It has been determined to make "League of Legends", but how to do it needs to be carefully considered.
Strictly speaking, "League of Legends" is a very commercially successful game, but in terms of balance and competitiveness, there are some flaws that appear to improve commerciality.
It has been able to stay popular for several years, relying on the constant update of the version, using this frequent change to constantly bring new experiences to the players, so as to dilute the imbalance of the game itself to the greatest extent.
Regardless of whether this method is the optimal solution for the time being, at least it solves the problem well.
Let players play new powerful heroes every time the version is updated, so as to obtain different fun.
In Chen Mo's view, the reason why the previous "League of Legends" took this route is very complicated, but the most important reasons are nothing more than two. One is the positioning of the game itself, and the other is the development and operation of the company. Company characteristics.
In terms of positioning, "League of Legends" is a game with the ultimate goal of mining, expanding, and unifying the market. It is for this purpose to try to reduce the difficulty of getting started (even at the expense of the balance of the game itself).
Therefore, the subsequent operation strategy and version update must continue this purpose, which has been determined from the very beginning and is inherited in the same strain.
In terms of company characteristics, it means that Riot Games was not a big company with a lot of money and wealth at the beginning. It also developed slowly with the game "League of Legends". money, so it also takes into account the ability of the game in terms of revenue.
This is the same reason that Chen Mo had to do some krypton gold games at the beginning.
As for the operator, I will not explain it. Everyone on the earth knows whether it likes to make money or not.
Of course, after the great success of "League of Legends" and the fist is not short of money, more and more considerations for transformation have begun, such as canceling the level cap, canceling the rune system, and so on.
It is even considered to completely cancel the fees charged to players by the game "League of Legends", and use various events and peripherals as profit points (just like traditional sports).
There were several major versions of "League of Legends" in Chen Mo's previous life, and each major change would change the entire game drastically, so which version to make still needs to be carefully considered.
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In his own studio, Chen Mo began to write the design concept draft of "League of Legends".
This concept draft is probably the one he has written for the longest time. Although he is familiar with most of the content of the game "League of Legends", he still has to think twice about the choice of some key issues.
The most critical point is what the final form of the game should look like.
In terms of purpose, Chen Mo is now highly consistent with Riot Games in his previous life. What he wants now is a moba game that is extremely easy to learn, and he wants to become a phenomenon-level hit game that will rule PC games for a long time. market, and cut off the living space of any other moba games that may appear.
Therefore, the "League of Legends" that Chen Mo wants to do must also be a relatively simple game.
If it is made complicated, it may seize the market by operating simpler moba games, and it will not be able to achieve the effect of overall domination.
Secondly, how competitive and balanced this game should be
In the previous life, "League of Legends" was criticized at the beginning of its birth because of its talent and rune system. The rune system, in particular, makes this game somewhat unfair because it allows players of different game lengths to have a gap in combat power when they enter the same game.
Of course, the rune system has its meaning, such as:
1. Provide players with a sense of growth and long-term pursuit.
2. Match different runes with different heroes to create a variety of gameplay.
Three, make money.
However, later, the fist also canceled the design of runes during the revision.
Chen Mo's decision is that in the first version of "League of Legends", the talent will be kept and the runes will be cut off.
Players will still have a level cap of 30, but talents will be fully unlocked at level 10. In other words, as long as the player works a little harder to reach level 10, he will not have any gaps with other players in terms of attributes.
Matching this is the change in revenue content: all heroes are free, and all revenue comes from skins and other value-added services that do not affect combat power.
Cutting off the fees from runes and heroes will definitely have a certain impact on the revenue of "League of Legends", but Chen Mo knows very well that there are more benefits.
Make "League of Legends" an absolutely fair competitive game, so that its professionalization will be on the right track faster.
The reason why Chen Mo dared to do this was that he was in a different situation than the fist company at that time. If the fist company started with a headwind, then he started with a tailwind.
Riot Games had to consider the profitability of the game, but Chen Mo didn't.
Chen Mo's R&D funds are very abundant now, and even if the R&D funds are not enough, it is enough to make krypton gold games. There is no need to use "League of Legends" to collect money from players.
In the first six months or even a year, it doesn't matter if "League of Legends" doesn't make any money at all. Anyway, as long as it can pile up the number of players and create a prototype related to e-sports, it will be difficult not to make money in the future.
In other respects, Chen Mo considered following the general framework of "League of Legends" in the s3 period and making some adjustments.
The s1 and s2 of "League of Legends" are equivalent to the start-up and development period. It is only in the s3 that it has truly formed its own style and has a wide-ranging influence all over the world.
Especially from the third season, "League of Legends" began to appear a large number of heroes with lol characteristics, such as: Jess, Zyra, Luna, Rengar, Dark Head, Kha'Zix, Spider Queen, Zed, Thresh , Zack, etc.
These heroes are all typical heroes who take into account both hero mechanism and operability. It is precisely because of these very "show" heroes that "League of Legends" has a strong vitality, allowing it to have a complete explosion in the s3 period , and eventually established a dominant position.
If heroes with relatively simple operations such as Amumu, Stone Man, and Galen are the cornerstones of "League of Legends", then these "Sima" heroes who can show off are the face of "League of Legends".
It is these capable heroes that make this game cater to the vast majority of players and have long-term vitality.
Of course, the "League of Legends" that Chen Mo wants to do is definitely different from any version in his previous life.
Chen Mo even considered adjusting the entire numerical balance system of "League of Legends" in an all-round way, so that most heroes can be used, and the routines of the entire game will become more diversified.