Literally ADDICTED
There were various rules in the game that required teamwork, such as using my abilities to stop the enemy while another teammate finishes them off, or situations where all team members needed to cooperate. This constant exposure to strategic gameplay made the game enjoyable, even without any special circumstances.
Mental model GAP : Intention about ? ping
The Smart Ping system in League of Legends is defined as "a system that allows players to send signals to teammates to facilitate smooth gameplay." There are various types of pings, and many interactive features are still under development, but today, I would like to talk about the "?" ping.
The "?" ping in League of Legends, as you can see in the chat box on the left, means "an enemy has disappeared." In LoL, the battlefield is relatively fixed, but there are times when the enemy doesn't appear within that space, meaning their location is unknown. When an enemy disappears, it signals that allies might be in danger, and they should prepare accordingly.
Due to the versatility of the "?" ping, different mental models arise. In LoL, the "?" icon implies "the enemy has disappeared, and we don't know where they are." However, the question mark generally covers all types of inquiries. As a result, players use the "?" ping not only in situations where an enemy has vanished, but also when they are confused about a situation, when they need clarification, or when something unexpected happens.
We were in a situation where four team members gathered to finish off the enemy, but the enemy escaped quickly, and we didn’t gain any advantage. One of the teammates pinged and typed in chat, asking why we couldn’t win the team fight.
Mental model GAP : Not only defense, but also Attack
I played as a healer named Karma. Her main abilities included attack, root, and shield, which were very intuitive to use, making it comfortable for a beginner like me.
This is the appearance of a skill that applies a shield. The skill’s name is ‘Inspire.’ As a healer who supports allies, it appears to be a defensive skill that protects against attacks. However, this shield skill has one additional effect: it increases the movement speed of allies who receive the shield.
he shield is usually intended to be applied to allies being attacked. In League of Legends, the range when using skills is a very important concept, so the increase in movement speed makes this skill effective for controlling distance. The game designer may have created this skill to allow allies receiving the shield to simultaneously gain a movement speed buff, enabling them to quickly escape from the enemy. (It has actually been used a lot for this purpose.)
However, if the movement speed increase skill is useful for widening the range, it can also be beneficial for narrowing the range. Looking at the picture above, I can see that my teammate has enough health and is preparing to attack. To support his attack, I used the shield skill to increase his movement speed. Now, my teammate can definitely make a choice to approach the enemy faster, increasing the accuracy of his skills.
This method is a strategy recommended by a teammate who taught me the game (to use the E skill not just for defense, but also for offense). It would be a good example of how the game designers’ intent and actual user usage differ regarding the movement speed increase.
UI
LOL is a team strategy game, so there are a lot of figures to check. For example, if I want a high-aggressiveness team. member to fight my opponent together, I need to know if that team member is near me and if he has the stamina to. fight with me.
What I paid attention to in the UI of the game was that the package of information was distributed up, down, left and right on the monitor, but there was no inconvenience in receiving it separately from the information that had to be combined. Skills and items are for personal growth, and the physical strength and guidance of the team members are information that must be checked together to check the team's information. Based on the principle of proximity, similar information was classified, and even without a subtitle, I was able to find the information I needed quickly.
Notably, elements that don't need to be constantly displayed, such as teammate reactions or new events, appear as pop-ups and then disappear, focusing on delivering information without disrupting the player's immersion in the game.
The UI displayed on the monitor is important, but it is necessary to distinguish between actions because the character's movement and attack are carried out simultaneously through right mouse clicks. The shape of the mouse clicker changes according to the movement or attack. Users can view the UI and act as intended more easily.
Interaction
One of the moments when players become deeply immersed in the game is through "realistic interactions."
The more actions a player can control as they would in real life, the more they feel a sense of connection to the virtual world. One aspect of the game that I found particularly similar to reality was the vision system.
As seen on the mini-map in the bottom-right corner, the game's environment only shares the vision of what the character, our team's turrets, and monsters can see. Therefore, players must constantly move around, much like in a game of territory control, to secure the enemy's position, all while risking exposure to hidden enemies.
In League of Legends, even within areas where vision has been secured, the game includes the strategic element of "Bush" obstacles, allowing enemies to suddenly appear. This creates opportunities for various tactics, such as hiding in the Bush until an enemy passes by, then ambushing them from behind.
Communication
Come to think of it, League of Legends offers various communication methods. Players can use
1. Smart Pings to make strategic choices (enemy missing, retreat, gather, etc.),
2. Emotes with cute characters or reactions,
3. Chat, and even
4. Voice communication.
Among these, the most commonly used communication tools were primarily pings and emotes. (There wasn’t much active discussion within the team, and overall, the game went smoothly with the team securing the win. In other words, it didn't take much discussion to modify the strategy to win the game.)
I've been mostly playing fps games, and the biggest difference I felt was that I didn't use voice chat. In multi-player games, a strategy called "focusing" is where all allies focus their attacks and effectively defeat the enemy. That's why all the team members had to point out the enemy they would focus on (usually close or weak). However, there was no such signature in the role, so I had to intuitively decide on the target. Even a duo friend who has been playing games for a long time said that he had never used team voice. He said that voice chat is usually used by professional gamers.
In general, voice chats are better at giving more accurate instructions than icons. And fps games are played in the first person, and aos games such as LOL are played in the third person. Let's figure out the entire space and available space at a glance, like chess, and then think of a way to come up with a strategy. First-person games (such as Overwatch) can be thought of as being constrained by an individual's limited vision. Therefore, it seems that people mainly use voice chats that are easy to pay attention to as quickly and accurately as possible.
I was on the verge of death due to lack of health, but I drew strength from the arrival of my allies and decided to move forward.
On the other hand, I noticed an issue with the chat system. To type in chat, players have to stop their in-game actions, which usually happens when their character is dead. Combining these two factors can lead to a negative cycle: the team struggles in fights due to slow progression and weaker characters > players die and have idle time while waiting to respawn > they use this time to either offer encouragement or blame others in chat > demoralized teammates underperform, leading to further team losses.