We fought the good fight, gentle people of Game On! We fought it hard, like so much hard-bodied people what are hard.

Hard.

A few days ago, I received an E-mail from our iGames representative informing us that we received second place in the Borderlands promotional video contest. Naturally, I assume that there was some kind of breakdown in the judging process, as our video was quite obviously terrible enough for TWENTY first places, but I’m (not at all) a sportsmanlike kinda’ guy, so I’ma ask that you just let this injustice slide, and don’t take to the streets with the name of Muad’Dib on your lips.

Now I know that I said there’d be some amount of award if we took FIRST place, and that we ultimately ended up to the rear of the fellows that did (whose video really is quite good, by the way), but it seems entirely inappropriate to abandon that promise on something as trivial as a.. pfft.. detail. I mean, come on.

Fact: We asked you to watch our video, and you obliged.

Fact: We had the most number of views on YouTube.

Fact: There absolutely WILL be a pizza party, and we’ll also figure out some kind of awesome special on LAN hours for the evening.

Thank you so much for your support guys,
Damon

P.S. This will be cross-posted in the forum to figure out a good evening to do the free pizza/LAN special. Come to the forum if you want to weigh in.

A little belated–not as cutting edge as we might like–but we now have League of Legends installed on the computers in the LAN. The game itself strives to be better and bolder than DotA with vastly upgraded graphics and a slew of new items and heroes. Like Heroes of Newerth, it is entirely stand-alone and no longer relies of Warcraft 3 for its maps or characters.

The game has several characteristics that distinguish it from Defense of the Ancients. Every player is required to create a free account which then tracks their stats, friends lists, and various other information. Players, known in League of Legends world as Summoners, have a customizable talent tree, the ability to level as themselves (in addition to their Heroes leveling over the course of a match) and customize gameplay with various talents and runes.

In terms of game play, there are obvious similarities between LoL and games like DotA and HoN. It’s a single map with three paths, a.k.a. lanes, that players can take to reach the opponent’s base and eventually victory. What makes League of Legends unique however is the level of customization available to players (both for free and via collectors’ packs) and the matchmaking capabilities of the game.

To speak more of them, one has to address friends. With separate accounts for each player (absolutely free), users can add friends to their friends lists and chat with them through the LoL interface. This same list can be used to create matches where all friends are placed in a match on the same side (up to 5 people) and the matchmaking interface them pairs them up with other players of similar level and player count. In this fashion, friends can play together without the hassles inherent to Warcraft 3′s Battle Net.

So, the game is here and we welcome you to give it a try.

Alright, so here’s the skinny, iGames, the kind people who make it possible for us to license games and get in new stuff and showcases from time to time (such as the Borderlands promotion we’ve all been jammin’ on lately), gave us a wonderful opportunity to be silly and creative and maybe make a few extra dollars.

(In confidence, a few extra dollars is always welcome around these here parts.)

Basically, the idea of it was to create a video centered around Borderlands and the promotion in the LAN, upload said video to YouTube, and then see who gets the most views.

In other words, we need your help.

We need you to go to YouTube. We need you to watch our video.

Many, many times.

Now here’s what’s in it for you:

1.) A pretty gosh-darned funny and entertaining video filled with colourful characters, attractive women, Borderlands, shocking twists, and palace intrigue.

2.) If we manage to net first prize in this thing, I will personally set an evening (with customer input, of course) on which to buy pizza for everybody in the store! Now this is a good deal, because I’m incredibly poor, so that means that the value and sentiment of me spending money on you is like getting up to make you several sandwiches after exhaustive, passionate lovemaking, and then also buying you pizza.

-UPDATE!-

3.) Game On! will happily donate one free hour of LAN time to everybody that shows up for the pizza party, and I will personally match an additional free hour out of my own pocket.

So, that’s a night of free pizza and two hours of free gaming if we take first in this thing. Right now, we’ve got a strong second in views, and are only barely lingering behind first.

Click on THIS LINK to watch our insanely awesome Borderlands video!

We need to get a few more pictures and a little more footage for a Borderlands promotion we’re putting together, and it’d be extra nice if we could get the entire LAN full of people playing. So, anybody who comes out for this Wednesday evening’s Team Fortress 2 night will be given a free hour, under the condition that they spend fifteen or so minutes of that time playing Borderlands, and are comfortable being on camera.

Team Fortress 2 night starts loosely around six o’clock.

Borderlands filming will start, tentatively, around 7:15-7:30.

The title pretty much highlights the thrust of it:

You can now try the demo for Left 4 Dead 2 in our LAN.

Also available is a Borderlands showcase (one free hour just to check it out).

This post is pretty much to let you know that it’s all up and running. There’ll be a more official, promotional announcement in a couple of days.