S2вЂ™s designing Strife from the ground up to limit that negativity and to weed out toxic players who make you weep for humanity. That kind of behavior limits the audience and turns new players away. It is hostile,вЂќ S2 chief executive officer Marc DeForest said at the press announcement. вЂњIt seemed the first thing that people started to latch on to was вЂI tried to play this game and these people are mean. When looking at the next generation of the genre, S2вЂ™s goal isnвЂ™t just to clean up the gameplay and tighten the graphics, itвЂ™s to clean up the playerbase. Now, S2 Games has announced its new MOBA, Strife. S2 GamesвЂ™ Heroes of Newerth falls somewhere in the middle: successful, if not wildly so. First generation commercial games like League of Legends and DOTA 2 earned millions of players worldwide, while contenders like Battle for Graxia closed after only a few months. MOBAs arose from the primordial ooze of the Warcraft 3 modding community and rapidly evolved to the top of the competitive gaming scene. This will not only make for less squabbling about role selection, but should also smooth out a team's compositional difficulties right off the bat.Д¬heck out the Rook teaser above for a first look into the world of Strife. One of the most interesting is Strife'sВ take on matchmaking, which has players select a hero before joining a team.

Gavin Townsley over at Massively has a great write-up about his hands on experience with the game, which reveals some very exciting details. In general, this seems like an effort not necessarily to provide a genre-changing MOBA, but simply to introduce one whose entire purpose is ridding the community of toxic behavior. There's a huge focus on teamwork and rating players based on behavior as interpreted by fellow players. In fact, the devs seem eager to remove any element that might cause competition between teammates. The core mechanics are going to be recognizable but different enough that it makes Strife somewhat of a gamble as it enters the market later this year. It's unlikely that this will effect each game so heavily considering the matchmaking system which seems like it will match you with others based on your chosen hero's level, and not your persistent player level. The team hopes to provide a much deeper integration of the lore into the game itself, something Riot Games has tried to do with LoL.ДЄdditionally, crafting elements are being introduced into the game. It seems like this is S2's attempt to tackle what other MOBAs have been trying to accomplish in their own games, but haven't been able to without upsetting or jostling their playerbase.

The biggest goal with Strife seems to be an all-inclusive and friendlier MOBA, which is a great stride for a genre infamous for their not-so-tolerant communities. But, the heroes are a bit more illustrated than most and reflect the open-to-all approach of the project. The screens that are out there will certainly look very familiar to anyone who has even touched a MOBA before. On the face of the game, StrifeВ seems to have a much brighter aesthetic all around, even bordering on cartoonish (in a good way). Players must overcome вЂњThe Trials of Strife,вЂќ as well as one another, to prove themselves as champions worthy to face the Dharkwave.' Its only hope is an Army of Light, forged in the crucible of battle to hold the line against their impending arrival. But what's exciting is seeing the same developer take its experiences with their previous MOBA and try to make a big change in the genre altogether with this upcoming release.ДЇrom their press release: ' It all begins when the invasion of the Dharkwave, harbingers of darkness foretold by prophecy, is imminent, promising catastrophe upon the world. Though HoNВ isn't the most popular MOBA around, only lagging behind the two giants of Dota 2 and League of Legends, it's still been very well received and certainly has a fanbase of its own. Unlike its sibling HoN, Strife will be free-to-play right out of the gate ( HoN has been f2p for a while now, though). Strife, a new title meant to provide a more community-based and easy-to-access alternative, is still very much in development and is slated for release sometime this winter.

Strife moba