I read an article about Nostalgia and Millennials
Basically the article said that Millennials are super nostalgic because they remember a time when things weren't so complicated compared to today. The difference between less choices, not having phones and ect... on you at all times and how "easy" things were before technology complicated (some) things.
Now onto the rest of my topic. I keep seeing how a lot more players are unhappy with game balance. Of which, one of those players is me. While some of what I remember of S1-S3 is nostalgia, I'd like to think some of it is actually just a shift in design. Sure I'm a better player now then I was back then, but I don't feel it, and I sure as hell don't enjoy my games as much.
What I used to think of when I play league S1 was, how am I going to play this champion? A few thoughts ran through my mind: AP, AD, tank, support? Back then, most champions didn't have to build one certain way to be useful. What lane am I playing? Insert ANY CHAMPION, oh yea, blitz top, alistar top, no problem, lets go... What do I need to do to get this game going faster? Is gold gen a good choice? Do I fight the enemy? What runes do I want? Do I want TP/Revive, or would fortify be better? Maybe I should take ghost instead of heal, Exhaust + ignite is pretty good too...
LOOK at all those choices I had, each meaningful in a different way. As S2 and S3 came along, I maybe didn't have quite as many choices, but I sure felt like I had quite a few. Some of them were just more refined. Like AD soraka was a little harder, but still doable. Jungle karthus became a lot harder, and they removed ad alistar DESTROYER OF TOWERS. (he had 75% bonus damage to towers) But hey, I still had quite a bit of fun.
Fast forward to season 7. I'm pretty sure I'm just addicted to the game at this point. I'm not even sure I'm really having fun, or I just enjoy being competitive against others. Now when I go into a game I think: Do I Want runes/masteries A or B? Do I want item path C or D? Can I 1v1 the opponent level 1-5. No? Ok I sit and lose farm while I wait for them to push. However, if yes, I better go 10-0 before they hit a level where they can fight me, and since first blood basically determines lane, since you can no longer shrug off a jungler gank lets just beat the shit out of them while they sit there and feel like trash because they can't do anything and their jungler won't help.
Now I'm not going to try and claim that none of that is nostalgia, because I know they had their issues, release xin, release leblank, release garen, but as is the game right now to me just feels terrible. End of Story. Honestly I wish I wasn't so addicted to the competition that this game creates, because for being a season 1 vet, I really want to quit, but just can't seem to.
On that final note, I just thought I'd mention 1 more thing. Apparently I got a really cool baron nashor Icon for being a "kind and thoughtful summoner" now I struggle to keep from being chat restricted. While I don't think riot has really been getting any harsher on punishments, I do however think I am becoming a more hateful toxic person. Every game I play where I see adc's nolonger have to kite to be viable, melee bruisers that aren't cc bots or overloaded kit wise are useless, tanks that are cc bots being overloaded, and having to play fucking promotion series, where I swear riot intentionally fucks you over. I just keep moving more and more to the dark side.
Please riot, I implore you to look at what made your game fun, and that was actually meaningful choices. No that isn't your definition of meaningful choices, where you have option A or A. Its mine where you can build ap yi or ap trynd and deal tons of damage, but not have consistent damage, or you can build ad alistar that lets you destroy towers, but doesn't give you reliable teamfights, or even building 9k hp mundo, and being unkillable, but dealing no damage. Not the "do this or feel like shit and lose" that we have for choices today.
Fin
