The Review, Episode 2: League of Legends
Hey y’all! The Review is back with its second episode. We had enough listeners for the last one that we’ve decided it’s worth getting some better microphones, asking a buddy for a logo, and working out the iTunes feed. So all of that will be coming soon!
For now, we’ve got about 40 minutes on League of Legends. We went a bit over our target time, because this game ties into a lot of general issues within eSports that we wanted to put on the table. Please enjoy!
Hey y’all, needless to say I enjoyed this. The stuff about eSports and the whole field-of-attention problem is right on.
I’ve been playing a lot of DOTA 2 recently and I’ve just continually surprised by how shitty everyone is to each other. I think it actually involves two of the game’s dynamics that make it really tough for new people:
1) The basic routine of what you’re supposed to be doing is super unintuitive. LIke, your first instinct is: “hey, I’m playing this new game, maybe I should go kill the enemy’s creeps and try to destroy the towers,” and this is dead wrong. You don’t even attempt this shit until the mid-game. What you do is NOT destroy creeps or try to push the lane, and in DOTA 2 it’s compounded by the fact that you are supposed to kill your allied creeps.
2) There is a whole set of implicit conventions about lane assignments — who goes where, which kind of heroes should go in which lane– that is ruthlessly enforced but never explicitly articulated. If someone on the team is helpful they’ll explain where you’re supposed to go, but otherwise everyone treats you like you’re an asshole for not knowing what to do.
Cheers!