Got it in one, actually. Also there's like a hundred different characters, but you're expected to play each one a certain way because METAGAME, and there's a shop full of shit you can buy, but you're expected to buy an exact list of shit for any given character because, again, METAGAME. I have to wonder why they don't just rig up AIs to play the damned games for everyone.

And no, I don't know why it's popular either, but I felt the same way about Diablo and WoW, so I'll just attribute it to some kind of runoff from Blizzard's satanic pact for success.

Disclaimer: I generally hate this style of game.

They're f2p with a model that doesn't actually give you a huge advantage for cash, they don't require a burly machine to run well, they can easily be played casually because there's little or no progression element shoehorned into a game that doesn't need it, and their development is ongoing and of decent quality because the level of content is relatively small.

The alternatives for that subset of qualities is non-existent.

I played and enjoyed League for a while, even found my niche with a healer character. I love playing support roles in games, and I don't know why. I just think it's cooler to be the quiet help in the back, never jumping in the spotlight, but those that do couldn't without me having their back.

I was having a great time with it, casually playing a couple times a week, having fun with my Mage, and doing a fairly decent job. I'd often win, and got various bonuses to my rank for the consistent wins and how often I played. And that's when it went downhill fast.

I hit a ranking where the playing field isn't just people who play once in a while for fun, but the serious fuckers who refuse to accept loss, or victory in many cases, with any degree of dignity. I soon learned my fun little healer "sucks" and I need to learn a "real champ", but not while playing with them of course, they don't have time to put up with someone new to their character. Every game, win or lose, ended with someone botching me out for not taking it seriously enough. All the usual Internet rage applied, from death threats over my preference for healers to page-long post game illegible manifestos.

It didn't take me long to leave League after that, and my stories are downright tame compared to some of what you hear. There's a fun game to be had somewhere in that mess, but League has, bar none, the worst community in gaming.

tl;dr fuck this game.

I had the exact same experience, it started out as a very fun game to play once in a while, the community was really nice en teaching. I played Zilean, a lot. But bumped into the same segment of players, everyone became a complete asshole. I ended up doing /mute all before every game because 97% of the chat was people yelling at each other, either because small mistakes or for not playing the champions EXACT the same way as the meta game required.

Exactly that. It starts out as a fun, casual, free, low end computer requirement game that plays like a co-op 5on5 game of RTS Street Fighter or a simplified World of Warcraft pvp server without all the poopsock requirements.

And yes people going on about the META are what eventually ruin it. Ever since they got serious about making it an e-sport, every awful player watches the streams and talks about "the new meta" copying what all the pros do. These same people will always be the worst players on your team as they haven't even mastered basics like "ward the river if the enemy jungler ganks you five times".

Eventually it got to the point where you can't even pick who you want anymore or go any lane you want. The META demands 5 exact roles with each role having a preordained lane. Screeching right from the start of hero select, screeching right at the start of lane select, screeching during the game, screeching after the game.

The worst was when one guy in our LoL group's psycho bipolar girlfriend started playing. Imagine having one of those screeching players on voice chat. She was easily the worst player of the group, but would constantly shout orders (terrible ones) and every time she went off by herself to get jumped and killed (easily breaking 0-10 records each game) she'd break down into screaming tears that no one was listening to her.

I haven't played in months. I highly recommend trying out Awesomenauts. It's like a DotA game except a 2D platformer. It costs on steam but there are frequent 66% off sales. Easily worth it. Best of all there's almost zero toxic players.

If you can get over the fact that you are going to be playing the same game on the same map 5 million times, and can find 4 other people to play with that aren't rage-a-holic 13 year old dick heads, this game can be pretty fun.

I play this occasionally, and 9 out of 10 times i quit out of the game in the character selection screen. Usually by that time people are already fighting, and being babies about who's doing what, or what character you're playing. I have two or three real life buddies who play it, and it really can be fun to all jump on skype and play a few rounds.

I've been playing Dota 2 quite a bit lately and I'm finding it engrossing even though I'm terrible.

I've played a bunch of co-op vs. bot matches online and haven't really gotten any abuse, people have mostly been helpful and giving me good advice such as "don't try to solo 4 bots u n00b".

One time I stunned a bad dude that was chasing a team mate and saved his ass and he said "thank you!" so that was nice.

FABIO nailed it when it comes to the appeal. It was a fun way to enjoy something similar to the PVP in an MMO, without having to make a second job out of gear grinding just to stay on an even playing field with the other players.

And yeah, often times I didn't make it to the start of the game without being yelled at. You'd think people would like having their own personal healer in their lane, but no.

Rocketblender, Myth 2 has the worst community in gaming. That sounds awful regardless, and makes me glad I avoided DOTA and league of legends and other mod-quality depthless garbage games.

I used to play quite a bit of LoL, but eventually it got to the point where every single game was ruined by That Guy, or three That Guys. HEY BRO YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KS ME OH WELL GUESS I'LL JUST START FEEDING GG LOL NOOBS.

It amazes me how you can spend untold hundreds or thousands of hours in this game and have incredibly detailed up-to-the-nanosecond knowledge on whatever the hell the super-complicated "meta" is, yet fail to understand the MOST BASIC FUCKING DEFINING CONCEPT of a team game. The purpose of this game is for you to help ensure that the other team, that's THEM, over THERE, is defeated by your team, that's US, over HERE.

I've been playing Dota 2 lately, and while I haven't gotten as far into it, and I'm sure the community has it's fair share of asshats, nobody calls KS (kill stealing) and whatever "Meta" there is is much more open-ended.

LoL is a pretty fun game ruined by its players.

3 stars because e-sports is stupid.

Yeah, they do a pretty good job. It makes the games a lot more fun to watch. That said, I still don't really like to watch other people play games.