Why League has Disenfranchised the Average Player and What we can do About It
Sitting at my desk here typing this I already understand the futility of this post. For me writing has always been a sort of therapy, so I guess even if this is scrutinized or otherwise ignored it really won't matter to me, I will have said my piece. To start, I want to make it clear that for awhile, let's say the first few months of playing, I was blissfully unaware of just how toxic the community of league really is. Most of us have been playing too long and have forgotten those blissful days. It is nothing like the terribly rude welcome that new players now face. I started playing in Season 2 and paid little attention to how big the community was becoming. I was lucky, in that people took the time to teach me the basics. I never considered being anything more than a casual player. And there lies the problem. This game is not meant for casual players. LoL has focused onto the less than 1% of professional gamers that play, Riot games has consistently demonstrated they only care about money, and there is only one thing we can do.
Initially, League was fun to play with other random people. It was actually kind of gratifying. And looking back we should have all seen the warning signs. It wasn't gratifying to beat the enemy team, so much as it was gratifying to finally get a random group of people to come together and actually cooperate. Now the community is so toxic that it's just too painful. If you are in a 5v5, chances are that at least two of the people you are in a match with on your team, are at each other's throats for one reason or another. And to get to the point it all stems from the disconnect between Riot's pro-gamers and advertisements, and the reality of the game. We are all just normal people, looking to have fun in a game that isn't made for us. Overtime the learning curve for the game has become far too steep for the casual gamer. Reworks only focus on making the game entertaining to watch played by people who actually know what they are doing, and most of them render several subsequent champions obsolete. And yet that is where Riot is making its money.
League isn't a game for you and I, it's a game for their sponsored players to rake in more money for them. I mean just go to their website and click the games tab and see their selection. LoL is Riot's only game. With an estimated 1 Billion dollars in "Micro-transactions", which means that Riot made approximately 1 Billion dollars in sales, to the average consumer in 2014. Riot has no need to spend money creating another game, at least not in the near future. They can just add meaningless reworks to characters, add a few more champions and skins and they can get right back at it. So why would you as a consumer and an average gamer, that the game doesn't even appeal to, hand the company 1 billion dollars a year? At no expense to them?
The only way for us to affect change in a gaming community, is to stop playing. If you look across the forum there are plenty of people who took the time to write posts that feel the same way. Many of the people who were around when Riot first started this game, we are all gone now. My advice is if you plan on sticking around, just step back and take a good look at what you are doing and who you are giving your money to. For all of you who have an issue with the game, I hope this helps you understand what you are feeling a little better. For those of you who are content with things the way they are, I wish you the best of luck. GLHF and what not.
