A Path Less Taken

I am a person of uncomplicated means. A good book, a comfortable chair, a nice ice cold tea or steaming latte and a lazy afternoon are all that are required to pass a good time. One of my favorite things to do is going to a big box book store like Barnes and Noble and wiling away hours browsing through the stacks and discovering new and interesting books that I might enjoy. Ah, but the times they are a changing.

My son has been suggesting for a while now that I try the game League of Legends or LoL as it’s commonly called. The game is based on Defense of the Ancients (DotA) which is a long time fan favorite among Warcraft III mini-games. Finally I decided to give it a shot and I have to say it’s a fun little game. You can download and play the game for free. This PVP slug fest sports many notable improvements over it’s inspiration including automated match making, option to reconnect when disconnected, built-in surrender facility and much more. The game is easy enough to play, but takes a fair amount of practice to play well. The game’s creator Riot Games Inc. makes money selling champion skins (outfits), power up items and unlocks for Champions over those offered free each week. This is a similar model to EA’s Battlefield Heroes game which I suspect struggled to create a meaningful revenue stream. Eventually EA started selling more powerful weapons rather than move to a low cost subscription model which would have been to me a better option. The result was an imbalanced game for players who did not purchase the new items and this generated a lot of resentment in game when it began. I’m curious to see what Riot does with LoL as it matures, but for now it’s a fun game and I’m enjoying playing with my family and friends. If you are interested in playing an accessible and polished PVP game then check out League of Legends and let me know what you think.