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League's new player experience... is actually pretty good?

Disembark··20 votes·1,807 views

The game is exciting, the graphics are cool compared to most MOBAs, every champion is unique. There is so much to learn and you will see so much new stuff.

When I play with my new friends they feed their asses off and they really don't care. They're not concerned with the fact that "oh no, I died so I lost 3 waves and my tower", they really don't even know what consequences dying even really has - so they don't mind dying.

They don't understand or care what a level really is, or what powerspikes with items really are. They just buy whatever they think looks the coolest and just try and fight people.

In terms of flaming? I'd say majority of new players don't care. Hell, as a new player I never even read the chat. The thing is: new players don't have any pride. When you're leveling a smurf account and someone flames you for being bad, you probably feel bad because you think you should be better (only reason flaming even gets to people is because 1) they think they are better than the person flaming them 2) they think its not their fault they are doing poorly). New players, don't have any expectations for themselves.

I remember one time I was so happy I went 0/0/0 because usually I went 4/15/0 or some shit. I'd pick champions because I'd read their ability descriptions (in the old client, when you clicked on a champion a list of abilities and descriptions would pop up at the bottom) and their pictures looked cool. If I'd die a lot I'd just buy a crap ton of ruby crystals (more health = more tanky).

Like new players aren't "confused" when they see a complex champion like Camille, they just don't care to use her to her "full potential". They don't care that her E gives 70% attack speed or w.e., they just use that ability and bounce around and have a good time.

I just think people that complain about new player experience are generally not new players. Because I've known 20-30 IRL friends that joined league as "new players" and all of them have reached level 30 without quitting and have a good time playing.

20 Comments

Final Spark Lux8 votes

You sound really popular to know that many people. I'm glad they all still enjoy the game though. That's really nice to hear. [sg-lux]

Disembark5 votes

Ehh not really. A lot of my highschool friends played. It's actually one way that we stay connected.

In my college dorm I'd play occasionally and my roommate & some other people also started playing.

Barkley1 votes

{quoted}

A lot of my highschool friends played.

What is a "friend?"

let alone many?

Best Vi Earth8 votes

you let your friends get sucked into league? what kind of friend are you :P

Snowman Arc5 votes

They will enjoy the game up to the point where they decide to start climbing and winning, which means they need to learn to play the game, know correct and wrong decisions, which then means they will start getting tilted by other players' mistakes etc etc. Eventually, tilt gets us all.

charge attack1 votes

Haha, but the thing is NAs ranked is like 1mil people while we have like 5x as many active players.

Most people just chill in norms (like my friends.

ModValeeva3 votes

Im really happy you are enjoying this game, I was going to say if you want help levelling and learning to let me know and I'll be happy to help you on your journey but you are already 42!

[sg-kiko]

SwiftKitten883 votes

so basically what your saying.. is that "they dont care about balance".

which since that is effectively only real problem with league right now. i can see why they have fun, so the difference is when they put those new players who have no idea how to play and put them in ranked silver. its makes life absolute hell who those who wants to climb

FakeGravity2 votes

the new player experience isnt terrible, beside the smurfs and chat toxicity, bu it gets a bit difficult after that, there is a point when you learn the game enough to know you are doing something wrong but you arent sure of how to improve, a better tutorial system will help for sure, things that explain how items affect skills, how wards work (i remember introducing someone to the game and trying to explain what "vision" really is and how it helps)

we need practice scenarios like:

avoiding enemy ambushes by using wards last hit range practice dodging skillshots practice compare builds (use tank gnar, vs full AD gnar) ?

SanKakU1 votes

I feel like some of the rotating game modes have done a good job of training players. Perhaps they could continue the trend and it will be fine. I suppose an issue for some new players is they may not come every week to try out the RGM and miss out on the learning experience, though. Maybe a miniature version of the Star Guardian mode in training for example could help.

Cavesloth2 votes

{quoted}

the new player experience isnt terrible, beside the smurfs and chat toxicity, bu it gets a bit difficult after that, there is a point when you learn the game enough to know you are doing something wrong but you arent sure of how to improve, a better tutorial system will help for sure, things that explain how items affect skills, how wards work (i remember introducing someone to the game and trying to explain what "vision" really is and how it helps)

we need practice scenarios like:

avoiding enemy ambushes by using wards last hit range practice dodging skillshots practice compare builds (use tank gnar, vs full AD gnar) ?

Add contesting objectives, counterbuilding, countpicking, and proper split pushing, and for shits and giggles, advanced tutorials on how to beat the bronze "cancer" champs like yas, yi, kat, etc.

THE RlVER KlNG2 votes

league's new player experience as always been beyond horrible. the burden of knowledge is ridiculously immense and the tutorial has been fucking useless for years. i've been trying to introduce league to so many people and they just get turned away with how bad the new player experience is and never get beyond bots.

add in smurfs, toxicity, and elo hell in bronze, and i feel bad for new players.

Sire Hippington2 votes

Well, i depends alot on the new player i guess. Some more ambitious players, esepcially if they have a experience from other mobas, probably have a different experience. But for more casual players that don't care about playing it 'right', the new player experience sure is rather good.

Terchio2 votes

Well, I agree that the new player experience is generally good, but I don't understand the viewpoint. At 2--3 seasons ranked play, you aren't new. While your startup with friends was enjoyable, I don't think many games tend to fall off if they manage to net as many friends as it sounds like you have on League, and if you do fall off, that's issues with general gameplay, not "New Player Experience".

When they're saying "New Player Experience", they're talking about those guys and gals that hear about it in the lunchroom, but have little actual help to go off of, or who stumbles upon one of the ads, something like that.

I'd also argue that improvements could be made. LoL is not a progression type RPG game, it's more cyclical and stagnant in playstyle, to encourage adapting gameplay for the situation you find yourself in. LoL should not be holding back playstyles that players won't understand, because there will be confusion regardless. There are 139 champions in League, and someone's going to get held up by the Flash Spell? Or an extra few Rune setups? I really don't think so. Players will be coming in extremely fresh, but some veteran MOBA players will get their hands on League as well, such as DotA players who used to be able to Dagger - Hook enemies with Pudge, but come over to League to find they're held back from Flash - Grab, essentially the same thing. And worst of all, their enemies will be able to do that. Why do we have these cyclical type games, quite similar to a board game, where these newer players are in the game with remarkably fewer mechanics available to them? Think Monopoly, except you're not allowed to trade. How does that help? And for so many games starting up?

So yes, new player experience is generally good. The tutorials kept up with most of the important introduction areas required for league, including a few more exclusive to League. If you're not feeling particularly social, bots make a good casual method of playing the game, and then other game modes allow you to play your favorite champions and their playstyles, but add a new map and mechanics to accent the way you play. It's a good introduction overall, but I feel it actually coddles a little more than necessary.

SanKakU1 votes

You probably have a very, very good point. Actually I am going to add you to my friend list for this. Respond with 'okay' or whatever so you won't just be getting the request from an unknown person.

Why would LoL have such decent player base if new players couldn't enjoy the game? The issue is the people that smurf or get banned and they don't want to grind again.

I think the number 1 thing new players have to deal with is the grind. Player behavior doesn't really phase them since they are still learning the game's basics.

Project omen1 votes

I always thought that new players stick to League because they have their friends to encourage them. In fact, that's what happened to me and a lot of my friends. If I didn't have my buddies to insist that I play with them, I probably would've quit.

EkyonKun1 votes

I specifically remember playing and I didn't even understand role selection. I just played Jinx where-ever the fuck I wanted. I remember going mid after someone called it, and they said "Dude wtf Jinx I'm mid" and I said "It's ok we can both mid" he replies "Oh hell no" I just thought, "Man, what an asshole. Won't even share mid. Selfish idiot"

Also, the only thing I heard about League before joining was "mid or feed" and I had literally no idea what that meant. So, I typed "Mid or feed" in blind pick lobby. All I saw was someone else saying 'wtf' and I doubt everyone else was happy.

I immediately went top lane that game.

PePsiLemoNN1 votes

''Hurr durr but thornmail Ashe in tutorial RUINS the whole new player experience hurr durr''

Athenes Lulu1 votes

It seems like your friends must have a good deal of PvP experience prior to playing League.

Because if you tell someone who has never played PvP to play League, it would suck jack shit for them because they have no experience towards the toxicity that people generate in PvP games.

Pinkaj1 votes

Very true, League was my 1st ever PvP and dang, back then I didn't even know what KDA was, what the hell wards were for, until lvl 17 or whatever, and best of all I don't think I met any toxic smurfs til then. The first time I was insulted was during one of my laggy games and my Ori support pinged ? and said to back off her kills and didn't believe I was lagging, even though I disconnected several times.

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