League of Legends surpasses 15 million registered accounts. 1.4 million daily players
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Piercedveil
Member
I keep thinking of trying this game out and never do.
Bungie.net always had the total number of unique players a day listed. 716k. So Halo Reach is only getting half the daily users. And one could say that Halo Reach has already peaked, similar to many console titles that will only decrease after their first few months. League of Legends has only shown growth so far.Opiate said:
I listed the Raptr and Xfire ones earlier too, where it is only behind WoW on the PC side for time played.
It is definitely interesting to see how this entire genre has been the sleeping giant for years and most of the larger publishers still haven't even noticed it. Even Blizzard dropped the ball to follow up on it, even though it started on their system. They are only responding to what Riot and S2 games have already carved out their slice of the pie, and what Valve is set to unleash.
Which puts Valve in a pretty interesting spot. Steam just hit a new peak the other day for concurrent users, about 3.7mil. After every major Steam Sale, it seems to pick up a bit more too. After last Winter, it was low 3mil, after TF2+Summer, it seems to be hitting mid 3mils now. And after this winter, plus release of DOTA2.0. They could potentially have their largest influx of new users yet, hitting pass 4million before the year is out.
So its interesting to note how the industry is responding to it. Very little talk has been about DOTA 2.0 when its the closest game to competing against MW3 this holiday season in terms of popularity. To look at it humorously, Steam has the biggest exclusive of the year. They are already the biggest share holder for a dedicated gaming service on the PC side. I don't think they are as popular as the consoles yet, but the fact that they are still growing is something to take note of too. There is definitely this large discrepancy between the tradition AAA hype, where dedicated gaming sites will focus on it for a year in advance, followed by 100mil$ marketing campaigns. And the F2P, PC exclusive ones, ones that are for more "Core" gamers without the large advertising budgets or hype.
Good for Riot. LoL is the game I've spent the most time playing over the past two years. For me, it's the aspects I liked about MMO pvp with almost all of the bad parts (grinding, persistent gear, slow balancing, etc.) cut out. I didn't get too into DOTA back in the WC3 days, but having a more polished game client and some friendly changes like removing denies went a long way.
I did give HoN a try recently when the price dropped to $10, but I also found combat really confusing since everything looked so similar. When I heard the 'flamboyant announcer' in-game when someone on my team got a kill and looked into it, I uninstalled the game. It's one thing to have a bad community, it's another thing to actively foster one as a developer.
I did give HoN a try recently when the price dropped to $10, but I also found combat really confusing since everything looked so similar. When I heard the 'flamboyant announcer' in-game when someone on my team got a kill and looked into it, I uninstalled the game. It's one thing to have a bad community, it's another thing to actively foster one as a developer.
It's worth noting that plenty of users create multiple accounts in order to face lower level opponents and get easy wins. Some of my friends have made over 20 accounts. Riot has tried tracking the ip address of people who sign up but there are well known ways around this.
Don't get me wrong. I love league of legends. But this news should be taken with a grain of salt.
Don't get me wrong. I love league of legends. But this news should be taken with a grain of salt.
carbonbased
Member
the term they used was "shelved"Bisonian said:
they also said that a new map will be out by the end of the year. my guess is they want to do a relaunch of Magma Chamber to coincide with the new graphics they are implementing (as one big update to counter Dota 2). several months ago they mentioned that MC was delayed specifically because of the graphical overhaul. something about it not making sense to create a bunch of outdated assets for the map and then having to go back and redo the whole thing but prettier. their art department is probably stretched pretty thin by everything anyway.
not that balancing it is an easy task. Twisted Treeline hasn't been much of a success and i doubt they want a repeat of that.
it's the concurrent and daily numbers that are the real eye-openersQuagm1r3 said:
Runes and masteries give your account time invested value in a F2P game. Think about it, every account can be made free - so how do you add value to the time a player has invested into the game? The time spent has to be worth something - IP. So we need something to spend it on. Runes! Making "levels" (masteries) matter, that also adds value to a level 30 account vs a level 1.rac said:
Sure, people still make smurfs, but they will dedicate more time to their "main" and identify it as such. Now I'm not saying this is the only way to enforce one account policy nor do I like having to spend my hard earned IP on some runes, but it's a non-intrusive non-confrontational way and that's fine.
This is far and beyond runes making a game broken.
Runes and masteries suck for low levels but eventually you'll understand why they're important. They're a reward for playing over a longer period of time, which is great.
I really enjoyed HoN but quit when it went paid, was hesitant to get LoL, but when I did I was instantly hooked. Whoever knew the same game on the same map over and over could be so much fun...?
I really enjoyed HoN but quit when it went paid, was hesitant to get LoL, but when I did I was instantly hooked. Whoever knew the same game on the same map over and over could be so much fun...?
SouthernDragon
Member
Ikuu said:
Umm, what? You port back for free with B, and then you port to your lane with Teleport. Yeah, teleport has a 3 minute cooldown, but that shouldn't be a problem. Who's constantly moving back and forth between lane and base anyways?
Ikuu said:
Who's going to forget what an item does? You're much more likely to forget the name of the item you are looking for rather than the property. This claim is nonsensical, really. When does this happen:
"Man, I want Sword of the Divine. Now, what does that do again?"
as compared to this
"I want that item that gives me +60% AS and +100 magic damage every 4th hit. Forgot the name, though."
Come on, man. There are legitimate comparisons and complaints to be made, you're only weakening your arguments with stuff like this. Like the next two you made, those are good arguments. Having auto-levels in HoN sounds very convenient, especially if it's a character you regularly play. I sometimes level mid-battle and it's a chore. And keyboard shortcuts do not cut it, Riot. The user created guides were amazing, too. Super detailed.
Ikuu said:
Huh, I couldn't figure that out. I went by pure memory from my DotA days.
delirium said:
I'm fairly certain I know what's going on in that shot and you HoN folks know I don't have that much experience. It just takes a little time with each game to understand what's going on.
Having played both HoN and LoL, there are things I can appreciate about both. HoN feels much more open and "free" based on my play experience. In LoL most games follow the same formula, you lane for the first 20, occasional ganks, then straight teamfights till the end. From what I've seen and played in HoN people are all over the place doing things straight from the get go. Denying, creep stacking, runes, courier, and the way the shop is handled add a lot more to HoN IMO.
With all that said, I still do have fun with LoL. The customization is kind of neat, I like the art style, and being able to work toward unlocking characters I like is kind of fun.
I don't really see myself sticking to just one of the games.
LoL is fun, and I play regularly.
There are a lot of things I don't like about the game though.
-Server issues. Patch day stability is a joke. Even though Riot takes the servers down for 6-10 hr ahead of time to get ready for the patch, their servers are trash for a day or two after a patch is released. In fact this is happening right now where the latest patch was released which was supposed to include a new playable champion, but the champion is locked because of server issues. For almost a week after the Leona patch, the game had myriad issues with connectivity.
-Out-of-game UI problems. LoL runs on something called the PVP.net client, which runs on Adobe AIR, and is awful. The whole client, especially the store (where you spend your IP/RP) is sluggish, and you can't even see what kinds of runes you already have before making a runes purchase. Only very recently did Riot add the ability to buy multiple runes at a time. Additionally, all champions have a passive ability which does not show up in the game's client. To look at the passive ability you need to do your own online research; it isn't available in the PVP.net client. Additionally, placing your runes in your rune page is sluggish as well, requiring you to pause between placing runes.
-In-game UI problems. The store (where you buy items for your champion) is again very sluggish, with awful sorting. One thing players have asked for is customizable recommended items, and at least resourceful players have created addons that the public can use. However, this is something Riot should include without having to resort to an addon.
-Champion pricing. Most of the past champs have been 6300 IP. 7 out of the last 10 have been 6300, with the other 3 at 4800. To put this in perspective you get roughly 75 IP for a 30 min victory in the 10-player map, and once a day you get 150IP for your first win of the day.
-No spectating/replays. Riot is working on this but they sure are taking their time. Meanwhile members of the community have made their own replay tool.
-Smurfs abound. I am not personally affected, but I can see how a player new to the game/genre would find it frustrating to create a new account and be matched up against someone who is using a new account but also has hundreds of games under their belt. I don't know how you could fix this in a F2P game though.
-Lack of new game features. Riot considers their big achievement thus far in 2011 to be Co-op vs. AI. Unfortunately the AI in this game mode plays very stupidly and have terrible summoner skills such as Heal/Clarity. Playing this mode in expectation that it will make you better against humans is a mistake, as bots have easily exploitable habits that are not found in most human players. Riot also announced a graphical overhaul and a new map (Magma Chamber) ages ago but have failed to deliver.
There are a lot of things I don't like about the game though.
-Server issues. Patch day stability is a joke. Even though Riot takes the servers down for 6-10 hr ahead of time to get ready for the patch, their servers are trash for a day or two after a patch is released. In fact this is happening right now where the latest patch was released which was supposed to include a new playable champion, but the champion is locked because of server issues. For almost a week after the Leona patch, the game had myriad issues with connectivity.
-Out-of-game UI problems. LoL runs on something called the PVP.net client, which runs on Adobe AIR, and is awful. The whole client, especially the store (where you spend your IP/RP) is sluggish, and you can't even see what kinds of runes you already have before making a runes purchase. Only very recently did Riot add the ability to buy multiple runes at a time. Additionally, all champions have a passive ability which does not show up in the game's client. To look at the passive ability you need to do your own online research; it isn't available in the PVP.net client. Additionally, placing your runes in your rune page is sluggish as well, requiring you to pause between placing runes.
-In-game UI problems. The store (where you buy items for your champion) is again very sluggish, with awful sorting. One thing players have asked for is customizable recommended items, and at least resourceful players have created addons that the public can use. However, this is something Riot should include without having to resort to an addon.
-Champion pricing. Most of the past champs have been 6300 IP. 7 out of the last 10 have been 6300, with the other 3 at 4800. To put this in perspective you get roughly 75 IP for a 30 min victory in the 10-player map, and once a day you get 150IP for your first win of the day.
-No spectating/replays. Riot is working on this but they sure are taking their time. Meanwhile members of the community have made their own replay tool.
-Smurfs abound. I am not personally affected, but I can see how a player new to the game/genre would find it frustrating to create a new account and be matched up against someone who is using a new account but also has hundreds of games under their belt. I don't know how you could fix this in a F2P game though.
-Lack of new game features. Riot considers their big achievement thus far in 2011 to be Co-op vs. AI. Unfortunately the AI in this game mode plays very stupidly and have terrible summoner skills such as Heal/Clarity. Playing this mode in expectation that it will make you better against humans is a mistake, as bots have easily exploitable habits that are not found in most human players. Riot also announced a graphical overhaul and a new map (Magma Chamber) ages ago but have failed to deliver.
FlightOfHeaven said:
Actually I forget/don't know what an item does all the time, especially when I read a guide or someone says grab X. Just because it's never happened to you, doesn't mean it never happens.
If I take Teleport then I can't use CV, it's a huge pain in the ass.
Ultimoo said:people actually lose against the AI, so it can't be that bad right?
The AIs can put up a fight if your team isn't organized, but they never try to attack neutral monsters and always buy the same items.
Also, slightly unrelated, but the AI mode is missing half the stages and almost 90% of the characters. Did they ever say if they were going to expand it?
SouthernDragon
Member
AI games are primarily for getting used to the range, movement, and cooldown of a champ. Making good AI in a complex game is hard, and personally I don't expect it.
I assume that someone will remember the effect of a weapon instead of the name, especially since every guide I've seen on the internet will tell you the effect if your mouse hovers over the name or the item. I think the situation of remembering the name but not the ability is exceedingly rare since you'll prioritize learning a) the effect and b) the appearance of the item.
As for the Teleport bit, I was clarifying, that's all. You made it sound as if you needed Teleport to get back to base, which isn't true. A universal recall button is great.
Oh, yes, the cost for additional pages is absurd. 6300 IP wtf Riot. Sadly, it's working; I'm probably going to drop money for the 7 Rune Page pack sooner than later. I have two new champions that I want to learn but can't be assed to change my rune pages for.
Ikuu said:
I assume that someone will remember the effect of a weapon instead of the name, especially since every guide I've seen on the internet will tell you the effect if your mouse hovers over the name or the item. I think the situation of remembering the name but not the ability is exceedingly rare since you'll prioritize learning a) the effect and b) the appearance of the item.
As for the Teleport bit, I was clarifying, that's all. You made it sound as if you needed Teleport to get back to base, which isn't true. A universal recall button is great.
Oh, yes, the cost for additional pages is absurd. 6300 IP wtf Riot. Sadly, it's working; I'm probably going to drop money for the 7 Rune Page pack sooner than later. I have two new champions that I want to learn but can't be assed to change my rune pages for.
Thing that annoys me about LoL is you have 2 choices.
Grind for years to get all the champs
or
Spend $500 to $1000 to get all the champs
It's why i'm trying to go cold turkey on the game, and am playing HoN and looking forward to DOTA2. Also Riot keep pumping out all these 6300IP heroes lately that take about 30-40 matches to get. You would think they would through us a bone with Monekey King and make him 3150 or even 4800IP, but nope another 6300IP.
Ever since they got bought out by Tencent (the Chinease company) Riot have become even more greedy fucks than usual. Also the last 1350IP we got was Poppy in Jan 2010!
Grind for years to get all the champs
or
Spend $500 to $1000 to get all the champs
It's why i'm trying to go cold turkey on the game, and am playing HoN and looking forward to DOTA2. Also Riot keep pumping out all these 6300IP heroes lately that take about 30-40 matches to get. You would think they would through us a bone with Monekey King and make him 3150 or even 4800IP, but nope another 6300IP.
Ever since they got bought out by Tencent (the Chinease company) Riot have become even more greedy fucks than usual. Also the last 1350IP we got was Poppy in Jan 2010!
SouthernDragon
Member
Serious question: Why do you need all the champs? When you played DotA, how many champs were you proficient with, and how many did you master?
I see this complaint all the time, and I still don't get it. It's the illusion of choice. The majority of players won't master more than 15% of the cast of a MOBA game, and might achieve proficiency with 25%-50% simply because there isn't enough time.
I see this complaint all the time, and I still don't get it. It's the illusion of choice. The majority of players won't master more than 15% of the cast of a MOBA game, and might achieve proficiency with 25%-50% simply because there isn't enough time.
Gez said:
I've only IP grinded for a few months. Runes are far more expensive in groups than champs or just as much not all champs are 6300 just the new shit they added. The cheaper ones especially 450 and 1350 are nothing. Grind ranked or IP boost it takes like two months to a get huge portion.
Getting all of the champs is useless especially if you pay attention to tier lists.
SouthernDragon
Member
Archie said:
Agree with this. Fortunately there's a free rotation, but too many are too expensive to unlock after a week.
rac said:
Well, I would certainly hope someone can unlock more than 1-2 champions... I'm not that great, nor am I prolific in my play, and I have a stable of 12 champions to choose from.
Chinese Electric Batman
Banned
Valnen said:
lol
SouthernDragon
Member
Chinese Electric Batman said:
He's not the only one with that opinion.
SouthernDragon
Member
Ultimoo said:
non-sequiter
Also, put me in the "Denying is stupid" category. booooo
Were they all 6300 champs? You do realize a lot of the cheaper ones are good and fun to play...
Door2Dawn said:
No it's not
The mechanic is there for xp or gold denying. You don't whine when you're dead you've been denied xp or gold the same for this. Gold is the main reason to deny it makes people learn to actually farm and time it where as LOL you can autoattack to your hearts content and get away with it.
There are about four primary things you can do in your lane in the laning phase of a moba game.
-Last hit creeps
-Deny creeps
-Harass enemy heroes and set up ganks
-Push towers (only viable if enemy heroes in your lane have left or been killed)
Scenario: carry hero and support hero are laning together. You want the carry hero getting all the last hits on enemy creeps, if possible. What does that leave the support hero to do? Harass enemy heroes, deny creeps to gain an exp/gold advantage and keep the lane from pushing forward, and minor things like placing wards as appropriate.
When there's no deny, there's not a whole damn lot for the support to do in the lane at any given moment. They'll just be sitting around hoping for an opponent to be out of position. Deny gives the person you don't want taking farm away from the carry an important job to focus on, and it's another element that adds to the skill cap for competitive play.
-Last hit creeps
-Deny creeps
-Harass enemy heroes and set up ganks
-Push towers (only viable if enemy heroes in your lane have left or been killed)
Scenario: carry hero and support hero are laning together. You want the carry hero getting all the last hits on enemy creeps, if possible. What does that leave the support hero to do? Harass enemy heroes, deny creeps to gain an exp/gold advantage and keep the lane from pushing forward, and minor things like placing wards as appropriate.
When there's no deny, there's not a whole damn lot for the support to do in the lane at any given moment. They'll just be sitting around hoping for an opponent to be out of position. Deny gives the person you don't want taking farm away from the carry an important job to focus on, and it's another element that adds to the skill cap for competitive play.
Valnen said:
What is the support supposed to do in lane without denying? There's not much to support during the laning phase. During the team fights, yes, supports will support, but the reason why laning is so boring in LoL compared to DotA/HoN is because it's so passive without denying, and also because summoner spells basically let you get away with bad positioning and map awareness.
Tylahedras
Banned
I've been playing this game a bunch since my friend turned me onto it a month ago. Currently at level 17 and can't wait to hit 20 so I can go rune crazy. I've dropped 10$ to them so far which is good for probably the 3 char skins I want (waiting for sales) but I consider it more of a donation then an actual purchase.
I do wish they would make the skins IP purchasable even if they were gated with MASSIVE IP. I also think they should make characters more even in terms of purchase price. It just seems strange that one hero is 6300 IP and another is 450 IP.
Also don't understand the lack of maps. I know that getting a strategic map that's balanced is tough, but Starcraft pulled off quite a few and it gets boring using the same old map again and again.
Currently I'm rolling Morgana, and I'm quite successful in PVP games with her. Be interesting to see how things go when I hit level 30 and can play ranked matches.
I do wish they would make the skins IP purchasable even if they were gated with MASSIVE IP. I also think they should make characters more even in terms of purchase price. It just seems strange that one hero is 6300 IP and another is 450 IP.
Also don't understand the lack of maps. I know that getting a strategic map that's balanced is tough, but Starcraft pulled off quite a few and it gets boring using the same old map again and again.
Currently I'm rolling Morgana, and I'm quite successful in PVP games with her. Be interesting to see how things go when I hit level 30 and can play ranked matches.