Games: League of Legends

League of Legends (LoL) was I game had avoided for a while. From playing other competitive games, I've learned how emotionally-taxing they are. However through personal growth, I've learned how to enjoy the game for what it is, rather than trying to win every game.

History

My background with LoL actually goes back to its very beginnings. My brothers and I enjoyed playing the DOTA game mode in Warcraft III. We played it as a cooperative game against AI bots. We had no clue about any strategies (roaming, jungle, etc.), we just enjoyed playing in our lane, gaining levels, and buying items. 

Tell me this was't taken from WoW

I remember trying out LoL in high school, around the time it was first released in 2010. I remember the summoner talent trees, that was clearly inspired by WoW. The progression system has since been streamlined into the rune page. I must not have played many games, because I don't remember the experience too well.

Community

Nearly a decade later, the game has become an international sensation. LoL has 50 million daily players, and LoL Twitch streams consistently has the highest viewer count (over 400,000 live viewers). The game's free-to-play model makes highly accessible, and the extremely large community provides many resources for learning the game. LoL dominates the MOBA market by sustaining this large playerbase, through various marketing, Esports promotion, cool cosmetics, new champions, and balance updates. 

Whenever I meet somebody that plays one of my favorite games, I feel it's a somewhat special connection. It's fun to talk in-depth about the game, share favorite moments, discuss strategy, and even schedule times to play together. But with all the large variety of games now available, it's common for self-proclaimed gamers to share no overlap with other. So, the statistics of meeting someone within that 50 million playerbase is much higher.  It's fascinating to people, who would otherwise have no reason, form connections due to their mutual interest in a game. 

Gameplay

The MOBA genre has mechanics from APRGs, RTS, FPS, and even Fighting games:

• APRG: Character progression, team composition 
• RTS: Macro management, map vision
• FPS: Skill-shots, dodging 
• Fighting: Zoning, poking, footsies

Skill sets are categorized into two distinct concepts: "Micro" and "Macro"

• Micro is the mechanical skill required for actual fights; such as aiming shots, dodging, and securing last-hits.
• Macro is overall strategy and awareness of the match. This requires a lot of game knowledge and experience, since it requires constant monitoring of the mini-map and timing of enemy cooldowns. 

Essentially, the macro is the strategy, while the micro is the execution. Based on my game experience, it was natural to pick up the micro skills. The advantage of playing with knowledgeable friends is that they can direct me where to go. The early game is straightforward: just push down your lane. Afterwords, the game delineates and requires more macro skill to understand where to go. 

To avert the pressure of "Normal" games, I just play the All-Random, All-Mid (ARAM) gamemode. This is akin to the "Mystery Heroes" gamemode I preferred in Overwatch. It's a more casual gamemode with a degree of randomness that keeps things "fair". The macro skill set becomes irrelevant since players only have to worry about a single-lane; no objectives or jungle. It's fun to experience different champions with low risk of toxic teammates. 

Champions

There are over 150 champions in LoL, which can be roughly categorized into the traditional RPG trifecta: 

• Damage
• Fighter: Durable, melee sustain damage
• Slayer: Mobile, melee burst damage
• Marksman: Ranged, sustain damage from Attack Damage (AD) 
• Mage: Ranged, burst damage from Ability Power (AP)
• Tank
• Vanguard: Engage and absorb damage
• Warden: Defend allies and mitigate damage
• Support (Controller)
• Enchanters: Heal and shield allies
• Catchers: Immobilizes enemies

Before playing, I obviously had no idea who any of the champions were. But over time, I now could probably name all 150 of them (like how I remembered all 151 Pokemon before I could read). Of these champions, my favorites are within the Damage and Tank categories:

• Fighter: Nasus, Darius
• Slayer: Zed, Ekko, Master Yi 
• Tank: Shen, Malphite

I prefer playing the tanky, melee champions, because I like the engage potential and sustainability. I also like the "combo" champions that require careful timing of each ability to for massive damage. 

Play Your Way

As I've mentioned countless times, character progression is what I enjoy the most in games. Each champion has a toolkit of four abilities and a passive trait. These are designed to synergize together and serve the champion's niche role. Through rune and item choice, players are able to adapt their builds for counter-play or experimentation. When playing ARAM, it's fun to play with off-meta builds like AP Shen, Attack Speed Darius, Bruiser Zed, etc. Regardless, the character scaling with each level and item upgrade is a satisfying progression. 

You done messed up A-A-RAM

Unfortunately, by playing exclusively ARAM, I subject myself to a coin toss every single game. It's not guaranteed that I can play a preferred champion. It was fun learning new champions in the beginning and learning how they played. But as I got more familiar, it become more about winning.  

The team compositions are also a mixed bag; sometimes the enemy team gets stacked with heavy ranged damaged and crowd-control, which makes engagements difficult. For example, if a Team A has two tanks and Team B has three ranged damage, the two possibilities occur:

1. Team A has good engage; Team B's squishy ranged champions are overwhelmed. Team A gets a gold advantage and their tanks become unkillable. Team A tanks constantly bully Team B, which leaves Team B without damage to kill anything.
2. Team A has poor engage; Team B weakens them with poke damage and focus-fire mispositioned enemies. Team A becomes staggered as Team B gains a larger gold advantage, which leaves Team A without damage or range to compete. 

I've been on both teams and in both possibilities. It really comes down to the quality of teammates, and how they coordinate as a team. Despite the composition, a team of competent players should be able to put up a good fight. As I've alluded to in a previous post, it can become quite frustrating... 

Conclusion

The genre of MOBAs was created by aspiring game designers by tweaking an existing game into something completely different. In summary, it's a fun game I enjoy playing casually with friends. I won't ever play it competitively or play ranked games, since I know it'd just give me more stress. 

The game design itself was the catalyst for me to try creating my own game. I like the idea of the mixing genres to highlight the fun part of games (growth, strategy, planning), while minimizing the negative part associated (toxicity, trolling).