How are new players supposed to enjoy pvp?

TheAmazngNarwhal·Aug 23, 2015·3 votes·895 views

Let me premise this by saying I'm really sad about the current level up process.

I convinced my best friend to pick up the game. He understands the basic concepts, but as a player he's mechanically weak. He started with bot games to get the general idea of how to play, but let's face it: bots are way too easy. So what does he do next? He tries the summoner's rift as a brand new level 5 account.

What does he get? Him and 1 or 2 others that are just as new. The rest are alt accounts clearly of varrying skills but absolutely demolishing the few actual new players.

This. Is. Not. Fun.

How is he supposed to be queued with other players his skill so he can grow into the game the proper way and not be slaughtered helplessly by a platinum le blanc wanting to level about another account? Please...advice would be nice and do not say bot games.

8 Comments

MatezoideAug 23, 20153 votes

They arent.

KougaAug 23, 20152 votes

Honestly? Yeah, he just has to grin and bear it, and fight through it.

This has very little to do specifically with League of Legends itself, and more to do with the nature of a competitive PVP multiplayer game. Example:

Take someone who has never played a First Person Shooter. Give them a controller and make them play Call of Duty with other players. They will get destroyed, they will get smack talk, they probably won't have fun at first.

Take someone who doesn't play Real Time Strategy, and have them sit down and play StarCraft.

Players who are "new to League" tend to be "new to MOBAs" which is where the problem really lies. If they don't understand the basic premise they're going to have a very hard time of it. I played HotS, and as a new player I lost a lot and got killed, but I wasn't having such a brutally hard time because 1) I understood general MOBA mechanics and 2) I knew I'd get better.

The only way to fix this would be to create an in-depth Single Player "campaign" with increasingly difficult bots. Also starting them off with a limited pool of "beginner" Champs to play as/against and then by the end of the Campaign getting all of them available to play. That'd be the only way to fix it.

SUSBUNAug 23, 20151 votes

Keep trying until he gets better, I started out the same way in Feb. and I'm just fine now.

I completely skipped bot games and started out with pvp.

TheAmazngNarwhalAug 23, 20151 votes

So are you saying you had to let the crap get beat out of you several times before you were put with other new players?

That seems discouraging to a new player.

ReMeDyIIIAug 23, 20151 votes

{quoted}

So are you saying you had to let the crap get beat out of you several times before you were put with other new players?

That seems discouraging to a new player.

He's going to get the crap beat out of him, regardless. That's how we all learned. Furthermore, some of those people under lvl 30 aren't necessarily smurfs. Players have various backgrounds in gaming, and if your friend has none, he WILL get beat... a lot! I had a Spanish speaking friend who almost has never played a video game before, and he couldn't even beat beginner AI's. He'd just click and stand there, totally lost on basic fundamentals.

You need to accept the fact maybe your friend is getting out-played by people with a better gaming background than him, and not because he's against smurfs.

FaRmErXAug 23, 20151 votes

play aram where people are MUCH MUCH less toxic and you can play random champs! what better way to get better than to "know thine enemy"

SEKAIAug 23, 20151 votes

For pvp, you just keep losing until you get it.

It's not all that unfair considering 8 times out of 10, you lost because you lack skill and knowledge and not because the other players have more fundamental advantage over you, the only aspect I would argue otherwise is the champ pool size but if it's blind pick norm it really hardly matters (oh and balance but let's stay away from that for the purpose of this thread shall we).

So yeah, much like Dark Souls which occasionally throw one or 2 cheap shots, but rest are challenging curve balls you have to overcome yourself, and you have to do so by practicing, doesn't matter if you fail again again and again.

Normals don't count towards anything too, the only thing it might hurt is your ego, so just learn to ignore that and you'd be fine.

joebobby1412Aug 23, 20151 votes

I recognize smurf accounts hurt the new player experience, I don't think there is a solution that Riot could enforce.

He won't ALWAYS lose. He won't ALWAYS do badly.

But as a brand new player, he should expect to do badly and lose. I feel, too quickly people feel like they have a grasp on the basics and think they can compete with other players.

Understandably, he probably thinks he can compete with other relatively new players and he is facing a couple smurfs.

But, this still holds. If he get's a game that is easy, and he stomps it, he probably feels a little good. That's because winning is expected.

But, when he get's a game where he loses and get's stomped, he get's decently upset. That's because losing is not expected.

If he continued to expect to lose because he is new player, he won't feel good about losing, but he will feel a lot less bad and winning will be that much more of a triumph.

It's about the state of mind.