Skyblade
06-09-2013, 06:49 AM
So, I've been playing around with League of Legends a bit, and I wanted to make a post specifically addressing a certain facet of it, how other MOBAs deal with the issue, and how it might be better implemented in future titles or patches.
Essentially, I really don't like the metagame in League of Legends. The gameplay itself is great, but everything outside of a match is rather dull.
Now, if my knowledge is correct, MOBAs evolved out of the Defense of the Ancients map for Warcraft III. And, really, there was no metagame in that age, and there really couldn't be, since holding continuity between map launches wasn't really possible.
To this end, the MOBA genre evolved into a very self-contained experience. Each match is a self contained game to itself, and match-based arenas are the core of the experience.
However, as the genre expanded beyond being essentially a mod of other games into being its own structure, this shifted somewhat. LoL, for example, introduced Summoner Level, Summoner Spells, and Runes, to give some degree of progression and customization outside of a match.
The problem? The systems are dull, aren't very engaging, and offer little in the way of visible benefit during matches (Spells are really the only exception to that last one). I essentially forget that the Rune page even exists most of the time, and the only trend I remember about leveling up is that leveling up was bad because the jerks of the community tended to increase in number as you went up in level. There was never really any incentive to level up or anything engaging about the metagame. It seemed to have been practically thrown in there, but not really planned out or well executed.
Is this a necessary facet of the genre? Does the primarily PvP nature and match-based-format really exclude the ability to have a fun, deep, or engaging metagame tying it all together? I don't think so, and I'd like to toss some thoughts about it around for a bit.
Let's go over problems first. Since each match starts with Champions at a basic level and working up on a per-match basis, your potential carryover from one match to another is limited. If the metagame rewards are too powerful, they will unbalance the core gameplay and could destroy the entire nature of the game. If they're too weak, they'll get overlooked and be unengaging for most players (hello, Rune system).
So, we want something small, but also deep, and with a visible impact on gameplay and hopefully some engaging mechanics of its own.
A territory control system would be fairly easy to implement. You could run it like Mass Effect 3's version, where each map is tied to a particular area, and where you fight helps determine what areas you control, or perhaps you could have a more world based system, with factions or guilds allowing groups of players to compete against each other in a larger system.
Actually, I got to the idea for this system from FFTA and the Clan Wars, and only noticed the similarities to ME3's system when typing it up for implementation. But FFTA also gives some ideas for rewards that we could tie into matches. A controlled or liberated area could give access to quests. Killing so many of a particular jungle beast could lead to an extra gold reward, for example. Or a larger than usual bounty being placed on the boss enemies.
In fact, you could take the quest system even farther. For example, a player takes a mission before a match, and a new superboss appears, with its own unique rewards, for whichever team takes it down (which could also adjust play styles and strategies). Thus mixing things up, but not unbalancing them.
You could also have continual buffs up for a home territory advantage, or a discount on items. You could even scale minor buffs or events to a particular team as control was shifting (for example, if you have one win left to grab control of an area, your enemies get an extra minion every few waves).
So, yeah, I'm kind of rambling and spewing ideas at random, but that's sort of what the point of this thread is. I just think there has got to be a better way to handle it than the minimalistic system that Riot has got. So pick apart my ideas, supply your own, and tell me how other MOBAs handle this issue.
And, while we're on the subject, tell me why there isn't an Ivalice-based MOBA yet. Because I would play the heck out of that game.
Essentially, I really don't like the metagame in League of Legends. The gameplay itself is great, but everything outside of a match is rather dull.
Now, if my knowledge is correct, MOBAs evolved out of the Defense of the Ancients map for Warcraft III. And, really, there was no metagame in that age, and there really couldn't be, since holding continuity between map launches wasn't really possible.
To this end, the MOBA genre evolved into a very self-contained experience. Each match is a self contained game to itself, and match-based arenas are the core of the experience.
However, as the genre expanded beyond being essentially a mod of other games into being its own structure, this shifted somewhat. LoL, for example, introduced Summoner Level, Summoner Spells, and Runes, to give some degree of progression and customization outside of a match.
The problem? The systems are dull, aren't very engaging, and offer little in the way of visible benefit during matches (Spells are really the only exception to that last one). I essentially forget that the Rune page even exists most of the time, and the only trend I remember about leveling up is that leveling up was bad because the jerks of the community tended to increase in number as you went up in level. There was never really any incentive to level up or anything engaging about the metagame. It seemed to have been practically thrown in there, but not really planned out or well executed.
Is this a necessary facet of the genre? Does the primarily PvP nature and match-based-format really exclude the ability to have a fun, deep, or engaging metagame tying it all together? I don't think so, and I'd like to toss some thoughts about it around for a bit.
Let's go over problems first. Since each match starts with Champions at a basic level and working up on a per-match basis, your potential carryover from one match to another is limited. If the metagame rewards are too powerful, they will unbalance the core gameplay and could destroy the entire nature of the game. If they're too weak, they'll get overlooked and be unengaging for most players (hello, Rune system).
So, we want something small, but also deep, and with a visible impact on gameplay and hopefully some engaging mechanics of its own.
A territory control system would be fairly easy to implement. You could run it like Mass Effect 3's version, where each map is tied to a particular area, and where you fight helps determine what areas you control, or perhaps you could have a more world based system, with factions or guilds allowing groups of players to compete against each other in a larger system.
Actually, I got to the idea for this system from FFTA and the Clan Wars, and only noticed the similarities to ME3's system when typing it up for implementation. But FFTA also gives some ideas for rewards that we could tie into matches. A controlled or liberated area could give access to quests. Killing so many of a particular jungle beast could lead to an extra gold reward, for example. Or a larger than usual bounty being placed on the boss enemies.
In fact, you could take the quest system even farther. For example, a player takes a mission before a match, and a new superboss appears, with its own unique rewards, for whichever team takes it down (which could also adjust play styles and strategies). Thus mixing things up, but not unbalancing them.
You could also have continual buffs up for a home territory advantage, or a discount on items. You could even scale minor buffs or events to a particular team as control was shifting (for example, if you have one win left to grab control of an area, your enemies get an extra minion every few waves).
So, yeah, I'm kind of rambling and spewing ideas at random, but that's sort of what the point of this thread is. I just think there has got to be a better way to handle it than the minimalistic system that Riot has got. So pick apart my ideas, supply your own, and tell me how other MOBAs handle this issue.
And, while we're on the subject, tell me why there isn't an Ivalice-based MOBA yet. Because I would play the heck out of that game.