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League of Legends Review: The WoW of MOBAs? - Edit
8.2
| Pros |
 Accessible game play Enormous player base Free to play Large number of Champions Scales to almost any PC |
| Cons |
 Fluctuating balance issues Lacking critical competitive systems Questionable eSports presence Some unpolished elements remain |
Since its release a mere two years ago League of Legends has experienced a meteoric rise to fame within not only the MOBA community but within the hearts of PC gamers everywhere. With over 15 million accounts created and 1.5 million unique users playing every day Riot Games has clearly struck a chord with PvP fans everywhere. Considering its ubiquitous hold over both the genre’s player base and competitors many have likened League of Legends with the most successful MMO to date, World of Warcraft.
Whether it is to laud or condemn them Riot’s vocal fans are quick to judge their multitude of trend-setting decisions which include but are not limited to: a player-powered banning system, bi-weekly champion releases, various e-sports offerings, oft radical balance changes, and most recently a new map and game mode. Never has the time been better for League of Legends players to take to the Fields of Justice to exactly their deadly plans, however, does the game hold up the scrutiny of millions or is all the success just an enormous, hype-driven fluke? It’s time to find out!
Aesthetics – 9.5
League of Legends sports a cartoon-inspired visual design at its core with hopes of accomplishing the goals of being incredibly scalable while still looking the part. Similar to how this worked out for the MMO which needn’t be named the art style does a respectable job of conveying events accurately while simultaneously looking stylish and appealing. Unless players are anathema to stylized, anime-like graphics there isn’t much to fault about how the game looks. To Riot’s boon they’ve lately been enhancing old models with more modern looks, animations, and sounds to complement the ever increasing quality of the new champions and they continue to tweak the engine to blend the more inspired art direction with a darker, more detailed end product. Unfortunately “Project Shiny,” the eventual graphical overhaul that’d been in development for ages, is still nowhere to be found despite relatively recent teases in PC Gamer.
Counter to the detailed environs and pleasing champion visuals things tend to become muddled and confounded in the heat of larger battles. The vast amount of life bars on both champions and minions overlap ad infinitum while spell effects combine in a blinding cacophony of shiny and sometimes plain obtrusive, particles. While time spent playing will help alleviate the annoyance that this can cause and considering the fact that distinctive visual and audio cues help to make certain events notable it is still an ever-present mar upon the relatively pristine presentation of the game. Likewise the UI and map design on the traditional map, Summoner’s Rift, inexplicably hide often vital visual components to fights depending on the player’s position. The only official way to work around this is a UI scaling slider in the options menu; however, you trade ease of access to vital information for more screen real estate in the process. Furthermore the active units are highlighted to stand out from the environment which does create a somewhat jarring presentation while simultaneously making tracking moving units easier. These problems are mostly just nit-picking though as the presentation is just too incredibly solid otherwise.
Of specific note should be the sound direction. All audio work sounds very professional; even if there remains some questionable choices by Riot (the sheriff sniper law-woman extraordinaire has a tea time English accent?) concerning certain voiceovers.
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Welcome to the game client and storefront, get used to spending plenty of time and money here!
Gameplay – 8.25
When the developers of League of Legends set out to create the game a few of them who had previously worked on the original DOTA decided that there were some aspects of the game that were just too foreboding to new players and in general. So they removed them. Gold loss on death, denying enemies creep experience and gold, teleportation items, buy back from death, dynamic brush, and other mechanics that were deemed “anti-fun” were replaced with less harsh ones. Furthermore the persistent summoner profile that every player gains experience for contains summoner spells and runes that can be used to directly affect in-game stats and abilities. Beyond these rather drastic changes the basic MOBA gameplay remains intact with a few less radical changes (which include a sub-boss and neutral monster buffs). Ten players still compete to destroy the enemy defensive structures and cripple the enemy nexus to gain victory.
Outside of each match there exists tutorials and bot matches for new players to ease into the combat along with custom games to have some light-hearted fun in. The new game mode, Dominion, introduces a capture and hold style map that has players attempting to hold the majority of five points to make the enemy nexus lose health until it reaches zero. While this concept is hardly new to the world or the genre Riot claims this is the first time it has been fully and competently implemented in a serious fashion within the genre. The reality of this hectic new mode is that many lack-luster champions on the original map have found new life and usefulness and vice versa for champions who were powerhouses before. Another goal is to diminish the reliance on passive farming gameplay and create a head-to-head environment which the Crystal Scar handily accomplishes. However this presents a new problem for game balance.
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This game was clearly meant to be viewed from an isometric viewpoint only!
League of Legends believes in balancing the game around not only the casual or competitive player, but both. Moreover the game already suffers from an MMO-like balance pendulum that has champions dominating one week and floundering in competitive play the next. While the developers should be lauded for being proactive in their efforts the game lacks and will likely always lack a steadfast sense of balance (of which the bi-weekly champion additions are also a culprit). Compounding these concerns is the influence the basic alterations to the classic gameplay have on competitive play. It is a largely accepted fact that professional level play results in a majority of the match being spent farming while everyone does their best not to die. While Riot acknowledges this problem those fundamental change have a largely irrevocable effect on the classic map’s play style.
Despite the fluidity of game balance and the constant x-factors being introduced into the system the game definitely accomplishes the goal of being an utterly fun and intoxicating PvP experience. You’ll be queuing up for your next match without even realizing it.
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Can you tell whats going on in this picture? Details!
Innovation – 10
Riot’s track record of innovative business practices is a monster. From a gameplay aspect they took a radically different approach to the then standard MOBA structure that DOTA inspired by removing many gameplay elements that the design team termed “anti-fun” (which were mentioned in the gameplay section above). These alterations alone would be enough to garner a positive score for this section, but Riot isn’t just shaking up the gameplay of the genre. League of Legends was the first MOBA to use the free-to-play payment model, the first with such aggressive marketing, and the first to have success anywhere near the scale they’ve accomplished so far. Riot isn’t even stopping there though; they've dedicated themselves to redefining customer support as we know it with an aim to make it true "player support."
However everyone knows that innovation alone does not produce a prosperous product, execution of said innovation is vital. On these fronts League of Legends has dramatically prospered. League of Legends sets a gameplay model that new MOBAs draw influence from or outright copy be it through their free-to-play model or accommodating players new to the genre with open arms. Customer support is also superb. A week cannot pass without a multitude of inspired forum threads begging for a few extra Riot Points (real money currency) to buy a champion or skin in exchange for a funny drawing or some such thing.
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You know something is wrong when you sell boots for a third Phantom Dancer...
Likewise customer support gets back to players surprisingly quick be it via forum response of through emails about a variety of topics. Every time I’ve posted about a problem patching or with a question about a purchase I’ve gotten replies from Riot within hours, often sooner on the forums, helping me solve my issue. The amount of care and energy the League of Legends team puts into helping the players oozes from the employees be it in written or video form and the fruits of this effort is plain to any player who wanted to play a game for a special occasion with Rioter or needed a couple more Riot Points for a purchase.
League of Legends’ presence will undoubtedly be felt on the genre and industry for years to come.
In before the "But this isn't even an MMORPG" whining.
Curse you! It does, however, follow the trend for gratuitous F2P coverage here.
I feel like this site is pushing it at us. Outside of MMORPG.com I would have never heard of the game. Definitely can't say that about WoW.
Everywhere I go I read about League of Legends :)
I find it a very boring, highly repetitive game. If I was generous I would give it a 4 maybe. Personally I can't believe people waste their time on a game like this.
you obviously don't understand the meaning of an e-sport...
Ozmodan : the first few games can seem boring, but you need to give it a little more time to grow on you. Once you know the heroes well, the tactics... it's like chess with team dynamics : you don't complain it's always the same map, each game becomes deeper and deeper.
LoL : from a former HoN player (HoN copied Dota completely), I must say I like very much what Riot did there. They innovated very cleverly and made a game fun and accessible to casual pvpers (HoN and Dota werent), as well as very competitive for the more dedicated players. That's probably the key of its success. The game still misses important features like replays though, and their lobby can be very laggy (I guess that last point is the result of too much success...) LoL is a great game, and a step forward in the series of the MOBA games.
Just my opinion :)
League of Legends is simply my favorite out of all the MOBA's aka MMORTS.
If you just want to kill a hour or two, you will find out that these BG's take time to complete (30 minutes to 1 hour).
I usually qued up for the 5 players vs computer scenario till I got the hang of the game, then I went into 3 vs 3 and 5 vs 5. You thought the AI was tough, wait till you try agaist other players. (However when I was a noob and still am, I made my own game and it was me and my 4 NPCs troops agaist the 5 other NPCs).
The game to me is very competitve and find out my right hand starts to hurt after a few games, but other than that, it is a unique game with many characters to choose from, skills trees, leveling system, runes for extra attributes and lots of back and fourth action.
The game is not for everyone that likes the traditional MMORPGs, however if you like the BG's in MMORPGS on a 2D scale with WoW type graphics, you might just like it.
And one last thing, its free, but Riot Games does intends to make the Cash Shop enticing. I am level 12 now and have avoided the cash shop to buy XP, IP boosts and characters. All characters can be unlocked the old fashion way by leveling and getting IP, but it will take sometime to collect all the characters this way, but hey, I am in no rush to level cap 30.
Legue Of Legends is just a lot of fun despite the horrible raging community but i think when dota 2 comes out legue of legends will loose ALOT of its playerbase
You hear about this game everywhere, every game magazine or site has at least one story on it. I personally have been playing it for 2 years now and am still enjoying it. Dominion is fun but in no way will it ever replace the basic map-Summoner's Rift.
I love this game. Only thing that I play nowadays without getting bored. At first I hated it, thought HoN was far superior. But I was so wrong, I gave it one more shot and now Im stuck with it, and its awesome. All my friends play it aswell nowadays, makes it ever more fun.
Give it more than just one shot and you will love it. People that say its repetive is bad. They dont just understand the game and no game is the same. It's always a different outcome and that is why I love it. There are so many different things and ye, it just pure fun all the way through.
Go play it!
I wouldn't count on it. As other people have said, HoN has copied DoTA almost completely. In that sense, HoN is in fact DoTA1.5, yet is a struggling company.
People who like LoL, won't necessarily like DoTA or DoTA2. Personally, I like HoN/DoTA, but I never got into them like I did with LoL. There is just alot to LoL that leans more on the "fun" aspect, rather than strictly to be competative. That's not to say that LoL isn't highly competative, it's just that those "Anti-fun" aspects were in fact "anti-fun" and only geared towards highly competative professional level of play.
I am not looking forward to DoTA2, nor is anyone else I know. I am looking forward to the next champ in LoL moreso than I am looking forward to DoTA2. Even if that next champ is another champ like Skarner.
I also find it funny that you talk about the "horrible raging community", then immediately talk about DoTA2. If DoTA2's community is ANYTHING like HoN or DoTA, then it will overshadow LoL's community for being vile, ugly, and all around just down right shitty. HoN is free and DoTA is cheap. You should check them out if you don't believe me. You'll think that LoL has the best community of any game on the market, after just a few matches of either game.
Enlighten me, whats the difference between HoN, LoL and DoTa ?
This article is true. The characteristics of LoL is similar to WoW:
Easy noobish style play.
Cartoon Graphics.
Not a harsh penalty for death.
Butchering the original Dota game by not having denyable creeps.
Take a HoN or original Dota player and they will rape in LoL because its way too easy.
Yes LoL is the WoW of MOBAs. It is a community of casual non competitive gamers.
I thought it did a pretty good job of explaining the differences.
So nothing major then ? Just some gameplay tweaks ?
Well.... they are different games, where as DoTA and HoN are pretty much the same game. Those things I quoted above are pretty drastic changes.
x1?
Thanks for clearing that up. I just had to ask since I tried playing one of the three MOBAs with my friend many times and could never understand the appeal. Then I saw the DotA 2 tournament with the 1 million dollar prize money and was kind of shocked, and I was wondering is there a stripped down version of the MOBA games which would be more fitting to be an e-sport game.
LoL is very competitive and the most popular of the e-sports. WoW is also extremely competitive both in PvE and PvP that's why you see arena tournaments with money prizes, not many MMO companies can claim that.
I really do like LoL. I play at minimum 3 games a day, usually more since I get hooked. It's a fair review, except the comments about community. There isn't really a way to talk with alot of people at the same time, however, I have alot of friends that I met just while playing LoL, and friending after a fun game. I also have alot of friends that I've invited from previous games (I got Vandal Twitch skin from it hehe)
I've tried this game a handful of times and each time I play I remember "Ok, now I remember why I quit playing this before." Matches take way too much time for my taste, plus a number of players I've ran into were VERY rude. Trying to learn the game and get used to stuff and cause you're not as good as them yet "Geez, you f"ing suck! Why don't you just quit this game?" and other crap like that.
But I do know of people that love this game... just not for me I guess. Might give it another chance sometime tho.
I currently play LoL but think HoN was the better game. It is definitely the more popular game as of now but I think that is largely due to the inaccessibility of playing HoN. HoN is unquestionably the better game but is not nearly as popular for a couple of reasons.
1. As somebody already mentioned the community in HoN is not nearly as forgiving as the community in LoL. HoN is a hell of a lot more competitive than LoL is and the skill level requirement is a lot higher. Any well put together HoN team will destroy an LoL team in either game. This has led to a very snobbish attitude in the HoN community who will tear apart any new player simply because they haven’t learned how to play. So basicly HoN = Really steep learning curve and snobby community v.s. LoL = newbfest easy mode food goes here, community can't issolate you from playing games because your new.
2. The matchmaking system in LoL is excellent it (until you hit the cap) so it takes about 2 minutes at most to get into a game. HoN on the other hand you can wait anywhere from 2 minutes to 25 minutes to get into a game via their matchmaking system. The HoN community seems more inclined to go to custom games, if you are good enough and fall in a decent category (at least until they broke everything) you can get into a game pretty quickly. But when you are starting out and more than likely destroy your account rating people will just boot you from every game (good thing the game is free now so you can just create a new account once you understand the game so you can have a decent account rating). So second point summary, LoL = less time waiting for a game v.s. HoN = broken matchmaking system, almost a graveyard for games. GJ TROLLS!.
Enter DOTA 2.
With the hype surrounding DOTA 2 my hope is that they combine the match making system of LoL and the diversity of the HoN system (more dimensions to the game). So basically Rebrand heroes of newerth with a better and more stable engine and slap the LoL matchmaking system on top of it. From the videos it looks like they have improved on many ares of the HoN map but ultimately the same layout as HoN (originally dota 1), this is good. What I haven’t seen is if they have a better matchmaking system. As we saw with LoL vs HoN, HoN is clearly the better game but the cost to play a game was to much for HoN (lag, poor matchmaking system, poor newbie community, steep learning curve) and that is why LoL is coming out on top at the moment.
If you really don’t think these games are anything special than I strongly suggest you look up some of the tournaments and see the hype around them. Starcraft eat your heart out. Furthermore if you haven’t played one yet I would strongly recommend playing LoL (simply because it’s a better game to play right now)
Edit :
its a better game because its easier to access and you don't have to wait nearly as long to get into it. Try getting past level 10 if you are waiting a while games start popping a lot faster after the first four levels.
It's also make news. They have to have one new article everyday to bring people to the site.
"Cons:Questionable eSports presence" joke? lol
With the way LoL esport events have been going it isn't exactly the most promising presence. Constant disconnects in multiple matches which sometimes determine the match outcomes for starters.
Plus, last I heard, MLG wasn't going to cover LoL again until Riot got their stuff together and had a spectator/tourny mode that could be used reliably. I remember watching that MLG coverage and it going out part-way though on the first or second day, then no more coverage at all for the rest of the day. It was a joke.
Riot puts a lot of time and prize money into their esports division, for sure, and it is promising, but at this point in time you're as likely to see disconnects as a flawlessly broadcasted match. I haven't had time to watch the tourny over in China recently, but the forums were abuzz with the shenanigans going on over there, par for the course.
Did MLG decide to pick LoL up again for their next event? I'm not sure, I haven't been keeping up with that honestly.
I have been reading MMORPG.com articles for years and I have to say that this is one of the few reviews I've read that were completely fair and balanced and written from someone who's spent alot of time in the game.
Thanks! :)
To Joe (author):
League of Legends is not just the PvP you know. You forgot that LoL also have flavor thru the Journal of Justice giving each champion their unique personality and also introduces the world of Runeterra and her denizens.
Often times, my friends and I are talking about lore rather than PvP strategies. ;)
Story - 9.5
This is an entirely valid point jvxmtg! In fact I follow the lore very closely myself and have a vast appreciate for Riot encorporating legitimate reasons story-wise for nearly every change to the game! Of the genre (hell of most MMOs) LoL has a very rich background and story!
Unfortunately story simply wasn't a category for the review! On this note maybe you want to bring it up in general discussion or whereever a post about the review system would be appropriate. Indeed I would have given the game a high score on story if it was supplied as criteria for the review, but I go with what I'm given! :)
Perhaps it is just a byproduct of the times, but story elements simply aren't a concern for (and I'm guessing here) a large portion of the population. That is unfortunate, and I appreciate you bringing that up.
Maybe I can convince the powers at be to let me do a lore article on LoL some time in the future, who knows!?
Yeah because LoL shouldn't be called e-sport, it's way to casual and easy.
The community is a deal breaker for me.
I would recommend you try the new Dominion mode. It's much faster, at fifteen to twenty minutes, which for me is the perfect length.
With respect to the community, the community in Dominion and Vs Bots games tends to be much better; particularly the Vs Bots mode, where players are very easy-going. Classic mode definitely has more problems with bad behavior, but it's Ranked mode that is the worst, by far. Stick with Vs Bots if you want a better community. Ideal is Custom Games where you can pick who you're playing with, but you'll need to line up some friends to make that happen.
I have played quite a bit of this game - more than I would care to admit! - and I agree with most of the review, but disagree on a few items.
Innovation: As much as I like Riot as a company and LoL as a game, it's just not innovative. They adopted Blizzard's customer-friendly approach and adopted DotA nearly intact. There's nothing wrong with any of that, but it's not ground-breaking. I do agree, however, that their business model is quite innovative and very successful, mainly because they have made an effort to adhere to their "no money for power" standard.
Polish: Riot has been dinged for missing features, but at this point, it's really just replays (which are very likely soon to come) and some social networking features. The game itself is quite polished and relatively bug-free. They develop very solid, very finished software; they are just incredibly slow at introducing new features. I wouldn't consider it to be unpolished in the way a buggy, unstable game with a lousy UI would be unpolished.
Value: I must have a different definition of value, because a game you can jump into and play several Champions and nearly all modes from the start without spending a dime is a pretty good value. No, you don't get game power for money, that's intended. Money spent helps speed the process of unlocking features and buys cosmetic skins, but the value of that is up to the user, which is a great model.
I don't play this game. Just wanted to read a review on it. You gave the aesthetics a 9.5? Really?
6, and that's being generous.
The first statement is just plain wrong. Creep denying is basically in game trolling. Harsh penalties for death is irrelevant. And as far as HoN or DOTA players raping because its too easy? Well then That's just silly and unprovable. fact is, it's a superior game then HoN. HoN has to beg and plead with sales on coins to generate revenue, where LoL is going strong. It may be the WoW of MOBA, but thats a good thing.
But enjoy your niche and delusions of self superiority. I'll actually be enjoying the game. :D
Valve's dota2 will steamroll over this.
[Mod Edit]
actually, no. LoL has so many champions that cater to every imaginable playstyle (for MOBA anyways). secondly, LoL has Dominion which is actually more fun than DoTA to a lot people.
i wish LoL had DoTA 2's graphics though.
Haha riiiight, go back to Runescape or whatever it is you think is such an amazing game.
The fact that you gave this game a 10/10 in Innovation is telling.
Look, I'm a LoL fan and I can tell you, the only innovation they've brought is the free-to-play model, and that would have come along anyways, and maybe the persistent leveling with benefits.
Other than that, LoL is a simplified DotA clone. Is it fun? Hell yes. Is it innovative? Hell no.
When does DOTA 2 come out?
Seriously..
Shouldn't this artice be on RTSGuru?
Not a MMO
so...does this 'game' have more than 1 map yet?
lol @ fanboys. you call it a clone yet the guys who helped develop LoL helped make DOTA. and no HoN and DOTA players dont rape. the get pwnd cause they dont know how it works cause it is DIFFERNT style of Moba. your ratings are horrible if u think it is easy. get up to rating 1800 and make one mistake and its GG. so many biased comments. stfu and play whatever you like
the game was really fun in the begining, but the community is really bad atm(aka f u c!< 3 d up) and from an 9/10 i drop it down to 5 :/
perfect example of why F2P won't go steady :P
and i tried US and EU servers,btw the fact that they split EU servers to half is stupid as hell, my team had a fin a greek a british a german and hmm...another british i guess....(1 from ireland and 1 from england:P)
Yes, it does. It always did. Now it has three.
League of Legends is just incredibly addicting.
Now if I can just stop buying champs via the in-game currency to get a nice set of runes. >_>
LoL is 'WoW of MOBA's' because for LoL players, LoL is their first MOBA-type game. Similar to how WoW was the first MMO-type game.
This isn't true for HoN which had a few DOTA communities x-fer over.
I'm an organic open-world pvevp themepark light mmorpg enthusiast.
I scoffed at the thought of LoL for over a year,but never publically on the boards because I dont post about what I have not played or don't have a very secure thought about.
I was wrong about LoL and am enjoying playing it. Wish I had started it and within the moba genre a year ago for some immediate access coop fun.
agreed with the statement. WoW of MOBAs. So many play it but who really loves it?
Oh please, LoL fanatics are almost as annoying as apple faithfull...
mmorpg.com could you please focus von MMORPG news again?
LoL is a heavily dumbed down version of DoTa and HoN nothing else.
LoL has a good quality that mmorpgs suffer from- gameplay.
But to have no guild system in LoL, (or even inbuilt voice system) mmorpgs just trump that. It's inexcusable, and one of the reasons I stopped playing the game.
Sorry if I laugh at that, because my experience is that the players in LOL are very competitive. If you don't play your champion well you get heaped with abuse.
I feel extremely disapointed at the review section of Value. The idea that free players can't catch up to paying players is completely false. They aren't really even at a disadvantage.
"this is hardly a positive for max level players wishing to enter ranked gameplay and be competitive."
While "this" refers to the free champion rotation, it is implied that non-paying max level players can't be competetive in ranked gameplay. This idea is completely flawed. The reason given for such an analysis is the fact that free players can't afford to buy the new champion every 2 weeks or so. The point is: So what? You don't need the new champions to have a fighting chance in ranked. Take for example Ashe, Annie, and Amumu. These 3 champions are some of the cheapest champions to buy (buy as in buy with ip) yet are some of the "best" champions in the game (that is arguable but besides the point). People can play completely fine with older champs. LoL is a skill based game. You can't buy skill. You can only buy speed-of-progress (evens out eventually anyway; just gets you there faster), skins, and new champs.
innovation 10???
So, they make a game that is a more accessible version of another, add a F2P model and get a perfect score on innovation.
wow..
Tough times in the online gaming industry my friends.
I agree. It's basically just the arena pvp part of a real MMO. the only people I know that play this are below the age of 20. Kids like that sort of thing. What REALLY freaked me out was their rule about quitting. If/when you want to stop playing, you get your account suspended for a day. IN what kind of world is this a good business model and why do players put up with that rule?
It's called a leaver penalty. I don't know how this rule can offend anyone, at all, ever. If you go and play a match, you're forced to sit there for the whole match. It's a commitment; if you leave you're penalizing you're 4 other teammates. They're basically screwed in most cases too.
To sum it up, it's basically an anit-griefing mechanic. So the person that keeps on leaving doesn't screw over more and more people. I don't know what you're goal was in your post but you come off as a really ignorant person.
If you don't have the time to play, don't queue, if you don't think you can play a whole 5v5, don't queue. Dominion is a short match for those with ADD and there's also twisted treeline, the 3v3 map.
I'm not a fanboy or anything and i also dislike a lot of things they're doing with the game recently and in the past, but i feel like just way too many people who haven't given it a shot are knocking it on basic things they can't comprehend.
I don't think I said anyting about needing a new champion to succeed in ranked. What is absoluetly true though is that you spend all that IP you get while leveling on runes you won't be able to even play ranked (you need 14 champs to even play it, not counting free ones). Likewise you don't need to own every champ, but at the very least two from every category of play one should be at the very least proficient at before trying to be serious in ranked.
I own every champ. I own most of the runes. To be competitive at the highest level you're going to need to either play a variety of champs well (at least in solo queue, being competitive in team ranked is different altogether) or play one style of champ so superbly you can carry entire teams. Either way you also need to have champs available to trade with others in solo queue to maximize your effectiveness, you need a variety of runes pages so you can customize for each lane enounter to have the as much as an advantage as possible. When I'm AP carry mid and see a mage that I can't beat outright (LeBlanc for example) I run health quints with MR blues instead of my standard AP mage page, other times movespeed quints for champs who rely on a 625 range harassment that I can outrange. These little edges are expensive IP/time wise.
Plus I was also considering it from the standpoint of "normal" games. The F2P model of not having all content available is new, most gamers are used to having almost all the content available from minute one (ala other competitive games like Street Fighter or whatnot, or an RTS). LoL is a competitive game where this isn't the case (unless you're in a tourny), and if you start playing today short of playing 40+ hours a week you won't make enough IP to buy all the champs and get runes to be "competitive." There have been plenty of mathcraft posts about it on the forums, it simply isn't feasible. Likewise to unlock all the champs immediately and divert all IP to runes (to maximize theoretical competitive edge) you'd be spending enormous amounts of money.
In that light the game isn't a terribly good value, but if you buy a couple champs you truly love and only play them for thousands of hours of gameplay, then yes its a great value. That is why I didn't give it like a 2 in value, because there are cases that add favor to both arguments, but considering how Riot takes themselves as serious competitive people and gamers I find the utter inaccessibility of unlocking large amounts of content daunting for players seeking to be competitive, evne though it is a terrific business model for them.
All the people saying this is for noobs etcetc., try to get out of Elo hell (1800+ Ranked rating) and then tell me the dramatic way errors are paid.
Ofc you gotta get to high elo. (I lol'd already thinking of you trying)
Btw there are a lot of professional gaming teams sponsored by Razer, Acer, Gigabyte, Nvidia, Fractal, and bigass trademarks, FnaticMSI, TSM, CLG, WE, AEON... blabla...
Get off your retarded idea of common MMO PvP, there are people making a lot of money from this game via tournaments and sponsors/streaming.
LoL is right now considered an eSport as CS or SC, so from now you will see it always in IEM, IGN PRO League, Dreamhack GC.. many more to come.
GL/HF.
PS: For all the comments Dota/HoN pro players outplay LoL pro players, i gotta say they have not frickin idea, since in the last 2 Dreamhacks all these teams got their ass kicked off the comp in the qualifiers, not even getting in, just L0L.
PS2: You mad now? You mad cuz bad for sure.
PS3: Watch Own3d.tv for some cool streaming.
The new style PvP battles in LoL are highly entertaining, but I ccant stomach the old school PvEvP modes, they are such long matches & if you end up with a team that sucks you would rather it be over quickly than drag on for an hour.
"Curse you! It does, however, follow the trend for gratuitous F2P coverage here."
That trend started about four years ago mate. It won't be long before we have an article where another MOBA is declared the Lotro of MOBA's or the Call of Duty of MOBA's. :)
Actually if someone made a real FPS MMO....that'd be kinda interesting, wouldn't it?
I am even surprized that people still play this game... at one time it was an amazing game but sadly it came down to who could buy more gold to gear up and if you didn't have the best gear (pvp) well then it wasn't worth playing :) again another game ruined by gold sellers =(
Freakin OP purple caster minions, giving the enemy gold!
Although seriously MOBAs without item scaling/power scaling would be....bloodline champions.
And that suceeded...oh wait...
If you don't realize why they penalize you for leaving a match; you really are not that bright.
I'm not going to sit here and claim I'm a genius, but even I can see how quickly people would quit soon as 1 or 2 skirmishes went badly for them.
If you picked a 5 v 5 classic it's going to be a long game (they even tell you beforehand). If one person leaves your team is at a heavy disadvantage (unless the other team has the same issue).
On a sidenote, if you play this game, you should know you installed a virus along with it.
PMB.EXE - Pando Media Booster runs whether you are playing LOL or not. You should see the net traffic it generates whether you are playing LOL or not.
Only a sleaze bag company would do that. I could not deinstall LOL fast enough.
All I see is that Lol is a watered down version of Dota and HoN. I'm not really interested, its is more suited for casuals while HoN is for serious players. All these "anti-fun" mechanics that LoL removed actually added a lot of depth to the game. Yes, creep denying is important. Gosh, I can't imagine playing without it.
While initially I was not sure of the game compared to dota it easily won me over with the easy gameplay. Disliked the match making system early on and the champion balance, which becomes increasingly difficult with a new champion every 2 weeks.
Great for casual players and some hardcore players, but the most hardcore will probably play this in addition to dota and hon.
People love easy game modes and it is a reason why so many people stay.
Pretty sure Pando Media Booster is just for the file sharing.. You do know you can uninstall it after you finish installing LoL right? Lots of F2P use PMB
i feel LoL is inferior in pvp design and WAY overhyped.
Like DAOC the pvp is really lame and short-lived in termsof strategy and abilities. PVP is short and unsatisfying and lack sdepth. it is like playing Gauntlet at the arcade with one or 2 extra buttons or abilities. Compared t a dedicated deep real time strategic PvP game like Regnum Online or even Neverwinter Nights, LoL and DAOC fell far far behind in terms of satisfaction. And no amount of media hype, champion ladders, player banning systems etc etc can overcome it. LoL and DAOC are just.. boring after about 20 minutes. Whereas RO and NWN you can keep playing for many hours and still new combos and strategies keep appearing to be tested.
Actually mmorpg.com should delete reviews which includes junk on how good the developer is selling its game rather than focussing on the content and play quality of the game itself.
Why is this game on this site and if you pushing moa games then put the original DOTA or DOTA2 and HON and not a crippled dota clone.
And stop calling it e sports? This game has no place next to CS or SC 2. This game hasnt even a replay feature...
i stopped reading at 9.5 aesthetics... what a lie.