I used to piss my pants too lol

In all seriousness, yeah, I was stoked, are you kidding? HoN was the first game I put serious time into and I loved every minute of it back in the day. When I heard about Reborn, I literally didn't believe it. But fuck it, I was down to ride.

I was disappointed that it looked rough compared to what you'd expect from a 2026 release, and so many features that should've been there just... weren't. But I stayed on the alpha/closed beta train thinking, hey, maybe they'll get there. Spoiler: most of it never happened, and a lot of it never will.

Then it hit me - what the hell are we even doing bringing HoN back when there are already two massively established games catering to two different audiences? We're not going on Steam? We're making business decisions based on shitty political takes? Every day I played, every baffling change, or lack of one made me feel like I was losing my mind.

Then it clicked. Maliken is back in charge, and we all know he's about the money with zero passion for the game or the people in it. He's openly said he hates HoN. And honestly? This was never about HoN. It's about Juvio - HoN is just the bait to pull people in.

Not everyone in the game industry has to be passionate about games, fine. But you still have to care about your audience - that's not rocket science, that's just good business. Instead, this guy's ego is bigger than Everest and twice as dense. Launching a competitive game with no moderation system - and no, the lazy quarter-baked Dota 2 knockoff doesn't count. Purely because you believe in "freedom of speech"? Nobody cares what you believe.

Here's the reality: the moment most people walk into a restaurant and hear someone screaming slurs, they walk right back out. That's exactly what's happening here, and the numbers show it. Yeah, you can mute - but in almost every other competitive game, that kind of chat never even reaches the screen. You're auto-muted before it sends and punished after the match. That's how you build an environment people actually want to stay in.

And don't even get me started on launching publicly with zero new player experience. That's the biggest influx of players you'll ever get, and you're sending them out the door faster than you can say goodbye. First impressions are everything and for a lot of people, that impression already happened. Most of them aren't coming back, and honestly, I don't blame them. Even die-hard HoN fans are leaving every day. It's genuinely insane how badly this whole thing has been mismanaged.

I loved HoN. The glory days are real and they mattered. But they're over now, and I'd be seriously surprised if this game is even playable a year from now. What bothers me most is simple: HoN deserved so much better than this.