Musings on Fun and Autofill @Fizz Enthusiast

I'm going to preface this by saying I've been auto filled 3 times. I've fed my ass off, had no idea what I was doing, and could be argued I cost my team the games. Under no circumstances was I ever a driving force toward victory, and that's fine.

Part 1

@Fizz Enthusiast I'm calling you out with love, in regards to your post on Fun and clunkiness a few weeks ago. I want to talk specifically about your views on "Fun".

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/6EEk9efX-musings-on-fun-and-clunkiness

My very first question is if this a design philosophy or a personal opinion? You sated in the thread that you were sharing your opinions, but the way you spoke of the "holistic fun" analysis seems to be a design philosophy that is shared amongst developers and an overall design goal for champion development.

My second question is why in the hell don't you guys apply this philosophy to the rest of your development ideas?

If we look at your analysis of fun, the idea is to have a larger sum of fun for all player throughout the entire game. It's a crude analysis but it demonstrates the overarching goal. I want to apply this philosophy to to Autofill and I want an explanation as to how you can still justify its existence after I'm done, because you really can't.

If we break it down to the simplicity you used, playing your desired role should be 10/10 fun, now if everybody gets to play thier desired role we are at 100/100 fun. If ONE PERSON gets Autofilled into a role they don't want and if it's even 9/10 fun, holistically we are at 99/100 fun and you've already destroyed your entire goal. This is obviously me being cheeky so I'm going to look at it deeper.

I don't like passive support roles in any game. I'm actually not even good at them for a myriad of reasons. Primarily I don't have the patience, and I don't like relying on other people to do the dirty work. I like to be the one doing it, it's just my nature. I can play active supporting roles well (Ala "healer" in an MMO for example). But league support just isn't my cup of tea. Sorry.

If we look at how fun that is for just me specifically, I'd rate it a 3/10. But when we go deeper and look at how well I can even do the role, it's probably around the same value even in my own Elo.

This is where your holistic approach really boils my blood. The game isn't about just me, it's about everybody. I don't like playing support, but I will. That is not wherein the problem lies though. My distaste for support isn't what is lowering the holistic fun of the game, it's my ability to perform in the role that is being forced upon me.

The complaint and the real issue with Autofill is that you're pushing people into roles that they aren't good at which is lowering the overall game quality of 4 other people. When I can't fulfill my role and I cause things to be harder on my team mates and put them at a disadvantage before the game even starts, it's not fun for them either. This gets exponentially worse when we explore the idea of being paired against people who have loads of experience in the role your filling into (and not good at) on the other team. You ever watch a seasoned support main go against a Newby? Ain't pretty.

So how can Autofill existence be justified if it lowers the holistic fun of games?

Part 2

@Meddler

Isn't Autofill quite literally a balance issue? If a champion or item is deemed too strong, they're nerfed, correct? They create a competitive advantage outside the acceptable curve for your power level graph on the high end.

By forcing people to do things they cannot are you not also creating a similar competitive disadvantage and outliers on the low end of the curve?

I'm not saying people's skill differences are a balance issue, but when YOUR systems are what's causing the disparity then they become issues.

I've stated my ineptitude in the support role. I have maybe 8 support games under my belt, most of them forced. How is making me play against someone who has hundreds of games of experience ever not poor design and imbalance?

Why would anyone ever want to make Tom Brady play safety? Shaq was never a point guard. It just doesn't make sense?

tl;dr Autofill actually shouldn't even exist from a game design and balance point of view.