Game Debate #107: League of Legends

[Skorp | 383]

Lol this poll. Was so expecting on the result.

[360collector | 289]

Cant play everyhting

[sp1nz | 611]

The depth and competitive nature of MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) are definitely not for everyone, since to be competitive you have to know each character's skill set, you have to know what items to build in what order, you play as a single character in RTS micromanagement style while working with your team etc. The problem is that the communities of these games are often toxic to boot and it's hard to work as a team with random people flaming for small mistakes and tilting everyone else. I think the genre is decent one to play with friends though, if you want "near infinite depth" in a team based PvP setting, since every match is wildly different with the character bans/picks/item builds/progression of the match etc. I think League of Legends has a fun roster of characters and hits a good balance of accessibility and complexity within its genre. Still if you want to play fully free I guess there's a lot of grind to be at an even playing field with rune loadouts and things, if those are still a thing, since last time I played was almost 10 years ago or something. I think any online only team based PvP game can suffer from the fact that you are working in a team of random people, unless you have a good friend group who enjoys a certain game like that. So the score would mostly depend on the company you have or lack in such games, if you like the genre to begin with. So to me it feels like a 5/10 for solo play, since there are not many great alternatives to this kind of gaming experience and I don't really play the genre but it could be vastly higher if I had a great friend group to dick around with.

The MOBAs I know of are Defence of the Ancients aka DotA (never played), DotA 2 (played a tiny bit), Heroes of Newerth aka HoN (I played for a while with friends casually but I think the game has been discontinued since a long time), League of Legends aka LoL (I played a decent bit with friends casually, still maybe "only" 50-100h) and Heroes of the Storm aka HotS (the Blizzard franchises mix and match roster with decent accessibility that I played a few matches of). Complexity is probably DotA 2 > DotA > HoN > LoL > HotS. It doesn't surprise me that retro console gamers / older gamers don't know or don't care about a genre that rose from Warcraft III community mod (RTS and RTS adjacent games are quite niche to begin with and are very PC centric for playability) and doesn't have too many examples to speak of.

The Netflix series "Arcane" is based on League of Legends and it was rather good. Riot is also making and has made other games based on the lore and characters that have been nurtured over the course of League of Legend's lifespan.

Edited June 24, 2022 by sp1nz

[SailorScoutMandy | 782]

I played a lottttttt of LoL from 2011ish-2014.

 

Have no idea how to access my account anymore tho. I had tons of champs and skins. 

[peg | 370]

Never played (and never will) League of Legends.  That said, the original DOTA (the WC3 mod) was fucking awesome, played it for like 5 years and loved every minute of it.  The main issue with these types of games is that the learning curve is just enormous, there are so many heroes, abilities, and items (and build orders, counters, etc), all of which you must have memorized in order to actually be good at the game.  And even after all of that you are still reliant on your team, so you better come in with at least 1 or 2 friends unless you want to get rolled.