The general gist of the letter is:
Don't let your kids start playing a game of LoL if they don't have enough time to play a full game (usually 6o minutes), and if they are already in the game, don't force them to quit unless it's an emergency, because you are affecting 9 other people.(See, this writing practice thing is helping, I managed to summarise a 529 word post in 47 words.)
GP says:
I am currently struggling to deal with the sheer level of self-delusion in that post, but as you play HoN I was curious if you had any insightful thoughts on the matter.For those unfamiliar with LoL, Dota or HoN, the game is (typically) a match between two teams of five players. The game tries to match you up so that both teams are fairly even, so for simplicity's sake, let's just assume both teams are completely equal at the start of the match. The aim of the game is to destroy the other team's monument inside their base. In order to do this, both teams will kill non-player monsters, and players from the opposing team to get gold and experience points (EXP). The more EXP you have, the higher your level, and the stronger you become. Gold also allows you to buy items which also make you stronger. As such, this game tends to have a bit of a snowball effect, as the stronger you are, the better you are at killing monsters and other players, which means you level up and buy more stuff to get stronger, etc.
However, if an opposing player on the other team gets ahead in gold and EXP, not all is lost, because you can simply group together as a team, and take them out by sheer numbers if you co-ordinate well together. This is why teamwork is such an important skill in these games, because you can overcome uneven odds by working really well together and helping each other out.
Note: unlike in some multiplayer games, in MOBAs, if you lose a player on your team, it's not like someone else can join the game and replace that person. So if that person is gone, unless they come back within 5 minutes, they are gone for good.
So imagine you start a game, only to lose a player on your team. Through no fault of your own, you are now at a huge disadvantage, because your team only has four players, and the other team has five. The game tries to compensate for this somewhat, by having gold and EXP split between players, so with only four players, you could keep up somewhat to make up for the loss of a player. When this happens late into the game, then not only has a person been leeching EXP and gold for nothing, but it's highly likely that they had a role in the team and it will be quite difficult for another player to transition to that role. Perhaps they were the one who jumped in first to soak up the initial damage, allowing other team members to go a glass cannon role (high damage output, but low survivability). One of the remaining team members may need to sell the items they've already bought (at a 50% loss) and try to make up for the loss of that role. Not to mention the fact that the leaving team member likely died to the other team, which gives them extra gold and EXP and puts you at a further disadvantage than if they hadn't been there at all.
So to use a crappy sports analogy, imagine you are playing soccer. Except this is a special type of soccer where every time you score a goal, you run faster and kick harder, and same goes for your opponents. First team to score ten goals wins. You start the game, and you say to your friend Johnny, "I know you're really good at scoring goals, so I'm going to keep passing the ball to you so you can score." The game goes fairly well, with some good passes from your team, Johnny manages to kick seven goals, and he's running like the wind. Your team is high-fiving each other, smiles all around. Though your team also let through a few goals, so the other team has some strong players, too. You haven't kicked any yet, and you're starting to feel a bit tired as you've been running for 50 minutes now, but you only need three more goals to win.
Except what's this....? It's Johnny's mum storming angrily down the pitch. "JOHNNNNNNNNY!" She screeches in her overly nasally voice. "It's time to go to your brother's violin recital."
"But mu-um, I've only got 10 more minutes to go, and we're about to win!" Johnny pleads.
"No buts. Get in this car right now, young man!" Johnny's mum says, as she picks him up by the collar and drags him out to the car.
Your mind is numb, the thoughts slowly going through your head:
Johnny kicked all the goals.... The rest of the team, we have nothing. We have nothing. The past 50 minutes....
You hold on as well as you can, but without Johnny, you are pretty outmatched now. The faster players on their team demolish your team and they score seven easy goals.
As you walk home, you can't help but think that you outplayed the other team, you did the best that you could, but you lost because of Johnny's mum. Fuck Johnny's mum, she's such a bitch. Couldn't she have waited a few more minutes? Then you go and write an angry post masquerading as a letter on the League of Legends forum, where Johnny's mum will never find it.
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I'm not entirely sure what was self-deluded about the letter. I believe that by joining a game, you are making a commitment to the other four players on your team. Even if it turns out that the other four players on your team are sea slugs with the reaction speed of someone in a deep coma, you are still obligated to play it out (others may disagree with me on this point, I know Phrost is of the belief that if the game stops being fun, then you should stop playing it. I understand his point of view, I just disagree with it). If you know ahead of time that you will not be able to commit to a full game, then you should not join.
I've played in games where at the start of the game, a teammate has said, "I have to pick someone up in 40 minutes, so let's end this fast, OK?" So now the whole team is forced to take a much riskier strategy because of someone else's poor planning. I've played in games where we have made mistake after mistake, and are fairly far behind, only for the strongest player on the other team to leave, and we make a comeback, but it feels like a hollow victory.
Sure, it's just a game, but like any group activity, there's a group of people involved (duh). If you've made a commitment to them, unless you have a good reason, you should do your best to adhere to that commitment. I do think that parents should be more considerate about dragging their kids out of half-finished games, but I think the stronger point of the letter was that the kids should be more mindful of joining games when they know it's unlikely that they'll have time to complete them. I think it's the parents' job to teach them that.
I kinda feel like that letter should apply to life in general. Don't schedule a dinner with a friend, then, after they've travelled for 40 minutes to see you, say that you have to be somewhere else in 10 minutes, so you'll just have some water, but it was good to catch up, bye! I feel like it's really more about time management, and thinking about how your actions can affect others.
I was notorious for always showing up late for things, and I had a very bad idea of how long it really took me to travel from A to B (these things are likely related). Now that I have a couple of friends who do the same, I know how it feels to stand around for an hour and a half waiting for someone. I've become much better at planning my life (not perfect, but much better).
Well, this ended up a lot longer than I planned. TL;DR Be more considerate of your commitments to others, and also be considerate of other people's commitment to others.
(I think this is the first 1500+ word post of the year!)
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