In a question and answer session, Riot Games talked about the future of League of Legends and the challenges it presents. One topic was the age of the player base and the growing competition in the gaming market.
What’s the problem with age? In a closed question and answer session at the Summer Game Fest, Game Director Pu Liu and Director of League Studio Andrei van Roon talked about the future of League of Legends and the challenges it presents.
One big challenge that both mentioned, according to PC Gamer, is the age of their player base. Pu Liu stresses that he has no problem with the players getting older, but that this brings with it some challenges. However, that doesn’t mean that the game is going down the drain. Rather, it is a long-term hurdle for them.
This isn’t the first time Riot has struggled with problems. Last year, they were able to overcome their biggest crisis in years by listening to their players.
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The competition is greater than it was 10 years ago
Why are there fewer younger players? Game director Pu Liu has a simple explanation for why fewer and fewer younger players are playing League of Legends: the competition is greater.
He describes how League of Legends was the game that everyone was talking about 10 years ago. In addition, it was one of the few games that was offered as a time-waster – and for free. There are now dozens of titles such as Apex Legends, Counter-Strike, Warzone and Valorant.
Adding to the challenge is LoL’s complexity. Despite players on platforms like Reddit telling beginners which champions to ban, the MOBA, with over 150 champions – all with different skills and builds – remains difficult to learn.
Riot Games knows this too, as Jeremy Lee made clear in the Q&A: “As a player, I think there’s still a lot we can do to make the game more understandable. How we teach people the game, how we make things a little clearer… there are a lot of ways to just clean things up, whether it’s visual clarity, or UI, a better tutorial (via DotEsports).”
Does Riot have a solution to the age problem? Pu Liu and Van Roon do not go into detail about how they plan to solve these challenges. However, Pu Liu notes that they are very aware of these challenges and will continue to work on a solution in the future.
However, that is not the only challenge they are currently dealing with. Van Roon says that there are many older players who are now working and are looking for a middle ground between competitive play and other experiences in LoL. Again, they are not yet going into detail about how they plan to tackle this challenge.
Even among the professional players, there are some who are already old hats in League of Legends in their mid-twenties. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old top laner from Gen.G proved that he really has what it takes. This year he won his first title, against the world champion T1. You can read how he felt after the game here: LoL: 25-year-old cries after defeating everyone after 7 years, even beating Faker