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New player experience is the least fun i've ever had playing a game.

Mcprowlington·6/27/2016, 11:55:10 PM·82 votes·4,854 views

For some context: I decided to make a second account. I've been playing for about a year and generally float around mid silver ranking. There are a few separate reasons I did this: to play normals with friends without them getting squished and discouraged, to practice my much weaker roles in a more carefree environment, to make friends and help newer people and because I love the added sense of progression and leveling and am just somewhat nostalgic for that.

but oh man, this is just awful.

I guess i must've done wrong by winning my first game (which i didn't by any means carry, just went 7/5 as first time Kha and had little impact on the game itself) because these matches are literally more difficult, more frustrating and more toxic than any ranked game I've ever played.

There are, at the very least, high gold level players being paired with actual new people playing their 4th or 5th normal game and telling them to kill themselves.

ADCs telling people that don't yet understand how to differentiate roles that they hope their family gets cancer because they didn't ward and took CS.

People constantly telling eachother to never play x champion again and uninstall because apparently Vayne isn't supposed to build PD.

of the handful of games i've played, i've yet to see one where a clear winning team wasn't decided 5 minutes into the game. I've straight up lost several games in a row and it isn't getting any easier.

So i decided maybe I should level up playing ARAM instead. Game loads up and I get some sort of multibox botter, literally all 4 people on my team are bots that clump up in the same spot behind the tower and attack move down the lane whenever an enemy gets close. All getting farmed by the enemy team's Katarina as she weaves laugh spam and dance emotes in between ultimates.

Riot please, this is terrible. If I were an actual new player, I have no idea why i would want to continue to play this game.

69 Comments

Hey Its Chris6/27/2016, 11:57:02 PM20 votes

Yea, when i started mid season 4 I never had any of these problems, I legit built a runaans on naut and nobody said shit.

Kavsel6/28/2016, 12:35:43 AM11 votes

I stared mid-season 3 and everyone was so helpful and willing to help me learn how to play, different roles, champs, items, etc. I took a break from end-season 3 till about mid-season 4 for personal reasons and when I had returned I was level 18 and everyone that I played with the exception of a few were so toxic I didn't want to play anymore. I met a few good people and they are the ones who kept me around and I still play with a few of them still.

I created a "smurf" account for the sole purpose of helping new people learn, if they are willing. I am by far not the best player (only reached B3 before the end of last season) but I can share do's and don'ts for the true new players. There are a TON of negative and toxic people that play "smurf" accounts that couldn't care less about helping new players or them even staying.

+1 to those who actually care about the game and helping people learn and get better and in turn bettering the game.

disregardable6/28/2016, 12:23:12 AM7 votes

Smurfing isn't the same as being a new player. You're being matched for the most part with other smurfs, who are for the most part smurfing because their previous accounts were banned. You're not being matched with players that are actually new unless they are duo'd with experienced players.

Manadar6/28/2016, 3:33:03 PM7 votes

Seems you've just experienced online video games.

nice table6/28/2016, 1:38:56 PM6 votes

"to make friends and help newer people" new flash, smurfing doesn't help newer people nor does it help your friend. also the smurfs who don't select "expert" when asked for their experience are the worst kind of people.

Free Roll6/28/2016, 7:12:38 PM2 votes

Leveled up this account to play with a friend saw literally NOTHING of what you speak of level 1 all the way to level 30. I am pretty sure it happens to people like you because you are this type of passive aggressive jerk who doesnt realize you are the problem and instigate conflict. I also love how people like you who make your alt accounts detail this long list of reasons why it was okay for YOU to make a smurf to stomp new players all in the name of "playing with your new to league friends".

The only legit complaint you have is the bots, but it is clear riot cares little about the bots, because they sell the level 30 accounts which essentially brings them customers.

Bladerunner77776/28/2016, 3:12:43 PM2 votes

After the first few games the system weeds out all of the smurfs/bots and separates them from the new players

Kinetika6/28/2016, 3:30:06 PM2 votes

Honestly I think the single biggest problem is that the game doesn't explain very much about how itemization and the overall meta work. I have a very intelligent friend who quit league just after level 10 because he had trouble understanding what to do in PvP matches, and in particular didn't understand how to counter his laning opponent via itemization. Additionally, he hadn't played with junglers....true newbies are used to playing duo top, and so when junglers rolled through (and let's be honest, vision in the jungle isn't stressed to noobs), it was basically an instant death for him.

So it's like League wants players to learn a bit about mechanics in the first 20 levels, and then if the players are lucky they'll pick up on parts of the actual meta game by the time they reach level 30.

The problem is that with so damn many champs and item/rune/mastery combinations, it's close to impossible for a new player to really grasp the game.

Personally, it took me months after I hit 30 to really understand the game, and months of playing Aram to understand the champs. That's a huge time investment

Meanie406/28/2016, 9:10:09 PM2 votes

This will stop when Riot decides to stop smurfing.

That is, never.

Zedex6/28/2016, 10:44:59 PM2 votes

Its because you're a smurf buddy. Just play on your normal account and let the real new players play the new player experience.

Battlecast Sona6/28/2016, 6:56:33 PM1 votes

those of us who leveled in season 1 are just like "I went RoA Sona botlane and took cs, what of it?!" but... I guess it's probably pretty bad nowadays, huh?

BatchBustsMeta6/28/2016, 6:58:04 PM1 votes

I was lucky, and started playing season 1, so no one really new wtf was going on, and we all just kind of did our own thing, and had fun. Howeverre, I have leveled quite a few smurfs, and I gotta say, neverr really enjoyed it. In Riots defense though they did cut exp to 30 in half so theyre working on this.

AwesomeChad6/28/2016, 6:59:25 PM1 votes

just another sign that Riot is trying to force us to play the game a certain way. smh.

CerealBoxOfDoom6/28/2016, 12:10:19 AM1 votes

you are getting matched against gold because many people invite their friends into this game or make new friends.

I suggest just doing the same and finding someone to play with. I play with a lot of new people actually.

VanixAtTheDisco6/28/2016, 7:53:29 PM1 votes

My favorite part about leveling up my single smurf is having to remind people we don't NEED a jungler. Seriously, some people play their smurfs like they're on their main and it's obnoxious.

ZeeWolfZ6/28/2016, 8:26:59 PM1 votes

Riot only cares about profit. They have 4 year old tutorial and one of the worst player experience in gaming history.

MajorMunchies6/29/2016, 8:41:22 AM1 votes

the problem with new players is when you try to give them advice, or tell them to stop feeding ect. they rage at you, telling you you suck and that they know what they're doing when they obviously don't. That kinda activates my trap card and i let em have it.

sorry new players, if you know you're new dont try shit talking the seasoned vet trying to give advice

Kairya6/28/2016, 9:17:00 PM1 votes

Ah good old times .... I started playing during preseason 4 with a friend. We played botlane together with an incredible Arhi/Ashe Combo. Equal Farm (to be perfectly accurate we didn't really notice right away what minions were good for), Equal Kill and lots of fun. I think there were are few flamers and unfriendly people around then already, but just one every twenty games or so.

We eventually both had a smurf for similar reasons as you did, and in the beginning we also had a lot of really bad experiences, but it got better. We actually used the accounts to play non-meta builds and lanes for different champions and had mostly normal teams in the end - no one was especially toxic despite our sometimes weird champion choices. Past Level 10 pretty much every player we encountered was a smurf though, which was totally fine for our purposes.

SerBlaise6/29/2016, 3:57:32 PM1 votes

Not that this should really make you feel any better, but for what it's worth no other MOBA I've found has a good (nontoxic) new player experience either.

Backstory: got fed up with league, desided to try hots. jump into game, go through the "veteran" tutorial, jump in a few AI games, then try quickmatch. Get paired with a Diamond smurf who carries me 10 games, flaming everyone in his path, until we loose a game and he flames me.

[zombie-brand-clap]

Melledoneus6/29/2016, 1:24:55 AM1 votes

The worst part is, there's no way to control it right now. How do you control what kind of players are smurfing and who's paired with who? How do you match-make that without dedicating massive resources?

In general, there needs to be a serious re-vamp of the system. It's way too cluttered.

stealthfox946/29/2016, 1:38:39 AM1 votes

Yeah I keep hearing the new player experience is terrible atm. I started in S3 and never had any of these problems.

ltmetal6/29/2016, 2:11:22 AM1 votes

Riot please, this is terrible. If I were an actual new player, I have no idea why i would want to continue to play this game.

It's for this same reason that I can no longer recommend this game to another player in good faith.

NichtHurz6/29/2016, 4:40:23 AM1 votes

I can only imagine since I started playing in late 2009 where nobody even had a single clue about what's going on and what everybody was doing right there. Master Yi or Trynda just came in and destroyed everything, the Ashe went AP tank with mana reg, somewhere on the map a Singed was running around not even knowing proxy farming existed and the jungle was forbidden terrain as long as didn't have lifesteal or played Warwick. Crazy and good times.

Just one thing: Be happy you didn't start trying Dota 2. The tutorial and help you get from the game itself might be a million times better than in LoL, but starting to play real games there gotta be the most frustrating thing ever and the community seems to be ten times worse than in LoL. In LoL I meet people helping from time to time, just making fun in-game and chat and just being chilled people. I don't know if I've ever met a person in Dota I would want to add to my friendlist after the game.

Try to filter out the nice and good people. Team up with them and try to have fun while helping each other to get better.

If I didn't play on EUW I would've added you, but I don't feel too eager to level up my NA account with a constant 180-220ms ping. :/

Sir Fuzzi6/29/2016, 6:20:05 AM1 votes

The biggest problem is that there's a lot of blame passing that just goes unchecked. It kind of skews the game experience-- a player passing off their own failures by drawing attention to other alleged failures doesn't necessarily reflect what's actually happening in the game... but it does surely affect the game experience.

I've only made it to placement matches and those alone convinced me to more or less swear off ranked. If it's anything-- anything at all-- like the placement matches, then virtually anything else would be a far better expenditure of my time. I don't think I've enjoyed video games less than in the few shots I've taken at placements.

But, the good news is it's straying further and further from the spotlight. This is good and a good notion to set forth for predecessors.

Now we just need ARAM in Heroes of the Storm!

The Deckowner6/28/2016, 6:23:28 PM1 votes
  1. Rito made leveling up twice as fast, so people arr encouraged to smurf, which is no good for new players.
  2. Tutorial is shit.
  3. Botting had been an issue for years yet nothing were done.
maembe6/28/2016, 6:36:08 PM1 votes

I started like 6 months ago and did not have the same experience at all. I didn't know any of the roles, so I just went to a random lane and ran around trying to kill people. I didn't learn the roles until like 15-20ish. I had never played a moba before but was still better than the majority of players, so I must have been playing against other new players.