League of Legends: A First-Timer's Look

I'm starting to realize that my friends in my Steam group have greater sway over me then I first thought. After months of begging I finally submitted and downloaded Riot Games'  League of Legends. The reason I resisted was the preconception of a mountain sized difficulty curve and players not wanting to deal with newcomers. Having spent the past two weeks getting used to LoL I find it not only an interesting discussion for game-play but also for a business model.

I feel it is important to talk about my overall knowledge of the genre for this type of entry. I did not play DoTA (Defense of The Ancients, the mod that was the precursor to LoL). During my Warcraft 3 days I got hooked on Tower Defense mods. I tried Demigod which was another take on this type of game-play but due to technical issues and frustration with the design I stopped playing.

This entry as the title suggested is not meant for the elite players, the ones who have hit level 30, have a stable of champions they've mastered and so on. This is for those that either have just started or were like me, looking from the outside in at LoL.

Let's begin with a general explanation of the game. In LoL, games are played either 5v5 or 3v3. At the start of each match you choose a champion which is your character in game. Every champion is different which I'll go into detail about later on. Each team has a base made up of a shop that allows you to buy items, turrets set up to defend, inhibitors which prevent the spawning of stronger minions and the nexus which when destroyed signals the end of the match.

Between each base are lanes which are the paths to the other base, minions which are NPCs spawn from each team's base follow the lanes attacking anything that gets in their way. Turrets are set up for both teams in each lane and are designed to focus on minions first, champions second. The exception is if a champion attacks the defending team's champion in range of a turret, then the turret will focus on the attacking champion.

Turrets are powerhouses and do insane damage to minions and champions alike. However they cannot be healed and once destroyed will remain gone for the remainder of the game. You can see at a glance which team is pushing ahead by how many turrets they have destroyed.

Once all the turrets in a lane have been dealt with the inhibitor in that lane can be attacked. Once taken out super minions will spawn in that lane, they are stronger and can take a beating before going down. Unlike turrets, inhibitors will re-spawn after a few minutes. Taking out all three of the enemies' inhibitors usually means the end of the game is coming just due to the constant attacks of super minions.

Neutral enemies or "creeps" are set up on the map and they can be killed for experience and gold. Stronger creeps can be killed for buffs and additional gold; the strongest creep on the map when killed gives out a team wide buff which can be the edge needed to win the match. You will have to weigh the options of going creep hunting vs. defending your lanes and even vs. knowing where the other team is as they may try to ambush you.

Even though there are only two maps in LoL that does not mean that the game is repetitive. The champions make up the meat of the game. Everyone is completely different from one another. They are characterize by their roles such as "tank" or "mage" but not even by their roles are they similar. The only real similarity is that each champion has four skills, and a passive buff. I have to give credit to the designers for coming up with (and continuing to make) unique champions. This is where both you'll find the most depth in LoL and where some of my problems are.

By making each champion unique you basically have to relearn things when picking someone new. Unlike other competitive games like fighting or strategy titles, there isn't so much skill that is translated between different characters. In fighting games you have to train your muscle memory to do those crazy combos and in RTS titles you'll have to work on hot key usage. In LoL however you can't really take what you learn from one champion to another and this makes the difficulty curve high.

Because each champion is unique it also makes fighting against other players tough. Many champions have powerful skills that you won't know what hit you until it's too late. I have lost track of the # of times the following scenario happens:

I trigger my ultimate attack and run at another player with full health. I see bright effects and colors and I'm dead in one second.

One thing about LoL is how some champions are complete counters to other champions, a fact you won't know until you die fast to someone.

Granted you can read a description page of every champion when not in game, but in all seriousness how many brand new players are going to take the time to go through 60+ pages of text?

What would be great is if you could watch tutorial videos of each champion. The game does feature an in game tutorial which does a great job of filling the player in on the rules of the match. I do wish it would have a bit more about the item shop as that is the next step in improving your game.

I once again have to give credit to the designers of LoL for the shop interface, it is very easy to go through and find what you want. The shop UI separates items into different categories such as attack speed or armor for example. Within each selection are the items; many items are used as ingredients to create better equipment which the game is nice enough to hot link on each description page. As a nice touch if you have the money you can buy a fully upgraded item without having to waste time buying the individual parts.

To help new players the shop has suggested items for each champion at the top and while they are useful they are more about building a well rounded character and not one focused on a specific build. Playing with friends and higher level players it is better to specialize your equipment, such as going for full on attack, defense and so on.

LoL features an extensive Meta game which is where we'll talk about the business model. In LoL there are two types of currency: Influence Points or IP and Riot Points or RP. IP is earned at the end of a match, win or lose you will receive some IP for playing. RP requires you to spend real money to get and cannot be earned in game. Experience is also earned for finishing games and is part of the leveling system.

IP is used to buy champions and runes. Runes are passive buffs you can place on your persona in game and have a variety of effects. You are limited by how many of each type you can place based on your level. RP can be used to buy champions and it can be used to buy character skins which are purely cosmetic.

The developers are smart regarding champion unlocks. You can either earn them over time or if you have spare cash go the quick route. To make sure that player's aren't buying a champion they don't like, each week the developers pick 10 champions that will be free to play. This allows new players to try before they buy and is a great way to find champions that you like.

The two final points on the Meta game are the mastery screen and summoner spells. Every few levels you go up you'll earn a mastery point, the closest analogue to this would be the talent trees from World of Warcraft. Like runes these offer passive buffs such as increase armor or health regeneration. To go further down the skill tree you'll have to put points into the specified tree.

Summoner spells are unique abilities that can be used in game such as healing yourself or slowing down an enemy. Each player can only pick two spells to take with them into a match. Spells are only limited by their cool down with some stretching into the five minute mark.

Overall I'm enjoying my time with LoL - while the difficulty curve is still high it was not as insurmountable as I first thought. There is a lot of depth here from figuring out not only how best to use your champion, but also with your other team mates. With the variety chances are you will find at least one champion that you enjoy playing, however I would suggest that you use the ten free champions as an excuse to slowly play every champion at least once.

By doing that you'll have a greater understanding of how each champion works along with what to look out for when fighting against them. The player base is more inclined to be forgiving at the lower levels of play which is the best time to experiment.

Another tip I have is during your respawn time, have a look at the items in the shop, there is a lot there and even though it is organized, it's helpful to know what some of the high end items and see if they can fit into your play.

LoL is an interesting game to dissect; Riot understands how to do free to play correctly and the nuances of depth present offer a lot for a gamer to get into. Keeping ten champions free per week was a smart move, as it keeps newcomers from being completely overwhelmed when trying to select a champion. At this point, two weeks in I don't feel that I'm good enough at the game to offer any opinions of balance.

Currently I'm continuing to play LoL, with my summoner at level 11, I haven't bought any champions yet but I may buy one or two from this week's pool of free to play. The best thing I can say about LoL is that it has managed to break up my Left 4 Dead addiction which is by no means an easy task.

Josh