More in-depth chart showing League depreciation and Overwatch rise
I think a few weeks ago I remember posting this in regards to League losing popularity (now granted this is only in the Korean region; the data is recorded and processed via Gametrics. Many PC cafe's have database servers that reward players for hours spent playing certain games). http://i.imgur.com/FraDeWJ.jpg This is the chart. people concluded that the chart was not informative enough to which I sort of agree. You can't really tell too much from this data except "trends." Well here's a more indepth chart that shows hours logged.
http://www.gametrics.com/GameTricsUpFiles/ContentsFiles/2016062101.JPG
The first 4 columns are like rank/name/genre/etc. To the right of the RTS/FPS section is the % point. To the right of that is hours logged playing. To the left of that you can guess popularity changes. The right most side is simply "Service" column in which they all say "In Use" In Korean. If you wish to view the entire article, it is here though it is in Hangul (Korean). There are other charts and info on the article but I felt this chart summed everything up best as possible. If you wish for me to translate a part of the article let me know. Again I will note this is ONLY in PC Bangs (pc cafe's). However PC Bangs were the best way to take data for trends as it allows people who cannot afford consoles or PC's to play them. http://www.gametrics.com/news/News02_View.aspx?seqid=27955
Anyways the in-depth chart; this chart was data taken in the span of 3 days whereas the original chart that shows a massive rise in popularity for Overwatch and massive decline for League was a span of close to a month. During the 3 days, 1,501,954 hours for OW. For League just barely over it with 1,572,722. LoL is continuing to lose players. OW is continuing to gain them. Now I get that OW itself might grow stale; we'll have to see how that game becomes... but it is Blizzard. I don't like Blizzard but they do a good job with marketing games. They will probably have good success with OW considering it's massive popularity EVERYWHERE.
I myself played OW and I think it is very fun... but I still prefer League over the others. I still wish and think League CAN be a superior and more popular game. But the decisions made this season is atrocious. Not even just this season. You know exactly where I'm getting at.
#1 priorities should be trying to stop the epidemic of scripters and elo boosting in Korea. I mean it's so bad people are saying Riot Korea is taking bribes (could be true, lots of korean officials and businesses are corrupt, why not Riot Korea?).
#2 these players complained about the game simply not feeling competitive anymore. It just wasn't rewarding for their skills and talents. Ironic and so conveniently timed with Dynamic Queue.... Need I say more? Nothing wrong with champ select and the method of queuing. Just bring back Solo Q. You don't need to be a genius to understand why Dynamic Queue ruins competition and fairness. You're stacking advantages BEFORE even champ select to win the game. That's utter BS. The only time you have such clearcut handicap is in game of Go where you actually place handicaps where it'll basically have the superior player few turns behind but it is used to balance out superior-skilled players to have an even match with inferior players.
#3 Stop focusing so much on simply skins and BS events. Actually improve the game by BALANCING. If there are no problems, don't "fix" it. This is the reason why this game sucks. Instead of balancing champs, Riot chooses FoTM champs; and majority of the times they are champions any skill-less player can pick up and smack the keyboard. Rewarding players for wrong reasons other than showing good skills/mechanics/game knowledge?
#4 the game isn't getting any less toxic... yet you're selling it off like it is by saying reports are down. Well it's down because premades are less likely to report each other. Since when was Riot filled with so many brainless people? Just THINK for 5 minutes! That doesn't fix any problems. Premades are still toxic; players are still toxic. You just have the added issue of dynamic premades bullying the non-premade.
#5 (which IMO is most important for gaining new players and why league is losing players) making the game more friendly for low-skilled players rather than ruining the entire system to accommodate for the bad.
You've acknowledged that Dynamic Queue ruined competition where skill and competition actually matters. So why can't you just admit to the fact you made a mistake and just bring back Solo Q? In fact, bring back solo q and allow solo q players to mark whether they wish to allow premades or not if you're worried about queue times. This way people who choose to get quicker queues can compromise and those who are willing to wait won't be forced into a handicap. And instead of picking Flavor of the Month champs... just BALANCE champions. Isn't it stupid every goddamn season, there's some crappy easy to play champ that really takes no mechanical skills to perform or real game knowledge to out-trade? And it's like toxicity isn't any better now. It's getting worse. You know back in season 2-3 I heard the best advice to fight toxicity. Mute everyone in the game. You don't need to chat. Riot feels adding voice chat would** ruin the game because kids can talk trash to each other and toxicity would be through the roof**. If Riot DOES in fact feel that way, which they've said they did for years, why is type chat any different? I'm not saying these people are mentally stable but I've known people who've thrown their lives away for harmless words some kids wrote online. When you mute everyone, you can still cooperate with team. You have the added effect of NOT being sucked into a raging circle jerk with the team's troll. Riot's system however, for newer players, is unforgiving and utter bullshit. Smurfs every game (primarily bad players at the range of bronze->silver who get kicks out of talking trash to bad players). If you are smurfing and raging at teammates for not playing like LCS players, you need help my friend. The game introduces new players to extreme toxicity and since they are smurfs, the consequences don't really pay off at all. How can new players stay knowing what they know? Accept constant abuse from players who are ALSO pretty bad and shitty? There's no guidance for new players at all and Riot wonders why they're not gaining new players.
The players you've gained in the past that brought League to where it is... those were the hardcore gamers and there are no more to recruit. You gotta make the game more appealing to newer players, not ruin the system/the game to hook in a few casuals who's going to leave after a month or two.
