As the title of this article may suggest, I have a love-hate relationship with Riot Gaming's Free-to-play title, League of Legends. For starters, the game is free, and does a number of things that a free-to-play game ought to. In fact, it may be the direction that the gaming business model may need to adopt to satisfy publishers, developers and players equally. However, there are enormous problems with its art direction that I can't seem to adjust to, no matter how many times I play the game or even how much I enjoy it. That is to say, the game plays up the sexuality of its female characters and emphasizes racial stereotypes in many of its character designs.
Odd as at may sound, the art design would not be as problematic as they are if the game if they took place in a poorly designed game, or even an unpopular one. The quality of League of Legends actually works against it in this regard. And it is a quality game, to be sure. I have written a lot of critical theory on video games and I intend to continue writing about it as long as I find an outlet for it. But League of Legends is one game where criticism doesn't really have a place. League of Legends is a "game" in the truest sense of the word. It is not a work of art, it has no intention of being a work of art and it doesn't operate in any way like a work of art. League of Legends is not "about" anything. It is a competitive activity shared by two teams of five players all pursuing the same goal: victory over the other team. That is a positive thing. It proves that games as works of art can live comfortably beside games as competitive hobbies just fine without either undercutting the other's existence. It's just a game, players pick it up and put it down as easily and with the same intention as a chess or monopoly board.
Furthermore, the game is completely and totally free. There is no financial cost to playing League of Legends. As it stands games of all sorts cost too much to make and too much to buy, the addition of DLC and cut content for customers of used games, more costs are being added to an already overpriced product. League of Legends circumvents the whole problem. Items and costumes are available for purchase, and some assist with playing the game, but none of these items are necessary to playing the game. Riot games have trusted enough in their game to let players come from all over and enjoy it, then pay for whatever content they feel prepared to hand over. There are no advertisements (save for information from the company about the game itself) and the bulk of the developer's revenue comes from voluntary purchases from players. Many companies have not included key pieces of content in their games to force money out of players that buy used games or that rent or borrow their games as adding expensive added content later to a work that is usually over $60. Yet Riot have kept a business model that is friendly to their players and welcoming to newcomers. Granted it helps that League of Legends is not a console game, but even still, Riot is the trend that satisfies the most interested parties.
Beyond the strong financial decisions of developer, it deserves to be stated that League of Legends is a very good game regardless of how it's paid for. Based off the Defense of the Ancients mod from WarCraft 3, League of Legends has dozens of unique characters that all play differently, with various strengths and weaknesses that will cater to virtually any player. More characters are constantly being released to offer a broader variety to the game and it becomes just a little deeper with every new addition to the game. Most importantly, the principles behind the game are easy to learn, yet difficult to master. It takes a great deal of skill to truly excel at League of Legends, yet just about anyone can grasp the core mechanics and enjoy it. Furthermore, it is one of the few instances of a true team game: all five players must play their role to win a match. If one player tries to hog all the points, the team as a whole will suffer. If one player falls behind and drags the overall performance down, it is possible for the rest of the team to make up for the deficit. The best team will win a match, not necessarily the best players. This allows every player the chance to be the hero or the bane of any match, as important as skill is to the game, even the newest and weakest player can catch a lucky break and earn a victory for the rest of the team.
So why the complaints then? By now it ought to seem like an excellent game without any issue. And that's the game that it deserves to be. But it isn't. Of the dozens of characters in the game, many are humanoid characters based out of a fantasy-esque setting. Specifically, characters of both sexes are inappropriately proportioned. The women's waists are narrower than their necks, their breasts swell larger than their heads, their eyes are saucers, their lips puff, and even those clad in armour have their misshapen curves emphasized. Similarly, the men are beastially broad-chested with muscles busting out of their neckless torsos on even the slenderest of characters. It's hard not to view the game as though it had been designed with a twelve-year old's interpretation of sex and beauty. It is very clearly catered to teenage boys, or it feels that way. And for a game that's free, that has no reason not to be welcoming to everyone, it's disappointing to think that both the women and the men were shaped to appeal to teenage masturbatory fantasies.
There is an aggressively WASP-only culture to the game. Racist, homophobic and derogatory remarks plague the chatboard and the pseudonyms of the players. In fairness, Riot cannot be held responsible for the actions or beliefs of its audience but they're hardly helping the matter when the only dark-skinned character in the game is a spear-chucking wild woman in a loincloth that shapeshifts into a cougar. Or the peaceful old Asian sages that spout fortune-cookie philosophy after every click. Gamers are often -- and sometimes fairly -- criticized for being immature and inappropriate given their online anonymity and League of Legends may be host to the worst audience of all. Riot game is not responsible for creating this culture, and perhaps not even for perpetuating it, but they don't seem interested in combating it.
As mentioned, League of Legends is really just a game. There is no narrative (none that matters anyway), and it boils down to pieces on a game board. There was no reason to design the pieces to appeal to such a narrow scope of potential players. Facebook's Farmville, for instance, would not be nearly as popular if the avatars prescribed to teenage masculine fantasies as closely as those in League of Legends. In essence the two games have little different: they are both online based games, free to anyone and have clear objectives that must be met. It's hard to feel welcome as somebody that enjoys the game, but lives outside the targeted demographic.
At this point, with the success League of Legends has enjoyed, with the number of characters that already exist and the audience playing the game, Riot games will not be changing their tune. Especially not due to this quiet little column in a lost corner of the internet. Their are other games with the same mechanical basis as League of Legends, but none that are so popular, and it's a shame that the one with the most success has to have such an isolationist design.
Mark Filipowich - Mark Filipowich is a freelance journalist based out of London, Ontario. He has written and edited for several small publications, both in ...
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