While League may be quicker and flashier, Dota 2 is a little more complicated, keeping many more facets from the original Dota . Yet, these qualities also continue to speak to their differing levels of success. In short, perhaps sales are the only way to substantiate the claim that a simpler, flashier game is bet

Other developers try downloadable content. To combat profit loss from piracy, developers continue to work on a game after its release and provide extra content to those who are willing to pay. You can pay $60 upfront for a game and continue to pay later if you want more. Unfortunately, this draws a fair amount of criticism, especially when games started coming out with day-one DLC—if the content was ready at the time of release, gamers asked, why not just include it in the game? Further, what was to stop developers from holding back content gamers wanted so they could ask for more money later on? Out of this has come a new trend of free-to-play games, which on the surface seems greats, but whose implementation is proving aggravating and even alienating for gamers and developers al

Last month, word broke that Microsoft had canceled a reboot of Phantom Dust , which was being developed by Darkside Games. The reboot was meant to revive the cult classic from the original Xbox, and while Darkside Games is no longer working on it, Microsoft says it still plans to release the game at some point for Xbox One. Microsoft didn’t provide a reason for cancelling the project, or when they envision the game will rele

So what’s the future business model for games? It depends on the individual company and the product they’re producing. A single-player RPG seems like fixed price is the right model, but considering the popularity of online multiplayer, we’re seeing fewer and fewer of them. As time goes on, the purely single-player experience may fall by the wayside—already, we’re seeing more games implement multiplayer modes in previously single-player ga

But that might change soon thanks to an announcement a few days ago from Valve. The Dota Major Championships are coming, and will now organize the competitive Dota 2 calendar into seasonal action across four major tournaments , including The Internatio

Many free-to-play games have in-game currency that can be purchased with real money, giving those who are willing to shell out actual money a reward. That’s all well and good, but many gamers feel it sets the stage for unbalanced play, as people willing to spend real cash may get better weapons or more play time to level

“Right now, I’m gearing up for Megacon. I’ll bring my Inara cosplay and I’ll be doing a Popstar League of Legends group cosplay with several friends of mine. I’m a HUGE Firefly fan so I’m pretty pumped to get some autographs! As for the rest of the year, Janna will most likely mosey out of my labyrinth for Metrocon and Supercon. I also love Holiday Matsuri, it’s just a really fun smaller convention that just feels so warm and friendly, I’ll be going back to it for sure again this year. We have yet to get a hotel room for Dragoncon (much to my dismay), so I’m not sure of the status on that venture y

On the other side of the hill, League of Legends has a weekly rotation of free champs. This staple is prominent in most other games within the genre. Characters can be bought by grinding in-Moba Game Esports News currency, but the rates are ludicrous. By playing for the ‘First Win of the Day’ bonus once a day (and winning each game) it takes over twenty games to save up enough points for a new champion. Anyone that simply doesn’t have that kind of time on their hands might opt to wait for the champion to be on sale for under five doll

In every match, League of Legends places its players into one of five roles; Top, Mid, Jungler, AD Carry, and Support. Typically, champions fit into only one of these roles, and have little wiggle room outside of them. Much of the variety lies in the differences between them; a support that heals vs. a support that disables. In tandem with this, the equipment that champions buy generally serve to focus a character further into its roles. I.e: A heavy damage-dealer builds more damage. This —and the heavy focus on teamplay— make for fairly predictable ga

Improving the ranking system, as well as introducing new penalties should go a long way to improve the Master Chief Collection ’s current situation . Even though the game plays much better than it did at launch, there are some issues that still need to be resolved before the game is ready for a major tournament, which we expect to happen after the success of the game’s Championship seri

Anybody who has ever attended a gaming or comic convention knows that the world of cosplay is no joke. Cosplayers spend countless hours planning and building insane costumes every year, just to parade them out during convention season and show them off. Unless you’re a part of the scene, you might not realize just how much blood, sweat, and tears goes into every project. We sat down with one of our favorite cosplayers this week to chat about the work that went into her League and Legends and Diablo 3 proje