reported the player, which team they were on, and any comments written in the report field. Putting commentary in the fields when reporting players is not required when you send one, but I find that having commentary with the reports is very useful as well as wildly entertaining considering people are using really angry at the time they fill them out. Regardless by this stage you now should have an idea of the negative behavior they are being accused of so now you know what you are looking for as you look over the file. In the case above, the person is being a LEAVER / AFKer by members of both teams.

In the next section down, players get a chance to read the chat logs of the entire game for both teams. This is probably one of the more interesting sections because you get to read the inner team conversations of both sides, plus the chat between the two sides. Chat is color coded by player (the accused player is always in pink) and timestamped so you can have a more accurate picture of how events unfolded. In the case above, we are looking to see if the person being charged is actually an AFKer. Considering in this case 7 out of the remaining 9 people in the game reported him there must be some truth to the claim, but the chat logs only go on to confirm that the accused player pretty much admitted to giving up in the chat logs.

One thing I find amazing is how often people accent their stupid behavior in the chat logs. While proving the someone went AFK through reading chat should be something hard to determine, it goes to show you how dumb or arrogant some people really are thinking that they would either never get caught, or that the data of the game wouldn't be as detailed as it is. Needless to say not all cases are equal, some of them can be solved pretty fast especially in the case where you have some guy freaking out in his chat box in a fit of rage.

The only real beef I have with the Tribunal is the limitations on it right now where it only lets you review 3 cases in a given day. I have probably upwards of 1500 or so games of League of Legends under my belt, and believe me when I tell you that during those games I have crossed paths with some people that have intentionally ruined games for me or the other team many times. I find the entire concept of the Tribunal extremely empowering and satisfying because of all that I have been through, plus reading the cases is highly entertaining. If it were up to me I would spent a lot more time using this system than what it currently allows me, and Riot claims to be monitoring the system since it is still in its infancy. If it all works out they may be increasing the case load anyone can take on. It's also worth mentioning that since the entire system is accessed completely online through their website, reviewing cases can be done at any PC with internet since you don't even need to have the game installed on the PC to use it.

Leauge of Legends is an amazing game and Riot continues to improve on it as it matures. Considering it's free to play I would highly recommend you check it out if you haven't yet. Just keep in mind that the Tribunal is out there and watching, ready to bring justice to those out to ruin other people's games. As a rager myself, I'll leave you with this comic that shows the natural progression of a LoL player. If you're going to rage vomit all over the place, try not to let it spill into the game.

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003

Review: Terraria

Every now and then a game comes out of nowhere that completely surprises us, and Terraria is one of those games. I had never even heard of this game until the day it was released on Steam. I am a huge fan of 2D platformer type games and especially the subgenre of what are commonly referred to as Metroidvanias, a term used to describe free roaming 2D adventure games like classic Metroid and modern day Castlevania games. A friend of mine pointed Terraria out to me the day it released and frankly I didn't know what to make of it, but with only a $10 price tag on Steam I decided to give an Indy dev a shot.

The best way to describe Terraria would be a cross between Metroidvania and Minecraft. Terrania is a 2D sandbox / sidescrolling free roam platformer / RPG that has its gameplay rooted in harvesting materials, building with those materials, exploration, and character progression. Combine these elements with the fact the worlds are randomly generated, staggeringly massive on the higher settings, and add in a multiplayer element, and you have a pretty interesting package oozing with potential.

Just by looking at the graphics or even the games mere 16 MB download size, it would be very easy for someone to completely dismiss the game at a glance. Make no mistake that inside is a very highly addictive game experience with a fair amount of depth and intricacies that make the game completely immersive despite its dismissive appearance.

The game starts with you creating a character from some basic options for your appearance, and then having the game randomly generate a world from 3 different size options, both of which are saved separately allowing you to take your character to other worlds and have other players come into yours via multiplayer. When the game starts you will find yourself outside somewhere with absolutely nothing except for a logging axe and a mining pick. It is from this humble beginning that your journey starts to explore your world, develop your character, and try to make a life for yourself.

The very first order of business is building yourself a base of operations on a place of your choosing. Chopping down trees for wood allows you to build a workbench, from that workbench are then able to build yourself some basic items like a wooden sword, walls, doors, and furniture. Crafting is key in Terraria, and the gathering of resources plays a huge role. Once you build your first dwelling, you will have a base of operations and NPC's will be available to move into your home. As you complete certain criteria in the game and build extra rooms and houses, useful NPC's will arrive in your settlement to provide you with goods and services. As an example, if you get more than 50 silver and have an extra house space, you will attract a merchant. If you find extra heart containers (the only way to raise your max HP since there are no levels or exp) you will attract a nurse who can heal you for a small fee.

In between building your home base, you will spend the bulk of your time exploring the world you find yourself in, scouring the depths for resources and special items. On the "large" world setting, the map is staggering massive to the point where I can't even begin to explain it (CLICKY for big zoomable picture). Instead I will reference a picture taken I found online that gives some perspective on the scope of the size. As you can see, roughly 80% of the maps you explore are underground and involved lots of digging around to navigate. The caverns are dark and monsters roam around trying to kill you. So the questions begs what exactly are you looking for down there?

It does warrant mentioning that given this is a true sandbox in every sense of the word, there is no winning the game or a defining moment where you declare victory with fanfare. The game is what ever you decide to make of it, although since the deeper you go the harder things get, advancement of your character in terms of weapons, armor, and utility items will probably be goal enough for many. Heart containers to raise your max life are hidden deep in the many layers of the underworld. Treasure boxes while very rare contains some key items you would expect to find in any Metroid or Castlevania to make your life and exploring in general a lot easier. Flippers that allow you to swim in water, an item allowing underwater breathing, advanced light sources, grappling items, and jumping boosts just to name a few. In addition to these, you will find better and rarer materials used in the games crafting system to build stronger armor, a variety of difference weapons, and other utility type items.

During all your exploring and building, the game sometimes likes to throw curve balls at you to spice things up. The game has a natural day and night cycle in which night produces a variety of undead and stronger monsters akin to Castlevania 2. Occasionally a blood moon could lead to your compound getting assaulted by undead, or a goblin invasion might try to make life on the surface difficult. The game does contain 3 bosses currently, some of which are summoned, some can show up to cause havoc for you. Defeating a specific boss opens up access to a high end dungeon area somewhere in your world which is supposed to contain some of tougher enemies in the game as well as some of the better loot. Factor in multiplayer where you can team up with friends and explore and tackle bosses together and you have a pretty interesting package.

Terraria's developers have made no qualms about calling the game unfinished and still a work in progress. Despite that, this is one of the funnest and addictive unfinished games I have played, and I've played my fair share (this is an MMO site after all). The framework in place is sure to make hours seems like minutes and chances are if this is the sort of game you like, you will be sure to get your $10 worth especially with high replayability with multiple character and world slots and randomly generated terrain. If you are looking for a more defined experience with a clear cut end boss or objectives, or don't like spending time designing and building which dominates a lot of the early few hours of the game, then I'd recommend a pass on this. A lot more content and support is promised, so hopefully it will be just as fun watching the game grow as it is to play it.

Paragus
Co-Leader of Inquisition

Livestream Channel:
http://www.own3d.tv/live/15003