Why are random dragon spawns better than non-random dragon spawns?
We believe a major reasons play League is that getting better at something is satisfying. Broadly speaking, there are two main ways you get better at League. First, you can get better at mechanical execution. You learn to get those last hits. You dodge skill shots. You predict when you're going to catch someone in your AE. The other category is about making decisions. Should you go back now? Should you face check the brush? Should you push down that tower or go get a dragon?
This latter category -- decision making -- needs a dynamic game environment. Hopefully I'm not insulting sprinters here, but I don't think you are making a ton of decisions when sprinting. Maybe you pour on a bit extra if you're trying to pass someone or maybe there's a psychological game at play, but for the most part you are just running down a lane, not really focused on stuff outside of that. When League feels too much like a sprint, the game lacks depth. The mechanical execution element is still there of course, but if you can kind of ignore what is happening in the game, there is a ton of missed opportunity. Deciding if you can win that team fight is important.
So the deal with dragon is we felt like it was a solved system. If the buffs were strong, you should always go for dragon. If the buffs were weak, you should never go for dragon. If there were no buffs and it was just gold, you should always go for dragon. The elements should add some decision making. Will the enemy team want the next spawn more than you? Is the next spawn going to really help you or is it meh compared to the potential of getting a few towers. Evaluating changing variables is key to making decisions this way.
Now we agree it is possible to add so much randomness that you feel like you're out of control. A lot of the discussion about crit as a stat lands here -- did you lose that fight because you were unlucky rather than because you made a poor decision or failed at mechanical execution? This may sound nuanced, but we want the dragon design to feel unpredictable -- something you have to respond to within the game -- rather than random -- something that is completely out of your control. Dragons still spawn at a predictable cadence and we even tell you which dragon is going to spawn next, and eventually only the elder dragon is relevant. If this feels too random -- if we see too many teams lose because the "wrong" dragon spawned despite otherwise clever decision-making, then we will have to back off of it. There are a lot of options to do so -- maybe each dragon only spawns once, or maybe the order becomes more fixed, or players have more control over which one spawns.
Try it out and let us know how it feels.
This latter category -- decision making -- needs a dynamic game environment. Hopefully I'm not insulting sprinters here, but I don't think you are making a ton of decisions when sprinting. Maybe you pour on a bit extra if you're trying to pass someone or maybe there's a psychological game at play, but for the most part you are just running down a lane, not really focused on stuff outside of that. When League feels too much like a sprint, the game lacks depth. The mechanical execution element is still there of course, but if you can kind of ignore what is happening in the game, there is a ton of missed opportunity. Deciding if you can win that team fight is important.
So the deal with dragon is we felt like it was a solved system. If the buffs were strong, you should always go for dragon. If the buffs were weak, you should never go for dragon. If there were no buffs and it was just gold, you should always go for dragon. The elements should add some decision making. Will the enemy team want the next spawn more than you? Is the next spawn going to really help you or is it meh compared to the potential of getting a few towers. Evaluating changing variables is key to making decisions this way.
Now we agree it is possible to add so much randomness that you feel like you're out of control. A lot of the discussion about crit as a stat lands here -- did you lose that fight because you were unlucky rather than because you made a poor decision or failed at mechanical execution? This may sound nuanced, but we want the dragon design to feel unpredictable -- something you have to respond to within the game -- rather than random -- something that is completely out of your control. Dragons still spawn at a predictable cadence and we even tell you which dragon is going to spawn next, and eventually only the elder dragon is relevant. If this feels too random -- if we see too many teams lose because the "wrong" dragon spawned despite otherwise clever decision-making, then we will have to back off of it. There are a lot of options to do so -- maybe each dragon only spawns once, or maybe the order becomes more fixed, or players have more control over which one spawns.
Try it out and let us know how it feels.
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