Heroes of Newerth on free play

To celebrate its first birthday, DotA clone Heroes of Newerth is welcoming new players and letting them play free until May 22.

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DotA clone Heroes of Newerth reached the ripe old age of one yesterday and developer S2 Games is surround its child with new friends. A new update aimed at making the game more welcoming to new players launched last night, and all and sundry are now allowed to play HoN for the next very long "week" without paying the $30 asking price.

Until midnight EST on May 22, curious parties can take part in the HoNiversary and play Heroes of Newerth for free. Simply create an account and download the latest client from S2. HoN comes in Windows, Mac and Linux flavours.

To help ease new players into HoN, an update launched last night with new features and changes aimed at making it all a little less terrifying. The item shop has been "entirely redesigned," which S2 says "not only reduces the amount of time new players need to learn the intricacies of item purchases, but also adds a layer of clarification for existing players." S2 also added new "fully interactive hero guides," giving advice on how to play particular characters. Plus, new and rewritten tooltips.

S2 is doling out presents to existing HoN players too. Upon finishing your first game during the HoNiversary, you'll receive a bonus 100 Gold Goblin Coins and 100 Silver Goblin Coins. These are used to buy new skins, voice packs and other in-game cosmetic gubbins from an in-game store.

If you fancy buying some Goblin Coins with real cash money, for the HoNiversary you can get a free Heroes of Newerth account--which usually costs $30 by itself--if you buy the $40 pack of 2,415 Gold Coins. If you already own HoN, you'll get a gift code, while those playing for free will have their account upgraded.

"In just the last month, our players enjoyed over 650 million minutes of HoN! We have an average of 30,000 people playing at any given time and daily concurrent peaks of over 50,000 players," said S2 CEO Marc DeForest in the announcement. "We're looking forward to increasing these numbers by continuing to add game updates and reward systems like the HoNiversary F2P session that keep existing players engaged, and encourage new players to join."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 13, 2011 8:00 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Heroes of Newerth on free play for a week.

    To celebrate its first birthday, DotA clone Heroes of Newerth is welcoming new players and letting them play free until May 22.

    • reply
      May 13, 2011 8:46 AM

      Come play for free and see why the community sucks so much!

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      May 13, 2011 9:31 AM

      You can be insulted, maligned, and taunted for free!!

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      May 13, 2011 9:39 AM

      Best multiplayer "raped by a transvestite" simulation game.

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      May 13, 2011 10:02 AM

      Get League of Legends instead. It's always free and its community will abuse you almost 4% less!

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        May 13, 2011 12:54 PM

        Yer but LOL is a craptastic game when you compair it to HON but i has a much better nicer player base.

        HON is like EVE player base wise some great people but quite alot ready to screw you over or just be a jerk the second to log in.

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          May 13, 2011 1:12 PM

          [deleted]

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            May 13, 2011 3:19 PM

            ok mr. koolaid drinker. good lord

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            May 13, 2011 3:21 PM

            have you played HoN? I just don't get this!!

            I have hundreds of games played in both games and LoL just feels like garbage compared to HoN. The movement and last hitting and just about everything else feel infinitely better than LoL. I do like the hero design of LoL a bit more but for actual gameplay? there's no comparison.

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              May 13, 2011 3:23 PM

              dude don't even bother. most LoL evangelists spent time with HoN in the early stages, got run out of games by a bunch of stupid kid nerds, got butt hurt about it, and waste time whining about the community over and over again.

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                May 13, 2011 3:53 PM

                it's weird to me because you know I enjoy LoL too. the game is just flawed in so many ways though compared to HoN! it's basically the nerf arena version of quake 3.

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                May 13, 2011 3:56 PM

                Sounds like a sound argument to me :/.

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                  May 13, 2011 4:04 PM

                  well that's the tone. we've had this thread a billion times. i like both games but am bored of both too so i don't really have a nerd agenda to defende hon

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                May 13, 2011 4:53 PM

                ^^^ You are why I don't play HoN.

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                  May 13, 2011 5:26 PM

                  you've never played with me so you don't know what you're talking about. i dont like the little shits in game in any genre....same shit that's in SC2, or COD - just internet fags that talk too much. Ignore them, toughen up sally

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                    May 13, 2011 5:39 PM

                    Yeah, I'm sure you're a total barrel of sunshine in-game all right.

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                      May 13, 2011 5:41 PM

                      I don't really talk much, but you sound really weak right now

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                        May 13, 2011 5:51 PM

                        "I'm a really nice guy, but here's another personal attack!" : kainen1

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                          May 13, 2011 6:13 PM

                          that's all you've done this whole time is try to attack me, so I say you sound weak - you do...you've never played with me but are making assumptions. it's just a weak argument

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                            May 13, 2011 6:20 PM

                            Just made an educated guess based off your posts right here pal. So far, I'm feeling like I made the right call.

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              May 13, 2011 6:02 PM

              [deleted]

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          May 13, 2011 1:12 PM

          LOL, craptastic?

          Does not compute.

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          May 13, 2011 1:14 PM

          [deleted]

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          May 13, 2011 1:57 PM

          [deleted]

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            May 13, 2011 2:01 PM

            This man speaks the truth.

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            May 13, 2011 2:01 PM

            you like HoN because you like to be WRONG! nya nya nya

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            May 13, 2011 6:06 PM

            [deleted]

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            May 13, 2011 6:17 PM

            more buttons to to tweak?

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            May 13, 2011 9:42 PM

            I find LoL much more complex to understand than HoN or DotA. In LoL, you have modifiers like AP/AD that affect ability and hero damage. It's a lot of numbers to understand. Also, different mastery builds, summoner spells, and runes make the game a ton more complex imo.

            LoL also just doesn't have the production value that came inherently with DotA (war3 models, skins, sounds, etc.) and built into HoN. HoN is like L4D with every character (boomer, lurker, etc.) being defined by actions, visuals, and sounds.

            LoL lacks in production value, especially sound. Characters like Teemo that blow darts can use their ultimate and do hundreds of damage and it looks/sounds like a puny wind coming out of a straw. Design-wise, it just makes the game a lot harder to understand and a lot more complex.

            The reason why I prefer DotA/HoN is because everything is simple to understand and I enjoy learning by death. LoL doesn't remove gold upon dying but this is minor. The main reason is trying to understand all the mechanics. Instead of just HP and Mana, different characters have completely unique resource mechanics (Mordekaiser, Vamp, Garen, etc.) that forces ppl to learn so many different things. I'm not a fan of that design-choice so I try to stay away from LoL.

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          May 13, 2011 3:18 PM

          if you have played both games extensively, like I have, you can absolutely not say that LoL plays better than HoN in any way. I understand you can have your opinion, but LoL feels like it's in molasses and it plays like complete shit compared to HoN. I don't think this is a matter for discussion.

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      May 13, 2011 1:56 PM

      Why do we have to refer to them as DotA clones? To me that has a negative connotation. Is there not a phrase for this type of game (ala FPS, RTS, etc)?

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        May 13, 2011 2:01 PM

        Several DotA clone developers use the term MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). This confuses most people, who know them MOBAs as "DotA clones." No 'proper' name seems to stick.

        It is quite fun though, harkening back to the merrye olde days of "Doom clones."

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        May 13, 2011 2:53 PM

        When I played HoN, it was pretty much a DoTA ripoff with new models and names for everything. Maybe that's changed but they are still pretty much clones of DoTA with some variations.

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        May 13, 2011 2:56 PM

        Considering DotA clones keep the mechanics that push people to be aggressive jerks, which are at the root of the community atsmosphere problems, would changing the label really help? Other than helping sucker more unsuspecting victims in once...

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        May 13, 2011 5:33 PM

        It's code for shitty community/avoid.

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      May 13, 2011 3:51 PM

      [deleted]

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        May 13, 2011 3:53 PM

        Seems like kind of a weird point. That's like saying people who play a FPS game would never ever move on to another FPS game because they're similar. Or that people wouldn't play WoW because they already have Everquest. If the game is fun and/or if it improves on the genre and/or if it's advertised well, people will play it. Variety is the spice of life.

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          May 13, 2011 4:06 PM

          [deleted]

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            May 15, 2011 6:50 PM

            I'd completely disagree with you if it weren't for the fact that it's always the same three-pronged map with 3 towers in each lane thing.
            Not taking the map into consideration, I'd say the differences between FPSs and MOBAs are pretty much the same. Of course HoN is a bit of an exception, as it started out having the a lot of the same heroes and items as DotA.

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        May 13, 2011 4:02 PM

        [deleted]

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          May 13, 2011 4:09 PM

          Pretty much. Also, Icefrog is on the DotA 2 team.

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            May 14, 2011 1:54 AM

            And you do realize that Icefrog helped make HoN as well, right? Or are you just a lemming like most fanboys who go with the hype? That said, HoN is fun, I've been playing it for over a year now (beta), and I tried LoL and couldn't enjoy it for the life of me after giving it multiple chances. Lack of features, lack of graphics, gameplay pace, item purchasing menu, etc. were all off in my opinion. Many people enjoy LoL...that's their choice, good for them. I enjoy HoN, and if DotA 2 offers something that HoN doesn't have, or is even better than it, then I might try it out if there's a free weekend or something. But to state that a game will be good just because of one team member is shallow. I put a lot of faith in Chris Taylor, for example and though Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance was the best thing since chocolate chip cookies, Supreme Commander 2 was horrendous and dumbed down, Similar games, completely different quality though. So just wait it out, try it when it comes out, and if you enjoy it, great. If you don't, then at least you didn't get your expectations so high nothing would satisfy you.

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        May 13, 2011 4:04 PM

        extremely. i can't stress that enough, everybody I know that likes MOBA games is interested

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        May 13, 2011 5:22 PM

        If it's better, absolutely. I'm very interested in DotA2 -- we'll see how it pans out.

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        May 13, 2011 5:42 PM

        absolutely.

        as far as I know... DotA2 is going to be a 1:1 translation of DotA. that story might change, but updates have been absent from Valve/Icefrog.

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        May 13, 2011 5:50 PM

        I'll check it out, but I like the changes in LoL a lot more than DotA, and the last news about Dota 2 is that it aims to be literally an exact clone of DotA

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        May 13, 2011 5:57 PM

        [deleted]

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        May 13, 2011 6:08 PM

        [deleted]

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        May 13, 2011 6:15 PM

        [deleted]

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        May 13, 2011 6:25 PM

        i'm pretty much just killing time until dota2

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        May 13, 2011 9:17 PM

        I got really excited about the DotA 2 article in GI a while back. Having never played the first one, I looked into the sub-genre and got addicted to LoL for about 8 months. I currently have no plans to ever play another MOBA game in my life, but maybe I'll change my tune by the time DotA 2 comes out...

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        May 13, 2011 9:32 PM

        I'd be more interested in DotA2 if Valve would release any information or images from the game. Hopefully something at E3. Pretty quiet for something that's supposed to launch this year.

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        May 14, 2011 7:30 PM

        Gonna stick with LoL.

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      May 13, 2011 6:41 PM

      the new shop in HoN is weird!!!!

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        May 13, 2011 6:42 PM

        WHY? IS THERE GENITALIA IN IT OR SOMETHING????

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        May 13, 2011 7:30 PM

        I think it sucks. I disabled it

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        May 14, 2011 1:59 AM

        Yeah, I'm not a fan of the new shop, but I'm getting used to it. That, and all the new popup's when you place a cursor over an ability...I need to look into disabling them, or minimizing them. I already know every hero's abilities off the top of my head at this point. That said, the info. provided is quite good, just wish it didn't take up so much screen space, that's all.

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