A Bit of a List: 5 Reasons Why I Love League of Legends

HOW MANY BITS, MERCER? 8/8 BITS.

League of Legends is awesome. You probably knew I was gonna say that just from the title of this post, but seriously. It is. There are many reasons why I love this game, even though when it was first recommended to me I thought I would hate here. Here are a few of those reasons:



1. It's free! When Walt first recommended it to me, I told him "free to play games are free to play for a reason: no one is willing to pay to play them." Despite the fact that League was once a pay-to-play game and has since shifted to a micro-transactional business model, I still think it's one of the best games around. Even if you don't want to put any money into it, you can do basically everything that someone who is willing to pay does—except for getting skins. I think that's pretty fair, and the fact that this is a free game means that it is easier to convince your friends to play!

2. It's non-addictive! Each of the games are about 30-45 minutes, unless you run into a super competitive PVP. That means that once you finish one game, you have an out to go and do other things. Unlike World of Warcraft, where you can get sucked into an infinite quest loop, League allows you to say "I'm just gonna play one or two games, then I'll [insert your adult responsibilities here]. I really like that lack of commitment.

3. It's easy to pick up! If you are a casual player or are new to console gaming, League is very easy to pick up. Each champion only has four spells that they have available, and two "summoner" spells so there isn't a whole bunch of memorization, having to learn new spells, or binding hot keys. Obviously, once you are at a more advanced level there are strategies to play and combos to master, but in the beginning League is super simple. The "beginners" tutorial is also awesome—my husband who is a self-avowed hater of PC gaming learned super quickly from it. That being said, there are many constructs of the game (talent trees, minions/turrets, item trees) that are similar to other games, so if you're familiar with those it will give you a bit of a leg up.

4. It's a great way to stay in touch! If you're anything like me, you have acquaintances and friends everywhere. Because League is so easy to pick up and play, you'll find that you can bring tons of friend groups together by playing it. I get my work friends, my husband, and my gamer friends all in one Skype chat and play 5v5s and it is awesome! They all get to "meet" each other, and I get to hang out with all of them at once. It really helps me when, otherwise, I might not text them or talk to them.

5. There's a great community! Riot Games, the makers of League of Legends do a lot to make sure that their community and audience remains strong. They try to move away from players using vulgar language, flaming or griefing other players, or being a bad sport in-game, and have great dialogue on Social Media out-of-game. Their Twitter is awesome, and the weekly summoner showcase helps to display the mutual-interests of League players as well as what's going on at Riot in general. Similarly, the "professional" and "competitive" communities are made really accessible by the ability to view basically any PvP game happening at a certain time.

Blahblahblah, League is awesome! If you decide to give it a try, add me—I'm mercenators!