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I'm gonna be honest, games being shorter doesn't actually bother me

AhmCha·1/19/2018, 4:23:02 AM·95 votes·3,359 views

It's the way that games are becoming shorter that's the problem. Meddler said recently that the data they've been gathering seems to indicate that most players don't mind, and actually prefer shorter games. That's totally fine, but the problem is that the way games are becoming shorter is by turning most matches into one-sided massacres. The result of this is simply that the game feels bad to play, especially from a losing standpoint. Riot, if your goal is to make games shorter, that's fine, but there's gotta be a better way than turning the game into a snowbally mess.

TL;DR: Shorter games are fine, games that are shorter as a result of increased snowballing are not.

77 Comments

Mojihito6661/19/2018, 10:19:58 AM32 votes

It is not how long the game last, it is how soon its decided.

75% games are decided within first 10 minutes.

Sujiren1/19/2018, 6:48:03 AM31 votes

Exactly, I don't mind if average game time is 30-35 minutes. But I don't like how games are completely one sided and game is basically decided by 10 minutes, with no way of coming back, unless your jungler somehow steals like two barons in a row.

BestJhinUniverse1/19/2018, 2:57:26 PM18 votes

Blame China and their PC cafes. Riot is tuning the game to their desires to meet the time durations they want most if all.

Someone posted some survey results between the regions, NA didn't like the short games, but China and Korea liked it better. Two countries with huge PC cafe business and riots favorite children.

Lowvyr1/19/2018, 7:28:38 AM12 votes

I like having short games, but not with this meta. The games are short because first blood and first tower will snowball the game out of control.

PowerSlave9931/19/2018, 3:08:00 PM7 votes

Riot just don't get it. They think like ''oh people don't have anything against short games, so we did it boys! We finally made community happy'' But they don't realize that they actually made the game broken...

ZerglingOne1/20/2018, 1:47:18 AM5 votes

There are ways to make games shorter without massive snowballing, but none of them would be popular.

The game having distinct phases is at least part of what made it fun and popular in the first place. Shortening game times strips distinction away and already "late game" is almost a myth. Tanks are really only tanky for about 5-10 minutes a game anymore.

I kind of scoff at people who go super hard for fire drakes when games are being ended before a big % AD or AP boost would be particularly relevant.

Blåbæret1/20/2018, 3:54:42 AM4 votes

League has been designed from the ground up to have long games. Riot has forced upon everyone shorter games at the cost of quality. The current situation is a direct result of that policy. So someone saying "it's not the shorter games that bothers me", actually makes no sense because all the problems we have with the game right now is the result of Riot trying to make games shorter, thus stripping away core gameplay mechanics and complexity and making the game a stompfest.

If you remove the high damage, nerf ADCs and buff towers, games will be longer again. The only people who support short games are casuals anyway. Appealing to them is never a good idea because they're not a consistent or supportive enough type of player base upon which to base your game. WoW tried to appeal to these guys and lost nearly 50% of their players. I alos seriously doubt that League isn't bleeding players right now. My only advice to Riot is to appeal to players that actually play and support the game instead of casuals.

VeganScout1/19/2018, 8:09:26 PM3 votes

I want 20 min games max, not 30 or 40, im not an immortal to spend that time playing with turds

YumaS2Astral1/19/2018, 5:13:47 PM3 votes

That's why I like to play alternative game modes. While many of them are short, they are not snowbally and one sided (most of time). Some of them have problems (such as ARURF being decided on the champion select) but overall you tend to have a better chance playing them than playing a common, Summoner's Rift game. They are also fun.

deadlychuck1/19/2018, 6:07:59 PM3 votes

If you're surveying people (or collecting data) who continue to play the game or give priority to the people who play the game more, then you're going to end up with bias data, because people who don't like shorter games, but are getting them anyway, will just stop playing as frequently or at all.

If people stop playing because they dislike their current experience, then you take a survey or collect data around the group of people who are content with the shift in gameplay. It might be a massively failed change, but you'd never know asking the people or collecting data from those, who stuck around and were more neutral towards the change overall.

[zombie-brand-facepalm]

Kyunsei1/19/2018, 6:16:23 PM3 votes

I pref shorter game.

ÈvilMorty1/19/2018, 9:32:18 PM3 votes

My only problem id that late game champions who are not adcs either dont hit there spike and lose or are forced to stall out games, and then lose because once they hit there spikes, everyone else is full build.

Nea1041/19/2018, 11:13:09 PM3 votes

"Stomp or be stomped" is something happening since last season, in my experience.. And they just made it worse :P

underscores2221/19/2018, 11:46:11 PM3 votes

The issue is, the tradeoff to making games shorter is that they become more snowbally. Let me try to explain, please stick with me.

There's a number of ways to make the game shorter, but in the end the objective is the same - kill the nexus. Assuming you want to keep the same map, shortening the lanes (and thus removing a tower) is out. Since the objectives can't be eliminated (3 turrets, inhib, nexus turrets, nexus), the only other way is to change game pacing.

You could condense the timescale - change the pacing of the game by making items cheaper, increasing gold, and decreasing objective defenses. Thus champions get items faster, deal more damage sooner, and push through objectives faster. This allows games to end faster, and is the basic direction Riot went.

However, if items cost less (or there's more gold flowing) and most champions are item-dependent, then a small lead leverages into a larger lead much easier - one kill/objective results in more value, allowing the killer to get items faster and putting his opponent further behind.

The same thing is true in teamfights - one team will have a gold advantage coming out of lane and will probably win the first teamfight. That can be leveraged into winning the next teamfight through additional items and objective control. Very rarely does the losing team have a chance to regain that lost ground.

If you don't mess with the map and don't mess with the items/gold, the only other direction to go is to increase damage across the board. In theory, if everyone does 50% more damage (but everything else stays the same) then teamfights are over faster without passing too large of a lead to the winning side. In reality, increasing damage does not benefit every champion equally, and could skew a fight in favor of one team comp over another. In addition, increasing damage results in more burst plays, where there is less time to react - which feels equally snowbally, especially when considering that objectives will fall much faster as well.

Overall, I can't think of a situation where games get shorter and don't feel snowbally.

Rouwhorst1/19/2018, 10:41:29 PM2 votes

One could ask himself if a survey is the right way to obtain such information.

Asking directly after the game will often result in people saying "I prefer shorter" because they enjoyed the game, got (partially) what they wanted and now realise how much time was "lost". And indeed, on top of that, asking such questions neglects side effects.

Get Art1/20/2018, 7:36:04 AM2 votes

Honestly I was super skeptical of how the runes made the game feel and how I felt like "all games were snowbally anyway," during the preseason. But now that the season has started, everyone seems to be trying much harder and is playing champs they're good at, etc. The game feels really good. I have had a lot of really close games and the snowbally ones end fast so nobody has to suffer through them. I think the game is in a good state, I'm having fun playing!

ClicktoMove1/20/2018, 12:30:04 PM2 votes

Well at least i know riot now has no plans to change game length and i never have to play again. never knew meddler said that.

Niaphim1/19/2018, 6:51:37 PM1 votes

All those who want short games are missing the point that one team has to win in every game. This means that this team pushes at least one lane all the way through, including inhibitor and nexus turrets. With the current map size you can't have both short and non-snowbally games. Comeback mechanics that reduce snowball will slow down games, so you have to pick your poison.