The 10 most metal games of all time

Blacker than the blackest black, times infinity

In many ways video games and heavy metal go hand in hand, at least when their digits aren’t occupied with a multiplayer match and/or mind-melting guitar solo. A huge number of games revel in the savagery metal is known for, letting you eviscerate armies of enemies just as soundly as fierce riffs eviscerate mortal souls. Games like Manhunt, Dead Space, and Postal are all examples of carnage, violence, and destruction, so they're totally metal, right?


Well… not really, actually. While brutality is the lifeblood of heavy metal, a game without a defiant soul and gloriously overblown theatrics is like a lead singer without long, raven-black locks. To be truly metal takes passion, nerve, a black hole of rage deep in the soul, and an incoherent roaring voice that can clear the stratosphere. But most of all it needs that indescribable spark, and when you look at it you just know that's metal as hell. That's a much taller order, and few games can live up to it, but I've combed the internet and found the most metal gamesever for your raging pleasure. Go forth, metalheads.

1. Doom

Hellish imagery is easily one of metal's favorite touchstones. Not only does Doom fit that theme perfectly, but it even gets the look down perfectly. Seriously, just look at that cover art.


Playing out like an Iron Maiden concept album, Doom centers on a nameless space marine as he thrusts himself into glorious, blood-soaked battle with hordes of demonic aliens, only to discover they're actually demons from the pits of hell and he must descend into the underworld to battle for the fate of humankind. And in case you aren't convinced the devs did all that intentionally, the game's soundtrack is the most metal thing you'll hear that side of MS-DOS.

2. Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal

I know what you're thinking: sure, robots can be metal as hell, but unicorns and their little dolphin friends? In a flash game about living in harmony, harmony oh love? But I'm talking about the Heavy Metal edition that's so goddamn metal you'll forgive its flash/mobile game status through tears of joy and blood. I mean, probably.

Taking the endless-runner premise from the original game, the Heavy Metal version turns its unicorn into a fire-maned hell beast fit to bear one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, racing across the gruesome piled skeletons of giant monsters. You'll spend the race collecting demon bats and shattering deadly pentagrams blocking your path, all while an intense power ballad. rages in the background. The most brutal flash game in existence? It's in the running.


3. Kiss: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child

If all of this unlicensed bullshit is beneath you and you won't touch anything that isn't personally endorsed by a real band, you're gonna love this game (and a certain brand of cherry soda). Based on the Kiss: Psycho Circus comic book series, the brutally over-punctuated Kiss: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child follows a KISS tribute band as they make their way through various realms collecting weapons and armor so they may attain their ultimate godly forms: the actual members of KISS.

To accomplish that, the rockstars-to-be explore various barren 3D locales ala Half-Life and easily defeating enemies, which fall apart like water balloons full of apple sauce when you take a swing at them. Fight hard enough, and you too may one day become Gene Sim - I mean The Demon.

4. Shadows of the Damned

Like Doom, Shadows of the Damned portrays a heroic main character descending to the pits of hell to defeat an overwhelming evil. Unlike Doom, Shadows of the Damned is rife with black humor, sexy ladies, and so many dick jokes. After his girlfriend Paula is kidnapped by the Lord of Darkness, heavily tattooed demon hunter Garcia "Fucking" Hotspur and his motorcycle / badass gun / devilish sidekick Johnson pursue them to the depths of the underworld.

As our hero redecorates the Land of the Damned with demon innards, both Garcia and the Dark Lord escalate their testosterone-drenched posturing, with Garcia's choice of weaponry growing increasingly phallic until things get way out of hand. The whole thing is a machismo-fest set somewhere between a road movie and a Judas Priest record, with Garcia's angel waiting at the end. Well, an angel that goes demonic with rage in a thoroughly metal fashion. Hell yeah.

5. Brutal Legend

Can you really make a list of awesome metal games and not mention Brutal Legend? That's like forgetting to mention Led Zeppelin or Slayer, because theyweren't important or anything. A love letter to all things metal from the folks behind Psychonauts, Brutal Legend follows the adventures of Eddie Riggs (a roadie who is definitely not Jack Black) as he fights to save a land of living metal album covers with the help of a vicious battle ax and his trusty Flying V guitar.

The gothic scenery and huge genre-clashing battles sweat molten metal from every pore, and the game's soundtrack is full to bursting with over 100 songs from Ozzy Osborne to Motley Crue (with a little Dethklok tossed in there because why the hell not). Brutal Legend's the sort of silly and sincere homage that knows the genre perfectly - and too well not to poke a little fun.

6. Bayonetta

I can hear your roars of rage for daring to suggest that a game full of J-Pop and suggestive lollipop licking could ever come close to being metal. Say that to Bayonetta's face though and she'd crush you under one hellish monster heel because she doesn't give a shit what you think she's so goddamn metal.

Like many games on this list, Bayonetta has a distinct motif about the struggle between Heaven and Hell, and a hero that will confront the powers of evil threatening to destroy the world - and even more metal, those powers of evil aregrotesque angels that would fit right in on a Slayer album cover. The way she kills them is no less brutal, using drawn out Climax moves to rip them apart in uncomfortably sexual torture devices while gothic metal plays in the background. And to top it off, with hair like that, can you imagine her headbanging skills?

7. God of War

God of War series needs no introduction, nevertheless, I'm going to introduce them here because I need to fill up space. The series follow the story of Kratos, a Spartan who kills his wife and children and sets on a mission assigned to him by the God of War in order to gain redemption and ease of heart. However, the very said mission results in a beef with Gods and he begins killing the gods. And this story goes on for a long time. But the series is famous for its gameplay, which is the perfection of a sort of tactical action which was introduced by Devil May Cry. You have cool weapons at your disposal and while completing platformer elements and puzzles you bring down the enemies with cool combos and special moves.

The series has had a lot of composers, but all the games in the series accompany awesome heavy metal songs for battles and similar situations. Kratos looks and feels like a Heavy Metal singer, tough, uncompromising, angry, and a true rebel. Kratos rebels against the whole system of existence, against the very condition of life. This is an extremely Heavy Metal mentality. Also, there is an EP called "The God of War: Blood & Metal" which is a heavy metal homage by various bands from the Roadrunner Records label, and features original music inspired by the God of War video game series. These bands include great names such as Opeth and Dream Theatre. One song - "Even Gods Cry" by band The Turtlenecks - was made into a music video.

8. Splatterhouse

When it comes to metal appeal, Splatterhouse has a little bit of everything. A damsel kidnapped by an evil scientist who plans to sacrifice her to the forces of darkness, a demonic mask that turns its wearer into into a hulking beast, and scenery just begging to be accented with gallons of blood and guts. Savage is a gentle word for all that.

Plus, the geeky protagonist has to make a thinly veiled deal with the devil (in a segment called, I shit you not, 'Satan's Masque') to get the mask in the first place. If you didn't mutter the world 'metal' at least once while reading that, I don't even know what else to say. Actually, I do: the music will blow your face off.

9. Mortal Kombat

Heavy metal and gore go hand in dismembered hand. There’s a subdivision of death metal dedicated solely to dreaming up the most disgusting lyrics and upsettingly graphic album covers. The masters of the art are Buffalo’s Cannibal Corpse, whose hits include Hammer Smashed Face and Entrails Ripped From A Virgin’s… you don’t want to know what.

Despite the crudeness of their visuals, the early Mortal Kombat games remain easily the goriest of all time. You just don’t get clubbed to death by your own leg, have your face chewed off, get your entire, intact skeleton pulled clean out of your skin or get sliced in two by a broad-brimmed hat anywhere else. Cannibal Corpse’s frontman, Corpsegrinder (Gregor to his mum), would no doubt approve.

10. Guitar Hero: Metallica

Rock Band and Guitar Hero competed fiercely for the title of Best Game That Will Make You Think You Can Play An Instrument, and both tried to win ground with the metal crowd in 2009. But the humble Rock Band Metal Track Pack quickly fell to the blood-soaked darkness of Guitar Hero: Metallica.

Sporting 28 Metallica songs and 21 more favorites from the band, this isn't just a Metallica game, but a full-on, righteous Metallica experience. Get inside the metal heads of one of the world's greatest bands, feel the power of that music, attempt to imitate the Master of Puppets guitar solo with a rainbow of plastic buttons! After all, you cannot kill the battery! I mean, unless your controller's wireless.

So there you go, let me know which games I missed. Which games do you think should be included in the list?

Things everyone hates about DotA 2

Let’s face it, Dota 2 can be one of the most frustrating games you can play while simultaneously being one of the most rewarding. So we play and play, searching for the high of that comeback victory or the thrill of beating the enemy team to a pulp in under 20 minutes. Along the way, though, there will be some speed bumps that ruin our fun. So without further ado, here are the some Things Players Hate about Dota 2.

1. Players who call ‘GG’ in the first 5 minutes of play

A lot can go wrong in the first few minutes of a Dota 2 game, but that’s okay—shit happens right? Although difficult, the worst starts can still be turned around with one good team fight or a couple of successful ganks. Maybe the other team gets complacent and stops paying attention to their towers, or perhaps you manage to simply out farm them by effectively stacking neutral camps. Either way, don’t give up.

Don’t be that person who says “GG” simply because the other team got first blood. All you’re doing is weakening your team’s morale and decreasing your chance of winning. Take it on the chin and move on.

2. Supports who don’t buy wards

I get it, sometimes spending all your money on wards is boring and frustrating, but somebody’s got to do it. Do you really want to risk your carry spending gold on wards, when they could be saving their gold for an item that can push the momentum of the game back in your favor? When you play support, you do exactly that, support, and there’s no better way to secure your team’s success than to make sure you can keep tabs on important areas of the map.    

3. Carries who don't carry

I’m assuming you locked in that badass carry because you know how to play a carry, right? I mean, you realize how much is riding on your ability to get six slotted, and wreak havoc on the other time, right? You understand that you can’t miss your last hits, or fall behind in your GPM, RIGHT? I tell you there’s nothing more frustrating than a carry who gets out farmed, out laned, and outplayed—especially when the player locks it in right away.  

4. Players who don’t call missing

It’s one of the biggest mistakes a player can make, and it’s also the fastest way to make an enemy on your own team. I know it’s hard, especially for new players, to constantly keep tabs on who’s in your lane. We’ve all been there: farming away, getting those last hits, and then suddenly the enemy hero disappears into the fog of war for a second. You think he’s still there, but in actuality, he teleported to another part of the map and is now engaged in a successful gank. Then the rage comes and no amount of remorse can fix it. If you even suspect for a millisecond that an enemy hero is missing from your lane, call it out.  

Pro tip: Pressing and holding Alt while left-clicking on an enemy hero’s icon will display an enemy missing message.  

5. Players who keep feeding

Dying in Dota 2, is bad. Dying to a team’s carry, is even worse. There’s no better way to jump start the enemy team’s momentum than giving their carry free gold. If you happen to be in a lane with a carry, that is just wrecking the lane, you have to make an adjustment. There is no excuse to go back into the lane with the same strategy just to be killed again. Someone once told me that the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result.

If you see your lane is just not working out, communicate with your teammates and find another solution. Do not keep giving their carry free gold and experience. Sometimes it’s even better to just let the enemy carry free farm while you help push another lane or help set up a gank.  

6. People who try to report others for being "newb"

Because the Dota 2 community has historically been filled with jerks and meanies, Valve implemented a system where players can be reported for their bad behavior. If enough people speak up and report such a player, the jerk is punished accordingly. However, there are people out there who feel that being a ”newb” warrants  a report of some kind. This is false.

Being a newb is not a reportable offense, no matter how infuriating a person’s play is. Instead of trying to get someone reported, how about earning some teaching points? Talk to the person who is struggling. Guide them. Show them the way. Nothing will be gained out of getting the person reported and if anything, you should be the one being reported, not the newb.  

7. The prickly community

I’ve been a gamer for a long time, since before I was even able to walk, and if there’s one thing I’ve noticed, is that people, for the most part, are jackasses. People are especially jackasses when it comes to games that have a steep learning curve.  

Dota 2 has a very high learning curve and probably one of the densest communities of jackasses I’ve ever known. Why? I think it has something to do with the game requiring a large commitment of time, as a single game of Dota 2 can easily take anywhere from 35-50 minutes. Because of this, and the high learning curve, players don’t want to feel like they’re wasting their time because you know, their time is so precious (doubtful).  

Also, it doesn’t help that E-Sports are a thing now, and competitive play is easily seen and digested through the miracle that is the internet. So now, these jackasses have some preconceived notion of how the game should be played and tend to feel superior to those who lack in-depth knowledge of the game.  

Whew, I need to take a breather here. Anyways, don’t be a jackass, jackass. The world is a harsh enough place as it is. Have fun, and play nice.  

8. Your teammates never buy TP scrolls

Town portals are a beautiful thing. They cost practically nothing and they let you teleport between friendly structures at a moment’s whim. They can be used offensively as well as defensively, and they are a required purchase for anyone who is serious about trying to win a game.

But then, there are those people who don’t buy them. Why don’t they buy them? Who knows really, but it’s often the case in most Dota 2 games to have at least one teammate consistently forget to keep one in their inventory. Town portal scrolls are a necessity when trying to defend a tower or teleport to a team fight that is occurring around a friendly structure.  

So yea, Town portals are crucial, and you should always carry one or two or three of them at all times.  

So there you have it. Which points can you relate to? What else do you hate about Dota 2? Let me know in comments section.

Hierarchy of Social Game Design

I want to highlight this view of the hierarchy of social game design as seen through the eyes a new user funnel, in this case mobile social and a major app store like Apple's:

1. ACCESSIBILITY
   First, a player browses or searches for your game on the app store, and finds it.  The SEO is tuned and they find it easily.  The marketing text is in a language they can read, they understand what is written (it's not riddled with "in-jokes" or "only for fans" humor), they're on a device that can download it, they have the space and bandwidth to download it, and it's at a price-point that is accessible to them.  The player can decipher and access the basic "code" of information presented.  If not, the player already churns at this point in the funnel.
    
2. THEME
   The player reads about the theme through the app store marketing; first, by way of the name of the game itself (not Alpaca Farm, please), next, by the name of the company, then by the marketing paragraph texts.  The theme and premise are interesting, have gravity, have a "hook," and begin to pull the player in.  If not, the player already churns at this point in the funnel.
    
3. AUDIO VISUAL
   The player views the screenshots, the art quality is high, the art style is appealing, they like what they see and want to see more.  A rich lively world is presented.  If there is a video and the player watches it, the music and sound effects further activate regions of their brain that pull them in to want to experience more.  If not, the player already churns at this point in the funnel.
    
4. GAMEPLAY
   Now the player has downloaded the game, and is actually playing it. Interactions are rewarding and seamless.  Pacing is perfect.  Story and characters draw them in.  Gameplay is familiar yet novel.  The player takes baby steps, but soon is walking on their own.  After 20 minutes, the player already starts to feel a mini-sense of mastery, and could see how continued play would grant them further self-satisfaction and reward.  Gameplay is clear, and objectives and rewards are unambiguous.  If not, the player churns at this point in the funnel.
    
5. SOCIAL
   Now the player has been playing the game, for hours or days, and they are invited to socially connect.  The social game design is brilliant.  The promises made are the equivalent of being told they will experience the very essence of firework explosions themselves.  The social play promises transformative play and true social interaction, using multiple methods of social play (parallel, cooperative).  If not, the player fails to attempt to play socially, and with social being the real long term retention provider, where the game is mere platform for the social, the player churns at this point in the funnel.
    
6. VIRAL
   Now the player has socially connected, and is socially playing - but the virals are mere spam, not gameplay-adding depth.  Or conversely, there are no virals, and the player must "push" to tell their friends, instead of the game pulling friends to them.  The player may socially connect, then find they have no friends already connected, and without effective virals they never invite those to whom they would otherwise stick with.  The player churns at this point in the funnel.
    
7. MONETIZATION
   The player is playing, socially connected, with invited friends, and is really rocking it.  Then they hit a pay wall.  The game points a gun to their head - pay to keep playing to progress, or wait here in a permanent plane stall.  The player churns at this point in the funnel.

You can see how the progression of each social game design hierarchy element not only comes right after the other in serial time progression from app awareness to in-app purchase, but how each social game design hierarchy element transcends but includes all prior foundational elements before it.

DotA 2 vs League of Legends Comprehensive Comparison

Having played both the games at a fairly high level I decided to make this blog post for people to help understand the major differences between two of the most popular MOBAs around. This article will help you understand the basic concepts that are common to both games as well as the overarching differences.

Already a veteran, but looking to make the switch to LoL or DotA? Find out what makes these games so different and unique in their own way.

To understand the key differences between the two MOBAs first we need to look at the basics of each game.

DotA 2 Basics and Attributes

In DotA heroes are divided into three categories 

1. Strength Heroes: Because of their high Strength, these Heroes have the greatest natural Health and can regenerate quickly, keeping them in the fight and dealing damage. Strength Heroes can fit a variety of roles, and are almost always Melee Heroes. These heroes are similar to tank solo top heroes in LoL.

NightStalker a Strength hero in DotA 2

1. Agility Heroes:  These Heroes have high attack speed and Armor  and focus on using their regular attacks and any Items they have, but can fall back on their abilities in a pinch. Agility Heroes will often be played as carry and gank roles, because of how well they scale. These heroes are similar to AD (Attack Damage) based heroes in LoL.

Anti-Mage an Agility hero in DotA 2

1. Intelligence Heroes: Intelligence Heroes are masters of spells and abilities. They tend to have larger Mana pools, and much greater Mana regeneration than other Heroes. Because of this, they often rely on their abilities to help allies and harm enemies, rather than physical attacks. Most Intelligence heroes are fragile, though this doesn't necessarily mean they're easy to kill. Intelligence Heroes are often played for support, gank, and pusher roles. Most Intelligence heroes are also Ranged Heroes. These heroes are similar to AP (Ability Power) carries in LoL.

Shadow Shaman an Intelligence Hero in DotA2 

Attributes

In order to understand how heroes scale in DotA 2 we will look at what each attribute does.

Every hero has a primary attribute, which controls his or her attack damage. Every point in their primary attribute adds 1 point of damage to their attacks, and any bonus to a hero's primary attribute will affect that hero's attack damage. 

Strength

Strength determines a hero's maximum health and health regeneration. Heroes with strength as their primary attribute can be hard to kill, so they will often take initiator and tank roles, initiating fights and taking most of the damage from enemy attacks.

• Every point in strength increases maximum health by 19.
• Every point in strength increases health regeneration by 0.03 HP per second.
• If strength is a hero's primary attribute, every point in strength increases his or her attack damage by 1.

Agility

Agility determines a hero's armor and attack speed. Heroes with agility as their primary attribute tend to be more dependent on their auto-attacks and items, and are usually capable of falling back on their abilities in a pinch. Agility heroes often take carry and Gank roles.

• Every point in agility increases a hero's armor by 0.14 (meaning that 7 is needed to get 1 armor).
• Every point in agility increases a hero's attack speed by 1.
• If agility is a hero's primary attribute, every point in agility increases his or her attack damage by 1.

Intelligence

 Intelligence determines a hero's maximum mana and mana regeneration. Heroes with intelligence as their primary attribute tend to rely on their abilities to deal damage or help others. Intelligence heroes often take support, gank, and pusher roles.

• Every point in intelligence increases a hero's maximum Mana by 13.
• Every point in intelligence increases a hero's mana regeneration by 0.04 mana per second.
• If intelligence is a hero's primary attribute, every point in intelligence increases his or her attack damage by 1.

LoL Basics and Attributes

In league of legends heroes can be broadly categorized in 3 categories according to their scaling mechanism.

Attack Damage Scaling Heroes

These heroes scale with attack damage items. These heroes are similar to Agility Heroes of DotA 2. Ranged AD heroes are mostly Marksmen who are late game carries of the team. Melee AD heroes are mostly bruisers providing gank potential and crowd control in team fights.

Vayne AD scaling Hero in LoL

Ability Power Scaling Heroes

Mostly ranged champions with powerful magic damage skills, good crowd control or a combination of both, but low defense and weak auto-attacks. Some are meant to deal a high amount of damage in a short period of time (burst casters/burst mages) while others usually deal damage over time. These heroes scale with ability power items.

Kassadin AP scaling Hero in LoL

Key Differences

Scaling

This is one of the major differences between the two games. As you can see from the attributes mentioned above in DotA 2 even making Damage Agility items makes your carries tanky as each point in agility also provides some armor against physical damage whereas in LoL Damage items generally don't provide any tankiness for AD carry heroes so the carry heroes generally are really squishy even in late game whereas in DotA 2 the carry heroes tend to get tanky also due to Agility points providing Armor and Damage items also providing good defensive stats.

Metagame

Dota 2 has an incredibly versatile metagame. Junglers are optional, with dual or unorthodox junglers presenting themselves at times. Trilanes, where three allied heroes on the same team group remain in close proximity from the beginning of the game, as well as roamers, where one or more heroes has no set place on the map and moves about as needed, are both common. Lanes and roles are incredibly fluid to the point where attempting to define many heroes, or even predicting how a single 5-hero composition will lane, becomes difficult.

League of Legends has a relatively stable metagame. Convention dictates that an AD carry and a support go bottom, an AP carry goes mid, and a sustainer goes top, with the 5th man- an all but required jungler, left to his devices. These roles have not changed in at least a year of high level gameplay and across multiple tournaments.

League of Legends also introduced the concept of Summoner spells, which on the surface is an excellent addition to the depth of the genre. However, the power of "Flash," a short-distance blink spell, makes it all but required by every player, essentially just adding a high cooldown blink to every hero. The majority of Summoner spells are simply copies of items or abilities in Dota 2. League of Legends also includes Runes and Masteries, advantages which players can take with them into the beginning of the game. In competitive play, these for the most part seem relatively static.

The Laning Phase

As I've already mentioned, the lanes in LoL are very similar from game to game. This makes movement between them easily noticeable; only the jungler can truly gank unpredictably. When coupled with the Flash ability, which grants every character a teleport from the start of the game, and towers which deal huge amounts of damage, action at low levels becomes incredibly rare. It is not uncommon for the first kill of a LoL match to happen 5-10 minutes into the game. In Dota 2, this is nearly unheard of: first blood happening before the creeps even spawn is more common than a game going so long without a death.

A majority of spells in LoL are inherently spammable. They cost a low percentage of a character's mana pool, or none at all, and can be used extremely frequently to pressure a lane and test an opponent's ability to "sustain" themselves. Many of these abilities are skillshots which need to be landed as much as possible. 

Conversely, a key concept of laning in Dota 2 is simply "... go." What I mean by this is that when two allies in a lane decide to make an attempt to kill an enemy, you will know it. Rarely seen spells with high mana costs and large impact come out and decide the fight based on the players' judgment of the situation and execution of their attempt. The availability of such abilities dictates how safely you can lane against opponents. In effect, it comes down to a simple challenge: I think I can stay alive if I stand here. If you don't think I can- prove it. A simple AoE stun on a hero such as Sven or Sand King can cost as much as 75% of the hero's base mana pool, and without the mana to use such a spell these heroes are just big creeps. Other spells can be somewhat spammed, but very few Heroes cast spells in lane half as much as Champions in LoL do: you simply don't have the mana for it. In the early laning phase, this mana is as valuable as health, the latter of which can be quickly restored with consumables. Mana potions are more difficult to use, as they last 30 seconds and are dispelled upon taking damage.

These consumables are noteworthy only because of another aspect unique to Dota 2, the courier. Utilization of the courier to bring items to you makes being beaten down in your lane somewhat acceptable- as long as you don't actually die. After healing up, you're still at full mana and because your opponents probably took damage and used mana in the kill attempt, the balance of power in the lane may have swung the other way.

Denying

For some reason, denying has become a crux of the argument between League of Legends and Dota 2. To be perfectly honest, it doesn't really matter anywhere near as much as people pretend. The simplest way to explain the role of denying, to me, is to imagine a game of musical chairs. Dota 2 gives two people one chair and has them fight over it every time there's a minion/creep to kill. League of Legends takes the same two people and gives them each their own chair: no one loses.

When you expand this concept to towers is when denying gains huge importance. In Dota 2, if an enemy tower is below 10% HP it is capable of being denied and thus your team is on the verge of losing a lot of potential gold. If your team does not press the issue to force a conflict at the tower, you will lose out on that bonus. In League of Legends, you can just walk away if the other team wants to defend their tower. It's not going anywhere and you have nothing to lose by leaving. If the fight doesn't seem to be in your favor, there's no reason for it to happen.

It's also worth noting that denying minions/creeps allows a team to control lane equilibrium. If they've taken an enemy tower, a team with superior lane control can still keep creep clashes on their side of the map and force the enemy to make the moves. The actual power of a deny to limit experience and gold to an enemy isn't half as important as the overarching strategies it allows.

Ganking and Teamfights

In high level League of Legends ganks are infrequent, and with good reason: a gank doesn't really set your opponent back very much. Because Champions don't lose gold when dying, even if a gank is successful its opportunity cost to the killer may be worth more potential gold and experience than what is negated to his opponent.

Because of this, action in League of Legends revolves around what conflicts of interest on the map there are: specifically Baron Nashor and the Dragon. These conflicts force only a few large scale teamfights that happen at predictable times and usually decide the match.

In Dota 2, while fights at Roshan are frequent, they are only one of many reasons for fights to happen, with a simple gank capable of evolving in mere seconds to a large scale teamfight. We'll see the reason for this next.

Items

The single item that Dota 2 benefits from the most is the Town Portal or TP Scroll. While it exists in League of Legends in the form of the Teleport Summoner Spell, it's on a massive 5 minute cooldown and requires you to give up a valuable spell slot. In Dota 2, for a small gold cost and an item slot, your hero is capable of being in a defensible position on your part of the map or at a tower in three seconds. You can assist an ally being ganked, stop a tower push, or even move across the map to catch an opponent by surprise. You're also capable of escaping to safety at your well in the same short span of time, but only if you can outsmart your opponents.

The mobility offered by the TP Scroll is absolutely crucial to the fluidity of the game; I cannot even imagine how different Dota 2 would be without the item. The potential it offers is enormous, and it's why hero movement in the game is so difficult to keep track of. A hero can kill someone in bottom lane, immediately teleport to an allied tower top that's under attack, and win a teamfight there for his team. Heroes are constantly shifting around between lanes to gain advantages where they see fit: the ability to be aware of all five of them, often through pure intuition, is one of the biggest differences between a casual Dota 2 player and a competitive one.

Items in Dota 2 are very attention-demanding. It is not at all uncommon for a single hero to have four or five items that are activatable and time-sensitive at any given point in the game. Non-activatable items in Dota 2 are very simplistic: if you want a critical strike, you must build Crystalis. If you want to boost your gold intake, you build Hand of Midas, an item that gives bonus gold with every use, on a cooldown. For silencing an opponent, spawning illusions, teleporting, granting your hero various immunities, etc., each item performs a very specific role and the choice of items is a monumental one for heroes and teams, never mind the actual usage of such items.

Items in League of Legends are relatively interwoven. There are multiple different items with similar themes that have various flavors. There are four items, for instance, that all grant passive cooldown reduction and passive gold over time. Items in LoL are overwhelmingly passive- while there are some useful activatable items, the benefits they give are minor compared to the very powerful and situational abilities of items in Dota 2, such as a BKB which can grant complete magical immunity for up to 10 seconds, or a Blink Dagger which conditionally allows a hero to teleport nearly a screen's width on a 14 second cooldown. Most of the activatable items in League of Legends deal with dealing/preventing damage or affecting movement speed. None grant any form of true disable.

Many consumables such as health potions and wards that grant vision in an area are shared between the games. League of Legends simplifies their usage: these consumables may not be shared and are not subject to enemy intervention. Use of potions in Dota 2 requires care, since they can be interrupted by enemy damage, but also allows for hyped moments where a player makes a great play by juking enemy attacks while using a health potion to gain a quick burst of health and turn an otherwise decided fight.

Fog of War

Fog of War in Dota 2 is simple, but manipulative. If there is not a direct line of sight between an allied unit and an enemy, you are not seen. This allows players to hide behind treelines (trees are destructible by many heroes and various items) and make their presence known only at opportune times.

Fog in LoL is primarily due to "brush," a mechanic where units in brush locations can remain unseen despite being very near to enemies. These locations are static and are frequently warded or scouted with abilities, making their actual impact minimal and more a matter of "did you check that spot?" than anything else.

Runes versus Blue/Red Buffs

In Dota 2, there is a single powerup called a Rune which spawns every two minutes. This grants a hero double damage, huge health/mana regeneration, invisibility, maximum movement speed, or spawns two hallucinations of the hero that have various uses. Only one of the teams can get this powerup and a sizable percentage of early game kills are a direct result of one of these Runes.

In LoL, the Red/Blue buffs are spawned by neutral creeps in each team's jungle. As in the case of denies: both teams have the same thing, so there is no impetus to fight over it if the fight doesn't seem to be to your advantage. The buffs in LoL are no less impactful than those in Dota 2, but the advantages they give don't help much when ganking. You can safely assume that an enemy jungler in LoL has a red buff- if you try to assume that a roaming ganker in Dota 2 has an invisibility rune you will never be able to accomplish anything, and so you're forced to make calculated risks.

Gamechanging moments

This is the section most deserving of expansion, but to anyone without a decent grasp of both games it's virtually impossible to explain. I've done my best.

Gamebreaking moments in Dota 2 are frequent and essentially define the game. A commonly chosen hero, Enigma, has an ability called Black Hole which can render an entire opposing team useless for 4 seconds, an absurdly long time in games of this genre. See this teamfight. However, the difficulty in executing something like this is enormous and the penalty for misusing the spell, which can be interrupted easily and has a three minute cooldown, is enormous. In the same video that I linked to, the Enigma performs with textbook execution, even being creative by using another of his abilities to clear trees for positioning. However, his team still loses the fight: the opponents have reacted properly to his team's composition by buying items with significant effects (Mekansm and Pipe). When his teammates don't follow up on his initiation properly, it costs them the battle. Games of Dota 2 can and have been won from the use of a single ability.

Conversely, in League of Legends, spells have become more standard and less dramatic. Their cooldowns have been reduced, their effects lessened, and their impact often unnoticeable. Teamfights in LoL are not so much about tactical selection of targets or timing as they are about casting all of your spells and hitting something with them. This is why the concept of a "tank" is able to exist in League of Legends but is completely foreign to Dota 2: good players don't use spells on heroes simply because they're in front, but in LoL it's often the correct course of action.

Action

• LoL: Games last about 38 minutes. A typical game averages about 29 total kills between the two teams. There are 0.78 kills per minute, or about 8 kills every 10 minutes, on average.
• Dota 2: Games last about 44 minutes. A typical game averages about 56 kills between the two teams. There are 1.37 kills per minute, or about 14 kills every 10 minutes, on average.

Outside the games

eSports Features

Dota 2 has an incredible replay and spectator system. Not only can players tune into essentially any game on a two minute delay, they can hear commentary by anyone in broadcasting slots choosing to utilize the feature. They can choose to operate their own camera, follow a commentator's, follow a single player's perspective, or even allow the very adept computer to automatically decide the most action-intensive location; never missing a kill. Any public or matchmaking game has replays which are freely downloadable by upcoming players. Valve has also announced that Dota 2 will have LAN support, putting it even a step above competing games like StarCraft 2. Teammates can both voice chat with each other and strategize by drawing on the minimap.

League of Legends has a replay system created by a third party developer that is very quirky and comparatively unusable. There is no voice chat in the game. League of Legends has the advantage of a team matchmaking system which allows up and coming teams to scrimmage against each other easily. 

Competitive Community

Both games have teams supported by huge sponsors, with multiple of the biggest names like CLG, Na'Vi, Dignitas and plenty of others sponsoring both Dota 2 and LoL teams. Other well-known gaming organizations like Complexity, SK, and Fnatic are undecided, having sponsored and dropped teams from both games at times. Finally, teams like EG and TSM have apparently settled into one game or the other, though if one game comes to dominate the scene I wouldn't doubt that either would ignore it, with the popularity organizations like those two can both swing.

Important Figures

In this genre, there are several key people who stand apart from others in terms of developing the scene surrounding the games:

• Eul: As the first serious developer of DotA for WarCraft3, Eul's contributions include core mechanics of the genre that at this point we take for granted. He now works at Valve contributing to the development of Dota 2.
• Guinsoo: As the creator of DotA All-Stars, Guinsoo combined popular aspects from various versions of the game that had sprung up around the original, acting as a filter for innovation. Guinsoo now works with Riot Games in helping to develop League of Legends.
• Pendragon: Pendragon began hosting a DotA-related website in 2004. The website, http://dota-allstars.com/, acted as the foundation for the community around the game to grow and only came to an end when he announced that he was moving to work with League of Legends and archiving the site.
• Icefrog: The developer who pushed DotA to new heights with his focuses on balance and competitive play is frequently deified by his fans. IceFrog was the primary developer of DotA throughout its competitive explosion and the arrival of its legitimacy as an eSport. He formerly (and secretly) worked for S2 Games in the development of Heroes of Newerth and left under equally unclear terms, likely after finding the environment at S2 unsuited to the degree of creative control he wanted. Shortly after that departure, he announced his involvement with Valve as the head of a team bringing us what we now know as Dota 2.

Verdict

Dota 2 is constructed with the mindset that competitive players have the utmost priority. If this means that the average player is neglected, it doesn't matter to the game: it is not being developed for players who are not at the highest level. If a new hero is added, it's because the competitive metagame would benefit from such a hero, not because Valve needs to earn money. If a hero is made weaker, it's not because he's strong in public games, it's because he's strong when the two best teams in the world square off.

League of Legends is built with a model that requires an influx of "new" to create revenue. Whether that's new customers, new characters, or new skins, it doesn't matter: the game is developed to bring in constant money. In order to continue that, Riot Games needs to ease entry into League of Legends for new players and then convince them to stick around. It doesn't matter if the competitive players think Flash is a stupid mechanic or if top commentators want an improved replay system- the game isn't being prioritized for them.

To be perfectly frank, Dota 2 is incredibly hard. When you start to play the game, you will play your first hundred games and still feel like you have no grasp whatsoever of what you're doing. You will get frustrated with the game and at times you'll probably have to step away. But if you love the thrill of the razor's edge scenario, you'll be back. League of Legends tones that down at both extremes. When you're learning the game, you won't become anywhere near as frustrated because mistakes aren't punished as heavily. For example: the more you die, the less each successive death rewards the enemy team- a design decision clearly made with public play in mind. When you make gameplay decisions with such priorities, the peak gameplay suffers as a result.

The cutthroat style of Dota 2 is simply not something that everyone will appreciate- ignoring that concept is asinine. The argument can definitely be made that Valve is overdoing it- their lack of accommodation for players looking to learn the game is noteworthy and I feel that it holds back an otherwise extraordinary game. In the end, however, Dota 2's focus on high level play makes the game incredible to watch once you begin to understand its nuances, and the depth and replayability of it as an eSport is unmatched both within the genre and across all others. In time, I fully expect others to come to appreciate that.

Clash of Clans Deconstruction

I see a pattern here. First it was Hay Day, which is Supercell's first poke at farming games and hands down the best farming game on iPhone and iPad. Now Clash of Clans is doing the same thing to the strategy games by outclassing genre veterans with ease. 

What makes Clash of Clans a great game is the trademark Supercell winning formula approach to game development. First you take an existing social game theme. Then you benchmark and reverse engineer the best titles in that genre in order to create a strong and natural feeling core loop. You follow up by building a game around that solid core loop. Sprinkle a new and improved game play twist and dress it up in stunning graphics. Finally you polish the game to perfection with a limited beta launch by making the game available only in Canada. Once it's polished and the KPIs look solid it's time to come out with a bang and take app charts by storm. 

But even though Clash of Clans is the best there is it's still not the best there could be. Despite being extremely polished and reworked on the basis of the genre benchmarks Clash of Clans has plenty of room for improvements in some key game play mechanics as well as in the virality and even monetization features. 

The Core Loop

There are three major parts in Clash of Clans' core loop: Collecting Resources, Building & Training and Battling. Nevertheless not all of the parts of the core loop are equally important as the importance of each part is influenced by player's ongoing goal in the game, which creates different style game play styles from resource gathering and building heavy to active battling.

Collecting Resources - beautiful use automated farming mechanics

Coins and Elixir are the two soft currencies in Clash of Clans. In order to produce Elixir and Coins player simply needs to have Elixir Collectors and Gold Mines. Resource production is automated meaning that player doesn't have to initiate resource production nor wait till resource production has finished production. Also to be noted is that the resource production facilities have a maximum cap, meaning that they will keep on producing resource till specific amount after which they will stop production till player has collected the accumulated resource. To increase resource production maximum cap player needs to upgrade the resource facility.

The resource production is perfectly done in Clash of Clans. Firstly it's always rewarding to return to the game as you can harvest all of your resources at the start of every session. Secondly the automated farming mechanics encourage new players to visit the game more often as the resource facilities reach their max pretty quickly in their early stages. 

Building & Training - everything is interdependent

Roughly put; everything that has to do with building consumes Coins while everything that has to do with troops consumes Elixir. This means that starting a construction, research or an upgrade takes either  Coins or Elixir (never both) as well as time to finish the tas. Time taken to upgrade a building depends on the building's current level, so that upgrading buildings is fast in the beginning and extremely slow on later levels. Same steep curve applies also to the price of upgrades.

Upgrading buildings is crucial for progress as player needs more and more resources to build bigger and better units. What's genius about the upgrading flow is that everything is tied to one-another meaning that players can't just keep on upgrading one specific building but instead have to upgrade everything.

For example take a look at the image below. To upgrade a Gold Mine player need Elixir while upgrading Elixir Collector requires Coins. This ties the resources together as upgrading one resource production facility takes always exponential amount of resources produced by the other resource facility. There's always a specific maximum level for each of player's building based on the level of their HQ. Upgrading HQ takes tremendous amount of Coins and in order to store those Coins player needs Coin Storages, which cost huge sums of Elixir... well, you get the point...

Nevertheless the greatest building/progress restriction is the fact that player has only two builders. In other words player can simultaneously have only two building/upgradings at the same time. Overcoming this restriction takes only $5, which is the price of a third builder (I'm sure many of us have made that purchase). In case you want to have a fourth builder, well the price just went up to 10$. Talking about great use of price elasticity!

Battling - stop punishing the player

Training troops consumes Elixir and takes time. The better troops you produce the more Elixir it costs and the more time it will take to produce them. But time and Elixir are not the only ones restricting players from building the most massive army. Every better unit takes also more housing space, which creates demand for bigger Army Camps. Army Camps need to be upgraded, this takes resources, time and of course upgrades to the HQ... and you're back in the devilish interdependent economy of Clash of Clans.

Here comes the sad part from player's perspective: all the troops you use in a battle are consumed win or lose. So you face a situation where you build and army, attack and lose every single troop even if you won the battle by a landslide. 

Sure from economy perspective consuming the whole player's attacking force creates a great sink for Elixir but from retention point of view I really think battling should be reworked. Kabam's Edgeworld does in my view the battles better as it allows player to retreat (raid other players) as well as to keep all the units who survive a won battle. Not only is this approach more user friendly but it also creates demand for super units, which player can take from one battle to another. And believe me, super units, in which players emotionally invest to, sell like pop corn in a movie theater. 

The Progress

Solid retention in Clash of Clans is mainly due to the steady and visible progress players have in the game. Second key factor in the retention is the well extremely well designed core loop, which reward player for being active and promises progress for each return session. Finally it's also about those notifications, as just when you think you won't be coming back to the game any time soon, you'r iPhone and/or iPad informs you that the awesome building you forgot you were even building is ready now.

Clash of Clans has some great first time flow, as it creates emotional attachment to the game area aka. player's village in a matter of 5 minutes. Game starts with Player entering her village, which is after a couple of dialogs attacked by goblins. Player defends the village with a cannon (learn defense) and launches a counter attack (learn battling). After the counter attack player gets back to the village and goes quickly through the core loop (build resource production, build barracks, train troops) till it's time again to launch a second attack against the goblins. After the second attack the game slows down to normal progress speed and introduces the achievements (which work in the beginning as quests) to the player.

But progressing is not only about getting more resources and upgrading your buildings and troops. Progressing is also a lot to due with the way you village transforms visually. The puny village of the first session will slowly but surely transform into a combination of Lord of the Rings and Warcraft.

What's cool and new with Clash of Clans compared to similar games is the single player mission flow. Sure it's super hard compared to the rewards you get for beating goblins and yes Edgeworld had also single player missions but the way they are presented on a separate map makes them just really compelling - till player engages in the player vs. player battles... 

The Virality 

The ultimate goal in Clash of Clans is to beat other players and be a part of a winning clan. First few days player is protected from attacks from other players but once this shield is dropped you become free game. In other words after the shield is dropped your village will be destroyed between 1 - 3 times a day. Protective shield is re-activated for several hours after each lost defense.

There are two ways player can stay away from destruction (or so we are told). Firstly players need to build up their defenses, which defend the village automatically in asynchronous PvP battle. Walls, traps, cannons, watch towers, mortars - you name it! Secondly players need to join a clan by restoring the castle next to their village (awesome way to introduce clans!). 

Once in a clan players can chat and in theory plan attacks or revenge in behalf of other clan members. In practice yes, you can chat and even donate some troop but you can't coordinate attacks, simply because in Clash of Clans you can't really choose who you will attack. You can only revenge to someone who once attacked you or you can just attack random opponents who're close to your own experience level. 

So what's the point of being a member of a clan apart from getting few low quality reinforcement troop for your next attack? Well, if you're a member in a powerful clan, you all get awarded. There are weekly tournaments and those who wreck the most combined damage get awarded. So yeah, clans are fun for few dozen of people but not for the vast majority of daily players. Plus it would be nice to even get a notification that a weekly clan tournament has been restarted.

Second issue is with friends. Players can sync up via Facebook, which enables them to see all of their playing friends. But after syncing up things fall flat. You can visit your friends or view their clans (and join them). You can't attack your friends. You can't message your friends. You can't gift your friends nor can you request anything from them. Not to mention that you can't even invite players who are not playing to start playing.

Third issue is the lack of World Map is a serious downfall as map creates true rivalries between players and rivalries fuse retention as well as monetization. For example in Kixeye's Backyard Monsters you can see you neighboring players, attack them, conquer new territories onto which you can create outposts.

The Monetization 

Clash if Clans has a whale based monetization because the prices increase as the game progresses creating a situation in which majority of players (retained users) pay higher prices than minority (new users). In short: ARPPU goes hand in hand with retention.

In Clash of Clans players pay for speeding time and boy there are a lot of waiting in the game. As described in the core loop chapter every action takes time from building to upgrading and from training to improving units.

Gems are used to instant finish what ever player is doing. And that's where the catch is. In the beginning whatever you are doing takes little time, which not only is good for retention but it also encourages to instant complete production with the free Gems you have from the start. So in the beginning it's pretty useful and cheap to progress fast and the free Gems you get for completing achievements just push you in that direction (+ first time flow forces player to use Gems so many times that it starts feeling right). But as the game progresses the production times increase. Pretty quickly you are waiting days for productions to be completed - and some players will continue paying (now tenfold) to skip the waiting. 

Gems can also be converted into Coins or Elixir. I usually like to sell separately virtual and premium currencies as it encourages paying players to make several purchases. For example if resources were sold separately buying Gems would help the player to instant finish a production. Then the player would want to start a new construction right away, which would create demand for Coins or Elixir. Player would lack the soft currency because he just speeded up the production instead of waiting so not enough time has passed and the resource production facilities are empty. Of course players can instant finish resource productions but that doesn't create re-buys in the same session - only increases consumption of Gems.

Also Clash of Clans still lacks power ups. Magnificent consumable weapons players can use to improve the success of their attacks (don't underestimate players' willingness to revenge the attacks on their villages). That would convert players who have progressed far but don't find it compelling to pay $30 to speed up a single production. 

The best there is, but...

Clash of Clans is an amazing game. Supercell has thoroughly gone through all the benchmarks in the genre and created a game, which simply outclasses genre veterans such as Kabam and Kixeye. What's even more impressive is that this is Supercell's first poke at the whole strategy genre. 

Clash of Clans is a combination of well balanced core loop, extremely compelling graphics and super smooth gameplay. What makes the game top grossing is the combination of very solid retention and whale economy, where retaining users end up making higher average purchases due to rising costs.

But even though Clash of Clans is the best there is there's still room for significant improvements in game play (battle mode), virality (world map, interaction with friends) and even monetization. Now the question is whether there will be someone else who comes up with improved version of Clash of Clans or will Supercell continue it's dominance with future updates. I believe in the later one, because Supercell has shown that they have the patience to perfect their games. They're not moved by financial quarters and their deadlines seem to be tied to the quality of the product instead of a random date set in executives' mind. I believe that Supercell has the winning formula to make great social games.