Riot Games' League of Legends also received top honors in both of its nominated categories, securing the win for Best Live Game and Best Community Relations at the 2012 ceremony, presented by UBM Tech Game Network and the GDC Online.
Star Wars: The Old Republic also received awards for Best Online Technology and Best Online Game Design. The game, released in December 2011, is BioWare's first foray into the MMORPG market and has been called the "fastest-growing MMO ever," boasting one million users just three days after its release. Praised for its deep, expansive content and engaging storyline, the title stands as a prime example of a well-executed and refined MMORPG.
League of Legends also earned its second Audience Award win during tonight's event. The Audience Award is presented to a persistent online game that has been voted for by the worldwide online game community. Riot Games' standout battle-arena MMO title was the first ever to win the Audience Award during the inaugural Game Developers Choice Online Awards ceremony in 2010. In 2012, League of Legends led the nominations for Audience Award with a total of 66,343 votes from players across the globe.
Introduced in 2010, the Game Developers Choice Online Awards, a sister event to GDC's notable annual Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco, honor the accomplishments of the creators and operators of online games. Videogame titles are nominated and voted on by the game development community in categories that include awards in audio, design and visual arts and more, with the distinguished GDC Online Advisory Board helping to pick the special awards.
The 2012 Game Developers Choice Online Awards brought together creators of large-scale, triple-A MMOs as well as social, mobile and free-to-play titles to honor and celebrate the accomplished history, technical excellence and innovation in the online game development industry.
OMGPOP and Zynga's social mobile app Draw Something was named Best Social Network Game at tonight's event. Following its explosive launch in the spring of 2012, the viral, word-of-mouth growth of the app led to 20 million verified downloads within one month after its release, a number that set a new record for app downloads.
Additionally, Blizzard Entertainment's highly-anticipated Diablo III won Best Audio for an Online Game and thatgamecompany's emotionally-charged PlayStation Network title Journey was awarded the Online Innovation Award.
Other 2012 Game Developers Choice Online Awards categories include the Online Game Legend Award and the Hall of Fame; these categories recognize developers and titles that have had significant impact in the world of online games. Key industry figure Raph Koster was presented with the Online Game Legend Award for his work on prodigious massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. With professional credits that span nearly every facet of game development, including writing, art, soundtrack music, programming and design, Koster is an instrumental figure in the game development community whose contributions are priceless.
In addition to winning Best Audio at the ceremony with Diablo III title, Blizzard Entertainment secured a Hall of Fame induction with World of Warcraft, a game that has dominated the MMORPG landscape, setting the standard for countless other games in the genre. With its focus on delivering a polished player experience, World of Warcraft propelled MMORPGs into the mainstream. The game offered the community a reprieve from long load times and steep learning curves, which only made the colorful graphics, engaging gameplay, exciting quests and raids and immersive world more impressive.
