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Real unpopular opinion: LoL API is/will be/always has ruined the games balance.

AnubissWarior·3/5/2020, 6:25:19 PM·1 votes·4,713 views

This is a thought that has always been sitting in my mind, but I have refrained from posting it, since I have had doubts that I will be able to articulate myself properly, but, alas, here I go.

One of most satisfying things in video games is being able to min/max your character at some point, to squeeze the juice from your skills and abilities. We all know this. The problem is, that it's not fun at all, being of the receiving end of this phenomenon.

I remember, when runes reforged came in, it was hailed by riot, as a way, how to return diversity to the rift, since old keystones were becoming stale, rune pages were copy-pasted, everyone was following cookie-cutter builds. Sure, turning the whole system upside down, throwing it into the blender, and then converting to a whole different monstrosity, helped, but only for a short time, since the main problem wasn't addressed.

So here I am, trying to address the main problem: LoL API.

We all have been there- trying out a new champion, either because we were curious in blind pick or draft, maybe knowing counter to the pesky Nasus, we picked Teemo, without knowing what to build, we would load up one of endless websites like mobafire to look up the most optimal items and runes.

Sure while it may be easy and convenient and really effective, we, humans, tend to over abuse things such as these. We no longer try to rationally deduct or even experiment what might work for us, or for the matchup. We even spam ping fellow summoners who have chosen another keystone, another summoner, anything out of the ordinary, just because we have a tool which shows us the most optimal build. And by all means, this is a rational action- since why would anyone build anything else if you have the best build available, right?

So imagine, if these sites were to no longer exist, if we would no longer see champion winrates after each patch, yes, we would have less arguments to brow beat Riot, when Lee sin again gets a 70% winrate at 55% playrate, sure. But then again, that is a double edged sword. People no longer would see the ''kill everyone while out-healing turrets'' fizz build with 80% wr , people wouldn't see the best and most cancerous counters to each others champions. Again we would have the mystery of theorizing about builds in boards, asking fellow player advice.

Sure, now and then, a OP build would pop up. that is inevitable that everyone will be copying it from youtube videos and etc. But no build is 100% applicable to every situation. Players are bound to build it in less than optimal circumstances, where it will be more of a hindrance to their goal of nexus destruction. Same with flavor of the month champions. Sure, there will be some, but they will become less obvious. You might see a full ap Leona pop of and get a couple of pentas, next game full ad Veigar will do the same, then maybe Lee and Xerath, and you might try to emulate that success in your games, and one of these 4 might be actually broken, but you also might pick the wrong one, the build, the champ, whose success was only a coincidence or who only worked out for the exact ally/enemy comp. This will take a lot more stress of Summoner Rift

I would say that in time, as changes are applied, OP builds and champions of today, will be less and less effective, and new ones, more optimal would rise up, but we wouldn't have the pure bulk stats to be 100% sure about them.

I guess one reason against this, which I feel myself, and a lot of other players would feel, without even knowing or wanting to admit: We are greedy. We want to have access to the best of the best, since wining is fun, and loosing is bad. And we don't want to take chances in loosing, just because we gave away our access to information, which would have allowed us to pick our strategies better. But we have to remember, that this does go both ways, for everyone. Everyone would be blind-er to most OP builds. Sure, now and then, someone would come up with, either by pure luck, or by skill, a build which would completely body any other champion, but I believe, those cases would a too far and few between, and if they aren't, then good for the players, good on them for finding what would work by themselves, they have earned their advantage.

Another issue is our inherently mistrustful view of Riot, which has only gown in recent years. Mainly due to their seemingly strange and arbitrary nefrs and buffs, and refusal to listen to some communities. And in part I would say that yes, it is based, even if somewhat, in reality. We might think, that as soon as this happens, they are going to super buff champions way above 80% winrates, to sell skins more, appeal to some player-bases and so on and so forth. But you know what? I would say- let them. We are the players, they are the developers, we should give them the benefit of the doubt, that they will do what is right for us, and by an extent, their game. We do play their game, and even although you may argue about the contrary, it is a beautiful game, both design and gameplay wise. And even more so, we might no be able to see part of its current beauty because of our previous experience in earlier seasons, when things were working differently.

We have to give them a chance to fail completely, to duck this game into the ground, and we have to hold ourselves to the standard that, when each of us will feel like that this game is no longer for us, we will leave it, will not allow ourselves be taken by predatory mechanics meant to anchor us down, long past the point, where we no longer enjoy being in here. As is said: You can't reach greatness, if you aren't willing to sacrifice anything for it.

I do say, that I am willing to say good bye to the privileges given to me by API and by extension, all of the websites that are using it. I want for the unknown return to the rift.

There are 100 different aspects, both good and bad, if this were to be done, but Im pretty sure that my train of thought is getting already derailed, since I haven't posted anything this large since 2010, so Im just going to leave it as it is here. Will also post this on reddit and link in the eddit.

Thanks for the attention, discuss?

Edit: Reddit post

29 Comments

Darkdemon6533/5/2020, 6:33:35 PM6 votes

How would increasing the time it takes for people to learn what's good and what's not good be a positive?

LordRedStone Nr13/5/2020, 7:02:53 PM6 votes

That is not the only way to get the hot stuff to copy. There are enough Youtubers (don't really want to call them content "creators") that just put out Tierlists and THIS NEW OP BUILD ONESHOT - 11 players uninstalled after this videos. It would hardly change without the information, it would only be less accurate.

The problem with the API is in my opinion, that they are not even doing something wrong. Like, is it bad that they offer more information to players? That shouldn't really be the case. Information itself can never be good or bad, it is always what the community does with it.

Eedat3/5/2020, 7:33:51 PM5 votes

I can't see how removing objective data and letting knee-jerk reactions and internet outrage take over would be anything but an absolute disaster. Like think of what the game would become if the popular click bait creators were allowed to be objective fact

steven45474663/5/2020, 8:39:05 PM3 votes

YouTubers would post builds and someone would scrape the match history pages (which would still be up even with the api gone, as players can see their match history) for win rates. As a developer, though, I don't like the idea regardless so I am biased, so take this with a ton of salt.

RatHound3/5/2020, 11:07:08 PM2 votes

I saw the reddit post and your reception was pretty lukewarm to say the least. I'll at least humor you because I want to give you hope that not everyone is a screaming yipsnake.

There are valid arguments against your unpopular opinion but not one person has named them yet. Let's get that out of the way first. Take the game of chess for example. It has been analyzed to death. Every professional, as well as a large percentage of amateurs, have familiarized themselves with opening books, positions, move sequences, to a pretty neurotic degree. Yet, chess still remains non-trivial enough to hold tournaments year after year. And people are still able to make the big fancy plays, like Adolf Anderssen's "Evergreen Game." So by that logic, more information does not necessarily take the wonder and mystery out of the game.

Maybe you want more wonder and mystery because of some naive, idealistic instinct. So do I. To paraphrase a certain novel, you can analyze lightning down to a bunch of equations, or you can marvel at it. Well, that's a false dichotomy -- you can do both. I get where you're coming from. You want the marvel part and you don't really care whether or not the analysis part exists.

However, you feel like the analysis part gets in the way of the marvel part. That might be true. If most people are meta sheep and you just want to try some crazy shit, and you get stomped constantly, that's not fun. But why is it not fun? Is it because you lose? If so, then you're no better than the meta sheep. In chess, an uncommon opening would be 1. a4, Ware Opening. If you play that, you're probably going to lose more than 50% of the time. But you might also win. And have the bragging rights to say you won. Is it fun because of the bragging rights? If so, then you're still no better than the meta sheep. Yet, I believe I'm "above" all the meta sheep in some way. But how am I any better? They're Diamond and Challenger, and I'm here stuck in low elo. In the Bible, that sin is called "pride." I look at myself and I know.

On the other hand... if you try crazy shit, and you don't care about losing or what the meta sheep think of you... and occasionally your crazy shit pays off... that's the best damn feeling in the world. And it's worth all the losses and mockery and ridicule. You can't stop the sheep from being sheep. But you can have fun. There are some things left to discover in this game, though the "Gameplay Design" team is trying their damndest to kill all the fun. Oh well, enjoy while it lasts.

Two supplemental readings for anyone interested: