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What i loved about dominion, and why riot is taking away something Immeasurably valuable from us.

MadMad Sickness··5 votes·1,791 views

In all honesty, this game mode does hold a ton of value for most players: especially those new players and those learning certain champs. Its just that no one really figured this out. DOMINION "WAS" A GREAT GAMEMODE FOR NEW PLAYERS, AND EXPERIMENTAL BUILDS!!!

Here are the things that dominion provided: -quick games Because of a fast turnout, fast gold pace, and fast fights in general (constant, constant teamfights) dominion was a great place to feel out champ mechanics without being stuck in a 45minute (especially if you decided to try out a champ, only to do horribly). Seriously, compare this to dom where each dom game lasted anywhere from 20-30 minutes tops. Not only this, but it was a safe alternative for players who wanted a quick match but didn't want the casualness of aram or the long strung out games of SR. The fast pace of this game mode also allowed for quick game turnouts, and if you got stomped in a game you could simply que up again fairly quickly.

-Safe, PVP-practice mode Dominion was a great place to feel out champ mechanics in a fast gamemode. The constant teamfights also meant that you could develop your skills in teamfights (which aren't emphasized in the regular SR). Often, i see people with alot of skill in lane, but poor teamfighting mechanics. The irony is that these same skills could have been developed in this game mode had riot marketed better. Also, if you wanted to practice ur solo lane mechanics in a quick environment you could go botlane and develop your skills there against ACTUAL players. You could also develop them quickly, as the quick game turn-over meant that you could test different starter builds (3-4 items) against real players and see if you could snowball with them.

15 Comments

Jbels2 votes

Actually, it's technically the playerbase's fault. Riot probably would have put more time into it if more people actually gave a shit. Don't yell at riot and claim they don't care when the players started it. Why should riot care if their players don't?

MadMad Sickness1 votes

{quoted}

Actually, it's technically the playerbase's fault. Riot probably would have put more time into it if more people actually gave a shit. Don't yell at riot and claim they don't care when the players started it. Why should riot care if their players don't?

you don't understand. players stopped playing dom because riot failed in marketing the gamemode and failed in supporting/updating it. que times started to get long as a result and people stopped playing because of these que times.

What happened to dom could very well happen to aram, or even 3v3. Before long, this game will have only one gamemode: SR. That will definitely hurt the longevity of the game.

Jbels1 votes

[{quoted}](name=MadMad Sickness,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=foFczZPg,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-02-11T03:46:39.639+0000)

you don't understand. players stopped playing dom because riot failed in marketing the gamemode and failed in supporting/updating it. que times started to get long as a result and people stopped playing because of these que times.

What happened to dom could very well happen to aram, or even 3v3. Before long, this game will have only one gamemode: SR. That will definitely hurt the longevity of the game.

Bullshit. Riot doesn't give up on something until it's either in a decent state of balance, or a complete lost cause that nobody believes in anymore. Dominion was the latter.

MadMad Sickness1 votes

{quoted}

Bullshit. Riot doesn't give up on something until it's either in a decent state of balance, or a complete lost cause that nobody believes in anymore. Dominion was the latter.

The success of products is based alot on perception and marketing. Many, many good products have failed because of the the sellers ability to fully market them. However, its also the reason why a shitty product can still make millions of dollars, If a person sells the product correctly than people will buy based solely on the perception that it is good.

This has been proven time and time again, its all about marketing.

SR gets alot exposure from LCS and other media outlets: hence why its the main game mode and why people still play this game. What may end up happening because of this is that riot will delete the other game modes in favor of their cash-cow: SR and go soley to game-mode rotations (as we have seen them do).

The game will become stale, and people will stop playing...

A Naive Jackal1 votes

{quoted}

Bullshit. Riot doesn't give up on something until it's either in a decent state of balance, or a complete lost cause that nobody believes in anymore. Dominion was the latter.

You do realize that if they take dominion out, bots (The bane of me existence), will start to pop up in 3v3, SR, AND aram, Right? Dominion is a fun game mode and just because you do not play it, you really don't need to downsize another player for liking it. Its true Riot gave up on it, but they should really look at it from another point of view. They probably wont read this post, but, in all honesty, Dominion is fun, but, it is also keeping the bots from the other game modes. Now i know your going to resort to some sort of act of criticizing this statement, but at least i tried to enlighten you of why i want dominion to stay.

Jbels1 votes

{quoted}

You do realize that if they take dominion out, bots (The bane of me existence), will start to pop up in 3v3, SR, AND aram, Right? Dominion is a fun game mode and just because you do not play it, you really don't need to downsize another player for liking it. Its true Riot gave up on it, but they should really look at it from another point of view. They probably wont read this post, but, in all honesty, Dominion is fun, but, it is also keeping the bots from the other game modes. Now i know your going to resort to some sort of act of criticizing this statement, but at least i tried to enlighten you of why i want dominion to stay.

Then maybe Riot will finally have the motivation to find a permanent solution to botting when their precious summoner's rift is threatened

Cindikle1 votes

When the mode came out there was some issues with the queues. I think it was that there was no dodge penalty. So people would troll game or jump out if they didn't like how things looked. This made it unplayable for most people. And they did not fix this quickly.

From the start, Riot has shows they care little for the mode. Considering they expected something like 40% of their SR playerbase to swap over. They probably decided to cut their losses and back away from it. Over time it became infested with bots. Making it hard to get new players into it. But we had a way to handle that with the forums. Helping people learn how to play.

What hit the final nail in the coffin was the loss of that community. These boards have nothing to help other game modes. Also with the introduction of ARAM, Dominion was no longer the only "fast and fun" mode.

There was a short time when Riot did give us a single Rioter to talk to and try to fix things. But all we got was some balance changes to item and heroes. He himself said a lot of things were tied up and he couldn't do much past that.

Riot screwed up the start. Their fix that came years later they put little effort into with a single guy communicating with us and making what he can do very limited. Then finished it off with removing it's community.

They've been told multiple times what this mode needs to improve.

Really cannot blame the Dominion playerbase for this. We've done what we could. Some players even made a subreddit to help recreate a community. But the damage was done. It was too late.

MadMad Sickness1 votes

{quoted}

When the mode came out there was some issues with the queues. I think it was that there was no dodge penalty. So people would troll game or jump out if they didn't like how things looked. This made it unplayable for most people. And they did not fix this quickly.

From the start, Riot has shows they care little for the mode. Considering they expected something like 40% of their SR playerbase to swap over. They probably decided to cut their losses and back away from it. Over time it became infested with bots. Making it hard to get new players into it. But we had a way to handle that with the forums. Helping people learn how to play.

What hit the final nail in the coffin was the loss of that community. These boards have nothing to help other game modes. Also with the introduction of ARAM, Dominion was no longer the only "fast and fun" mode.

There was a short time when Riot did give us a single Rioter to talk to and try to fix things. But all we got was some balance changes to item and heroes. He himself said a lot of things were tied up and he couldn't do much past that.

Riot screwed up the start. Their fix that came years later they put little effort into with a single guy communicating with us and making what he can do very limited. Then finished it off with removing it's community.

They've been told multiple times what this mode needs to improve.

Really cannot blame the Dominion playerbase for this. We've done what we could. Some players even made a subreddit to help recreate a community. But the damage was done. It was too late.

Riots incompetence on some things is really starting to irk me: especially after I had seen so many positive things come out and many changes to the game that i was finally feeling justified in buying rp again (mainly in teambuiler, this new draft mode, and changes in the community).

Honestly, its kinda shaken my faith in them. This game may very well implode at some point.

Cindikle1 votes

It's been on that path for a while now.

They're just too focused on being an E-Sport than actually making games.

They have their cash cow, and they're rolling with it.

MadMad Sickness2 votes

{quoted}

It's been on that path for a while now.

They're just too focused on being an E-Sport than actually making games.

They have their cash cow, and they're rolling with it.

thats what i'm feeling like as well...

they're squirming for self-preservation. they're digging a deeper and deeper well to get more water, but then they'll get stuck in their own dam hole eventually.

Baby Ghoul1 votes

I'm a relatively new player. I started out in March of last year, didn't do PvP until April. I find the assessment by older players to be false.

Do you really know what I would have liked to know in those days?

  1. Don't buy runes until level 30.
  2. Don't use your refunds or spend your RP until you know the game better.
  3. Don't ask your friends for advice on gameplay, it's going to confuse you and influence you to make bad choices.
  4. It's okay to stay in Co-Op versus AI if you feel comfortable there. There's no set level at which you need to do PvP. So many people I knew pressured me hard to move to PvP as early as level 6.
  5. It's okay to mute people in PvP.

What I see a lot around here is people who have been playing this game for years, get their friend to make an account, and almost hover over them, inhibiting their growth. There are people who openly admit on here that they make smurf accounts to play with their friends. That really needs to stop.

Not only are you stunting their growth, but you're causing other new players to have a bad time because you know more.

Let the player have their new experience, make mistakes, and grow on their own without outside influence. I know you really want to start playing with your friend, but the road to level 30 isn't that long honestly. That journey should be taken alone.

There are so many things Riot can do to improve the new player experience. Dealing with smurfs is number 1. However Dominion is not one of those things, and that's coming from a fellow new player. I think I played dominion once with a friend, and that was it. None of the many friends I made on my road to level 30 used that mode either.

The truth is that everyone learns at their own pace, and this game is definitely a commitment. I'm nearly a year in and I still am learning so many new things.

With Dominion being over I do hope they work to develop a better environment for newer players, but a lot of the charges that it's the worst experience possible seem to be coming from older and more established players.

I completely disagree with your opinion on ARAM and even 3v3. So many people enjoy those modes, especially ARAM. As far as I know, Dominion never fit in there and I know from playing it that I didn't enjoy it.

MadMad Sickness1 votes

{quoted}

I'm a relatively new player. I started out in March of last year, didn't do PvP until April. I find the assessment by older players to be false.

Do you really know what I would have liked to know in those days?

  1. Don't buy runes until level 30.
  2. Don't use your refunds or spend your RP until you know the game better.
  3. Don't ask your friends for advice on gameplay, it's going to confuse you and influence you to make bad choices.
  4. It's okay to stay in Co-Op versus AI if you feel comfortable there. There's no set level at which you need to do PvP. So many people I knew pressured me hard to move to PvP as early as level 12.
  5. It's okay to mute people in PvP.

What I see a lot around here is people who have been playing this game for years, get their friend to make an account, and almost hover over them, inhibiting their growth. There are people who openly admit on here that they make smurf accounts to play with their friends. That really needs to stop.

Not only are you stunting their growth, but you're causing other new players to have a bad time because you know more.

Let the player have their new experience, make mistakes, and grow on their own without outside influence. I know you really want to start playing with your friend, but the road to level 30 isn't that long honestly. That journey should be taken alone.

There are so many things Riot can do to improve the new player experience. Dealing with smurfs is number 1. However Dominion is not one of those things, and that's coming from a fellow new player. I think I played dominion once with a friend, and that was it. None of the many friends I made on my road to level 30 used that mode either.

The truth is that everyone learns at their own pace, and this game is definitely a commitment. I'm nearly a year in and I still am learning so many new things.

With Dominion being over I do hope they work to develop a better environment for newer players, but a lot of the charges that it's the worst experience possible seem to be coming from older and more established players.

My assesment is my own, much like yours is yours. I was a new player once, as you are now. Everything you have said is valid. However, the difference between you and me is that i recognized the value of the game mode during my pre-30 days because my friends and i played it alot, whereas you only played it once. It took me a little while to recognize it (especially because i didn't know how to play, i was level 1 once as well you know). Honestly, because of how mmr works, the best place to play with noobie friends is in dominion. Dominion games last 20-30 minutes tops, you don't have to commit time to the monstrosity of a time sink that is SR. You can test out your choice of champs and If you do bad within the first 10-15 minutes, you only have to sit through like 5-10 min of whats left of the game if ur buddies are carrying you (as opposed to SR, where u could easily spend a dreading extra 30 minutes with a horrible experience.) Also, YOU ARE GAURANTEED TO HAVE ITEMS IN THE GAME MODE. Kills matter very, very little. As a result, you can try whacky builds knowing full well that you could try another in 20 minutes.

Also, if you go top you could practice ur teamfight mechanics. Go bot and you can practice ur csing and solo laning against another pvp.

SR is just bad for new players in general if u ask me. New players should be encouraged to play ai games/dom/arams. I started playing when there was absolutely no penalty to ai games. I played solely ai till probably around level 30. The reason riot began to penalize them is because of botting and such. What ended up happening instead is that the botters started infesting regular SR games.

Baby Ghoul1 votes

[{quoted}](name=MadMad Sickness,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=foFczZPg,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2016-02-11T04:13:02.579+0000)

My assesment is my own, much like yours is yours. I was a new player once, as you are now. Everything you have said is valid. However, the difference between you and me is that i recognized the value of the game mode during my pre-30 days because my friends and i played it alot, whereas you only played it once. It took me a little while to recognize it (especially because i didn't know how to play, i was level 1 once as well you know). Honestly, because of how mmr works, the best place to play with noobie friends is in dominion. Dominion games last 20-30 minutes tops, you don't have to commit time to the monstrosity of a time sink that is SR. You can test out your choice of champs and If you do bad within the first 10-15 minutes, you only have to sit through like 5-10 min of whats left of the game if ur buddies are carrying you (as opposed to SR, where u could easily spend a dreading 30 minutes with a horrible experience.) Also, YOU ARE GAURANTEED TO HAVE ITEMS IN THE GAME MODE. Kills matter very, very little. As a result, you can try whacky builds knowing full well that you could try another in 20 minutes.

Also, if you go top you could practice ur teamfight mechanics. Go bot and you can practice ur csing and solo laning against another pvp.

SR is just bad for new players in general if u ask me. New players should be encouraged to play ai games/dom/arams. I started playing when there was absolutely no penalty to ai games. I played solely ai till probably around level 30. The reason riot began to penalize them is because of botting and such. What ended up happening instead is that the botters started infesting regular SR games.

SR is not bad for new players. Outside influences are. Many new players do not know what to buy, what to build, and often where to go (Duo top is a big thing). There are many things that happen in pre level 30 SR that won't translate to level 30 SR. That's why I don't get your argument that it was a place to try out whacky builds.

New players do try out new things, do try out new champions, and that's because it is encouraged and nobody knows better, or should know better. An AD Leblanc can work in pre 30 SR because nobody knows what they're doing. Absolutely no idea. Everyone is trying to learn the game, and how the game might look when they graduate to level 30.

I played Dominion once, and that was really enough. I don't get the correlation you're trying to make for newer players. It does not translate. I get that some people did love Dominion, but it would not have been some haven for newer players, and it doesn't indicate that ARAM is going away. That mode is one I did play so much as a newer player, and still play today.

MadMad Sickness2 votes

{quoted}

SR is not bad for new players. Outside influences are. Many new players do not know what to buy, what to build, and often where to go (Duo top is a big thing). There are many things that happen in pre level 30 SR that won't translate to level 30 SR. That's why I don't get your argument that it was a place to try out whacky builds.

SR IS bad precisely for the reason that riot cannot help that there WILL be outside influences. When i was first playing, i remember a couple games where our entire team was soloed by a nocturne, and then another time it was a voli-bear, and then we got destroyed by other things. No one knows what their doing and in an ideal system you would be right: SR is not inherently bad. But it is bad because of smurfing and such (which riot can't really fix).

Dominion goes around the "smurf" problem while developing skills you need in SR for several reasons and underlying mechanics of the game u may be unaware of: -MMR MMR decides who you get matched up against. I'm not going to go into depth here, but basically know that it climbs faster at earlier levels

-quick game turnover because the game lasts 20-30minutes, smurfs are quickly flushed out because MMR works on a multiplier.

-can practice all of your SR mechanics, quickly, and in a PVP environment you can choose your champ, you can pick your builds, you can practice your mechanics, you can practice your teamfighting, you can practice your laning... and all of these translate over to SR, and you are guaranteed a fair amount of gold to practice them (as opposed to one side getting super, super ahead). and because these games are usually 20-30 minutes, you can do it over and over again very quickly as opposed to spending potentially 30-45 minutes on a spent game.

-Aram is a smurf haven did you know that there are people who have accounts specifically for aram smurfing? what they do is they pick all the op champs so they get the ones they want EVERY GAME. Picks like xerath, lux, velcoz; this is actually a thing. also, you don't get to choose what you practice, and csing/ objective control is out the window. So you don't get to choose what you do... and nothing really matters. Don't get me wrong, i freaking love this game mode, but its more for when you have a large champion pool and don't really care what happens lol.

{quoted} New players do try out new things, do try out new champions, and that's because it is encouraged and nobody knows better, or should know better. An AD Leblanc can work in pre 30 SR because nobody knows what they're doing. Absolutely no idea. Everyone is trying to learn the game, and how the game might look when they graduate to level 30.

I played Dominion once, and that was really enough. I don't get the correlation you're trying to make for newer players. It does not translate. I get that some people did love Dominion, but it would not have been some haven for newer players, and it doesn't indicate that ARAM is going away. That mode is one I did play so much as a newer player, and still play today.

As i said, ur point of view is understandable because we had vastly different experiences at those earlier levels. The game is much, much different than it was in season 2 (which is when i started playing). However, I think its still the same from either point of view. You only gave it one shot, and thats totally fine. I've played half my games from dominion, so you can see why I'm a bit upset its going away. I learned so much from playing this game-mode, and i hate the fact that others may not be given the same opportunity to learn in the same way i did. An opportunity to like it or hate it, like u did. an opportunity to experience it for themselves and decide if they like it or not.

And aram is not perfect, and is not much different from Dom. It has a smurfing problem. and riot has to dedicate server space and resources and such to it. The difference between dom and aram is that aram actually makes money (the skin boost thing, thats the only reason they have it). But other than that, it will always be neglected in favor of SR: because SR is where the money is at.

And whose to say aram won't go down the same route, only time will tell if riot switches entirely to a game-mode circulation like they've been doing. And if that happens the game will become stale, and could fail...

if riot thinks they are incapable of going under than they are deeply mistaken. right now, they are making decisions to preserve themselves temporarily instead of thinking about long-term consequences. This kind of thinking could lead to an empty community... I have seen it happen before in other games... and riot is not invulnerable.

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