Off-Week Update (For Ep.11)
So League of Legends is out of the way and I’d like to clarify a few things.
One.
Again I don’t hate this game, but I sure as hell can see why people wouldn’t like it. It’s an odd game of push and pull, where the people who are good at the game seem capable of superhuman feats. I know I’ll pick a champion, have people console me for not doing well with them, and then MegaGWolf will pick the same champion next round, and lead in kills, making me look like an absolute tool. He’s unholy at this game… Or he’s got better runes. One of the two.
Any reservation I may have seemed to have, or constant repetition of basic facts was entirely to quell the more rabid of the fans. Those who’d be ready to jump on me because I didn’t mention a single nuance about something. While that did happen to a much lesser extent, overall it was pretty well received. So I’ve got that going for me… which is nice.
Two.
Why did I repeatedly state it wasn’t an MMO? Because in my mind, it wasn’t. DId I place it until the “MMO category” of Blistered Thumbs? Of course. My show is “MMO Grinder” after all. And as I stated there’s a lot of MMO like stuff in the game. There’s level grinding, there’s skill trees. There’s items to equip, and skills to upgrade. Why was I so explicit about stating a game with a different playstyle was not an MMO. Well, some of you might point out that Pangya (now posted on Blistered Thumbs) doesn’t count as an MMO. Hell, the next one I’m doing might not fit with some people’s ideal of an MMO. But it fits with mine. Both of them. Why?
Self contained community. In case you’re wondering what I mean by that… League of Legends doesn’t have one. In the game your only means of talking to others are in game, in the lobby or in specific set aside chat channels.
“Ok, fine.” you might say, “but the same goes for Pangya doesn’t it?” Sure. The game itself is limited to 4-30 people at a time, and some might argue that’s not much more then LoL. And I’d agree… but there’s so much more to an MMO then the game. Think about it.
In Pangya, you can join guilds. You can set up holes as chat areas specifically to interact and talk with dozens of people. There are items to sell and trade. There’s a community with an economy, and that in itself is also part of the game.
League of Legends doesn’t have this. Only until recently could you actually form groups of players, and those are just limited to team sizes. Unless you are with friends, you are on your own. You can’t post on in-game bulletin boards to set time to play with others. You can’t send other players mail. You can’t buy or trade items from other players.
So my reason for LoL not being an MMO probably isn’t the same reason you have… but I like to think it makes sense.
In other news, the next episode should be finished early, and I’m positive no rabid fans of the game are out to get me this time. There’s really not too much to talk about, so I’m hoping to be scripted by the end of the week.
Speaking of rabid fans, (I AM NOT MAD AT YOU GUYS, SERIOUSLY. I swear I come off as an asshole in text AND speech.) the Superhero MMO is pretty much a lock for the victor. Still, I know weirder things have happened, but expect that announcement very soon.
Also since I’m been blabbing about LoL so much, Andrew “Andycak” Leavitt and myself have been working on a stupid side project on Youtube… I’ll embed a video here and let it speak for itself. There are currently 18 videos out of the 80+ champions. I’ll keep it going until neither of us want to live anymore.
If you want to join any of us goofy bastards in a round of League of Legends, message “Nios” in game and maybe I’ll have time to play. Also if you haven’t signed up for League of Legends, you can do so by clicking here. There is no ulterior motive involved with you signing up through that link. Fer realz and stuff.
Posted on December 7, 2011, in News and Updates. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
MMO Grinder 
I don’t really have the same qualifications of what makes an MMO. For me to consider something an MMO, it has to be massively multiplayer. Not just rounds of matches with 2-40 people. It needs to have thousands of players playing on the same server with a possibility that all those players could potentially come together and see, talk and play with one another.
I don’t consider lobby based games MMOs, because lobbies are separate from the gameworld. For me, MMOs are all about the world and jumping to various arenas that may not even exist on the same world does not give me a better picture of the world that surrouds them.
For example, if one would take the battlegrounds from WoW and make a seperate game out of them, I would not consider it an MMO. Even if it had the same leveling system. But if they would also add a city, where you can run around in while not in BG, then it would become a MMO. A shitty one, but still.
I would tend to disagree with this ideology myself, because it makes a game I used to play the shit out of tagged as not an MMO, when it so clearly is: Phantasy Star Online. Sure, you were limited to 4 people to a channel, but the channels were basically like entering an instance, just one that covered more than one dungeon. There was still an over lobby to go wandering around and see who else was on, and organize parties, it plays out similar to Guild Wars, where the towns were basically lobbies.
The problem with LoL not being an MMO is simple, it has some quasi-MMO elements, but there is never any visualization of YOU, of your Summoner avatar. Just the champions you pick. I would say one of the leading factors of being an MMO is having a persistant character.
I sort of agree with you on that. But I would actually consider PSO an MMO for the same reason as Guild Wars. The towns are basically lobbies, but you can walk around in them and do things that can be considered playing the game. Lobbies where you can only chat and view your status is not enough for me to consider actually playing the game.