Popularity of the League of Legends - Essay Example

Welcome to Rift The development of digital technologies has seen the rise of a different gaming environment. The last decade has seen the flourish of the video game globally. Most of the people in our generation has played at least one video game in their lifetime. Among all the computer games we have today, League of Legend stands out the most since the profit they made in the past year is close to one billion. League of legends is battle war game played on a multiplayer online battle arena, where ten people are matched together. Five players on each team will pick their own champion and compete with the opponent. The outcome of the game depends on who destroyed enemy team’s base first, or if one team feel they are really behind, they can surrender. The four research participants Shen, Jinx, Lux, Annie in this research have different mentality, skill, and playing time. Shen is oldest among the four people; he has been playing the game for longest time, the skill and frequency of playing the game have been decline with the age. He spends an average of 20-25 hours per week playing the game. Jinx is most skillful player and he spends most time in playing the game. On average Jinx spends 35-40 hours a week on the game. Lux is an amateur player; other people have to tell him what to do during the game. He spends the least time playing the game. On average, he spends between 8 and 12 hours playing the game. Annie, a computer science major student, who is the only female in the group, is very talented at playing this game. The time she spends on the game is dependent of how busy her schedule is but mostly it ranges from 0 and 20 hours per week. Through the observations of four players, it is clear that gaming experiences are affected by gender, social skills, and the level of competiveness. Gender discrepancy is one of the major elements in the game. The conception that a video gamer is mostly male is completely misguided. Nowadays, women make up about 45 percent of the gamers in the United States (Yu, 2013). Even in game like League of Legend that is mostly dominated male, there are still about 35 percent female gamer (Conditt, 2014). Annie started playing the game about 2 years ago, now she ranked in top 10 percentile among all people in North America server. People are astounded when they learned that she is female since the feat she accomplished is rare among female. Difference display in physiological aspects of the game its very obvious among 4 players. As for Annie, she only picks female and cute cartoonish characters in the game. She claimed that the identities and appearances of those charterers are appealing to her, and she told me that she dressed up like the character in the game on Halloween. Therefore, it is clear that Annie has embraced and accepted the culture, as she chooses to dress as the female character in the game. From Annie’s response, it is evident that there exist gender stereotype. For example, she only chooses to pick female characters in the game although she has the choice of picking male who exhibit masculine characteristics. Annie’s views are clearly influenced by the outside world. Influence from the outside world comes from various sources like peers and media. For instance, media influence is responsible for cultivating attitudes, which explains Annie’s choice of feminine characters. This resonates with the cultivation theory, which means the habitual view of the world can be shaped by media effect. (Wells, 2015) This kind phenomenon impacts the gaming company in a very positive way, since people will want to spend the money on the characters and the skins they liked. The perception in picking the characters for males is different. 3 male participants are indifference about picking which characters. They not only like cute, attractive characters but also have fond in playing masculine and violence characters. Finally the behaviors throughout the game are different between genders. Annie is always positive and her emotion is as calm as a creek. As for the 3 males participant, there are more emotion involve during the game, sometimes act like tsunami is occurring when teammates been dumb. Genders gaps in online gaming diminished in a way that also generated some. According to the magic bullet theory, media are omnipotent in a way that directly provokes people’s emotions and actions (Wells, 2015). By observing the four players, one can tell the effects of playing the League of Legends has on each of the players. The first player is Jinx, who is the most skilled player and spends the most time playing the game than any of the participants. His rank is not the highest among the players. Logically, he should have the highest rank score, but his moods during the game affect his performance. During the game he cannot control his emotions most of time, frequently raging at his teammates and mute all of the when they mistake. Most of the time they end up losing games that they would have otherwise won. Annie was found to have a high social skill hence achieved highest rank score despite not playing the game as often as Jinx plays. Annie opines that having good behavior can increase ones chances of winning, and its better to have 5 men making the same the mistake than 4 making mistakes while one does the right things.” Emotions, interactions, and strategy’s are essential part of winning formula. Shen was found to have a cool and calm collected during and after the game. This can be attributed to the fact that he is a seasoned player who has mastered the effects and emotional side of the game. Lux is still a new comer. His emotions after the game are aggressive and he has the urge of going for another challenge. The multiplayer online games have several effects on the players. This essay focuses on the competitiveness amongst players as an effect of playing games. Competition is always a factor when players face each other under game situations. The most competitive players in most cases emerge victorious. Competitive players have the hunger to push towards the attainment of the teams goals. Competitive players struggle to attain the goals set at the start of the game. The four team player under research showed different levels of competitiveness. On one hand, Jinx and Annie were the star players. They exhibited high levels of competitiveness and they always utilized the every opportunity to make plays for the team. On the other hand, there was Shen and Lux were less competitive and they seldom made any plays for the team. The competitive duo used commanding and authoritative language when they were talking with each other or addressing the other members of their team. Competitiveness among the players was also evident based on the performance and motivation. Jinx and Annie were performance and motivation was high. The evidence was clear for everyone to see. Jinx spent the most time playing the League of Legends game. Thu it was expected that he would have a superior performance compared to the other players. Shen is old player, hence, his motivation and performance is hindered by age. On the other hand, Lux is still learning the ropes of League of Legends game hence his performance may not at its best. Through the study of social skill and gender-gaps, and level of competiveness, gaming nowadays is indirectly influencing people’s real life. Its stereotype to say gaming can only cause antisocial behavior and gamer are dominant by male. Gaming can also help to improve people’s social skill in a way that connects people together, and reveal their true identity of people. Works Cited Wells, Chris. "The Magic Bullet." J201 Lecture. Humanities, Madison. 13 Apr. 2015. Lecture. Wells, Chris. "Cultivation Theory." J201 Lecture. Humanities, Madison. 22 Apr. 2015. Lecture. Conditt, Jessica. "Report: Men Play More MMOs, FPSes; Women Rule Mobile, RPG."Engadget. 27 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. . Yu, Annie. "Report: Nearly Half of Gamers Are Women." Washington Times. The Washington Times, 11 June 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. . Questions asked. How often do you plays the game? How long will a game affect your mood? What bothers you the most? When in the game is your emotional level the highest? Do your emotion level change throughout the game? If other teams member picked your favorite characters, will your emotion change? Read More