It’s been so long, and the space is now so thoroughly dominated by two games, that it’s almost impossible to recall how things could have been any different, though for a brief window, the MOBA genre – basically every single game that has been copied DotA from WarCraft III Map– was a war zone.
For those who are not there at this time, i am special talk about Early 2010s. Secure, League of Legends and valves dota 2 were huge even back then, but there was room for other games to try and compete as welland was one of the earliest and most dangerous challengers Heroes of Newerthwhich was first released as a full-priced game in 2010, but was quickly re-released a year later to match its competitor’s free-to-play model (then it’s even possible more 2012 free).
HoN actually launched its beta at the same time as lolbut during Riot’s game became one of the biggest things in the history of video games, Heroes of Newerththat was harder to play and had one of the most depraved communities this pastime has ever seen, just couldn’t keep up. I’ll be honest here and say I thought it closed years ago, it’s been so long since I heard anything about it, but it turns out there were enough fans to keep the game going until 2022 keep.
But not anymore. Newerth’s servers went down for the final time today, bringing to an end over a decade of action. Anyone who visits the game’s website will now be presented with a simple splash message that reads: “HON IS NOW OFFICIALLY CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR THE GAME!”. Remaining fans have left tributes on the game’s forums—who are still standing-Saying stuff like “IIt’s very sad to realize that the game I’ve spent half my life playing (I’m 26 now) isn’t there anymore‘ and ‘Fuck DOTA’.
