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Let's Love LoL For a Moment

darknuke·3/4/2015, 12:35:55 AM·7 votes·700 views

I lurk the boards a lot and heavily keep up with e-sports culture and LoL in general. However, I've always noticed that more often than not, top posts here are purely complaints about why LoL sucks, how it could be better, how Riot has no idea what they are doing anymore (oh the Kalista backlash), or some other hateful thread. So I say let's take a moment to remember why we love LoL and why we got into and love MOBAs in general. This is why I love LoL/MOBAs:

DotA was a big part of my younger years. I was addicted to DotA for Warcraft 3 since its very first version. It was all I played for a long time. I could not stop. The strategy, the action, the variability. It was perfect. I only took a break from it for World of Warcraft, but it eventually sucked me back in. At that point, I moved onto Heroes of Newerth, where my favorite MOBA champion of all time resides, Fayde. HoN was still the dominant standalone MOBA at the time and boy was I addicted to the ranking system. There was nothing quite like the desire to earn just a few more points of MMR. Then League of Legends beta came out.

I tried it, but hated it. It felt kiddy by comparison to HoN. You couldn't deny creep?! Champions were given much more mana efficiency and most of my favorite items were gone (I'm looking at you Dagon). Change sucked, so I stopped playing LoL and went back to HoN. It wasn't until my second or third year of college that I had to stop playing MOBAs for the sake of schoolwork. Plus, I was burning out. I had peaked in HoN with my current understanding of the game and didn't want to try any harder to get better. A few years went by and I moved in with my best friend, who was addicted to LoL, so I joined him in that. This was during Season 3. I then became completely and utterly addicted. I sucked in season 3, just missing gold by a hair (was in my series as the season ended), in S4 I did a lot of research and honing of my skills and made it to G2. In S5, I'm aiming for at least Plat 5, though I'm currently G4. I mained Kha'Zix jungle/mid in S3 and S4, but it's hard to main him these days, so I'm still trying to figure out my main.

Anyway, there is nothing quite like League/MOBAs. No game genre has ever been able to do for e-sports what MOBAs (and LoL in particular) have done for it. Not that other genres didn't make their mark (particularly RTS's like Starcraft), but it was MOBAs that brought e-sports to the masses. MOBAs will legitimize professional gaming for us and give all our childhood dreams a potential reality. We can now say, as kids, "I want to be a professional gamer when I grow up" and not have that be a pipe dream. I would have no doubt that in 10 years we will have gotten close, if not caught up to, major sports like Football and Baseball, as far as individual, top tier player earnings goes.

So for as much as we hate on Riot (or [insert MOBA developer of choice]) and claim they are doing a bad job, just remember, they are building the foundation for the next generation of real professional gamers, all while giving us a game that is SO SO SO much fun to play, that despite how much we hate on it, we still will never quit. Without them making an awesome game and without us being so diehard that we flock together to watch professional matches, there would be no e-sports. This cultural shift is the combined efforts of them and us and I don't know about you, but I love being a part of that. We don't see very many industry changing phenomena in the world and we are in the midst of one. Enjoy it, participate in it, be proud of it.

So let's step back from the nerf nit picking for a moment and really let it set in how much these games have affected our lives. I've got more hours into LoL + DotA + HoN than every other game I've ever played, combined. The game has influenced me as a game designer, gamer, and human being. I know I'm not alone in that. Share your stories and positive feelings towards this genre if you feel the same way.

6 Comments

ModKnightsKemplar3/4/2015, 12:39:18 AM4 votes

Man, I couldn't agree more. This game is awesome, and while I sometimes do put suggestions in the boards, I can't hate on Riot. It's good to see some positivity in the boards for once. We wouldn't even have a game to complain about if we didn't all want LoL to be the best it can be, and we wouldn't care about it being the best if we didn't already love it.

Slaaneshine3/4/2015, 12:48:12 AM2 votes

I agree with you OP. If people can just stand back and not complain for a few seconds, they can see that this game has come a long, long way from it's origins. I started just after beta ended. I watched my brother play it, and fell in love with Singed. He was the first character I ever bought, and that was purely because I thought he looked cool. There were only 35 champions at the time. Mordekaiser was to be released in 2 weeks! An exciting time. I look back with fond memories when everyone sucked and anything went. I remember being in cardboard elo, back when it was a number: 700. There was so few us down there that I was recognized by other players for my AP Alistar mid.

Looking back, things really did suck at times. But Riot has grown larger and larger. They've learned what it takes to be great and to make a great game. And they have. All you people who regular here and complain and whine, why still play if you whine that much? It'd becuase you still enjoy the game. So instead of whining, just enjoy it. It's a game. Not every game is the LCS. Most of us are not destined to be professional gamers. So play to have fun.

Seriously, how hard is it to have a laugh in a game these days?

Stephenizgod3/4/2015, 12:50:11 AM2 votes

I agree people need to stop the hateful comments and they need to stop insulting the balance team. It is perfectly ok to not like the changes being made, but you automatically completely invalidate anything you say when you insult Riot in the same sentence.

On the other side it really does speak to how much we all love League that one change can get so much attention from us. That we get actually angry, sad, or hurt over a video game proves how much the game means to us. So while all that hate is sad to see it also shows how much people care for the game and that they get legit hurt over changes that they dont agree with or when they feel excluded from the balance changes.

Crate of Cobras3/4/2015, 2:36:49 AM1 votes

No.

The forums exist so that people can argue about the game, so that hopefully some dev reads it and takes the advice. Not all advice is good, but some is. That's why people bitch, moan, and make noise - so they can be heard. If you aren't heard or don't act, you don't exist.

Arguing that people need to stop arguing is the same as doing what they're doing - you're trying to shout your viewpoint over other people. The difference? Yours isn't touching a game issue, which is what the forums are for.

This isn't some care-bear circlejerk. Please take your pathos-ridden shitpost back to your church youth group, or your loving parents, or wherever the hell your little feelings come from.