Benedict Li27 January 2015Professor FreedmanCreative Game Design and Development

The Next Big Thing (Not Samsung)

The game that I will be critiquing is League of Legends. League of Legends, also known as LoL, is one of the largest growing e-sport games in gaming history. I would say that LoL is my favorite game because its so diverse in so many ways. You have 123 champions to play with and four different game modes. The game just offers so much in fun and competitiveness. Its also my favorite game because of the media it offers. Watching the LoL World Championships with other LoL fans is both a social and fun meet. The very fact that LoL have grown to a viewing audience of 32 million people is insane. So in this case I ask, what do I see? I see an enormous online game with millions of players. I see a place where friends can meet without actually traveling to each other. (A pretty simple task if you have Skype or any other voice/call program.) I see a game that will dominate the future of recreational games. A lot of players think of LoL as a game for fun and trolling. However, there are also many players who play it competitively. For example, the LCS or the League of Legends Championship Series is one of the largest scenes of e-sports on the planet right now, and it just keeps rising. This goes to my next question, what do I do to succeed? In this game, in order to succeed, there are two paths you can take. The first path is playing to win. In this game, there is a game mode called Ranked, where you play a series of matches that allows you to climb the ladder and become a better player. Each tier has five levels, from Bronze to Silver, to Gold, To Platinum, to Master, to Diamond and finally to Challenger where most professionals play. Some think of succeeding at this game to climb to the top and win the game. But in LoL, you can only be at the top for a short amount of time, because once you pass someone, they will work their hardest to climb over you. The second task, where a lot more people play to succeed is having fun. Players have fun by playing with friends, winning the game with ways not in the current Meta (or not the way that it should be,) trolling, and just getting simple enjoyment from the game. These players dont care about their rank and just play for fun. I think I would say I am in the middle. I play a lot of LoL and most of the time, its with friends. However, I do feel like I have to climb up the ladder to prove to other players that Im worth their time when I join their lobby. The last question I pose to this issue is what questions I have for it? Is this game going to exceed actual sports and become a sport? Is this game going to become a scholarship worthy sport for players in school? Do people actually play this game for fun or for competitive reasons? Will League of Legends be the next big thing?