League of Legends and frustration have gone hand in hand since day one. Such is the way of all multiplayer games, whether it’s at yourself after making mistakes, at your team for not coordinating well, or at the game itself over some perceived imbalance. But should developers work to iron out every agonizing crease? In the wake of recent discussions around the ‘mages bot’ meta, Riot’s Lead Gameplay Designer Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison has expressed the team’s desire “to have the right of frustration” in League of Legends for the long-term health of the game.
Phroxzon discussed the divisive strategy of bringing high-burst mage champions into bot lane last month, stating the belief that it brings “healthy diversity” to League of Legends. His latest preview of the LoL 26.16 patch notes has raised the conversation once again, leading one player to ask, “What exactly is the level of outrage from the community to react to mages being played bot?” In response, Phroxzon offers a broader look at the rationale behind keeping elements in the game that might feel agonizing to parts of the player base.
“One of the things that’s really important for League’s longevity is to have the right amount of frustration in the game,” he explains. “It creates a desire to learn, to try again, it creates highs and lows and texture and variety in the experience. Broadly, the design team doesn’t believe that there is so much frustration in the game currently to warrant a larger swing than what we’re making.” He also notes that the team believes “it’s important that the relationship between burst and ADCs is preserved regardless of which lanes they’re played in.”
“The goal for us is not for the designers to make the most popular changes in the game,” Phroxzon continues. “You’ve all seen the ‘Reddit knows balance threads.’ It’s also not for designers to broadly reduce frustration, though it can be right sometimes. I could rattle off hundreds of things people find frustrating, from dying to fed Rengar with no counterplay, to windwall, to mages bot, etc.”
It’s a response that won’t sate the mages bot haters, but I do believe there’s merit in the method. There’s always going to be one villainous strategy or another in any meta, and you’ll naturally hear the loudest calls from the people that like the current favorite least. That doesn’t mean their concerns are completely invalid, but if you respond too strongly you simply create a fresh issue elsewhere – that’s borderline inescapable with the sheer breadth and depth of MOBAs like League and Dota 2.
Were you to successfully sand all the edges down and create an experience that was mildly pleasant for all (an impossible task), you’d be left without those painful wrinkles and gleeful bumps that make for the most memorable moments. At best, you’d have a game where a single strategy becomes the prevailing standard, and anyone daring to deviate is chided as throwing or inting. That might feel comfortable for a while, but it’s not something I’d stick with in the long term.
“I know it’s not going to be popular, but we believe that mages bot with reasonable levels of ebbs, flows, and strengths and weaknesses adds to League’s longevity,” Phroxzon concludes. He points out that Riot is still taking some steps to addressing the prevalence of the meta in patch 26.16. “The thing we’re not doing is removing them from viability, though, as we think their presence makes League better.”