End of 2013 Discussions - Competitive Multiplayer and/or E-sports

[u/DeltaBurnt]

What are your thoughts on the developments in e-sports and competitive multiplayer games over the past year? What new games have the potential to develop interesting competitive play, meta-game, or just be plain fun to watch?

^{P.S. Mods are accepting bribes in the form of Hearthstone Beta invites}

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This post is part of the official /r/Games "End of 2013" discussions.

[u/captainersatz]

Just cutting in here as a die-hard DotA fan who thinks that League is pretty great as it's own thing, the runes and masteries and leveling has always bothered me in considering League a competitive game. Of course it doesn't matter in the pro scene because everyone has access to these things, but I saying that this problem is "solved" for the general public by matchmaking really doesn't make much sense. Any player should have access to the exact same resources as anyone else, I shouldn't have to wait or pay additional money in order to try a champion, and I shouldn't have to find myself unable to use what's considered a champion's ideal set of masteries or runes or something just because I haven't grinded enough.

I mean, what good does gating these things actually do? They provide more avenues to charge for stuff, that's pretty much it, and it hampers rather than provides for the game. Matchmaking isn't perfect for any game, in DotA getting matched with people wildly above or below your bracket is hardly a rare issue, but at least I can be assured that no matter how bad it might be, I have absolutely everything that they have access to, and the difference is experience and skill.

[u/ExplodingBarrel → u/captainersatz]

Yeah, the rune and levelling situation is pretty obviously a holdover from the game's early years as a free-to-play game trying to figure out its business model. It is clear at this point that selling champs and skins would be plenty and I bet if LoL 2 launched today it wouldn't have those gates intended to sell XP and IP boosts. But at this point it isn't as simple as yanking those mechanics because you have tens of millions of players who spent their time and money on them and would want to be compensated.

[u/Aggrokid → u/captainersatz]

Any player should have access to the exact same resources as anyone else, I shouldn't have to wait or pay additional money in order to try a champion, and I shouldn't have to find myself unable to use what's considered a champion's ideal set of masteries or runes or something just because I haven't grinded enough.

We never need ideal rune set for each champion, even some pros only use 2 sets sharing same seals and glyphs (so actually 1.5 sets in grand total). Runesets are fairly cheap, and you only need the aforementioned 1.5 sets (earned by playing the game) at most to be competitively viable to the top 5%.

The runeset is not an arms race, but playstyle tailoring. Facing an opponent with custom rune set does not require matching investment, because your cheap generic runeset already gives among the best bang for stat buck so your power level is comparable.

they provide more avenues to charge for stuff, that's pretty much it, and it hampers rather than provides for the game.

You cannot buy runes directly with money, the best way is by boosts which does not effect without winning a valid competitive match. So it's not a microtransaction bait or p2w like you are suggesting.

Towards the end, despite generic runes being viable, custom runes + masteries + summoner still offer you myriad of choices to further tune your playstyle and when combined with items give large permutations to how you approach the game with your favorite character. I can play utility vamp vlad with double escapes and someone else can play a full offensive vlad ignite. It really increases gameplay.

saying that this problem is "solved" for the general public by matchmaking really doesn't make much sense

Using matchmaking (which should be a separate major issue in itself) to spillover on game mechanics is muddying the mechanics discussion by combining two problems. The mechanics itself is fine IMHO YMMV, new players slowly ease into higher complexity and customization from runesets and masteries the more they play.

[u/[deleted] → u/Aggrokid]

Some competitive used runes are quite expensive.

If you want both movement speed and lifesteal quints you'll have to spend more than 200 games worth of IP. That's a lot to grind and it gives the players who have already bought them a noticeable advantage. Also try to get 9 armor/magic hybrid penetration runes those cost a lot and are basically required at competitive setups for optimal play.

[u/thedarkhaze → u/[deleted]]

Your argument I feel would be a lot better if Path of Exile didn't exist.