League of Legends

What is League of Legends?

Created by Riot Games and debuting in 2009, League of Legends is a video game that has become a global gaming phenomenon. Riot Games founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill got the inspiration for League of Legends from a game mod for Warcraft 3:Reign of Chaos and Age of Mythology called Defense of the Ancients, or as it is more commonly known, DotA. This unique idea pioneered the highly popular and competitive genre of Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas or MOBAs. With an innovative, polished, and constantly updating game in their hands, it is no wonder why millions of players battle it out in the Summoner’s Rift everyday.

League of Legends Basics

In League of Legends, you as a player control a character called a champion, viewing them in a top-down/bird’s eye perspective as you traverse throughout the arena called Summoner’s Rift . Along with 4 other players, you form a team where you must try and destroy the nexus or base of 5 other enemy champions located opposite across the map from you. To get to to the enemy nexus, you must work together as a team, traversing the 3 lanes or roads and jungle that connect your base from the enemy’s. Along the lanes are towers and minions that you must destroy before you can destroy their base. In the jungle there are various creatures and monsters that when killed, give you a slight advantage. As time goes on and you destroy the minions, towers, jungle monsters, or enemy champions, you gain experience that allows you to level up your champion’s abilities and gold that allows you to buy items and increase your performance. These are the basics that make up the games objectives and how a normal play session ends up being.

Game Aesthetics

Aesthetically, League of Legends has a lot to offer. It presents a visually pleasing color palette that highlights their carefully designed world. The character models of all 141 unique champions and background are constantly updated and improved. Personally, I think the character designs are great, incorporating modern and classical artistic techniques to make a design that shows both care and skill. Auditorily, League of legends provides a voice acted cast of characters. It has a broad sound board of special effects, unique to every character and their attacks and skills. The game provides a soft, yet epic background music to aid in the fight for the objectives. This coupled with the visual aesthetic, the game provides a feeling of intense action every second.

A More In-Depth Look Into the MOBA

MOBAs usually have a ruthless learning curve and League of Legends is no different. Blending the principles of action and strategy games together, players require a certain amount of mechanical skill and proper resource management to succeed in the game against other players. As such, like other action games, League of Legends requires motor skill and hand-eye coordination to control their champion. Controlling one’s champion and attacking calls for many mouse and keyboard inputs to be performed in succession and without fail. The necessity for skillful gameplay is best exemplified when fighting an enemy champion. To win an even fight against another champion, it requires superior decision making, better control of your champion, and a capability of landing attacks. In terms of strategy, the real key to winning is through the manipulation of objectives, reaction to enemy player choices, and overall management of resources. From managing one’s lane and jungle, to coordinating attacks on other enemy champions, there is ultimately too much to talk about in terms of micro and macro management for League of Legends. As such, for a new player wanting to play League of Legends for the first time, they would have a tough time ahead of themselves unless they have played another MOBA before. But for those who have had experience, League of Legends gives extremely satisfying gameplay.

A Competitive Culture

League of Legends is competitive. It was made to be competitive. It even became a game where players can be professionally competitive as an esport. Thus it is understandable that its players are also competitive. Their competitive nature causes them to take losses harshly and take wins in stride. It makes sense, a player can’t help but feel bad when they lose and feel great when they win. So, when a player feels bad, they can potentially lash out to other players. A player is in big risk to be exposed to such behavior when playing League of Legends. This “toxic” behavior as dubbed by the community, is harmful. Instead of the camaraderie that one expects from a team game, a player can instead be potentially met with the negative behavior and verbally abusive speech. When that happens in game, it is best to mute them and ignore them as best you can.

Final Thoughts

League of Legends is an extremely polished game. It is aesthetics are beautiful, pleasing, and fluid. If playing for the first time, it can be a lot to take in because of the steep learning curve. In terms of gameplay, It is satisfying, but the community can be much to be desired.