Boards›Gameplay

Beginner player feedback

C9 Alli·3/27/2015, 8:57:51 AM·1 votes·855 views

First, I want to start off by saying that I have played LoL on and off for a few years so I'm not new in that sense. But I usually only play a handful of games and then uninstall due to boredom of playing bots or frustration of playing normal games. Then I come back due to people convincing me to come back or seeing commercials or something. But I have issues with the game that I feel prevent me from wanting to stick out the frustrations and/or boredom to become better.

First, "all" chat in games. I feel this is just a bad idea. I just got out of a game where the whole game, the enemy team was just trolling/saying rude comments in all chat. It certainly is not helping anyone if new players are playing the game (and of course making mistakes) and are getting heckled by the enemy team. If you won't remove it completely, there should at least be an option to disable it so if you choose to, you don't have to see what's being said.

Second, the learning curve is very steep. There is so much information to learn about this game and almost none of it you can learn from just playing the game. Most people you ask will tell you "oh, go watch x person's stream. They are good and can teach you stuff." There's plenty of problems with that. First, you are going out of the game to learn how to play in the game. How does that make sense? You would think the best way to learn the game would be to just sit down and play it. Second, even if it is a decent stream to learn on, there is a chance they're streaming their rated play or are busy answering lots of other peoples questions that it just gets confusing. Honestly I think it's a bad design that if you want to be even somewhat not bad at this game you need to commit and do a bunch of research to get better. That's like saying you need to move in with your new girlfriend/boyfriend of only a few weeks. I mean, that's literally too much commitment to ask of someone who doesn't even know if they like the person (or in this case, game) yet.

Third, the match ups don't seem to be fair. Let me explain. I normally play AI games. They are low stress environments where you are almost guaranteed to win. I personally like to win (who doesn't?) but after a while it gets boring as there isn't any challenge whatsoever. You know the outcome of the game before you even start. Recently, I've been finding more and more friends from real life or other games that play LoL and have been playing with them. They like to play normal games, so of course if I play with them I play normal games. Over the past few days I have played at least 9 normal games. And of those 9, I have won only 1 game. That is discouraging to say the least. Now I basically start a game with the same mindset as the AI games, except the outcome is the opposite. Now some of these games have been close (at least until the end when it just seemed like they got power boosts or something and annihilate us) but others have been completely one sided, and those are the worst. I mean, if we're supposed to be matched against people around our skill level, why do some teams just roll over us?

In conclusion, these are just my thoughts on the game. I don't expect Riot to completely change the game for someone like me. But I figured this would shed a little bit of light on a noob LoL players experiences to Riot members and veteran players alike who may sometimes ask themselves "why don't some people like LoL?" or "What keeps new players from getting into LoL?"

8 Comments

Deep Terror Nami3/27/2015, 9:11:16 AM1 votes

Hey there! It's understandable that the learning curve can be steep, but that's why there are different difficulty AI modes, and the usually less competitive unranked play. If you think you've learned all you can from stomping bots, you can use Team Builder to choose exactly what you want to play in whatever role. The maps aside from Summoner's Rift are even less competitive than that, but anything you choose the matchmaking tries to put you with similarly skilled players.

There is actually an option to disable All Chat. Simply open up the Options window (Esc), go to the Interface tab, and the checkbox is under the Chat section (there are only 2 options there).

Consider taking a friend with you, and making friends you enjoyed playing with by sending them a friend request. It's just better with someone familiar.

Like you said, people of course will direct you at watching streams to learn. Right now the Challenger and Championship Series' are playing, which you can watch by clicking on the Competitive or Esports tab found on top of the website. If you want to watch specific matchups, you can find them on sites like OP.gg. The client also has Featured Games on the home screen, which are high elo games currently playing; I like to watch them a lot when one of them is on an interesting champion.

One thing I forgot; You can check out specific and general guides online, such as how to play Zyra, where to Ward, and what Runes/Masteries to use. Mobafire is a good place to get that. Sure, it's learning from a 3rd party, but mastering anything requires effort.

Tatsumi Oga3/27/2015, 9:15:26 AM1 votes
  1. There "IS" an option to disable all chat, in fact if i remember correctly its automatically disables when you start playing.
  2. What are you even talking about? you say you cant learn from playing then 2 sentences later say "shouldn't you learn from playing?". Also yes league has a huge learning curve but so do many many other games, its simply part of the game. 3)The problem i assume you're facing here is smurfers, people who know the game but made low level accounts, the low elo is riddles with them. This is probably the only problem i agree should be addressed.