New Esports Director, Phil The Thrill, grilled on HoN Tour, “cash-grabbing”, and Dota 2 in hard-hitting interview

Warchamp calls out Diva, Maliken, Honcast in big cryfest

TLDR version:

Warchamp, a global moderator claims:

• he’s quitting after 3 years of volunteering since it has turned into a shitfest
• community contributors made the game great and many were hired by S2
• Diva’s design decisions suck and his control over all design stifles its success
• Maliken is the main problem with Hon and his greed-motivated decisions ruin it
• Honcast is a monopoly because of S2′s support and Breaky & Phil suck at the game & therefore suck at casting
• Hon is just a cash grab now

Full version (read while crying):

As of yesterday, I am no longer a global moderator for Heroes of Newerth, I was forcefully removed from the team without even getting to post a goodbye. After 3 years or more of volunteering my free time to a game I loved, I eventually became too disinterested and inactive to warrant maintaining the status. As such, I think it’s time for a nice big post. I warn you now I’m a terrible writer so I’m probably just gonna toss out a wall of rambling.

The Beginning

When HoN first entered beta, I got in relatively early through a friend. I was never a big dota player but I had played it ocassionally and had heard about LoL being in development (And expected terrible things simply because of the name). I enjoyed the game and ended up participating on the forums, including making a big mega thread at one point filled to the brim with hero information.

Eventually, as I do with most games, I started tinkering with the game files and I created a simple mod that put all the DotA names for items next to the HoN one in-game. It was crude and imperfect, but it got the job done. With that, mods for HoN were born and an incredible and talented community began to thrive, leading to the later creation of the mod manager. Shortly after I made that first mod and released it in the “Interface” section of the forums, it was altered into a modding section with me as the moderator in charge. Around this time, S2 was still a small indie company, with only 20 – 30 people total with nearly half of those being the artist team.

I joined a moderator team along with a number of other really cool people that I’m friends with still to this day. Most of them are listed on the credits page in the ‘Moderators’ section.

Looking at that list, I wanna quickly go over a couple of them.

(more…)

[S2]Maliken claims to have identified DDOS attacker; possible 10 year prison sentence

HoN is semi-operational again. We are not out of the water just yet. However, we are making progress.

On a more positive note, we have confirmed the identity of the individual responsible for the criminal acts causing HoN’s downtime. Even better news is the UK government takes these matters VERY seriously http://www.met.police.uk/pceu/ 10 years in prison for a “flag in a video game” seems pretty silly to me!

We are working with authorities there and expect to have justice soon!

DDOS Update Thread

Big dumpster tries to bring out his 13% Maliken; gets buried 0-7

So this LunaImpact kid goes reaching into his Greatest Hits for his 13% played Maliken like a big fat fucking 1900 nerd. Some people might see it as a compliment that an opponent is bringing out his best hero just to beat you but then most people are brainless donkeys who go lothars on Puppet.  No one is allowed to bring out that nerdy of an afk ricing hero riding around town like its’ a dirty 1600 EM game. Pick Soulstealer and go mid like a man.  Quick check of the instruction manual for Magmus: “Bury that Pub. Repeat.” Couple minutes later his score is 0-7 and they’re conceding at 15. Nice Maliken bro.  Put that back.

Magic The Gathering’s Sword of Body and Mind is clear ripoff of Maliken’s Sword of the Damned… OR VICE VERSA???

Sword of the Damned

Maliken’s legendary weapon, the Sword of the Damned, is capable of two different attack modes:
Enchanted Flames grants him increased damage at the cost of his own life, while Life Essence grants him very high life steal at the cost of reduced damage.

Sword of Body and Mind

Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from green and from blue.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you put a 2/2 Wolf creature token onto the battlefield and that player puts the top ten cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

MTG’s Sword of Body and Mind (October 2010) is a clear rip of Maliken’s Sword of the Damned (July 2009).  Both are multi-function, blue/green swords that partake in badassery.  Doesn’t get much more clear cut than that.  This could be the the first time HoN has gotten ripped off instead of just getting called out for doing the ripping (of DotA) itself.

S2, get those lawyers on the phone and cut me in for 10% on the fat settlement check that is coming your way.  Or just name a hero in the game “Daggius” for me.  You know I earned it. Fuck it, just invite me to one of your coke parties at the Maliken Porn Mansion. I’m there!