Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends are both part of the Moba genre, otherwise known as multiplayer online battle arena games. These games are purely PvP ( Player vs Player) which means there are no PvE ( Player vs Environment) elements to these games. Both games take core concepts from an original game, Dota (Defense of the ancients). All that said the goal of this essay is to help people who want to switch from one game to another or to help the people who are trying to choose their first Moba game.
The last time I compared these two games I compared the core mechanics of how the games worked and some of the aspects that each game was missing. This time I'm going to focus on something that is not a part of game but effects a players experience more than one would think. The community.
Since both games were take core concepts from the original Dota game it would make sense that they could also cause player playing the original Dota to switch over. Heroes of Newerth seems to have done this much better since it is much more like the original Dota than League of Legends and because of this, the greater mass of the Dota fans ended up switching over to Heroes of Newerth rather than League of Legends. The mass of players that played the original Dota live in South America and Europe and most of them did not speak English. Now as a Canadian player who speaks English this could end up as a major problem in-game. Communication with a players team is the key to winning a game, but because of the massive group of fans switching over from Dota to Heroes of Newerth a player will often find himself in a team where he/she cannot communicate. This can easily end up losing a player the and is a big turn-off to a lot of people. Although that can get annoying its just a minor flaw in the Heroes of Newerth community.
Both Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends have tutorials that teach players how to play the game, but both the tutorials fail to effectively prepare people for the competitive game environment they're about to enter. Heroes of Newerth has a much more competitive and unforgiving community some of which will trash. This is happens throughout the game no matter the skill level of the player. Although the community in League of Legends does get competitive, it usually does so in higher ranked games with player that have more experience and even when it does get competitive there is virtually no trash talking when compared to the community in Heroes of Newerth. It is often found that a new player will end up quitting Heroes of Newerth simply because of the horrible experience with the community. Although the community in Heroes of Newerth is relentless it is understandable why. A simple mistake caused by a new player is much more likely to cost the game in Heroes of Newerth than it is in League of Legends
Now things do look bad for the Heroes of Newerth community but League of Legends also has its own share of community problems. Heroes of Newerth has a really strict system against a player who will quit a game half way ( A "Leaver") simply because he/she was not doing to well that game. Unlike Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends has virtually no system that punishes leavers. Because of this a player will often find that 1-2 player on his/her team will quit simply because they weren't doing too well. This end up giving the other team an unfair advantage causing the player to lost the game. This mostly happens at lower levels which in turn ends up being a big turn-off for new players causing some of them to quit the game entirely.
Now what game a new player should pick is completely up to what the player prefers. If the player prefers a game that is a bit more of a challenge and a game that also has a harsh community but a community without leavers. He/She can play Heroes of Newerth. Otherwise the player can play League of Legends, which is a bit easier to pick up and play but has a lot of leavers which can cost newer player a lot of games at lower levels.
The last time I compared these two games I compared the core mechanics of how the games worked and some of the aspects that each game was missing. This time I'm going to focus on something that is not a part of game but effects a players experience more than one would think. The community.
Since both games were take core concepts from the original Dota game it would make sense that they could also cause player playing the original Dota to switch over. Heroes of Newerth seems to have done this much better since it is much more like the original Dota than League of Legends and because of this, the greater mass of the Dota fans ended up switching over to Heroes of Newerth rather than League of Legends. The mass of players that played the original Dota live in South America and Europe and most of them did not speak English. Now as a Canadian player who speaks English this could end up as a major problem in-game. Communication with a players team is the key to winning a game, but because of the massive group of fans switching over from Dota to Heroes of Newerth a player will often find himself in a team where he/she cannot communicate. This can easily end up losing a player the and is a big turn-off to a lot of people. Although that can get annoying its just a minor flaw in the Heroes of Newerth community.
Both Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends have tutorials that teach players how to play the game, but both the tutorials fail to effectively prepare people for the competitive game environment they're about to enter. Heroes of Newerth has a much more competitive and unforgiving community some of which will trash. This is happens throughout the game no matter the skill level of the player. Although the community in League of Legends does get competitive, it usually does so in higher ranked games with player that have more experience and even when it does get competitive there is virtually no trash talking when compared to the community in Heroes of Newerth. It is often found that a new player will end up quitting Heroes of Newerth simply because of the horrible experience with the community. Although the community in Heroes of Newerth is relentless it is understandable why. A simple mistake caused by a new player is much more likely to cost the game in Heroes of Newerth than it is in League of Legends
Now things do look bad for the Heroes of Newerth community but League of Legends also has its own share of community problems. Heroes of Newerth has a really strict system against a player who will quit a game half way ( A "Leaver") simply because he/she was not doing to well that game. Unlike Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends has virtually no system that punishes leavers. Because of this a player will often find that 1-2 player on his/her team will quit simply because they weren't doing too well. This end up giving the other team an unfair advantage causing the player to lost the game. This mostly happens at lower levels which in turn ends up being a big turn-off for new players causing some of them to quit the game entirely.
Now what game a new player should pick is completely up to what the player prefers. If the player prefers a game that is a bit more of a challenge and a game that also has a harsh community but a community without leavers. He/She can play Heroes of Newerth. Otherwise the player can play League of Legends, which is a bit easier to pick up and play but has a lot of leavers which can cost newer player a lot of games at lower levels.