My experience with LoL

Today I uninstalled League of Legends. This isn't a rant or a call for attention, I simply want to share my experience with the community and let you guys know what I think is good and bad about the game.

I've been playing for around two years, and probably spent a few hundred hours in game as well as several hundred dollars on skins and champions. Over all I had a fun time, and definitely got my "money's worth." I'm thirty four years and I've been gaming for my entire life, but this was my first MOBA. The mechanics of the combat are great, the game runs smooth and it's intuitive enough to learn quickly. I'm severely physically disabled but the button layout is so simple that I felt I could keep up with others on a competitive level. That's what I love about PC gaming, it's truly all inclusive.

The thing that finally wore me down was the community experience. While I met some cool people, the vast majority of games were filled with hatred, resentment, and blame. I've played a ton of multiplayer games in my life but never came across a group of people this resentful or "salty." Every game was full of whining or pointing fingers, even when you're winning. If your team is doing fine you still have to listen to the other team complain and point fingers. That behavior, combined with blatant trolling, AFK's, and griefing, finally pushed me to stop caring about the game.

I've gone through a lot of crap in my life. I won't go into detail, but I just recently spent three months in the ICU and I'm happy to be alive. Losing a match in a video game where pretend monsters fight in a make believe arena is not the end of the world, but so many people act like it. I don't know why this game makes so many people unhappy. You can ignore it, but over a long period of time it starts getting to you, and it stops being worth the effort.

I think it'd be cool if Riot would reward good behavior, rather than punish bad behavior. Hold community events where people are rewarded for teaching newbies, or have mods regularly keep an eye on games and hand out goodies to cool people.

I'll be back in a year or so, maybe. In the mean time, have fun, and remember it's just a game.