The problem with descriptions of champions is this: it expects too much of you. League of Legends hands you puzzle pieces, such as descriptions of champions and what they do and expects you to know the meta of the game and fit the champion in it. For a beginner, or even a non-seasoned player, it’s a disaster waiting to happen.
I’m not the only one to do this, and obviously it doesn’t absolve me of my wrongdoings, but I sometimes play on my smurf account. What this means is that I own an alternate account of a much lower level than the one I mainly use. I find the skill level between the players I play with on these two accounts to be exceptionally noticeable. The smurf accounts pairs me up with players around my level, meaning they tend to be new. Of course, there’s the occasion when I run into other players who are playing on their smurf, but it doesn’t happen often. These low levels are extremely horrible at the game, not understanding what the current meta is, how to build champions properly, and having no game sense whatsoever. Yet, despite being horrible players, they win some games and lose some. Whether you lose or not, you gain experience and level to 30, which is the max level. By this point the players should be drastically different from when they were level one. Unfortunately, that’s not really the case.
While there are level 30s that have developed exceptional skill over their journey, I’ve noticed that some do not. What’s the problem? Champion roles are one. Another is the game does not teach you about the five roles in the game. Nowhere in the League of Legends client is there a video teaching a player how to properly play jungle, or what it is for that matter, or a short descriptive guide on what a carry is. How can a player learn about the game when there is no proper tutorial? You can’t. Now, I understand that there are numerous online communities like the official League of Legends forums or Solomid.net; however, isn’t it up to the developers to teach the players about its game? Perhaps not extensively, but enough so that the player understands the game?
My last complaint is that League of Legends doesn’t allow for players to communicate properly. For a game where teamwork is everything and learning from each other is essential, the game doesn’t have any support for that kind of thing at all. There’s no built-in replay system so you can learn for your mistakes. There’s no built-in audio communication system so there’s live teamwork coordination and discussion. Heck, there’s no chatlog of your previous games to see what you could’ve learned from other players. League of Legends is simply a play machine and the developer irresponsibly leaves everything up to the player. While it’s great that you encourage the community to go out and find stuff, the game must also have a degree of teachability, and it doesn’t.
League of Legends is a top-notch MOBA game. In fact, I often play two to three games a day because it’s so fun. It’s currently competing with Starcraft II for the most popular game in South Korea, and that’s saying something. So for a game that appeals to such a large audience and has the potential to expand its population, why is the game so tedious to learn about? If I had to say something about League of Legends, it’s that its learning curve is higher than Dark Souls. Whereas the feedback is right then and there with Dark Souls, it’s not with League of Legends. So… my nitpick with League of Legends. You can’t learn from it. You need to get a teacher from the community and not the developers.
This week in Nitpick, we’ll look at a game that’s causing a storm in the e-sports community: League of Legends. Perhaps you’re familiar with this game, and if you’re not, where have you been? E-sports has been on the rise for many years, but with the recent introduction of Starcraft II and League of Legends, it’s grown considerably in a short span of time. As great as e-sports is, that’s not what I want to talk about. Instead, I want to talk about the learning curve and the methods the game uses, or doesn’t use, to teach its players about the intricacies of the game.
League of Legends is first and foremost a MOBA game that requires teamwork, effort, and a great deal of game sense. Sadly, the game does a horrible job of conveying any of these to you through the game’s innate design. Take champions, for example. As of now there are 99 champions in the game, and they serve to round out the various roles of the game. Each champion has a description that aptly portrays their characteristics. For instance, Ahri is a ranged, mage, assassin. While it properly describes what this champion is capable of, it does a poor job of providing what role the champion plays in the game.
The current meta divides the five champions per team into the following: a top lane champion who tends to be tanky, a jungler who can clear out the jungle with relative speed and ease, a caster that has great burst and magic damage for the middle lane, and a support and a ranged attack damage carry for the bottom lane. This is the standard for every play session if you hope to win. The problem that arises is where does Ahri fit into all of this? There’s no way to know other than through the input of the community, who designates where the champion belongs best. What’s worse about all of this is that the game doesn’t teach any beginners about the current meta or even what champions do best in a given lane. It’s all hectic and confusing.
Let’s use Swain to further add to this predicament. He’s a ranged mage just like Ahri, but he is not considered an assassin. What’s the differentiating factor between these two? Being an assassin, but what does that mean? Of course, I read that as quick burst damage with high mobility, but for a beginner this means absolutely nothing or something else entirely. Let’s make it even more complicated, shall we? What role does Swain fulfill? Perhaps the mid-lane role? To be honest, Swain fits more comfortably in the top lane than the middle due to him being able to stay in lane with ample amount of health and recovery moves. Once again, the game fails to demonstrate any of this to you.