A lot of my spare time at this point goes to an online game many of you have probably heard of called League of Legends. League is a fairly divisive game with people either seeming to really love it or really hate it, both sides with little justification or reasoning behind their arguments. One thing that cannot be denied however is that the League community can at times be angry, toxic, and sometimes literally the worst people you can encounter on the planet. Due to the highly competitive environment even when playing with friends, this can lead to a fair number of arguments and with that it is always nice to have a way to cool off. Though there are other alternate games modes already in place, as well as some others created by the community, my friends and I have come up with a few games of our own, namely Blitzcrank Hide-and-Seek.
As shown above, Blitzcrank is a robot character who’s defining feature is its ability to use an extending arm to grab other champions as well as minions etc. and pull them to him. Effectively the game is for people to run around the map in selected areas where they can hide, and one person as Blitzcrank tries to find, and successfully pull them. Generally this is played as a team of 1 vs a team of 3-5 players, with the seeker needing to pull each person 3 times over a period of 45 minutes to get them “out.” This has been a fun way for me and my friends to relax after a long game and create an intervention in the way League is played.
This is related to what we have learned so far in the class due to the nature of the game itself. In a way this is working with the idea of the previous project through appropriating the medium of League of Legends and the folk game hide and seek, but is also working with the idea of working with found objects namely the already created concept of the champion Blitzcrank and how his mechanic could be applied to another situation.
Through my testing I have learned that effectively the game serves its purpose. League of Legends can be stressful for serious players which is why there is so much “salt” in the community. Blitzcrank Hide-and-Seek creates a friendly, safe environment for players to have a chance to cool down but also continue to practice and improve. The one downside however is the ability for players to cheat. As this is not an official game mode players are able to basically ignore almost any of the rules as the only thing holding them to the ruleset is the honor code. Although it would be nice for this to become an officially sponsored mode, that is both unlikely and in a way counterproductive. The purpose of this game is to be in a way non-competetive. The second something becomes official however people begin to place value in the game mode — a meta is formed, and then the “just for fun” attitude dies.
My inspiration for this game comes from the origins of the MOBA genre. MOBAs began as a creation in the sandbox mode of Warcraft, and eventually evolved into their own separate and incredibly successful industry. This takes from the MOBA idea by creating a game within a game using the tools provided to you by the parent company.
