Ok so for my last blog, I must, as I'm sure you have become sick of :), focus on League of Legends. The awesome people over at Riot games today have done something I have never seen before with a video game. This evening at around 9pm, they had a LoL match streamed live over the web for all of us curious onlookers to watch. The match was a team of five players combating against another team of five players in a session that would decide the fate of the LoL background story. As I have mentioned, the characters in the game have many different backstories and are all part of a vast world with different city-states disputing with each other through the use of the League of Legends. Each city-state has champions that fight for diplomatic disagreements between one another, and tonight, the players themselves impacted the imaginative world of Valoran. Today, a major city-state Noxus fought the island city of Ionia in an attempt to control its territory. If Noxus is defeated, they will be forced to immediately stop occupying Ionia and Ionia will be free from their clutches.
Before the match commenced, all of my LoL playing friends converged under one roof and hooked up a laptop to their television to watch the match on the big screen. (a nerds dream come true) We all were excited to see some of our favorite characters get picked to combat one another and we so hyped up we even started cheering and shouting at the screen when the battle had its peak moments of combat. It was like the Superbowl for League players. Sadly however, my favorite team lost and Ionia took the battle dominantly.
All story aside, this to me was monumental for video games. A game was broadcast over the Internet for all of its adoring fans to watch. I have never witnessed this before with an online or any game for that matter. It was a moment for us LoL players to watch a story altering game to take place and feel as if we ourselves were watching an arena match from the seats of the Field of Justice itself. It gave us a moment to submerge ourselves in the fantasy realm of LoL together, a feeling that was as astonishing as it sounds. Because of this ingenious idea, we came together and socialized, like if we were to watch a sports game. I have never seen this done by a video game before and thought it was a deserving topic to write about (please excuse my lateness).
I feel more games should do something along the lines of this, having thier players wittness or even be a part of story altering events. It will cause them to feel more involved in the game, and add to the overall gaming experience. I hope to see more of these matches in the future, as do my friends and the 4000+ people who watched the game as well.
