School Review

For my college English class I was asked to do a review of a game or movie. I get some extra credit for actually posting my review so here it is.

Most Popular Game of All Time? Have you ever heard of E-sports? Maybe you even know about MOBA games? If so, you would surely have heard of League of Legends. Being one of the most popular games ever, League of Legends holds a following of over 100 million (Polygon). Being a veteran player of League of Legends myself, I hold some very strong opinions of this wonderful game. Before I jump into the game itself I’d like to give you a very brief history of League of Legends and their creator Riot Games. I believe that knowing how this game was created is valuable information for forming an opinion yourself. Riot Games was formed in 2006, they were gamers themselves and were influenced by games like Starcraft and Warcraft 3 (polygon). By 2008 they had developed and released their own creation, League of Legends. Their game took the world by storm, quickly become the most played game in several different countries and winning multiple award by 2011. I personally began playing league of legends in 2011, 8 years ago. Since then, League of Legends has made many improvements to become the game it is today. In order to understand how League of Legends plays you need to know a bit about MOBA style games. MOBA stands for: Multiplayer, online, battle, arena. In a MOBA game there are two teams fighting to destroy each other’s base to win the match. There are 3 split lanes in which the 5 players send their “Champion” down to clash with the other team. These lanes are commonly referred to as, top, mid, and bot. Lastly MOBA have small enemies called “minions” these minions run down the lanes in timed intervals and are slain by the players for gold, which is used to purchase stronger gear. Now how does League of Legends stand out among other MOBA games like Dota? The main way League of Legends stands out are, the art style, and the sheer number of champions to choose from. League of Legends releases a new champion once every few months and it become a huge deal to the fans. Riot Games knows this and really puts in the extra effort to hype up the community. An example of this would be a music video that Riot Games created for the champion “Jinx.” I believe that this kind of effort really shows how Riot Games has been able to propel League of Legends to its current state. League of Legends has a “meta” which is a set of standard rules that most of the player base use. For instance, the tanks and melee fighting champions go to the top lane to fight. Mages and assassins go into the middle lane. One-character fights NPC monster in the area between the lanes, his goal is to ambush the enemy players in the lanes. Lastly the bot lane is a ranged champion and a support styled character. League of Legends has over 143 champions as of, 14 March 2019. Each of these champions is completely unique with their own character models, ability kits, and voice actor. This really diversifies the game and lets you feel a sense of uniqueness for what you play. For example, if you feel so inclined, you could take a support character such as “Soraka” who heals, into the top lane against the tanks. I believe the ability to do things like this that are against he norm provide more creative freedom and enjoyment from the player base. On this same note, I would like to discuss the biggest issue with League of Legends. I mentioned that you could go against the norm and play something odd like a support character in the top lane. I believe the ability to do this is fun and keeps the game fresh and the “Meta” evolving. However, League of Legends has a major issue within its community. The community in League of Legends is known for its extreme toxicity. What I mean by this, is the pure anger and hatred that some of the players show during a typical game of League of Legends. Luckily, there is a mute button to avoid these types of players, but this takes away the communication between you and your teammates. One of the great features of League of Legends that stands out instantly is, the graphics. The graphic quality of this game is simply great. They aren’t so intense as to require an extremely powerful computer, but they a very colorful and vivid. Overall, League of Legends brings a diverse character pool with tons of unique characters. This game pulls out your competitive drive and really gets you involved in the gameplay. However, community behind this game is both amazing and disgusting, some are loyal fans that genuinely love the game, while others seem to unleash the worst part of their personalities upon each other. Despite this, the game itself is immersive and extremely fun to play. Also, being a part of the E-sports scene, League of Legends has professional teams and players, that you can follow and watch. I would give League of Legends an 8/10 overall, great diversity and stunning visuals do a lot, but the toxic community holds this game back.