How Riot Can Address the New and Veteran Player Experience Issues
There are several issues with the new player experience that will be addressed, but if you want to skip to specific ones, there is a Table of Contents, or if you want a TL;DR, there is one at the start of every section. I like to keep things brief and straight to the point so no cliche essay introduction.
- T.O.C.
- Smurfing
- Learning Curve
- Item Shop
- Champion Skills
- Phases
- Fighting
- Toxicity
- Ranked (Ranked Lock)
- [Subject To Change; As Comments Grow, Things May Be Added To List]
#Smurfing ###Tl;Dr: Free (or purchased) level 30 accounts for people who have not been chat, ranked, or account suspended within a set period of time. There are, though, restrictions to this. First, you must have 1000 games in any game mode played on the main account. Second, you may only receive a smurf account once every 2 years. Lastly, you must have 1000 games played in any game mode on your first smurf to gain another smurf account after the 2 year period. This is all made possible through account connection (see paragraph 2).
A huge problem in the new and veteran player experience is smurfing. It is equally unfair to all parties. Newbies have to play against people far better than them, Veterans have to spend a month or two grinding to level 30 and gaining a large enough champion pool and rune pages to play ranked on that account, and any solution to this goes against Riot's "policies". However, I believe I've found a solution that will give all three parties an equal benefit. That is, giving ranked level 30s a new account once certain standards have been met.
In further detail, and again I like to be brief and to the point, upon reaching a certain elo (Giving a Bronze player a new account is completely unfitting, especially since Bronze players are typically toxic) and having above 1000 games played in all game modes combined, a player may get another account already level 30 with a set amount of IP, or (better idea) IP can be transferable to connected accounts. However, there should be a restriction on how many accounts a player may receive, and I will get to that after addressing connected accounts. When receiving a smurf account, the player connects the account with the email and password that they use on their main account. The player cannot change the email or password on to the smurf account, and if the player changes the email and password on their main account, it automatically changes the email and password on the smurf account. This will allow transfer of IP between accounts without players being able to transfer IP to friends or strangers, as well as allow the restrictions to take place.
Restrictions come in two parts, but the first is completely up to Riot if they do decide to do this. First, whether a smurf account be a paid purchase or not. Anyone who's really dedicated to this game will pay for it, and will weed out a lot of the toxic players (cough children cough) from receiving a smurf. Again, however, there will be restrictions to also weed out toxic players. The first restriction: Players who have had a chat, ranked, or account suspension within a set amount of time (4-8 weeks is best fit) are in-illegible for receiving a smurf. Any account that has been permanently suspended is also in-illegible. The second restriction: A player cannot receive a smurf more than once every two years. This will prevent Riot from losing a huge amount of money and people from botting, spamming, or just abusing elo. The final restriction, the smurf must have 1000 games played in all game modes combined before receiving another smurf. This will also prevent botting, spamming, and elo abuse, as well as preventing smurf inactivity/abuse.
It's clear how this benefits new and vet players--new players don't have to play against people who know what they're doing, giving a fair and balanced playing field, and veteran players don't have to go through the long hastle that is leveling and IP grinding--but how does this benefit Riot? The main way it benefits Riot is that players will use RP to purchase rune pages, their favourite champions, and skins, while using the IP that comes with the account or transferred to the account for runes, and if they have excess IP, reaching that 16 champion requirement for ranked. This gives Riot more money from RP purchases as well as players playing the game on multiple accounts. The second way, again completely up to Riot, is if smurf accounts must be purchased. More money!
#Learning Curve ###Tl;Dr: There are so many things to learn in this game that more tutorials are needed. However, giving too many tutorials as they start would be information overload. To solve this problem, make more tutorials but give them out as new players level higher.
Another problem for new players is this game's huge learning curve. There are so many things in this game to learn that even professionals are still learning. People like Faker or Scarra who already know so much about the game are still telling themselves and everyone that they're still learning and that there's so much more to learn, and people like BoxBox or Trick2G who've mastered a champion better than anyone else in the world still say there's still more for them to learn about the champion. Fact of the matter is, League of Legends is probably the most complex MOBA/RTS game there is to learn and to master. It's an information overload, that's just the facts and that shouldn't be changed. What should be changed is how easy it is for new players to learn what they need to know to play the game. I was smurfing about two weeks ago (and I just play Co-Op vs AI or ARAM when I level a new account so I don't disrupt the new player experience) and I noticed in Co-Op vs AI new players tower diving, not buying items, chasing, building horrible items (Like Witt's End as a first item on Ashe), just downright stupid things that no new player should have to go through as a learning experience. Tutorials are the only way to fix this problem. There should be a tutorial about the item shop, champion skills, phases, and fighting.
Item shop tutorials should teach players the things they need to know about the item shop: Why essential items are essential, items can be built into other items (I talked to a new player while I was on my smurf asking why they weren't buying items, they replied, "I'm saving coins for big things."), right clicking and item instantly purchases it, etc. Champion Skill tutorials shouldn't be actual tutorials, but instead either force a player to skill in a certain order, or recommend the most optimal skill order for the player. Phase tutorials should teach a player about what champions go where (Tanks or Brusiers like Maokai or Riven go toplane or jungle, Mages or Assassins like Ahri or Zed go mid, etc.), when they should leave lane and group mid, objectives like Dragon and Baron, etc. Lastly, fighting tutorial should teach players about positioning (AP Carry and AD Carry in the back, Bruiser in the middle, Tanks in the front), not to fight in the enemy minions during laning phase, etc.
On the downside, this would also be information overload if we gave all the tutorials to new players at level 1, which I have a solution for. Give item shop and champion skill tutorials at level 1, then as new players level up, force them to do the other tutorials.
#Toxicity ###Tl;Dr: Bring tribunal back and give out IP suspensions. However, do not IP permaban someone.
Honestly, there's always going to be toxicity, but there are two ways to reduce it. One, bring Tribunal back. Rewards or not, toxicity was at its lowest when Tribunal was around. Nowadays reports are botted then reviewed, instead of being reviewed then botted. I hate to admit it, but I am a toxic player, and I should have received my suspension far before I received it, but because of the amount of games I play in a day compared to how many reports I get, the reports go completely ignored. For an entire month of being toxic, I wasn't suspended or restricted for it. It wasn't until one day when I was completely triggered and on tilt that I finally received my suspension. During the days of tribunal, though, the reports caught up a lot faster because players were dishing them out instead of a computer. Bringing Tribunal back as soon as possible will assure a less toxic community.
Second, IP restrictions. Now, an IP should never be permabanned. Not only is it against Riot's policies, but it's downright wrong. Imagine spending over one grand on an account to have it permabanned. That sucks, a lot, but spending one grand on an account to never be able to play League again? That's hell. A person can change over time. IP restrictions, on the other hand, assure that a toxic player does not smurf during his suspension, or cannot chat on a smurf during a restriction. An IP chat restriction is probably too difficult to program, but an IP suspension is easy (a game programmed on a language as simple as Javascript can give IP suspension). This allows the player to not only think about what they've done and correct their ways, but prevent them from continuing their toxicity to new players.
#Ranked Lock ###Tl;Dr Players who have freshly reached level 30 cannot play ranked until certain requirements are met. This does not stack with account connect or smurfing.
Players who jump right into ranked ruin the atmosphere for themselves and others, as well as breed into a toxic player. They don't know what they're doing, making them lose most of their provisional matches as well as losing games that could've been easily won if they had a player who actually knew what they were doing on their team instead of a fresh 30 (we'll call them "freshies"), especially since a lot of freshies don't have a full set of rune pages. This breeds a toxic player because they'll be placed in Bronze 5 and be driven insane, eventually turning from a good citizen to the demon-spawn of Satan. I can personally say that before I reached level 30, I was a happy player, but as soon as I jumped into Ranked and placed Bronze 5, I turned quickly. However, I became less and less toxic overtime, especially when I reached Gold, and rarely have an incident nowadays, the reason being Bronze 5 is the equivalent of a living hell. Sure, Platinum players are the most toxic of all, but they actually know what they're doing. Bronze players are toxic and don't know what they're doing. Although, Bronzies are carriable, Platinums are not. Platinum is a team effort, so if one player on your team decides to flame and rage, well the enemy will capitalize on it and win the game.
Enough with exemplars of why it's a bad idea to have freshies play ranked. Now to discuss Ranked Lock. Ranked Locking involves preventing a freshie from playing ranked games until they reach certain requirements. This could be things like reaching Mastery Level 3 with x amount of champions, playing x amount of games in x amount of roles, having x amount of mastery pages filled, etc. Things that prove readiness to get into ranked. I can't really think of anything off the spot, but you get the gist of it.
This will reduce toxicity (as players won't have to deal with a freshy and freshies won't get placed Bronze 5) as well as increase the game's health.
So if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or additions, please do discuss in the comment section. I'm open to ideas and willing to add on to or change the post. I'm hoping to get a lot of feedback on this idea, even from Riot.
