plague102

So recently a bill has been introduced into congress called the SOPA or Stop Online Piracy Act. Now at first it sounds reasonable the idea of halting online piracy seems like a noble goal but there are a lot of strings attached to this. One of my favorite games (League of Legends) has come up with a nice summary of how this bill does more than its name suggests (FYI Riot games is the company behind League of Legends):

Called the "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) in the House of Representatives and the "PROTECT IP Act" (PIPA) in the Senate, these bills are a misguided attempt to curb the illegal piracy of copyrighted content (like movies, music and games). Preventing piracy of copyrighted content is a laudable goal, and Riot supports legitimate efforts to combat these activities and protect content creators (like us).

However, SOPA/PIPA goes far beyond simply addressing piracy. This proposed legislation actually threatens any website that features user-generated content. In effect, any copyright holder could file a claim that a streaming website is hosting unauthorized content (such as a song in the background of a League of Legends stream). Under the law, ad networks, payment providers and internet service providers are now potentially liable for their user’s infringement. These services could then be compelled to immediately remove support for a streaming website or face a costly legal battle – at a minimum cutting off financial means, and likely shutting off the site entirely.

How would SOPA/PIPA impact League of Legends players?

• Kills streaming. If any single streamer plays copyrighted music (or alt tabs into a movie or other owned content) on their stream, there is a significant risk of the entire streaming service being taken down. In some cases, it could even result in criminal penalties for the streamer.
• Threatens independent content creation. Services we all use to create and share League of Legends related content, such as YouTube, Reddit, DeviantArt, streaming websites such as Own3d and Twitch, and more would be at risk of shutting down or greatly restricting the scope of legitimate content allowed on their sites.
• Attacks our community. Aspects of our service such as the official forums and potentially even in-game chat, could be taken down or have their features reduced based on user behavior.
• Other harmful effects. SOPA/PIPA undermine established intellectual property legislation like the DMCA, raise serious constitutional free speech issues, and could even compromise the basic security infrastructure of the internet.

Congress will reconvene at the end of January, and with a long roster of supporters on both sides of the aisle, SOPA/PIPA could actually pass. The likelihood is so great that technology giants including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter have gone so far as to publicly consider a simultaneous blackout in protest.

Riot Games is opposed to SOPA/PIPA in their present form. While we do support efforts to prevent online piracy, the current form of this legislation comes at far too high a cost for us, our players, and online communities across the internet.

Help us take a stand. Write your congressperson today and voice your opposition to this misguided and harmful legislation: https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173

Riot Games Attorney RiotLomar is currently doing an AMAA on Reddit. Have a question? Check it out!

(SOURCE - Riot Games, http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/help-us-stop-sopa)

So sometime ago on the Bombcast a supposed listener wrote in about working in South Africa on a lion reserver where a lioness had just given birth to two new cubs. He went on to say that his names for the cubs were picked... Gerstmann and Davis. Why am I bringing this up, well today I was listening to the new IGN Gamescoop podcast (episode 220) when Daemon Hatfield (host and reviewer for IGN) read the EXACT same email this time though the lion cubs were being named Daemon and MIller. This email takes place at 43:55 min into the podcast. Maybe I'm remembering wrong but can a more talented user possibly grab the two clips of the emails and post them to help expose this!!

Summoner Name: plague102

Server: NA

Level: 30

Champions: Miss Fortune, Malzahar, Jarvan(Jungle or Lane), Malaphite, Ryze, Taric

Sweet have been playing the beta and its a ton of fun can't wait!

@docdresden I know that Niky Dubz posts on here about streaming a bunch of his games, so he might have some stuff for you

Because Riot has to work out bugs with the ranked game mode and thus have to shut it down, they are introducing normal draft picking alongside normal blind picking this weekend. To me this is a great way for people to tryout how a ranked match goes without the added pressure of a ranked game. I also think that Riot should keep this option around even after they fixed ranked, though it might take away some players from the normal blind pick option. So what are everyone's thoughts on this? Do you think they should keep it around or is the regular split of blind pick/ranked games good enough?

@coakroach glad this helped you decide (that is kinda what this is for not really to cause a ruckus)

*Also added a new point about no buy-backs in LoL

@nintendoeats River runes are runes that are found "floating" in the river area which grant things like invisibility and double damage, they can either be used right away or "bottled" to be used later. And thanks for the spot missed that.

Please Note

Ok first I would like to keep the comments civil as this is not meant to stir up arguments about which game is better and takes more skill. (Though I know it is hard to resist)

Second I'm sure there are many people who don't know the differences between LoL, HON, and DOTA, so I went out and found a pretty decent writeup of the major differences between LoL and DOTA. I will admit that I don't really play HON so if people know the MAJOR differences between HON and DOTA please leave those in the comments.

Thirdly some of these maybe outdated as LOL, HON, and DOTA frequently patch.

I hope this is informative to people.

Major Differences between LOL and DOTA

• Champion selection is limited to the "free to play" champions (which are rotated on a weekly basis) or the ones you have purchased using in game points (Influence points) or real life money (converted into Riot points).
• Maximum level is 18. With the exception of (as of writing this) 2 champions, Udyr and Karma, this gives your Q, W, and E skills 5 levels, and your R ultimate 3 levels. For Udyr, as he has no true ult, but rather 4 basic skills, you could have a 5 5 5 3 setup, or a 5 5 4 4 setup, or any combination therein. For Karma, her ult is given at level 1 and never levels up, giving her Q, W and E skills 6 levels each.
• No denying. This includes towers as well as creeps/minions. You can still deny by keeping enemy champions out of the kill radius / prevent them from last hitting, but there is no "auto-attack your own minions" to deny.
• No gold loss on death.
• Towers hit a lot harder and do more damage to you the longer they've been hitting you, making early tower dives a lot riskier and making towers much safer to defend against.
• You can only kill the enemy base/nexus by killing an entire lanes towers then its inhibitor then subsequently the 2 nexus towers before destroying the nexus other lanes towers do not need to be destoyed.
• The ranged/melee barracks have been merged into a single building called an inhibitor, and instead of bolstering the melee/ranged minions in that lane when destroyed, it instead makes a single, powerful melee unit spawn with every wave. Inhibitors respawn over time.
• There are far fewer "active" items (click to use) and the focus is more on increasing your passive stats.
• Every champion has a passive ability that is somewhat integral to their playstyle or their character flavor. These passives are always active and require no skill points. For example, the champion Zilean increases all allies' experience gain by 8% always. A more active example would be the character LeBlanc, who spawns a mirror image whenever she drops below 40% HP (occuring at most once per minute).
• There is a 3v3 as well as a 5v5 map, meaning there are two separate meta-games to identify (though most people play 5v5).
• Some of the larger neutral creeps provide passive buffs that provide a visual effect as well as a bonus to attributes. For example, the Golem buff provides mana/energy regeneration and cool down reduction.
• There is a large neutral creep called the dragon that provides teamwide gold and experience. This is often contested through the mid-late game and is a prime target for jungler champions to kill.
• The "boss" neutral creep (Baron Nashtor) does not provide an item (like Token of Life), but rather teamwide gold/exp and a passive buff that greatly increases health/mana/energy regen as well as additional attack damage and ability power.
• You get to choose 2 additional "Summoner Abilities" that are universal regardless of what champion you pick. Some examples of these are Ghost (temporary speed boost and unitwalking), Flash (short range teleport), Ignite (scaling damage with a DoT and reduced healing/regen component), and Clairvoyance (short cooldown, small radius map reveal). There are others too, of course.
• No river runes.
• You may passively increase your champions' stats by purchasing "Runes" outside of the actual in-game interface. These runes are purchased using points you earn by playing games (winning or losing).
• Additionally, you may increase your champions stats / enhance your "Summoner Abilities" / provide passive effects through the mastery system. The mastery system is a simplified version of a talent tree (akin to Diablo 2, World of Warcraft, etc.) with points being earned as you level your summoner (your account), which is done by simply playing games.
• Ability to return to base (free, no need to buy it, no item slot taken, no cooldown)
• Improved juking - instead of sneaky paths between trees there is "brush" (bushes/grass) system - brush blocks line of sight of those outside it and provides bonuses to some champions/heroes
• Map is symmetrical with the exception of the placement of the Dragon and Baron "boss" creeps.
• Shields system - damage shields are dynamically displayed as a gray extension of the healthbars. Purple extensions indicate magic-only shields.
• It's possible to bind smartcasts (cast instantly on keypress on the area the cursor is hovering over, not on an additional mouse click)
• No secret shops or outposts. All items are purchased at the base shop.
• The Shop's combination items are displayed in a tree, making it easy to see which items combine into what.
• There exists no buy-backs. What this means is that once your champion is dead you must wait out the full length of the death timer (which increases based on champion level), whereas in DOTA one could spend money to immediately bring their champion back to life, thus skipping the death timer.

REFERENCE:http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/10173/what-are-the-differences-between-defense-of-the-ancients-dota-and-league-of-leg

The game looks really really slow that combined with the bad streaming makes it difficult for me to be entertained. I realize that the game is pre-beta so I won't completely write it off but so far not diggin it...