How and why did Leage of Legends prevail?

[Deleted]

I was wondering about this since I don't personally play LoL.

LoL was released almost at the same time as Heroes of Newerth. It came long after the original DotA still prevalent in Warcraft III and a limited number of other DotA games (can't remember the names but there were a few).

And yet, somehow LoL managed to stand above all other DotA games, despite starting on an equal footing.


I wonder why?

[Deleted]

I was wondering about this since I don't personally play LoL.

LoL was released almost at the same time as Heroes of Newerth. It came long after the original DotA still prevalent in Warcraft III and a limited number of other DotA games (can't remember the names but there were a few).

And yet, somehow LoL managed to stand above all other DotA games, despite starting on an equal footing.


I wonder why?

first of all, i wasn't a copy of Dota, so players that was tired of Dota might have found something new in LoL. It was/is also free to play, which HoN wasn't and that is the reason i picked up LoL, it is free. might be other differenses but i think those 2 are the biggest ones

[Deleted]

because HON was p2p at start, and now its pay to win basicly (if you always want to have your champs). And its more noob friendly (level system , ranked at 30 etc).

[Fiddlesnarf]

Free to Play, its as simple as that, also the fact that it didn't suck so people actually stuck around to play it.

[Edge-]

Free to play with a good monetization model and they differentiated themselves enough. HoN is literally a DoTA clone, so it appealed to the hardcore base and from what I've heard, wasn't necessarily noob friendly. LoL made itself more accessible by altering the basic play a bit to allow for a significantly lower skillcap, and created enough of a difference for it to be considered a different game within the same genre.

[Xaenne]

The learning curve in HoN is a lot higher than it is in LoL (because HoN was a clone of DotA in all regards), which drove more people to LoL than to HoN.
And, as stated by many others, it's also because LoL is free to play. It was a game you could pick up, have fun and enjoy without paying to get something that tipped the balance in your favour.

[Typhron]

Honestly? Riot, from the start, has been all about listening to the community and fostering it, the old LoL site having a very humble, very bemusing developer blog that talked about gaming as well as the state of the game, it becoming the Summoner Spotlight.

That isn't me gushing, mind you. That's what I blame it on since other gaming companies and communities have that to blame as well, fostering their community and letting it grow beyond their control, often leading to mods and many other community driven projects (WoW, TES games, Social.bioware.com for gaming alone while most other things have conventions). Add onto the fact that, while HoN had great assests and a good team to go along with it, their community didn't grow because they didn't nuture it. After a year of both games coming out LoL clearly had the better community, and it shows how what happened in the end.

I'd like to add something about the skillcap thing being a myth, but I'm not sure how to properly word it. Something along the lines of "If HoN's directly copying another model, wouldn't people be more familiar with it since it hasn't changed over the years? Being the same deal with Street Fighter shifting over the years as opposed to outright changing."

[Lysah]

Not just free to play, but for me, new content regularly. New champions or news about the upcoming champions almost every week, an entirely new game mode that got released within a few months of being announced...it's nice to have a game that actually updates as time goes on, and that I don't have to wait until I'm 30 to see real expansion.

[Deleted]

LoL is just more fun tbh, cause of it not being a 100% direct clone.

[Hraklea]

It is free (which is enough to defeat HoN), and it is noob friendly. (which is enough to defeat DotA.) And it used to be a good game during closed beta.

[Deleted]

I has a nice hearty style. It's free, easy to learn, not too much serious (and not too much cartoony), it has enough depth, but no artificial complicatedness (like NoH). Also, new champs every 2 weeks, and all champs are more or less diffirent with varying playlstyles, flavour and rich background. Yeah, lore in LoL is pretty good too.

[Deleted]

I started playing early februari becous of some friends and LOL became so much popular after dreamhack this year with the livestream hat reached 1 mill viewers. Also in season 2 that is now riot will have a prize pot on 5m wich is the biggest ever in a game competition

[cob]

Simply because the game is very easy, free, and how Riot did a good job of advertising the game, similar reasons to why CoD is a popular game even though there are much better games available. I personally prefer HoN/DotA, as I find LoL far too noob friendly, forgiving, and just generally slow paced and boring in comparison.

I started playing early februari becous of some friends and LOL became so much popular after dreamhack this year with the livestream hat reached 1 mill viewers. Also in season 2 that is now riot will have a prize pot on 5m wich is the biggest ever in a game competition

It isn't the biggest single prize pot for a competition, the $5million is for the entire season 2, so that money is broken down into prize money for many for a large number of competitions over the year.

[Kurdiern]

Simply because the game is very easy, free, and how Riot did a good job of advertising the game, similar reasons to why CoD is a popular game even though there are much better games available. I personally prefer HoN/DotA, as I find LoL far too noob friendly, forgiving, and just generally slow paced and boring in comparison.



It isn't the biggest single prize pot for a competition, the $5million is for the entire season 2, so that money is broken down into prize money for many for a large number of competitions over the year.

DotA 2 was 1 mil for a single competition and the stream reached near 3 mil viewers at one point. Just fyi =p.

LoL's just has an incredibly smart business plan. It's free and you CAN play the game free, but at one point many people will end up spending real money. Riot is also a pretty good company that interacts with its consumers quite a bit (Compare red posts to blue posts, I honestly have seen more red posts in the few months I've been playing that blue posts in years with Blizzard.)

[Riathy]

Because it is F2P. When HoN open beta was active it had ~50-60k users online tops.
Now because it is F2P the numbers are up there again. (50k tops)

So yeah F2P will really be a better choice, if Valve would be smart they would make DotA2 F2P as well, with a cosmetic shop (Like in HoN)

How it survived as a game? I don't know, for me the grind is lame, and every hero should be available from the start.

EDIT:

Uhh now that I remember there was also another map in Wc3 based on DotA but real SLICK.
I mean this map was insane, it look amazing. It played good as well but it sadly never took off (Because the map was HUGE, bigger than DotA)

So it took people ages to download, and since it wasn't really known it kinda made people shrug and leave because they couldn't be arsed to wait for the download.

[DerpderpHAMMA]

because HoN is practically carbon copy of DoTA
LoL at least added summoner spells, new maps, more customization, and champion variety.

[PizzaSHARK]

Biggest reasons?

It's free. And I do mean free. The selection of free champs every week ensures there will always be at least one champ to fill any given role on a team. You can play the game just fine without spending a single penny on it, though most people who do play for a significant amount of time will usually end up buying some RP for skins, heroes, etc.

It's very noob-friendly. Probably a little too noob-friendly, honestly - the quality of players in your average game is pretty bad, which can make solo queuing a nightmare. Still, it's very accessible to newcomers. The art style is bright and colorful, cartoony without being too cartoony. The game mechanics are simple and easy to grasp (well, they are to me, but some people are apparently... special), and yet the game is still complex enough for there to be a difference between a fresh level 30 and someone playing at 2000 Elo. Sound like WoW to you? That's because it is.

Constant influx of new content, which is completely free of charge, and constant interaction with the community. Riot employees post often, which makes people at least feel like they're listening. Dominion, a completely new gamemode, was just recently released. New heroes are released about every two to three weeks.

The only thing HoN set out to do was copy DotA, which is exactly what they did. It's gone F2P to try and survive, but frankly HoN will pretty much die when DotA 2 arrives. LoL will probably lose some tryhards, but will otherwise still be okay. While it's still in the same RTS/MOBA genre, it's a much looser, much more casual game than DotA is, so they don't really appeal to the same set of players.

[Riathy]

The only thing HoN set out to do was copy DotA, which is exactly what they did. It's gone F2P to try and survive, but frankly HoN will pretty much die when DotA 2 arrives. LoL will probably lose some tryhards, but will otherwise still be okay. While it's still in the same RTS/MOBA genre, it's a much looser, much more casual game than DotA is, so they don't really appeal to the same set of players.

because HoN is practically carbon copy of DoTA
LoL at least added summoner spells, new maps, more customization, and champion variety.

You guys haven't played HoN in a long time. The differences between DotA2 and HoN are big now. HoN is it's own game. Different heroes, faster gameplay, other rules.

Though that is what it looks like now, DotA2 is still in beta and is still changing. Maybe they will change a lot.

[Deleted]

You guys haven't played HoN in a long time. The differences between DotA2 and HoN are big now. HoN is it's own game. Different heroes, faster gameplay, other rules.

Though that is what it looks like now, DotA2 is still in beta and is still changing. Maybe they will change a lot.

No one said Dota2. DotA as in the original map DotA. And as someone who played DotA when it was first released on Reign of Chaos, yes, HoN is a copy of original DotA.

[Riathy]

No one said Dota2. DotA as in the original map DotA. And as someone who played DotA when it was first released on Reign of Chaos, yes, HoN is a copy of original DotA.

Dota2=dota.