Keeping new players coming.

I have seen this happen with a few games and I thought, why don't I write something about it. (Short summary at bottom)

So League of legends is intended as an easy to learn hard to master game. It is easy to understand and get into and when you stop playing the game for a while you can just get back into it. It's not that serious and the competitive scene is not everything.

This is at least how it used to be.

Today there are many updates and additions to the game to the point where you cannot even stop playing for a while and get back into the game. I can imagine it is very intimidating to new players as well.

Lol as a spectator sport has taken it's place and balance is more important today to keep the competitive scene balanced. There is of course nothing wrong with it changing. Everything eventually transitions into something new and lol has become huge. There are unfortunately drawbacks to this including pro's having to deal with the stress of the constant changes.

Some people also get attached to champions and how to play them even if they are not top tier. The changes and reworks mean that they lose interest or get frustrated at having to learn the new style. Some people prefer the game as a comfort game instead of taking it serious and challenging.

How do we remedy this? Unfortunately I don't have any answers to this whatsoever as I see both sides of the argument completely sensible.

Another problem that I personally find hard to deal with is the constant item changes and additions. This is only something I have had to deal with and I do not know if anyone else feels the same way. I can imagine for new players having to deal with all the changes must be hard when they are still learning the game.

As a possible solution for new players is a way that Items get unlocked. So at the start of the game you only have the most basic items to understand and they must not have active abilities. Boots fully unlocked from start. The fact that there are recommended items however already remedy this quite well.

Masteries can sometimes also frustrating to work with if you are still starting especially if you just want to play the game socially or do not quite know what works the best for what champion and still have to figure that out.

_Instead of unlocking one mastery per level It might be easier to unlock a few every few levels. At level 15, 15 gets unlocked and at level 30 the other 15. _ The biggest frustration is visuals for new players. For old time players it is quite easily to know how to play and what to do but the fast pace is difficult for new or returning players. From level 1 to 5 The game can be slowed down to remedy this if need be but I think this is just part of the game and it has always been something new players will have to get used to.

Then there is the problem of too many champions with specific abilities to understand and counter. Some champions have specific interactions that take a while to get used to and to understand.

_The best way I believe to solve this problem is to Increase the free champion rotation duration slightly increase the champion pool. So 15 champions can be free for the month or something like that. The alternative is that you can only buy champions that you have already played through the champion rotations or that you can only but one champion every 5 levels until you are level 30 then you can buy as much as you want. _

An advanced tutorial at about level 10,15,20,25 or 30 might also help in alleviating many thing in the game

In addition: I just thought of something that might benefit the community. Basically it is that you can rate your games based on how much you liked. This can get put into algorithms and when you play games you get placed with a combination of people of your skill level and people of similar personalities or interest(Trolls with trolls, friendly chatty people with friendly chatty people). This can be a different queue. So you would have normal, ranked and then social queue. This will also aid in showing who creates a negative environment. So even if someone is not directly doing something but everyone in the teams keep getting frustrated and upset that person is more likely to get penalized for doing something or gets a notification that they are a bad influence on the community. This will also give an immediate Idea of what champions are unhealthy for the game in a different way that is currently being used and can be added to those stats.

Summary:

Game is not so easy to learn anymore and it has become more of a spectator sport.

Here are some of the potential problems that I see:

• Pro's under pressure
• Champions that people are attached to get changed often.
• Too many complicated items.
• Masteries.
• Too many visuals.
• Too many champions with specific abilities to understand and counter.

Potential solutions:

• Unlock items every few levels.
• Unlock masteries in bulks instead of per level.
• Slightly larger free champion pool but duration much longer. (Champions can only be bought if you have played in their rotation), alternatively you may only buy one champion every 5 lvls until 30.
• One or two advanced tutorials.

Additionally: Additional queue called social queue or something. Rate your game by how much fun you had. Algorithm detects what players prefer to play together.

_Thank you for taking the time to read even if only the summary. I actually prefer only the summary:) Unfortunately I will probably not replying to any comments or discussions as I am quite busy with other things and just wanted to bring this up and throw it in the mix as food for thought. _ Note:I have done no proper research on this. It is simply my opinion and could be completely wrong.