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Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

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Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#21

Post by prawks »

Kapura wrote: post #18
VonGuard wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really where eSports will come into its own, in these (I prefer to call them MOBAs) games. Just like in professional sports, the players here will need a union.

The players will only need unions if the companies insist on these sort of anti-competitive contracts. I don't think that a company like Valve would insist on such a clause for competitive Dota, which might make it more attractive to players with the skillsets that make them good at ASSFAGGOTS titles. I've played League, HoN, Dota, Dota 2, and Smite, and I can confirm that, while differences in styles of play exist,…

Many people in the DotA scene have been calling for players unions, as many of the teams' contracts are not well thought-out and leave room for a lot of exploitation of players (citation: /r/DotA2 has like one posted every other week).

Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#22

Post by Kapura »

anonymoushn wrote: post #11
jxf wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case anyone sees the (rather derogatory) term "ASSFAGGOTS" and is wondering why it's all caps, it's ostensibly short for "(A)eon of (S)trife (S)tyled (F)ortress (A)ssault (G)ame (G)oing (O)n (T)wo (S)ides". No, I didn't make that up.

MOBA has essentially won as the acronym for this genre, despite having such a vague meaning that it also describes every MMO, every worms-style game, every online FPS, some MUDs, every online fighting game, every RTS, and probably some other stuff I haven't thought of.

A term only "wins" when you let it. I don't like the breadth of the term "MOBA;" I think ASSFAGGOTS better describes the specific subgenre that includes LoL, Dota, HoN, and Smite. To me, the separation is similar to using the term "backstroke" over the term "swimming."

Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#23

Post by VonGuard »

anonymoushn wrote: post #11
jxf wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case anyone sees the (rather derogatory) term "ASSFAGGOTS" and is wondering why it's all caps, it's ostensibly short for "(A)eon of (S)trife (S)tyled (F)ortress (A)ssault (G)ame (G)oing (O)n (T)wo (S)ides". No, I didn't make that up.

MOBA has essentially won as the acronym for this genre, despite having such a vague meaning that it also describes every MMO, every worms-style game, every online FPS, some MUDs, every online fighting game, every RTS, and probably some other stuff I haven't thought of.

I actually narrow the definition to include a broad set of these games. Here are the qualities I use to define it:

2 Teams of a set number of players on each side (5 on 5, 3v3, 10v10) A commitment by the players to play a full round of the game, start to finish. A full match, if you will. Players choose from a variety of playable character or customizations, which rely on player skill. Extreme emphasis on team work.

By these definitions, World of Tanks is a MOBA, but WoW and Starcraft are not.

Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#24

Post by Kapura »

prawks wrote: post #21
Kapura wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The players will only need unions if the companies insist on these sort of anti-competitive contracts. I don't think that a company like Valve would insist on such a clause for competitive Dota, which might make it more attractive to players with the skillsets that make them good at ASSFAGGOTS titles. I've played League, HoN, Dota, Dota 2, and Smite, and I can confirm that, while differences in styles of play exist,…

Many people in the DotA scene have been calling for players unions, as many of the teams' contracts are not well thought-out and leave room for a lot of exploitation of players (citation: /r/DotA2 has like one posted every other week).

This is the flipside of Riot's agreement: Riot can be reasonably expected to hold up their end of the deal. The details on how pro-esports teams are supposed to make a living and pay their bills are still up in the air, but generally teams that get "sponsored" end up getting raw deals.

But Twitch revenue can help offset the lack of funds. Ex-Brood War player AngryTestie was able to live comfortably streaming whatever game he wanted, from HoN to a bit of SC2 to Dota.

Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#25

Post by [deleted] »

anonymoushn wrote: post #11
jxf wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case anyone sees the (rather derogatory) term "ASSFAGGOTS" and is wondering why it's all caps, it's ostensibly short for "(A)eon of (S)trife (S)tyled (F)ortress (A)ssault (G)ame (G)oing (O)n (T)wo (S)ides". No, I didn't make that up.

MOBA has essentially won as the acronym for this genre, despite having such a vague meaning that it also describes every MMO, every worms-style game, every online FPS, some MUDs, every online fighting game, every RTS, and probably some other stuff I haven't thought of.

[deleted]

Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#26

Post by kyrra »

There was a bit of discussion about this on the subreddits for LoL[1] and Dota2[2]. I don't think any esports fan or player is happy that Riot is going this direction.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1s38ea/lcs_...

[2] http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/1s38uc/dota_2_censore...

Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#27

Post by vectorpush »

chc wrote: post #19
vectorpush wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genres are useful for categorizing but the category titles are all pretty arbitrary. Take RPG: a description that applies to just about every game out there. MMO tends to refer to games with a persistent overarching game world, but I think it's fair to describe games like Call of Duty and Battlefield as "massively multiplayer online" MUD is associated with text based games but "multi-user dungeon" aptly describes mos…

I don't think it is fair to call games like Call of Duty "massively multiplayer online." They are multiplayer, and they are online, but the scale isn't all that massive. Call of Duty allows, what? 20 players?

I think the global stat ledgers and unified multiplier progression paths lend themselves to qualities normally associated with other "massive" games. True, the maps are limited in player size, but the feeling that there is a huge world of individual characters of varying class/strength/expertise that you may randomly encounter is pretty similar. It's like WoW battelegrounds/instanced dungeons minus the persistent world.

Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#28

Post by weixiyen »

Currently, pro gamers have a lot of downtime between League of Legends games due to having to queue up for a game after finishing a previous one.

These queue times range anywhere from 10-25 minutes on average, during which here is literally nothing to do besides playing other games, like Hearthstone.

I don't think Riot thought this one through. Instead what they should do is figure out a way to fix the queue times at the highest level, and this would honestly not even be a problem. At this point, they just appear overly controlling.

Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#29

Post by VintageCool »

chc wrote: post #14
daken wrote: post #8

Alright so this only concerns SPONSORISED STREAMS, and it's not that big of a deal (calming people down before they go crazy on articles that do not provide full details to a story) This means they can stream other games during the LCS they just can't be paid to put company logos. It's just a commercial agreement more than anything

That isn't right. These players are not allowed to stream the games at all as long as they are affiliated with Riot. From the original source: "onGamers has confirmed with the team representatives that LCS players are disallowed from streaming the games listed below outright"

I had the impression that LCS players were only disallowed from streaming those games if their stream advertised League of Legends content.

At the top of the Elo ladder, queue times can be up to half an hour as the matchmaking service tries to build a fair game. Many of these pro players will play another game (Super Meat Boy, LIMBO, Dust, Mark of the Ninja, Hearthstone) on stream while they're in queue. This ban seems to target other games that could be competitive e-sports, specifically the new Blizzard game Hearthstone.

Re: Riot tells pro League of Legends players they can’t stream competing games

#30

Post by chc »

vectorpush wrote: post #27
chc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it is fair to call games like Call of Duty "massively multiplayer online." They are multiplayer, and they are online, but the scale isn't all that massive. Call of Duty allows, what? 20 players?

I think the global stat ledgers and unified multiplier progression paths lend themselves to qualities normally associated with other "massive" games. True, the maps are limited in player size, but the feeling that there is a huge world of individual characters of varying class/strength/expertise that you may randomly encounter is pretty similar. It's like WoW battelegrounds/instanced dungeons minus the persistent wor…

I have trouble following that thinking. If ledgers made something massively multiplayer, it seems like all those arcade games with miles-long high score lists in the '80s would have to be considered massively multiplayer. But a lot of them were actually single-player.
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