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The greatest cultivator of player apathy in league is...

JosephAngelo·2/13/2020, 6:46:53 PM·1 votes·2,155 views

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I love league of legends. I think many players do. I love game design and strategy and League is a rather unique and exquisite platform within which to explore, experiment, theorize and play with game design concepts and ideas. Also, at times, it is a really fun and exciting game. It thrills me in a way that no other game can and because of the uniqueness of this game, I am invested and kind of trapped into playing it no matter how the META changes or what gets added to the game; I think here lies the impetus and cultivation of player demoralization, apathy, frustration and other negative behaviors over a game that they ultimately love and appreciate very profoundly. This game is so good and so unique, no matter how it is changed, we need to accept it and keep playing.

Talking game design philosophy, giving players room for creative and skillful expression, freedom, and otherwise inviting them to make decisions for themselves and empowering them always leads to a healthy, enthusiastic and happy player base and league of legends is an exquisite example of a game that encourages players to do all these things and I strongly believe it is for this very reason that league of legends succeeded in the first place. Completely contrary to this philosophy, having objectively overpowered and underpowered champions in the game for extended periods of time feels to us like RIOT telling us what to play and how to play them, which undermines all the wonderful qualities of this game previously mentioned and also feels really disrespectful, derogatory and patronizing. Why should we respect and be kind in a game when RIOT games consistently makes decisions that are disrespectful to the game and ourselves?

It is crushing for us to follow the balance and champion design decisions of RIOT games. There are champions we love to play in this game and when a new champion gets released with more power in their kit then the champions we like to play then we can't play those old champion anymore. Even someone who knows very little about game design or math can look at a new champion, add up the damage of their abilities, consider their cooldowns and base stats and conclude that "yes, this champion is objectively stronger than all these other champions that play this same position or are considered the same archetype of champion." And even considering this, the champion is released anyway. Then, this champion will remain well overpowered for anywhere between three and eighteen months. Continuing this trend of incompetence, at the end of this time, instead of reaching a point of relative balance, the champion is then nerfed far too much to the point of in-viability where they remain there for anywhere between three months and three years. Conveniently, right before the champion is nerfed into oblivion, a new and final skin will be released for this champion.

RIOT, if you think we don't feel patronized by your shameless buffing of champions or refraining from nerfing champions with skins coming out - you are wrong. If you think we are content with leaving behind champions we have spent hundreds or thousands of hours playing because an objectively better champion has overwhelmed others - you are wrong. If you think we are not heartbroken when the META-defining strength or weakness of a champion, or item, or keystone goes unaddressed for months or years at a time - you are wrong. If you think we are not bewildered when a creative behavior discovered by players is promptly hotfixed while other chronic problems (champion design, balance, fair matchmaking) remain untouched - you are wrong.

In conclusion, I suspect the toxic player negativity and hopelessness about this game is simply a reflection of the care RIOT puts into the heart of the game and therefore the greatest step to improving player behavior is for RIOT to do what most players have been begging and pleading them to do for years now - balance balance balance fair matchmaking and more balance. Let us play the game we want to play and love so much. We WILL be grateful and enthusiastic.

5 Comments

Tele II2/13/2020, 10:56:09 PM3 votes

I think it more has to do with immaturity (lots of children play video games) and gaming culture. Every competitive pvp game has been like league in my experience. Was balance an issue in those Call of Duty games where everyone insulted eachother the second they got into a lobby? I never heard about balance issues in that game. Awesomenauts had terrible balance problems, and it was actually less toxic (at times) than league or CoD.

I think the "hopelessness" (if youre referring to like how everyone says league is dying, otherwise idk what you mean by hopelessness) stems from bitter players who got punished and are looking to slander Riot at any opportunity they get.

4th edit (i know, i edit too much): in conclusion, I think youre giving people with anonymity way too much credit. People are assholes online dude. I think it has very little (but still some) to do with balance (and keep in mind the circumstantial nature of the game, where anyone with a good lead on their opponents is gonna feel OP relatively) and more to do with how people act when they have anonymity and they arent personally being held accountable by people in their lives. Yeah, they may lose their account, but they arent acting that way in front of their mothers and siblings and all the people they know. They would be embarassed, unless they are really young children. Its the anonymity of the internet that brings out the worst in people. I cant believe you simplified it down to balance and matchmaking lol. Im not saying there are no balance issues, btw.

Kei1432/14/2020, 2:53:48 AM1 votes

The OPness doesn't matter if people don't know how to control the OP champ optimally.

Knowledge of the game > champ's OPness. You can win a game against an OP champ when you know how to play the game better.