League of Legends Adopting Free-to-play Model

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Joining the ranks of other free-to-play experiments like Battlefield Heroes and Dungeons & Dragons Online, Riot Games today announced that its upcoming multiplayer title League of Legends will be entirely free.

League of Legends, an avatar-based RTS modeled on the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, is faced with competing against several similar titles, in addition to the free mod that inspired them. While the game will be free to play, there will be some monetized aspects. Riot Points will be available for purchase, and can be spent to further customize character visuals, though this customization will not affect gameplay. The company will also offer a Collector's Pack that contains exclusive items for $30 when the game is released in September.

More details on Riot Points and Collector's Pack below:

Influence Points will be earned by simply playing the game, while Riot Points will be available for purchase with real money. Both currencies will be used to unlock additional content customization options, whereas only Influence Points will be used to unlock content such as Runes, which enhance the power of playable characters. Gamers who spend money in the game will not have a power advantage over other players; they will have access to rare visual customization options. The system is designed to empower the player with a huge number of mechanical choices that deepen the level of the strategic thinking in the game.

Riot Games will also offer a League of Legends Collector's Pack that contains exclusive items, such as two unique Champion skins, as well as a number of Champions, Runes and Riot Points. Players who pre-order the Collectors Pack at www.leagueoflegends.com or at retail outlets GameStop and Best Buy will also receive an exclusive Champion skin that will only be available with the pre-order. The Collector's Pack will retail for $29.99.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 14, 2009 11:45 AM

    Despite the elitist fucks in HoN... HoN is still vastly superior to LoL.

    LoL wins on it's acronym though, I guess.

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      July 14, 2009 11:46 AM

      I've only tried the HoN Beta - what don't you like about LoL?

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        July 14, 2009 11:50 AM

        It's the style of it that really turns me off of it. The beta plays sloppy too. HoN just feels a lot more 'complete' already.

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          July 14, 2009 6:11 PM

          Well, duh. They ripped off *EVERYTHING* from DotA. It's a complete clone with 3D. LoL is made from scratch. :-)

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        July 14, 2009 11:55 AM

        (running away quickly, can't skim this to make sure it makes sense :) )

        Performance, HoN beats it on performance, despite looking ten times better. LoL runs like a dog for me.

        Heroes, Even though the HoN heroes are nearly all remakes, I like what they've done with them and the new heroes are so much fun: Nympora for example, she's actually fun to play with, despite being a support class. The puppet master is a really interesting class too, and he actually requires skill to play. The LoL heroes strike me as uninspired and poorly balanced

        Developer ethos, S2 seem to be getting the balance pretty good, keeping the dota freaks happy as well as introducing their own stuff, maps, heroes, abilities, shaking things up a bit with current heroes. Riot seem to be um, I don't really know how to word it, but they appear to be stuck on their current route and I can't see them deviating from it any time soon. My words on the forum at S2 seem to actually be listened too at least. I've played games with both S2 folk and Riot folk and I've been flat out ignored by the guys at Riot because I don't frequent the forums as much as the other people in the game, which pissed me off.

        Stat tracking, it may as well be non-existent in LoL, compared to HoN. But then again, I don't think I'd be looking for it if I'd not played previous S2 games. S2 always have awesome community things like that.

        All that said though, Give me the LoL community for HoN and I'd be much happier, the HoN community sucks at the moment :(

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          July 14, 2009 6:14 PM

          It's funny that a guy who is in two closed betas (BOTH under strict NDAs which forbid specifically what is said in this post) can say so much about the games so openly, and yet still be taken as a liable source. Personally, I love LoL.

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            July 14, 2009 6:29 PM

            The NDA on HoN went off on the 13th. The only thing we're not allowed to share is media (pictures and videos). But we're allowed to discuss it.

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      July 14, 2009 12:32 PM

      I wonder if they plan on adding bot support to HoN so that I can play.... (wait for it)... HoN solo? *pinky to lips*

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        July 14, 2009 12:35 PM

        I hope they do too! Sometimes there aren't enough shackers or friends to have a full game. Even if there's no full single player option in the future, AI support would be great.

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          July 14, 2009 12:47 PM

          Yeah that'd be cool. You're right the HoN community is absolutely awful. Me and a buddy love the game but hate the community - were totally new to DOTA and get nothing but shit from other players, especially when asking for help and tips. Not been in the LoL beta so cant comment on that but it looks decent.

          Very impressed with HoN though. I absolutely love S2 games and will support them unless they price the game totally out there - which they wont.

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            July 14, 2009 1:36 PM

            Not everyone in HoN is that bad though. I happened to help these two new guys a little bit just today.
            But playing DotA beforehand sure does help.

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              July 14, 2009 3:18 PM

              This is true, there are some nice people in the community, they're just spread pretty thin. :(

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                July 14, 2009 6:49 PM

                Sometimes, some of the new players are bad too. Like the other day, I was trying to teach me, but he refused to accept it and just ended up quitting after complaining we weren't helping him.

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            July 14, 2009 3:30 PM

            League of Legends has some sensible solutions to the community problem in place. There's a whole new-player progression at the beginning. You start with a tutorial, then segue into playing against bots, then games with other players on one team and bots on the other. "Normal" games also use a matchmaking system, and there are "ranked" games to weed out the really hardcore players.

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              July 14, 2009 3:46 PM

              That actually sounds like a really good idea.
              I find that HoN is lacking a sort of "non-ranked" matches system for people who start out or just don't want to compete. I lost pretty horribly my first game but did well every game after that, but there's no way of not having that first game count towards the record.

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                July 14, 2009 3:54 PM

                They appear to be there, it's just not an option as of yet

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              July 14, 2009 3:54 PM

              Nick, This wouldn't fix the problem HoN suffers from, at least I don't think it would.

              The main community problem HoN is suffering from is ex/old Dota players that are so up themselves it's unreal. Verbally abusing new players or learning players, this is coming from new players themselves because they've played dota and have essentially entered the game for the first time knowing how to play like a pro.

              LoL seems to have attracted a broader audience and the elitist attitude isn't there, but HoN suffers far too much from it, having the same system as LoL in HoN wouldn't fix this

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                July 14, 2009 4:02 PM

                It wouldn't necessarily fix it now, since it's kinda late. But placing new players together in an area they can learn for the first time would help.
                In a sense, you're isolating the two groups away from each other, the hardcore and the new players. Until the new players feel adventurous enough and at least know the basics so they can move up the ladder, so to speak.

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                  July 14, 2009 4:17 PM

                  Making a further divide in the community....

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                    July 14, 2009 4:18 PM

                    I don't think you read my post either: So many "new" players are entering the game as pros because they've played dota and HoN is essentially Dota 2.0 that new players would still witness the abysmal attitude or these pricks with their elitist attitude to genuine new players.

                    • reply
                      July 14, 2009 4:38 PM

                      That's still true. But I wasn't thinking of a stat/time based system, I was thinking more of a choice one.
                      So "new" players could still choose to go play against more challenging people. Whereas the actual new players would be able to stick together. (But again there's the problem with the divide)

                      And the system LoL has still provides the advantage of playing against AI on the other team, so you're playing WITH others and not AGAINST them at the beginning.
                      But yes, you're right on the fact that there are assholes, and there's no way to remove them. Hopefully this will get better as the game is more talked about (seeing as the NDA is now off) and is closer to release.

                      The problem is finding a way of not dividing the community and still making it enjoyable for new players by not having them go up against pricks. Kinda like holding both unemployment and inflation static at the same time.

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