twchapman/thoughts.txt

## thoughts.txt
The first thing I noticed is just the format of the game; for a long time, there was a pretty clear distinction between "casual gamers" and "hardcore gamers" - terms I don't really like, but I'm using to basically mean the difference between someone who plays a game like The Sims a few times a week, and someone who's grinding Counterstrike deathmatch to try and get better. There were still people who would play shooters and whatnot casually, but they'd likely stick to community servers. Even people super into games like WoW were at least playing a largely PvE game, so there wasn't as much competition. In a game like League of Legends, there isn't really a "casual" mode outside of ARAMs; that, coupled with the popularity and appear of the game, leads to an environment that's naturally more competitive than other games might be. I think this is true for most if not all matchmaking games these days - I have friends who typically aren't very competitive by nature, like when we play a board game or something, but League just finds ways to get under their skin.

The second big factor - maybe even a bigger one - is the nature of the gameplay itself. When you start to lose the game, you don't just fall behind in terms of your "score", you also start having a more difficult time catching up - the further you fall behind in things like minion and champion kills, towers destroyed, and dragon or baron buffs acquired, the stronger your enemy gets. This is pretty atypical to any other competitive game I can think of - in most physical sports, after one team scores, the other team tends to actually get a _more_ advantageous position immediately afterward, and it's just as difficult to score a touchdown or net a basket as it was before. Even in a game like CS, while there is an economy and a concept of buying guns and equipment, the gap only widens so far, to the point where it's possible to catch up mostly from saving money round-to-round. Also, since the game doesn't really change much, you can still make plays and have fun with the core loop of the game, whereas in a MOBA once you fall behind to a certain extent, you really can't do much unless the opponents make a big mistake.

The last point is one that was talked about, but I wanted to mention again in the above context: the time commitment. When you start a game on Summoner's Rift, you're committing yourself to the _minimum_ 15 (before the team can unanimously vote to surrender) to 20 (before the surrender vote just needs a majority) minutes _plus_ the 5-10 minutes that champion selection takes. If you hit 10 minutes in and you're already a few kills and towers down, you're looking at another 10 minutes of slogging through disadvantages to try and slowly claw your way back, often times through either playing it safe (which can be tedious and boring) or going for crazy plays (which can be risky and put you even further behind). In most other games, when you're playing an unranked match, you can usually hop in and out without penalty to maximize your personal enjoyment, but MOBAs kind of trap you into playing even if you're not having a good time.
	The first thing I noticed is just the format of the game; for a long time, there was a pretty clear distinction between "casual gamers" and "hardcore gamers" - terms I don't really like, but I'm using to basically mean the difference between someone who plays a game like The Sims a few times a week, and someone who's grinding Counterstrike deathmatch to try and get better. There were still people who would play shooters and whatnot casually, but they'd likely stick to community servers. Even people super into games like WoW were at least playing a largely PvE game, so there wasn't as much competition. In a game like League of Legends, there isn't really a "casual" mode outside of ARAMs; that, coupled with the popularity and appear of the game, leads to an environment that's naturally more competitive than other games might be. I think this is true for most if not all matchmaking games these days - I have friends who typically aren't very competitive by nature, like when we play a board game or something, but League just finds ways to get under their skin.

	The second big factor - maybe even a bigger one - is the nature of the gameplay itself. When you start to lose the game, you don't just fall behind in terms of your "score", you also start having a more difficult time catching up - the further you fall behind in things like minion and champion kills, towers destroyed, and dragon or baron buffs acquired, the stronger your enemy gets. This is pretty atypical to any other competitive game I can think of - in most physical sports, after one team scores, the other team tends to actually get a _more_ advantageous position immediately afterward, and it's just as difficult to score a touchdown or net a basket as it was before. Even in a game like CS, while there is an economy and a concept of buying guns and equipment, the gap only widens so far, to the point where it's possible to catch up mostly from saving money round-to-round. Also, since the game doesn't really change much, you can still make plays and have fun with the core loop of the game, whereas in a MOBA once you fall behind to a certain extent, you really can't do much unless the opponents make a big mistake.

	The last point is one that was talked about, but I wanted to mention again in the above context: the time commitment. When you start a game on Summoner's Rift, you're committing yourself to the _minimum_ 15 (before the team can unanimously vote to surrender) to 20 (before the surrender vote just needs a majority) minutes _plus_ the 5-10 minutes that champion selection takes. If you hit 10 minutes in and you're already a few kills and towers down, you're looking at another 10 minutes of slogging through disadvantages to try and slowly claw your way back, often times through either playing it safe (which can be tedious and boring) or going for crazy plays (which can be risky and put you even further behind). In most other games, when you're playing an unranked match, you can usually hop in and out without penalty to maximize your personal enjoyment, but MOBAs kind of trap you into playing even if you're not having a good time.