[Proposal] [New Player Experience] - Achievement system

Executive Summary: Lol is a game with an incredibly high learing curve. Additionally, many of the important skills and habits give very little immediate positive feedback for the player. As a result, new players very often ignore important aspects of the game in favor of more obvious ones. An achievement system could be used to subtly nudge newer players into good habits and learning skills that may not necessarily be obvious, but will result in their improvement as players and help them win games.

Introduction: I've recently been helping a friend grind his first account to level 30. This is the second time I've done this, although the first time was about a year ago and I didn't give much thought at the time to teaching my friends how to play. I just created a smurf and played games with them while doing things like sitting in the brush with AP and waiting to get triple kills with a full channeled ult. This time, however, I've spent a bit of time thinking about how to actually teach them how to actually play well, rather than just carry them with 20 stacks of .

It occurred to me that new players spend very little time thinking about parts of the game that are very important. Things like CS, warding, map awareness, pushing towers, objective control. They really tend to just think about kills. This is understandable. Getting kills and getting killed are two of the most exciting moments in a game. The announcer doesn't give a global notification for "A ward has been destroyed!" or "A player has last hit a minion!" And yet these two things are very important in terms of the overall game.

Furthermore, how long does it take an average player to realize that CS is important? How long does it take an average player to buy wards, and use their trinkets? What about using Smite to last hit? Or pushing objectives? Doing these things well in game greatly improves your chance at winning. If a new player doesn't have friends to play with, how long will it take them to figure these things out?

Goal: I believe an achievement system could highlight important and undervalued skills/habits for players. An achievement system would draw a new player's attention to aspects of the game, with a focus on improving them. However, it is still incredibly important that this system does not overshadow the overall purpose of these skills (winning the game). If a player thinks "Oh, I don't care if I win this game, I just want to get the achievement." Then the system is fatally flawed.

What can an Achievement System teach players? Ok. Let's get into the meat of this. I'm sure the community can think of others, but I can think of several key areas that an achievement system can help with: Last hitting minions, proper use of , and vision control.

Example achievements:

Farmer I: Deal the killing blow on 100 minions or monsters in a victory on Summoner's Rift.

Farmer II: Deal the killing blow on 150 minions or monsters in a victory on Summoner's Rift.

Farmer III: Deal the killing blow on 200 minions or monsters in a victory on Summoner's Rift.

King of the Jungle I: Use Smite to deal the killing blow to 25 large monsters in a victory on Summoner's Rift.

King of the Jungle II: Use Smite to deal the killing blow on the Dragon in a victory on Summoner's Rift.

King of the Jungle III: Use Smite to deal the killing blow on Baron Nashor in a victory on Summoner's Rift.

I See You: Place at least 10 wards outside your base in a victory on Summoner's Rift.

Sweeper: Destroy or aid in the destruction of 5 enemy wards.

Possible Rewards: The logical next step is to determine the rewards for unlocking the various achievements. I am currently of the opinion that the rewards themselves should be small. Perhaps a small amount of Summoner level experience, certain summoner icons, or small amounts of IP. The important thing to remember is that the real reward here is the skill they're developing, and the games they'll be better suited to win because of it.

Caveats: You'll probably notice that I specified "In a victory on Summer's Rift" on almost all of the examples I listed. The goal here was to head off potential abuse cases. A player really shouldn't be focusing on their farm above their team's victory. If the reward is tied to the victory as well, the player won't tunnel on the achievement at the expense of the game itself (hopefully, anyway). Additionally, achievements should probably be limited to PVP normal games to prevent just grinding achievements through custom or bot games, and not actually learning the skills.

Suggestions: Ok. That's the meat of the proposal itself. I'd like to hear from the community on several fronts. Are there any abuse cases that I neglected? If so, how could they be prevented. What other areas of the game did you wish you spent more time learning that might be worked into an achievement system? I tried thinking of a good achievement for pushing towers, but wasn't able to quantify it very well.