MED3915 Media Studies
Future Canon Game Report
2917 Michael
Advance Diploma
Academy of Information Technology
Table of Contents
Introduction 4
Standalone 7
Company 8
Gameplay 9
Factor 13
Conclustion 21
References 23
Introduction
In 1995, Blizzard Entertainment released a sequel for the most successful game for
them called Warcraft II : Tides of Darkness. Warcraft II has set the new standard
of multiplayer mode by offering player an ability to build and customize their own
scenario with Warcraft II – Map Editor.
Warcraft II - Map Editor
Following the success from Warcraft II – Map Editor, Blizzard Entertainment keep
improving the editor engine to be more powerful and flexible for their later released
game such as Starcraft – Campaign Editor and Warcraft III – World Editor.
Starcraft - Campaign Editor
Warcraft III - World Editor
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Based on Starcraft game engine, the Campaign Editor offer mapmaker not just to
create a new map to play under regular rule of Starcraft game which is “establish
the base, destroy an enemy”. But mapmaker can set their own rule to win the
game. It could be racing game, shooting game, RPG and much more.
As Warcraft III released after Starcraft, the Warcraft III’s World Editor has blowed
Starcraft’s Campaign Editor out of water. With the introduction of JASS(Just Another
Scripting Syntax), the programming language attached in World Editor, mapmaker
has more and more flexible to “write” and “create” the trigger for their map which is
not just depend on GUI (Graphical User Interface). From now, mapmaker can even
create a brand new ability for their heroes.
Azeroth Granprix
Warcraft III custom map in Racing Style
In 2003, mapmaker under the alias Eul created a custom map based on Starcraft’s
custom map “Aeon of Strife” and this map called “Defense of the Ancients” (AKA
DotA). He did not make any improvement but another mapmakers take the file and
create variation of DotA.
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In 2003, mapmaker under the alias Eul created a custom map based on Starcraft’s
custom map “Aeon of Strife” and this map called “Defense of the Ancients” (AKA
DotA). The multiplayer map where players just need to control 1 hero unit and fight
their way to destroy enemy’s main building. He did not make any improvement but
another mapmakers take the file and create variation of DotA.
Among these spinoff maps, there was one called “DotA Allstars” developed by
mapmaker Steve Feak (alias Guinsoo). He added more rpg elements to the map.
Hero can purchase an equipment to increase their strength. The recipe system
which allow player to combine specific equipment into the an upgrade one. Other
thing is the teamplay factor, in another DotA branches, when 1 hero has growth
enough, he will become monster who can kill all other team players by himself. But
in Dota Allstars, the game itself support teamwork more than solo style. The most
powerful growth up hero still can be killed if he was going alone. The heroes’ ability
which requires a team synchronize in order to make it more powerful. A powerful
boss called “Roshan” which requires the whole team to take him down. Later on,
DotA allstars became the dominant version of the map.
Defense of the Ancients
After the released of DotA allstars version 6.01, Feak handed over the map to other
developer, Icefrog. Feak joined a company name “Riot Games” in 2006 to create
standalone DotA style game which will not be limited by Warcraft III game engine,
then “League of Legends” was borned.
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Standalone
For being a standalone game which not require Warcraft III engine to play. League
of Legends got many benefits to developing team.
New Mechanic
Developers can make their own game mechanic and no need to follow Warcraft III’s
mechanic anymore. Developers will have flexible to edit in game formula In order to
balance the game. They can also add new things to make a completely new game.
Example, in DotA the caster type heros will have spell with specific damage and will
not increase in the whole game. In League of Legends, caster will have to buy the
item which will increase their Ability Power and these ability power will modify the
spell damage for them.
Ability Power System
Unlike DotA, Champions can improve
their damage by equip Item which
give them Ability Power
Unlimited Potential
Because of Warcraft III multiplayer maps will be transferred to all another players
within battle.net waiting room. In order to minimize downloading time, Blizzard has
limited the maximum size of multiplayer maps to be around 5-7 MB. DotA has no
exception. This limitation is crucial to reduce the creativity of mapmakers.
When being standalone game, developers has unlimited potential to add more
contents into the game. Result to, they add a new champion every 2 weeks, new
champion skins, new maps, new system and much more
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Company
League of Legends was developed by Riot Games, an independent game developer
and publisher based in Culver City, California. Riot Games was co-founded by
Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill in 2006. In October 2009, they have launched the
first and only game title called League of Legends.
According to Wikipedia.org, there are currently has about 40 people working on
this game. They also established a website community which collect feedback from
players. They work together with their players to create an ideal game. In result,
League of Legends has won several awards.
• Gamespy Gamer’s Choice Award for PC Game of the Year
• IGN Reader’s Choice Award for PC Best Strategy Game and PC Best
Multiplayer Game
• NeoGAF MMO Game of the Year
• GamersNexus RTS Game of the Year
• GDC Online 2010 Best Online Technology
• GDC Online 2010 Best Online Visual Arts
• GDC Online 2010 Best Online Game Design
• GDC Online 2010 Best New Online Game
• GDC Online 2010 Audience Award
In 2011, Tencent bought a majority stake in Riot Games. But Riot still maintain an
independant operations.
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Gameplay
League of Legends’ gameplay can be separated into 2 sections.
First is the launcher side where players can customize their avatar, buy new
champions to play or adjusting their masteries
Second is in-game side which take the main roles of this game.
Launcher In game
After launch the game and login, the launcher will bring players into Lobby, similar
to Blizzard’s battle.net . This is where the player will find a new game to start.
Players can see their friends who is currently online and chat when them or invite
them to play a game. There is also a chat room where players can use to discuss in-
game strategy or looking for group to play with.
In League of Legends, the game will refer player as “Summoner” who summon their
“Champion”(same as hero in DotA) into battlefield.
Because of being a standalone game, it has not only a match in field of justice. But
in player’s profile still attach with RPG element. And these RPG elements can be
adjusted in this Launcher side before start the real game.
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Summoner’s Level
When first create an account, players will start of with their summoner level of 1.
Players will receive EXP everytime they finished a match no matter win or lose. The
more they play, the higher level they can get. Hence, summoner’s Level will stand
for player’s experiences in the game. There are some little rewards for players
to increase their summoner’s level. But it does not make much different during
gameplay. Player with summoner level of 30 still can lose to player with summoner
level of 1. The major different between higher level summoner and lower level
summoner is purely “real-life” experiences. Player will find better teamplay in high
level match and the competition between 2 teams will be more aggressive.
Summoner’s Level in profile page
Champions
Even League of Legends has a lot of champions to play. But at first, they are all
locked. Beginner Summoner can only select a free champions which will change
every week. When players gain confidence in player specific champion. They can
unlock that champion by spending IP(get everytime after finish a match) in the
store to buy that champion and it will be permanently unlock.
Champion Availability
Left - Unavailable Champion
Middle - Free Champion(Change every Week)
Right - Available Champion(by purchase)
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Rune & Mastery
Runes can be purchase from store. It slightly increase champion’s attributes during
gameplay.
Masteries is more like a talent tree from World of Warcraft. Player will get more
available point to invest in the Masteries when the summoner level is up.
Both runes and masteries will give a status boost at the beginning of gameplay.
Players can customize their runes and masteries freely to suit their playstyle. Some
players concern about damage so they can put the rune and set masteries which
increase damage and attack speed. Some players concern about mana and they can
put mana regeneration rune and invest points in support masteries.
Rune Page
Adding more survivalbility is perfect choice to
play a tank
Masteries Page
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In-Game
This is the major part of the game. This is the part we can say it is a game with
DotA stlyle. After loading screen, players will be summon into the field of justice and
begin playing.
There are 2 maps in the game. One is called “Twisted Treeline” which available for
maximum of 6 players to play(3v3). The other called “Summoner’s Rift” which is the
standard map for this game and available for maximum of 10 players (5v5).
Summoner’s Rift has the same major pathway with DotA game. It has 3 lanes, 1
powerful boss and jungle monsters.
Like an original DotA, players will be split into 2 teams, one on the southwest,
another one on the northeast. Each team will automatically spawn minions(referred
to DotA’s creeps) which are unable to control. Minions will walk and fight their way
to other team’s base.
Each player will control only 1 champion(referred to DotA’s heroes), go into
battlefield, killing enemy, earning gold, equip better gears, level up and the main
goal is to destroy enemy’s main building called Nexus.
Summoner’s Rift - Minimap Each game will take approximately 45 mins
Each team need to protect their until 1 team will destroy enemy’s Nexus
Nexus (Red Dot) and claim victory.
and try to Destroy the others
There is also a boss(Green Dot)
which require the
entire team to beat.
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Factor
After the game was released in October 2009, League of Legends has increase its
popularity continuously in this past 2 years. It won several awards and also has its
own competitive tournament in WCG 2010 at Los Angeles. Website own3d.tv which
allow gamers to broadcast live match from their own monitor put League of Legends
as a feature game. In an important match, there are more than 40,000 viewers
watching that channel.
own3d.tv Feature Games
In this section, we will analysis the factors to make this game such a successful
game.
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1. Control
Control in this game is very simple. It takes a standard RTS control where players
can navigate through a map by move a cursor to an edge of screen. Players can
right click in order to make champion move.
The most noticeable thing when I first play this game is hotkey layout. The game
designer intend to design hotkey layout to ease players as much as possible. All the
hotkeys which will be used during game play are
Hotkeys Template for all Champions
From the hotkeys template above, players can control everything in game by
placing their hand in standard position like when they play FPS games. Their right
hand on mouse and their left hand will be around the key A , S , D , W. They have
no need to move the left hand in order to press each keys.
Good Hotkey Position
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Even the great game such as Starcraft or Warcraft III still have this flaw. For
example, the polymorph skill from Warcraft III’s sorceress which require players to
press “O”. While patrolling hotkey require “P”. In the intense scenario, where I need
to multi-polymorph my opponent’s army and I moved my left hand across keyboard
and miss press to the “P” button. It cause me to lose that game.
Warcraft III - Polymorph hotkey
I guarantee that the future RTS game will follow this left-hand rule. As I can see
from Starcraft II, the hotkey to build Terran’s Marine is now “A” while it was “M” in
the first Starcraft game. Starcraft II also provide “Grid Hotkeys” mode which change
all hotkeys to be around A, S, D, W keys.
Starcraft II - Grid Hotkeys
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2. Graphics
An in game graphics at the first glance is not so impressive. It has cartoon style and
did not put anything fancy to display. However, the simple graphics will shine during
large scale combat. There is no fancy sprite flying around the screen to distract
players during battle. Most players found it is very easy to pick up the target during
teamfight and clearly know their situation.
I can compare this to another game called Heroes of Newerth. Without doubt, this
game has better graphics quality than League of Legends. Each hero will have their
own fancy abilities. Imagine the teamfight moment where all heroes competitive to
show their awesome skill effects. Players will lost of control and have no idea what
is going on. Do you like to lose your control during teamfight which is the most
important moment in this kind of games?
Heroes of Newerth League of Legends
Awesome effects everywhere Simple effect with style
This is a result of good art direction. There is no need to use every potential from
today’s graphic card to make a good game. Give a “style” to the game and make it
“friendly to players” then the game will shine by itself.
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3. Challenging
League of Legends provide a reasonable challenging for players. In the game,
players can only find match to play from matchmaking system. The matchmaking
system will take players’ summoner level and place them onto team which has
similar summoner level and also the opponent team. Summoner level can stand for
the experience of that player to the game.
Matchmaking System
Beginner with low summoner level will not have much tactics and strategies to play,
while expert players need more serious challenging and better teamfight.
Challenges vs Skills Diagram
(Jesse Schell: The Art of Game Design p177)
According to the diagram, players want a reasonable challenge to drive them keep
playing. Without summoner’s level status and matchmaking system, expert players
will sometimes fight against newbies. The experts will get bored from an easy
game, and the newbies will feel frustrated to continue playing.
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4. Community
League of Legends develop team has created community website where they
can discuss with players. It is more like work together with their players to keep
improve a game. They can gain feedback, get bug report and answer the questions
to their players.
League of Legends Community Page
Furthermore, in the part of storyline, League of Legends team give their player a
chance to involve the lore. The clear example is “Ionia vs Noxus” match where they
let players to play as Ionia side and Noxus side in game and broadcast it worldwide
with official commentator. Whether who is winner, lore of the game will follow the
result and they are also add item to the shop which stand for their victorious.
IONIA vs NOXUS Ionian Boots
Event Banner To celebrate the victory of Ionia Team
This will indirectly encourage players to continue playing game as they feel like they
are part of the game.
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5. Marketing
League of Legends is a free game to play. Only this fact is good enough for
increasing amount of new accounts. Though, players will have 100% able to enter
every essential contents in game without paying any dollar. However, for the players
who willing to pay, they will get extra advantages over others.
Players’ have 2 type of currencies. First is IP(Influence Point) which can be earned
after complete each match. Second is RP(Riot Point) which can be earned only by
spending real cash or credits card.
Left - Riot Points
Right - Influence Point
The essential items in store such as “Rune” and “Champion” all can be purchased
by using IP. The purpose for RP is for purchase “Champion’s Skin” and “Booster”.
“Champion’s Skin” will allow player to alternate apperance of champion while
“Booster” will increase amount of EXP and IP gain after finish each match.
Left - Gargas Classic
Right - Gargas Scuba Skin
You can see that all the RP purchasable items is all not essentials during gameplay.
Players who love to play this game just for free can go like “Oh, you have skin….so
what? I can still kick your _ss”. In other ways, it is still reasonable and interesting
enough to buy skin for your favourite champions.
This is the way Riot Games can make money(and I believe….Lots of money) from
this free game, League of Legends.
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6. Up to date
League of Legends is always up-to-date. Normally, there will be major patch coming
every 2 weeks along with new champion available and sometimes with new item.
The patch will contain balance adjustment for in game elements such as champions
abilities, item’s effect or fix some bugs.
Most excitedly is the new champion which will come out every 2 weeks. Before new
champion release, they will make a trailer, show concept art, reveal his abilities.
Players will feel active all the time to see upcoming news for the new champion.
Generally, the day of the patch is where Riot Games earn most money from players
who spend real cash to buy new champions.
This problem always happen in the patch day.
When everyone go into the store at the same time
to buy new champion
By keeping the game updated will make game always fresh. Players will never get
bored and will keep playing it.
New login screen during Xmas Gargas Xmas Skin
Featuring new Xmas map, new Xmas skin
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Conclusion
League of Legends is one of the game which contains DotA style. Many names was
invented to describe this game type. There is one name that could be an official
name for this style is called “Multiplayer Online Battle Arena” (MOBA).
Because of the teamplay focus, aggressive action and short play time(per match).
MOBA games gain their popularity and now become sub-genre of RTS games. Many
games use this style as a key to make a brand new MOBA game such as
Heroes of Newerth - S2 Games Demigod - Gas Powered Games
And the currently developing games such as
DOTA 2 Blizzard DOTA
Value Corperation Blizzard Enteratinment
By considering every single element within League of Legends, very entertain and
fun to play. It’s obviously the game made for a player, plus the original creator
of DotA Allstars, ancestor of all MOBA games, dedicate himself to make this
masterpiece. I can say that League of Legends will become the future canon game.
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References
RIOT GAMES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_Games
League of Legends
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Legends
League of Legends Wiki
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_of_Legends_Wiki
RIOT GAMES
http://www.riotgames.com/company
Defense of the Ancients
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_the_Ancients
Gamespot League of Legends Review for PC
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_of_Legends_Wiki
IGN League of Legends Review
http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/104/1042996p1.html
Starcraft II Blizzard DOTA hands-on
http://au.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starcraft2/news.
html?sid=6282914&mode=previews
How to use Starcraft II grid hotkeys
http://www.starcraft2freaks.com/how-to-use-starcraft-2-grid-hotkeys/
Schell, Jesse; Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses;
Amsterdam, Boston Elsevier Science and Technology Books, 2008.
