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League of Legends; Who else plays?
Topic Started: Jun 17 2012, 04:19 AM (333 Views)
Beowulf
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Canadian Ninja
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Since things have been slow around here I have had to find a new addiction.

League of Legends. (It's free to download and play! Get it now!)

So I've been a long time fan of this kind of game. For those of you who don't know, LoL is based on DotA (Defense of the Ancients), both of which are action RTS videogames. DotA was originally a ridiculously popular mod of Warcraft III and, to my knowledge, and spawned 3 other games based on its gameplay system, and a sequel (DotA II).

Friends have been telling me that I should play LoL and I had the chance to join in on some games in Perth at an internet cafe. Now I'm hooked. For those of you who don't know how teh game works, it's nothing like Warcraft III, I'll describe game play here.

The game takes place on a map, viewed from the top down (3rd person). Players select a hero (one of dozens available). All heroes have 4 unique powers, and their own strengths and weaknesses. The heroes form two teams (usually five players per team if one is playing on the most popular map). Each team starts with a base. They must defend their base while trying to destroy the enemy's base.

Sounds pretty basic, right? Well, those are the basics, but wait, there's more!

Towers, creeps, heroes, and items.

From here on I'll describe game play on the most popular map, "summoners".

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The bases are in the top right and bottom left of the map, with three paths between the bases. There are "jungles" separating the paths, and a river diagonally cutting the map in half.

Towers - Each path has 6 defending towers, 3 for each team. Until the first tower for a team is destroyed, the next two are invulnerable. until all defending towers down a path are destroyed, the base is invulnerable. Thus a team must destroy all of the towers in at least one path before they can attack the base.

Creeps - Each base spawns creeps simultaneously at regular intervals. The creeps automatically march down the paths and meet opposing creeps in the middle to fight. In addition, there are neutral creeps in the jungles that anyone can fight and kill. Why fight and kill neutral creeps? Your heroes need two very important things to win, experience and gold! They get these by killing creeps and by killing enemy heroes.

Heroes - As I said, there are dozens of different heroes. Hero picking is vital for success. The heroes need to form a functional team with abilities that compliment each other. I don't want to get too far in to this as it can be complicated, but a simple example is that some heroes are better at destroying towers, some are ranged/melee, some are tanks, some heal/buff/debuff, and some are great at killing other heroes. I said above that heroes need experience and gold. As heroes gain experience, they level. Each level they get to upgrade one of their 3 primary abilities, and they can upgrade their fourth "ultimate" ability at regular level intervals. As they gain gold they can buy items.

Items - There are 131 different items in the game. Your character can carry six. Some items are consumable like potions that restore health/mana or sight wards so you can watch important parts of the map. Most items are equipment that, if bought properly for your character and their roll, will emphasize your characters strengths and help compensate for their weaknesses. Most items can be upgraded or combined with other items in order to create new items, meaning a player has to work towards obtaining the items that are most powerful on their character.

Anyway, the game, while only about 45 minutes per round, is steeped in strategy from the moment you have to pick your character. You only control one character, you don't build structures (unless you have an ability that allows you to place turrets or mines), but you have to work as a team in order to succeed.

so I already mentioned that it's free to download right? So how do they make their money?

I told mentioned that there are a ton of heroes. If you want a hero to be permanently available to you, you have to purchase it, otherwise you will be stuck with whatever characters are available to play for free. Different characters are free every week, so this option isn't likely to make you bored, but you also won't be able to practice with a specific character for very long. Characters can be permanently purchased either with $$$, or by earning in game credits which come slow but steady enough to be of help.

Characters also have unique skins that can be bough just for variety sake.

As a note, I've never purchased a character with money or spent a cent on the game, but I'm considering it. I've unlocked a few characters through free promos and purchasing them with points I've earned, but the game is seriously fun and I would not object to both supporting the creators and expanding my game play experience.
Edited by Beowulf, Jun 17 2012, 04:23 AM.
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Grell
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I've been playing Dragon's Dogma and Deus Ex: Human Revolution as of late. Both are excellent opportunities to stay up past my bedtime.

League of Legends....this seems really boring to me, though it is all the rage with the guys I game with at our FLGS. Of course, they have no money so it stands to reason that they would play it as much as they do...

If I want a strategy fix, it's RISK or Civilization III for me.
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Beowulf
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I play plenty of Risk on Facebook, and win a lot too! :)

But yeah, I really find LoL engaging and intense. It's RTS, as opposed to Risk or Civ which are both TBS. I generally do well at and really enjoy TBS though I've never played Civ. I've watched friends play it and I'm sure I'd enjoy it, but have you ever played a round of it with friends over a LAN? Doesn't it basically take ALL DAY? I'm talking about a game that takes between 20 minutes and 1 hour to play a round.
Edited by Beowulf, Jun 17 2012, 05:00 PM.
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Grell
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I play RISK as a board game exclusively, never online.

Civilization can run a wide variety of times depending on what type of victory you seek, how big the map is, etc...

I've ran games of Civilization that took days to resolve due to how complicated the map was and how many opposing adversaries were at play, but I've also played games that can be resolved in a couple of hours straight through.

Then again, I've also played games of RISK that took an entire weekend to finish.
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Arthotus
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Aw sweet! I love LoL! I play it quite a lot. I figure myself quite good.

Yes it's an interesting an unique game that I find well done. The basic game never really changes, but they are constantly adding new heroes, items and features, making for an evolving and involving game that you have to keep learning in order to stay good and current.

I think it's a very good game, especially for a free game.
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