League of Legends Preview - First Details

The makers of the popular Defense of the Ancients decided a mod wasn't enough: Riot Games has revealed it is developing League of Legends, a session-based online multiplayer game that looks to flesh out the formula that made DOTA a hit with Warcraft III players.

DOTA was popular for infusing a real-time strategy game with role-playing elements. Instead of commanding an entire army and gathering resources, players took control of a powerful hero who collected gold and leveled up within the battle. Riot will use this same formula in League of Legends, and will flesh it out from a single mod into a full retail game.

In League of Legends, you will customize a "summoner." As a summoner, you choose one of several champions--more than two dozen, said Riot--and control him or her on the battlefield. We saw only a handful of the champions, but it's clear from their appearances that Riot Games isn't sticking to the traditional high fantasy. The dark child Annie wears pigtails and carries a cute pink backpack, but she can throw fireballs as well as her teddy bear, which transforms into an infernal monster. Master Yi plays like a ninja, moving in for quick strikes and then teleporting away to meditate. The minotaur Alistar has broken free from the chains of slavery, and his brute strength is feared by all on the battlefield. Nunu, the yeti rider, throws snowballs from atop an abominable snowman. We also saw one unnamed hero, a mummy with a giant Molotov cocktail strapped to its back.

League of Legends takes place in the world of Valoran. Long ago, the league decided that the fate of the world would not be decided through giant, costly wars. Instead, races would resolve conflicts by choosing champions to do battle in a tournament--much as if George Bush were to have challenged Saddam Hussein to an arm-wrestling match. Over the course of a battle, players will use their selected champion to take control of points on the map and earn gold. The gold can be spent at your headquarters on skill upgrades within the battle.

Items and upgrades are lost after each battle, but your summoner will acquire valuable items to add a level of persistence. Riot is hoping this formula of quick player-versus-player battles, with the addition of RPG levels and persistent summoners, will attract players from the DOTA community, which boasts 10 million players and inspired a totally awesome music video. We'll have more on League of Legends as we learn more.