League vs Dota Megabrawl: Arcen Games Edition

[RCIX]

Anyone play BLC? I heard good things about it when it was first released (TreeEskimo's bother, Megazero, won some tournament on stream once..) But I've heard literally nothing of it since then.

It seems like a really good alternative, as you really dont have time to type how bad your teammates are in the middle of a game :p

"Really fast paced fighting-esque style gameplay"
all the skills, even autoattacks, have 0.5+ second channels
-.-

[madcow]

I've put in several hours into awesomenauts now, including a few online matches and matches against bots, and I've unlocked all the characters. I can say that the game has really opened up and is far more enjoyable. A few of the characters seem on the overly strong side, and others could definitely use a bit of help but that's to be expected and patches seem to come out every other week (including new characters, though the last new char is one of the weakest I think). The different characters all feel vastly different just from the way they move - there's double jumpers, single tall jumpers, a few that use jet packs instead of jumping, and one that flies.

The bots aren't great, but they do put up a fight, the drop-in and out system works pretty well in multiplayer, if somebody leaves they get replaced by a bot, and then the bot replaced by another person that joins. If you join a game in progress you can use whatever character you want still, and get free money to put you on par with everybody else. So if a crappy teammate leaves and gets replaced by a good teammate, you can turn a game around.

So in short, I liked it when I first got the game, and now that I've put some more time into it and unlocked all the characters I like it even more. Even playing against the bots is enjoyable (I can't play games online most of the time). I'm sure some of the casual aspects might drive away hardcore DoTa players, but its good for me.

[chemical_art]

Sounds exciting madcow, I'll give it a shot.

[Volatar]

Dang. I really regret spending my last $10 on something else now.

[Wingflier]

Riot Games for Season 3 attempted to make teams participating in their competitive scene, play their game EXCLUSIVELY, to gain a monopoly over the MOBA/ARTS Genre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E6Bs08JinA

Riot approaches many professional teams with an exclusivity contract (EG, CoL, and Dignitas, among others), which most professional teams DENY because they want to play both games.

When Riot realizes that it's not going to work, and that the rumor has leaked and is going to cause a giant PR shitstorm, they promptly change their policy to allow everyone, and OPENLY LIE about the exclusivity contracts that they had attempted to force upon the professional teams.

http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/zdiyn/riot_attempts_to_force_sponsors_of_teams_in_pro/c63ny6e

Sources:

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/zfvii/riot_games_attempts_to_block_esports/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiZZR9jiUbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YXEajpaZ7M (Proof that they've done this kind of thing before)
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/z2wux/team_liquid_officially_covering_dota_2/c611bb4

Many of the E-Sports team leads have already admitted that this is true, including the leaders of Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid.  For anyone who doesn't know who SirScoots is, he's a very well-respected member of the E-Sports community, and leader of team EG:  http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=236041

I could almost accept that Riot was attempting to make all the teams play exclusively their game, because that's the kind of scumbag company they are.  But to attempt to do that, then LIE about it to the community's face?

I consider myself completely vindicated for everything I've said about this scumbag company.  They are on par with Electronic Arts, Blizzard, and Chick-Fil-A as far as I'm concerned.

Not to mention your emotional (aka, irrational) feelings about LoL and Riot.

Eat your heart out.

[Mánagarmr]

Any company that reaches critical mass devolves into a corporate cesspool of PR speak and "behind closed doors" shady deals. #madeupfacts

[Lancefighter]

So.. I can understand wanting exclusivity if they are PAYING for people to PLAY VIDEO GAMES ALL YEAR.

I dunno. I dont really think it matters that much. Riot is trying very hard to solidify their position as an esport, and theyre bound to make mistakes. Esports isnt exactly a well established thing that people know how to do very well.

[Mánagarmr]

So.. I can understand wanting exclusivity if they are PAYING for people to PLAY VIDEO GAMES ALL YEAR.

I dunno. I dont really think it matters that much. Riot is trying very hard to solidify their position as an esport, and theyre bound to make mistakes. Esports isnt exactly a well established thing that people know how to do very well.

That sounded awfully apologetic considering what it is RIOT actually did.

[Lancefighter]

from me? I dunno. Its not going to affect me at all. Like. Not one bit. I honestly barely even care for the league competitive scene anymore, given that dota is so much more interesting to watch.

I have a few players Id like to see do well, but I dont think any of them are on teams looking at a salary atm.

[Mánagarmr]

Maybe I'm just an overly moral person, but I find it hard to interact with companies that act so overtly scumbag...-y

Such as ActiBlizzard, EA, Ubi and now Riot.

[Lancefighter]

well.. In riots case, I dont really feel like I am interacting with them. I have never given them money, nor intend to. If at one point, my account got deleted, despite having spent something like two full years collecting ip, I probably would just not care, and stop playing league alltogether. I might actually go back to eve-o.. But my point is, I dont really feel like I am interacting with them at the same level that I would interact with ubi or ea.

[chemical_art]

I don't get it.

It would be like a nascar driver sposnered by nascar itself is not allowed to drive in formula one racers.

Or a football player in one league is not allowed to play in other leagues.

Maybe it is because I see all corporations lie and I don't care about esports at all, but I don't see what riot did as particularly bad.

Exclusivity contracts are nothing new or bad. Lying about it? That's bad, but even arcen cannot freely discolse everything due to non disclosure agreements. If as part of their contract the salaried players sign a NDA, then nothing illegal has happened, unless you think steam as a whole is bad for their NDA on their profits from hosting games.

To put it another way:

Companies try out all sorts of ideas all the time. Riot were idiots for letting it leak out, but almost all companies at some point consider distastful ideas but back off because they are unpopular. Whether it be a fee, an previously free feature no longer being so, a new service that costs money, almost every company looking to expand its bottom line tries some things. There are done in comittees behind closed doors to prevent the PR fiasco that Riot has, but don't delude yourselves that it isn't done in the vast majority of companies over their life time.

[Mánagarmr]

There's a difference between "Non disclosure" and "flat out lie" in my world.

[chemical_art]

There's a difference between "Non disclosure" and "flat out lie" in my world.

See above. These distastful things are considered on at least a weekly bases on many companies, but said companies aren't stupid enough to let the bad ideas leak out of committee. It still doesn't change that these ideas are tossed about constantly.


What matters in part I guess is whether you are mad that they considered the idea in the first place, mad they backed off but didn't make it clear they were only considering the idea, or whether you think they were full fledged for the idea but backed off because no one bought it.

It would be on the same intellectial level of rioting because arcen considered using a kickstarter for a valley without wind. To <fund further expansions / make a profit [these concepts in practice are the same: get more money]> except arcen made a much more clear they were feeling out the community response, while riot intenternally with their salaried teams asked them to comply.
^^^Two aren't related at all I find: One is arcen asking for money, so its a company - consumer relationsip, while riots deal is a company - employee relationsup.

I guess on some level I am viewing the salaried esports players as employees. In most jobs, your boss tells you "you are doing this". If you say "no" to the end you get fired. Unless the company implements in writing what is going on, they deny, deny, deny any changes to the company - employee relationship. I see this as a fact of life. So when riot suddenly does this to its employees, I don't feel any outrage.

[chemical_art]

The more I read, the more I don't get it.

How is that someone who is paid to play your game being told not to publicly play your competitor suddenly a terrible thing?

Lying about this practice is idiotic on riot, for they should have simply put it as a NDA in their contract for this, but it doesn't change the fact.

That VP who commented to begin with should get the ax. Even an apologist like me cannot stand such a blatant lie, even with my cynicism not surprised.