In a move purists would faint at the mere idea of, League of Legends is putting more M in your MOBA. Starting the 20th of this month, the boundary pushers at Riot are incorporating a new game mode which shatters the conventional five on five experience and bumps the player count up to six participants per team. I know what you're thinking. If they tamper with the tried and true MOBA formula, what other sort of values are they willing to cast aside in the name of "progress"?

Welcome to this week’s Beyond Co-Op, where we look at interesting news around the gaming and entertainment industry that may not directly pertain to cooperative gaming culture. This week we have a couple of big Nintendo system announcements, EA’s future with online and “free-to-play”, Iran having issues with League of Legends, and Microsoft’s plans for the Kinect.

Riot games is a community based company and we have all dabbled in a bit of League of Legends. Even though they do not put a huge emphasis on E3 we was able to sit down with them to get an update on their latest champion Draven, and dig a little deeper into what makes League of Legends a great co-op game.  

Today, Riot Games announced its newest update for their smash hit title, League of Legends, specifically on the Bot’s AI, difficulty levels, and character selection within co-op gameplay.

Riots Games have announced that League of Legends has added an online co-op mode.  While the game has always had the ability to play in co-op, this marks the first time the developer has created a brand new match making playlist with a focus on co-op.  The mode allows up to five players to band together to take on the PC in single matches and earn experience and other items for their character.

League of Legends developer Riot Games have announced a brand new game more for their game featuring co-op play.  League of Legends is based on, and developed by some of the team that create a mod for Warcraft 3 called Defense of the Ancients.  This psuedo RTS/RPG hybrid features a champion character that summons creatures, uses spells and items, as well as other ablities to conquer opposing champions.  The game is as much strategy as it is action, and loot plays a big part in the addictive nature of the gameplay.

Steven Snow from Riot Games when asked "why co-op":

Game Name: League of Legends: Clash of Fates Co-Op: Yes Co-Op Type/Multiplayer Type: Competitive co-op in the vein of DotA Publisher/Developer: Riot Games Release Date: Oct. 6, 2009 We sat down yesterday with Steven Snow, Vice President of Productions for Riot Games, to talk about their free upcoming release, League of Legends: Clash of Fates.  Gamers who are familiar with the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients: Allstars (or DotA: Allstars as it’s also known) are likely to feel right at home with Legends as it uses the same style of play.  What’s more, the designer for DotA: Allstars, Steve “Guinsoo” Feak, and the creator of the fansite that was the official support base for it, Steve “Pendragon” Mescon, are both involved with the making of this game and it definitely shows.