When I first dived into League of Legends, I was super hyped. I never played a MOBA game before, but the idea of playing tons of different characters all unique in some way, was exciting, and I had friends who was already into it. I was grinding to acquire these characters, and I was about to buy (with in-game currency) Yorick, who back then was a gravedigger who could summon different types of ghost, when my friends stopped me. "Don't buy him," they told me. "He sucks and is terrible to play." I was confused, because I wanted to play him not because he was strictly good, but because I liked the concept.
Having such prior knowledge made it hard for me to buy him, and eventually even play him, which is a struggle that I noticed happens all the time, especially among competitive multiplayer. From League to Smash to Overwatch to Tekken (and the list continues), people have a tendency to rank which characters are the best, and because of that, I noticed that certain characters never get played. In League, Aatrox, a darkin creature that wielded a living sword and thirsted for war, had only about a 1% pick rate casually and was never used competitively until his rework, and many never even knew his skills and tricks. And even when wanting to play a casual game, people feel pressured because they know that normally, to win a game, they "need" to have certain roles, they "shouldn't" play this character versus this character, and not doing so means they are feeding and should stop playing the game. There are rare instances where people defy this knowledge and prevail, garnering respect, but generally, people are corralled into these invisible boundaries, despite the game not restricting them so. Knowing this, should companies encourage this behavior, despite their game design? Why if so? And if not, how should they address these issues, since nerfing and buffs merely seem to just create a new 'meta'?
Great post!
I think that this aspect of League culture doesn't just negatively impact the diversity of characters being played, but also even the playstyles being employed. Due to in-game social pressure, It is very difficult to play even a casual game of League without drifting too far away from how the community expects you to play, even if you choose a character that just so happens to be the "flavor of the month."
Though, one could argue that these social restrictions are perhaps necessary for a team-based competitive game such as League, where the actions of an individual on a team can negatively impact the experiences of that person's fellow teammates. Perhaps, by entering the social space that is…
Thank you for your comment! I think you hit upon a big part of League culture. The game is competitive, almost hyper competitive. It has a problem with toxic players because the purpose of the game isn't to have fun, but rather to have fun through winning.
I often get flamed for picking Vayne, a champion that at the moment isn't great, whenever I play ranked play and it sucks.
However, I think this is what the game is and why it's so addictive. It's not a single player game meant to be fun, it's a competitive multiplayer game with mechanics that even the playing field (every game starts anew and only skill determines the winner) making the game even…