league of legends final review

Shaoran Li ICS60 Due: 6/12/2018 Final review of League of Legends Nowadays, our society and our life conditions have grown and become much wealthier than the past. People are able to spend more and more time to enjoy their life, which in other words, to entertain themselves. One of the most popular and well-known entertainment now is Game, and more specifically, video games. The industry of video games contains many genres, such as Adventure Games, Real-Time Strategy Games, or Role-Playing Games. One of the most popular game genre today is multiplayer online battle arena, which in definition, it is a subgenre of strategy game controlling mainly one character in a team fights against another team in a certain map (Wiki). League of Legends, a 12-year-old video game, is one of the most representative game in the genre of multiplayer online battle arena. League of Legends was initially developed by the Riot games, an American video game developer, publisher, and eSports tournament organizer established in 2006 (Wiki), which was established a year earlier than League of Legends. The developers of League of Legends were, in fact, inspired by another famous and historical game called Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne mod, Defense of the Ancients (Wiki). Although these two games both are in genre of Multiplayer online battle arena, they have fundamental differences such as the outlook or the gameplays because they contain different aesthetics (“Understanding Video Games,” p27). The aesthetic of video game includes the its dynamics, the reasons why people choose to play the game, and mechanics, which in other words, the rule of games. Usually, a video game contains two to four categories of aesthetic, such as fantasy, challenge, and competition (“Aesthetics of Play”), but some good games contain more than that. League of Legends contains mainly seven categories. For instance, sense pleasure, in other words, the sensations that the player receive while playing the game. During the gameplay of League of Legends, there is no such a background music but just some basic sounds such as sound that the champion is attacking or the mourning when the champion dies. On the contrast, in the logging screen, there are always some loud war-music depending on the event that is conducting at the time. The drawing of League of Legends, particularly, the drawing of each champion is exquisite and has improve as well as repainted over these years. Each skin of the champion is different, and usually players can see the clear differences. For example, the spells of the champion are blue without skins but can be red or purple with different skins. Another example of aesthetic is fellowship. Because League of Legends is a multiple player game, players must have teammates, known or unknown ones. For the known teammates, they could be player’s friends, classmates, or family. Playing games with them could always build and even improve their relationships. The unknown teammates refer to the people that players encounter online, which is the way to extend their relationship chains. In addition, League of Legends also involves two attractive features of the video games, Ludus and Paidia. In Roger Caillois’s definition of video game, Ludus refers “rule-based,” which means that the systems of the video games are tightly bound by rigid rules; Paidia, in contrast, is more “open-minded” and has more flexibility for the players to play (“Understanding Video Games” p27). Overlapping these two features can let the players choose to do what they want to do under some rules, and these rules are often parts of the play (“Understanding Video Games” p27). In League of Legends, players can purchase six different items only when they earn enough of golds, or players can level up their spells only when they have enough of experience. Another reason why League of Legends is different than other games is because it has different narrative. Narrative of video games, in definition, it is considered as the succession of video games which consists mainly three different components: story, text, and narration (p172). Story, it is a tale which can be fiction or real. In the game League of Legends, there are a lot of fiction stories created by Riot. Each champion has its own background story, and these stories can be connected directly or indirectly. Text and narration is the art of how the story is processed and received. This means that good texts and narrations in video game could bring higher levels of enjoyment to the players, which is the key the success. Narrative of video games also contains setting and characters (p178). The settings, in other words, the organization is based on players own knowledge. Players must know the spells, the strength, or the characteristic of the champions in order to raise the enjoyment of the game; meanwhile the knowledge of how to “cheat” including how to play skillfully and of course, decide whether to use pirate programs could also increase the enjoyment of the gameplay. In League of Legends, there are four types of character. The stage character, it is background or the scenario of the game. Functional character, it is the characters that have function to interact with the players. This means that the players can attack or can be attack by these characters. Cast character is different than the others. In League of Legends, cast characters such as the shops men where players purchase items from (“shop”), or the dragons which is considered as the buff monster giving buffs by killing them, have their own background stories and unique functions. Player character, it is the character which is called champions controlled by the players (P178). In addition, storytelling of video games always contains different degrees of fantasy. In other words, a video game usually has its own fiction world. In League of Legends’ fiction world, there are more than twenty regions. Each region has its own legends, and together, there are wars between those regions. One example is Demacia, a country in League of Legends’s fiction world, has warfare with another country called Noxus. These stories always have reflection, or in other words, have models in our real world. For instance, Noxus in League of Legends, it is a country that has proposition of violence. It has been conducting wars toward other regions or countries, causing many deaths in the world. It is just like the country German in the world war 1 and 2. It is known as the cruelest country at that time. The storytelling is highly combined with action level in League of Legends. For example, the lion Rengar, who is known as a hunter, hunts creatures for fun; It is his natural to kill people. Similarly, in the gameplay, Rengar’s passive is to collect the dead bones which increases his strength by killing other champions. By knowing the background stories and the connection of his abilities, players can have a better and deeper role-playing while using Rengar, and this has become one of the reason why Rengar has become one of the most popular champions in League of Legends The coming together of the storytelling and the action level has made the game more meaningful and enjoyable. Although video games like League of Legends are attractive, we cannot say that they are popular in all regions and to all people. The degree of appealing varies with cultures. For instance, in China, League of Legends which is considered as a violent game containing player-killing, is banned from the population under age of eighteen because the governors think that violent games are physically and psychologically harmful to them (p140). One example in China of a teenager, who were addicted to League of Legends, sat and played in an illegal gaming café for more than twenty hours straight. This eventually caused him paralyzed from the waist down (“5 People Sent to The Hospital Over League of Legends”). Kids in China from the ancient times to the modern society are always taught to be discipline. This means that there are certain things under age must do, such as study, exercise, staying with family, as well as things that are forbidden. Things like going out alone, having a love affair are not allowed for those under age people. Therefore, Chinese people tend to play online multiplayer games rather than playing solitaire adventure games, which are very popular in the U.S. In addition, video games can also influence culture. For instance, in 2011, June 17th, the first championship of League of Legends was conducted by Riot and won by a European team called Fnatic with reward of 50,000 dollars (Worlds Season1” & “League of Legends Historical Timeline 2006-2016”), which is pretty much the highest reward that could get from gaming championship. Since then, gaming championship has become more and more popular in League of Legends or in other games. Due to the popularity of championships, the population of professional video game players has increased much rapider than the past, and the industry of live streaming have percolated into mainstream. Since then, the video game championships have become a new culture belonging to the players. This culture is just as good as those sport cultures; players can stay and watch the competitions together. Just like the League of Legends spring championship which just started a few weeks ago, many of my friends came to my house and watched the game overnight; no difference than watching a basketball game, we cheer, and we sigh. However, to a degree, the way which Chinese government limitation in games to the Chinese teenagers is right. There are many impacts that might be harmful to human of playing video games. Some experts divide the impacts in two different perspectives—Active Media Perspective and Active User Perspective. The active user perspective is “what players do with the video games” (p230). This term is related to the anthropology of the players. For example, after playing League of Legends for a long period, people are getting more interested with the teamwork, and therefore, new games are more likely to be multiplayers games. In contrast, Active Media perspective is the passive influences of playing video games (p230); in other words, what does a media do to its users. In surveys regarding to active media perspective, experts mainly interested in certain results. One of these results, specifically, is video game making people becoming more aggressive and violent. As for the game League of Legends, it does have this kind of effect to players depending on the individuals. For instance, in 2017, a male live cam Chinese player of League of Legends was sent to jail due to the fight with his neighbor. This guy said that he was too mad to control himself because he was playing League of Legends and thought his teammates were to “stupid” (“4 People ARRESTED Over Playing League of Legends”). Video game is a double-sword because it can be beneficial as well as harmful to individuals. This means that its social function is determined by its users, but after all, we cannot deny that video game is an indispensable and irreplaceable industry. Work Cited “Aesthetics of Play - Redefining Genres in Gaming - Extra Credits.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uepAJ-rqJKA. Nov 1, 2012. Video. 5 May, 2018 Egenfeldt-Nielson, Simon, Jonas Heide Smith, Susana,Pajares Tosca. “Understanding Video Games.” Routledge. p27-230. “4 People ARRESTED Over Playing League of Legends” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxcXmTX5hRM. June 4, 2018. . “5 People Sent to The HOSPITAL Over League of Legends.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhx31X0yt4o. May 2, 2018. Video. May 14, 2018. “League of Legends.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Legends. 14 April 2018. “Riot.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_Games#History. Web. 30 April 2018 “Shop.” http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Shop. Web. 21 May 2018. “Worlds Season 1.” https://lol.gamepedia.com/Season_1_World_Championship. Web. 10 March 2018.