A League of It's Own

Yeah, the title of the post sucks. I know.

League of Legends is a Mobile Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game developed by Riot Games. Launched a little more than two years ago, it currently has more than 32 million accounts registered and more than 500,000 players online at any time. Oh, and did I mention it's free to pick up and play?

What is a Mobile Online Battle Arena you ask? Well, personally I find it a little hard to explain. Having only played League of Legends for almost a year, and only having started with MOBA games for just a little longer, I'm far from being an expert or a veteran. From my experience, I suppose I can say it's a cross between a real-time strategy game, a tower defense game, and maybe a little bit of an RPG. It sounds a little weird, but somehow it works out to be really fun.

The whole MOBA game genre was brought up into mainstream popularity by a mod created for Warcraft III called Defense of the Ancients. It contained most of the elements still present in MOBA games today from purchasing items to teams working towards destroying the enemy's beacon(s) in their home base. If you don't live under a rock, you'd know Valve Software (you know, those guys who made Steam), is currently making a sequel, as it was (and arguably still is) incredibly popular to this day. I'm here to talk about League though, so let's get on with it.

Gameplay is difficult to master, and honestly, it's a little hard to play at first for new players too, but once you get the hang of it, the endless amount of fun you'll be having is mind-numbing. You control a single champion who has four abilities, choosing which abilities you unlock and make stronger as you level up. You also make your champion stronger by gaining gold passively (and killing minions and enemy champions) and buying items.

There are a number of different modes in LoL (best acronym ever), but the classic one that everyone knows is Summoner's Rift, where you are placed on a team of five and face another team of five champions. The objective is to destroy your enemy's turrets until you reach their home base and destroy their giant crystal called the Nexus, which will give you victory. There are three paths with turrets lined along each, and many paths leading through a jungle with monsters lying around between the three paths. Of course, the enemy team will be trying to do the same to your turrets and Nexus, so you must strategize with your team to be effective at offense and defense.

Technically the game is free, as you can download the game and play it with no charge, but if you wish to use the champion you want all the time, you must unlock them. You earn Influence Points, a type of in-game currency, for every game you play, with victories rewarding more than losing. Once you unlock a champion, they're yours to use whenever you want. Having almost no champions starting out does suck, but thankfully Riot provides you with ten free champions that rotate every week or so, which if you play often enough has the benefit of teaching you how each champion works. Also, if you so choose, you can spend some actual cash for another type of currency called Riot Points to purchase champions and special skins for your favorites. There's a lot more to know about making purchases with IP and RP, and almost anything can be found on the official website.

Aside from the gameplay itself, the community surrounding this game is just baffling. It has grown so much in the past two years that it rivals World of Warcraft in terms of fans and community involvement. There are many popular fansites (that list is very non-exhaustive), complete with guides and people streaming live games and content. There is an incredibly active sub-Reddit message board containing links with many opportunities to learn and laugh. The game is exploding onto the eSports scene, having a presence at nearly any major PC gaming competition out there with professionals being found around the world and giving Starcraft a run for it's money.

It Has. Its Own. Memes.

All in all, League of Legends is a game you can't go wrong with. Then again, I suppose the genre might not be for everybody just like Starcraft II is probably not for me (Good God I suck at Starcraft II), but for a free game, I think it's very polished and incredibly fun. Go check it out if you so choose, but just make sure you aren't a Macintosh user.

Or, you could get Bootcamp. Bitches love Bootcamp.

I kid. I kid. But seriously, Bootcamp is awesome.

Games on Steam You Should Be Playing (1)

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Steam? Oh wait, yes I have.

There have been many Indie games that have exploded into popularity as a result of being cheaply available on Steam, and I'm here to offer you all some quick insights. Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive, hence the "1" in the title of this post. I'll keep this going as a recurring thing whenever there are a few games that I love and play on Steam and that I think you should throw money at your computer screen for.

Without further ado...

Dungeon Defenders

Tower defense games have been receiving overlooks and remakes like crazy recently, and Dungeon Defenders is no exception. You play as one of four available classes that are able to erect defense mechanisms and attack with their weapons to defend the eternia crystal (e.g. your home base). Easy enough to understand, but difficult to master, especially when you get into later levels with multiple bases to defend and many entrances that enemies come out of.

It is possible to go alone, but one of the main hallmarks of Dungeon Defenders is the ability to play with up to four other players, which is ridiculously fun. More monsters will spawn as a result, but combining and strategizing with your teammates can ultimately shut down the enemy waves so hard that sometimes you can just sit back and watch the carnage.

There is also PvP and challenge type maps that I have yet to try, but the multiplayer aspect of this game as well as fun and challenging gameplay in addition to constant downloadable content definitely makes it worth $15.

Limbo

First starting out on the Xbox Live Arcade, Limbo made it's way over to Steam a while ago and is continuing its popularity trend, and it deserves it. I haven't made it all the way through this game yet, but believe me when I say that you will be utterly shocked at how original and creative it is. Currently $10, it tells a tale of a boy who is searching for his sister in a dark, mysterious and cruel world.

It is primarily a puzzle solver, and a great one at that, but it is VERY easy to die. You do respawn nearby every time, but in order to succeed at this game, you not only need to pay attention to your surroundings to avoid death, but to be prepared for any and all surprises that lurk around every corner. This game is dark (literally), entertaining, possibly morbid, and great fun. If you put it down, you will want to go back and play it again to see what happens next.

Audiosurf

If you do not own this game yet, get it right now. Do it. I will wait for you to buy it. It is $10. Why are you still reading? Do it now.

Audiosurf can best be described as "iTunes, but with really cool visuals and a catchy video game built in". It can search for any music file you have saved on your computer, turn that file into a race track of sorts, and you play a game while riding the track it created. The type of game and way you can play depends on the type of little ship you select, but the general idea is to collect the good blocks and avoid the bad ones in order to get the highest score possible.

Any game that can integrate your music like this is awesome. Not only can you listen to the music you love, but the game is literally designed around that same music. Easy to pick up but difficult to master, Audiosurf will keep you occupied for hours and hours and hours, or at least as long as you don't run out of music, but even then they have some free tracks and radios that you can use.


This is only a few of the games that have soared on Steam, and I'll have more next time. Until then, why haven't you bought Audiosurf yet? Get out and go do it. NOW.

A Fine Millionaire

There once was a man named George Lucas. He created Star Wars. Wait...wrong person...sorry.

There once (and still is) a man named Tim Schafer. He founded Double Fine Productions, a video game developer, in the year 2000. He is mostly known for his specific flavor of storytelling, seen in his previous work at LucasArts with the Monkey Island games and some of his more recent work such as Brütal Legend and Psychonauts.

Recently, if you've been reading the far-off corner of the internet that is video game news, you would know that recently Mr. Schafer started a fundraiser on Kickstarter, asking fans and anyone else for $400,000 to fund the company's newest adventure game. A bold favor to ask, but a timer of 30+ days would be a fair amount of time.

Now, you probably know what happens next, but let's put this into perspective for a second. A video game developer is openly asking for funds to make a game. That's not wrong at all, but you'd think that at the very least the full 30+ days would be taken up, if they even make their goal in the first place.

Well, as of right now, he has nearly $1.8 million, with 27 days remaining.

Holy hell. Either Tim Schafer knows something we don't, or Double Fine has a very dedicated fanbase.

Still, is it possible for game developers to learn from this? If the fans are loyal enough I suppose, and the game developer has a reputation for staying true to their roots and listening to their fans. It would obviously be more difficult for, say, Activision, to do something like this compared to a smaller developer, but what would happen if a larger company tried something like this? Sure they have more than enough money to fund it themselves, but imagine the following: What if Activision trusted their fans and were closer to communicate with them? Would they still crank out AAA titles like they do now? Would each title be beautiful and perform amazingly as usual, but still be extremely similar to last year's title?

For such a unique and young medium, video games are special in that the user themselves are controlling their experience and pleasure. To have technology interacting significantly closer like this compared to movies or television requires the developers of said technology to pay closer attention to how we use it, which implies that they are required to be that much closer to their consumers. Having a customer play your video game is a lot different than having them sit back and watch a TV show.

With that in mind, what if major companies today were closer to their customers? What would happen if they were able to listen to all of their customers instead of just a majority? What if they acted on what their fans wanted the most instead of the best logical business decision?

Perhaps there would be less homogenization of game genres, less expansion-pack like sequels, and more surprise hit games that are rooted in deep innovation.