how do people get over the barrier to entry in MOBAs?

KZ Engel·5/16/2018, 2:28:14 AM·3 votes·2,494 views

i don't even remember not knowing what items or champions do in league, yet i can't wrap my head around the items, play styles, or power spikes in smite or dota

similarly, anyone i introduce to league has no idea what's going on for the entire month they play it before quitting

(edit) speaking of barrier to entry, how come all the low level free champs are so insanely boring? the 4 people i've gotten to play league have all said "why can't i play that guy he looks so fun"

16 Comments

Kchaotic5/16/2018, 7:51:04 AM2 votes

I actually didn't even taught about it but it is kinda blessing having 10+ years of exp with Dota before re-directing here, for roughly 4 months i already am doing pretty good considering the fact i literally started playing (like playing mainly league) the game 3-4 months ago. I had to rush learn only the spells and the effects of some champs it was in big help the fact they are pretty much the same. Only recently Riot are really trying hard in making something different and unique unseen till now and at first i didn't really want to admit it, but they are doing it. The thing is people have to learn to respect Dota simple and mainly couse its 1st and its way, waaaaay older... :) Its like dis-respecting your parents or grandparents .... you simple can't, cause compered to them you are just one little piece of s*** kid who has to grow up first. And funny just as in real life, kids never listen to the elderly which they almost always regret later on in life...

flibitydoo5/16/2018, 2:37:17 AM1 votes

play the tutorial to learn the basic controls (and the basic win condition)

play against bots

unlock new champions and look up a guide then play them against bots

build the recommended items (or follow a guide to the character)

it's important to understand that there's no "secret", everyone else who started playing the game knew as much as you did and had the same background/tools to begin with as you did.

Proxy3455/16/2018, 2:37:56 AM1 votes

By turning on that brain lol

Marshbouy5/16/2018, 2:38:16 AM1 votes

That's a great question. The only reasons why I stuck with league are as follows

I needed a big time sink. It was summer time when I really started to play the game and I didn't have anything going on, so I put over two hundred hours into the game over the course of a few months.
I had 3 friends that I played normal games with constantly. They are what really made the game fun for me.

That being said, I sucked complete ass at the game till probably preseason 6. Up until then I was playing at about a wood 5 level because there is just so much to learn.

VADMDangerNoodle5/16/2018, 3:12:37 AM1 votes

Level 28 (I think) player who has been playing pretty sparsely since january (I mean like 3-4 games each weekend or so? I guess?)

Yeah I still don't entirely get whats going on. I get the baseline of "this is what this champion does" on the most basic level. I'm still working towards getting a clue on what most items do. I think I've got like... 10 full items that I actually understand (mostly support and AP stuff bc I play sona mainly).

I play support about 70% of the time, top and mid the other 30% bc I can't jungle or ADC to save my life from what I can tell. I honestly forgot what the base champs were but yeah, the game didn't start to grow on me till I hit about lvl 23. I mainly started playing because a LOT of my friends play it. Yeah I'm still pretty clueless.

I think the "boring starting champ" part might be because they want to try and get people to start with simple champs? Idk, I enjoyed playing nocturne on free rotation and he definitely seemed more complex than whatever else I had. Then my friend explained to me I should click on someone when I use my ult and I started enjoying it a bit more :/

Yeah now I try to actually know what the abilities do before I use them.

It was rough to start for sure but I think I'm getting a bit better and the game is getting to be more fun.

Tuition Fee5/16/2018, 3:39:43 AM1 votes

Fake it till you make it. I was so awful that ti was a surprise I didn't get banned for inting. I'd say it's like playing sports. You constantly amass experience and improve. Eventually managed to obtain a positive KDA, and things started getting better.

SEKAI5/16/2018, 4:10:58 AM1 votes

League only need 2 things:

Better champion skill/spell description that properly lays out all the features in a clear manner as well as its scaling and all those stuff stuff IN THE CLIENT. Currently, to get into the meaty gritty you need to use the 3rd party site like LoLWiki because Riot doesn't bother to actually clarify a lot of aspects in a champion's kit and leave it either inadequately explained or too vague, which makes the champion pages in the clients, which should've been where people use to study the champions, mostly useless on its own. The broken meme that is the difficulty bar and the champion power wheel are not helping either.
Having an actually meaningful tutorial.

Do this 2 changes, suddenly the barrier is gone.

...

At least to where credit is due, League has already removed all of other issues that can pose a barrier to entry. Such as having intuitive spell effect design that you can at least sort of guess what the spell does based on what it looks like, crisp visual design to lessen the clusterfuck that typically comes with bigger fights, and good and clear in-game shop for finding champion items with the stats you're looking for.

Things like Dota often poses an extreme barrier to entry because it barely does the above. Many spells in Dota2 you would have no idea what it does just by looking at it because they're often just the same projectile with different colours, or designed with such nonsense logic like Bloodseeker's ulti where it's a DoT that is for some reason calculated based on the distance YOUR HERO traveled so if you TP anywhere while on it you instantly die but you would take no damage if you just stand still like wtf; or the utterly confusing, overly convoluted, and entirely unexplained nor clarified at all shop system, that makes people just quit the game without bothering to start.

But League can still do much better.

Battalion5/16/2018, 5:41:27 AM1 votes

It's your responsibility as their teacher. It took me weeks to self-learn at release, everyone was crap, tutorial videos, guides, etc were all but non-existant (and with the constant changes early on, what was available was outdated quickly). Teach them the basics of what each stat does, how each stat affects interactions with objects, explain to them the summoner spells, lane roles, game phases, and objective importance. From then on get them into some Aram games to have them learn how to team fight, CSing is hard, boring, and tedious, throwing abilities constantly is fun. Those are quick games, easy to rack up another, and realize that if you lost it isn't due to a personal lack of skill, but most likely due to RNG team comps.

IT3etlWEXJ5/16/2018, 6:48:04 AM1 votes

They don't lol. League isn't attracting new players. BR games like fortnite are crushing them these days

Kchaotic5/16/2018, 7:33:13 AM1 votes

Keep in mind that from the very start till now the game keeps growing becomes better in certain ways. Its the same with developers they become better in shaping the game, in making champions. Considering Riot has no other games nor exp with moba's. Even tho i absolutely admire and simply must give them big credits for how paranoid they have become in order to stay original and different. They simple forgot there are some fundamental laws and certain things in that type of games, which cannot be changed at any point nor cost, something like unwritten rules if u must. They somehow managed to stay above water but were pretty close to ruining the game a couple of times by so madly blindly following this idea at any cost.. :) but they've managed, cheers.

Mhihnj5/16/2018, 10:29:29 AM1 votes

when i signed up for league, i thought it was an mmorpg. I didn't even know what the term MOBA meant. I have no idea how i learnt to play league lol.

FurriesAreHot5/16/2018, 1:23:51 PM1 votes

For me, every little moment of pure joy, like my first penta, kept me going.

PykeSupportCarry5/16/2018, 2:32:53 AM1 votes

people who still don't know the basics even after 1 month probably shouldn't play this game anyway

Shazzbot695/16/2018, 2:35:47 PM1 votes

speaking from my experience with both league and dota 2, it is just time. Keep on trying and you will get better. When I first started league of legends, I didn't even know to use hot keys, and cannot even beat bots. I'd follow guides on the internet 100% without understanding what I bought, or how to use it. But over time, I got better at the game, begun to understand the difference between the roles and what items each role needs, and now I am making my own builds. Thanks to how popular mobas are, there are tons of resources that can help you out, so I would say, start off with reading guides and following other people's builds. In time you will learn enough to make your own decisions on what to build and such.