当事情发生时，我进入自己的第四次《英雄联盟》比赛正好28分钟。另外一个玩家让我知道了自己只是一个“菜鸟”。游戏后，玩家在聊天室说我们“非常糟糕”，甚至是“史上最糟糕的团队。”当TwoBigButts攻克我们的防御时，那些自以为是的玩家才知道自己并没有多出色，因为“我们不再需要有害的玩家”，所以他们可以回到《超神英雄》了。

我非常害怕这一回合。在40分钟的比赛中，我创造了1次杀戮，11次死亡以及8次协助。作为多人联机在线竞技游戏（MOBA）新手，我花了大概5个小时去学习《英雄联盟》，并体验了人们常常说道的“有害新手”。

League of Legends(from freecodesource)

我玩了超过6个比赛并体验了更多有害的行为。尽管在我的第9次游戏中创造了0次杀戮，9次死亡以及13次协助，我还不是玩家辱骂行为的目标。我们团队中的一名玩家告诉另一名玩家“去自生自灭吧。”除了需要对抗名为TittyQueef的玩家，在我的首次用户体验的有害体验比我刚开始接触这一项目时的期待轻多了。

不成熟与多人游戏并肩齐驱

在我告诉一位好友我打算与名为BeckyLovesRaichu的Summoner一起进入《英雄联盟》的PvP模式时，他告诉我：“有些人会说你是c**t。”我曾经与一位致力于MOBA游戏的旧金山开发者展开交谈。为了让自己能够熟悉《英雄联盟》世界，他花了20小时于联合PvE模式中，然后才进入PvP比赛。基于他的经验，他认为很显然女性玩家在处理游戏方面比较不上手，所以我不仅会成为有害目标，同时还会成为歧视女性玩家的目标。当然了，选择那样的名字也是出于我的假设。我想看看作为女性是否真的会将游戏引向更糟糕的情况。

我加入《英雄联盟》是为了编写有关有害内容以及它对于底线的可能影响。Riot知道它具有有害问题并致力于重组其玩家基础。我想要亲自看看它加入社区会是怎样的情况。尽管我经历了来自不成熟玩家的辱骂以及厌女症，但这与我从用户体验本身所感受到的打击相比真的不算什么。

加入一款成熟的游戏和社区

毫无疑问，《英雄联盟》是世界上最受欢迎的游戏之一。在本周它的每日活跃用户数达到了2700万，根据最近分析家的报道，这款游戏在2013年共带来6.24亿美元的收益。它已经诞生4年，我也敢保证在今后10年里它仍会大受欢迎。然而，在运行像《英雄联盟》或《魔兽世界》这样世界知名游戏时，我们必须在问题彻底呈现出来前几个月甚至几年便将其改正过来。在我加入《英雄联盟》后，与有害玩家行为一样，我认为游戏的成熟度及其FTUE（受此用户体验）呈现出了对于长期健康发展的威胁。

作为一名新玩家同时也是硬核玩家，我在《英雄联盟》的前10个小时一直很困惑。面对从未玩过的游戏，如果在游戏中受挫或未感受到任何乐趣，我很少会投入超过1个小时的时间，即使它再有名。我从未出于研究目的而玩游戏。

这一困惑是源自3个主要载体。第1个便是加入一个成熟社区的专门术语。即在此当我保持沉默时，其他玩家竟然能够拼命打出许多有关我有多糟糕的言语。当玩家进行交谈时，他们只是说着top，mid，bot，jung或gg等术语，然后选择离开去寻找另一个比赛。我很快意识到这些术语的意思，但是我却不清楚这些选择所传达的策略。此外，我们团队的玩家经常会在比赛早期就选择投降。我不知道为什么他们会这么早就选择放弃。

第2个载体便是游戏只呈现但却未讲解游戏更深层次的系统。在进入游戏10个小时候，我仍然不清楚如何做出关于该购买怎样的道具的决定。对我来说runes以及masteries是很神奇的事。在我的前半部分游戏过程中，我选择了Heimerdinger；作为支撑着炮塔的角色，我能够充分投入游戏中并公平分配杀戮与协作比例。我有90秒的时间去做出决定，我选择了Trundle并在剩下的比赛中备受责备。我被游戏系统折腾得够呛，我并不能理解它，也承受不住做选择的时间压力。

第3个载体则是游戏内部本身。当我在蹩脚地游戏时，我不知道自己为何会玩得这么糟糕。我不知道其他玩家到底做了什么才会升级得如此快，而我则总是很快便会被杀死，但是对手却始终毫发无伤。我知道自己不擅于玩《英雄联盟》，但我不知道自己该怎么做才能更有效率地游戏。

当我在询问已经玩了好几年的游戏的朋友时，他们告诉我道具选择非常重要，而Trundle则是最难控制的角色。如果我想要玩得更好，我便需要仔细阅读策略指南并观看游戏玩法视频。我需要试着了解敌人的道具选择并掌握如何使用自己的选择去战胜他们。我需要为我自己的战士和游戏风格研究正确的runes和masteries。所有的这些都是以获得乐趣为名义要求我投入许多工作。

对于喜欢《英雄联盟》的玩家来说，这种复杂性将游戏变得更具有魔力。但是对于刚接触这款游戏以及这样类型游戏的玩家来说，这种学习曲线却是不合理的。

成熟与不成熟的代价

《英雄联盟》是一款强大的游戏，多年来都处于有机且有益的发展。这些突出的问题可能被游戏那些值得肯定的正面元素所遮盖了。既然这款游戏一年能够吸引6.24亿美元的收益，它便能够轻松地忽视掉那些在前几天难以完成游戏的玩家们。然而，具有挑战性的首次用户体验却是导致其在季度收益中表现不佳的问题根源。总有一天这将成为一个不可避免的问题所在，其总公司腾讯将可能开始报道玩家基础下滑的情况。市场并不会在乎一款游戏在过去所创造的数十亿美元。只有目光短浅的人会问“最近你为我做了些什么？”

我与一位拥有15年经验且曾致力于免费MMO游戏领域的市场营销主管进行了交谈。这一主管估计Riot在市场营销活动中对于每个玩家的获取成本大概是5美元至8美元。比起之前预计的每位家10美元至15美元的成本，这算是一个较为适当的套利。

但想要安装《英雄联盟》的玩家却是个有限的资源。随着时间的发展，玩家获取成本将随着愿意接受《英雄联盟》广告收缩的玩家而增长。为了提升用户留存而完善首次用户体验将能够创造更大的经验玩家基础并创造更有效的广告成本，从而为游戏带来更多收益。

不管是英国政府还是美国政府都在执行“推动单位”（游戏邦注：这是受到行为经济学家Richard Thaler和合著者Cass Sunstein在他们的著作《Nudge》中所提到的理念的启发）。这些行为洞察力团队的目的是以提高税收收入和社会福利为目的进行测试和试验。这些项目获得了巨大的成功；在最近的Freakanomics Radio播客中，Thaler揭示：“运行其中的一项试验所创造的利益便能够支付英国团队前三年的开支。”

像《英雄联盟》这样大规模运行的游戏将从肩负着使用与美国和英国政府统一的方法论去提升全新玩家留存率从而完善首次用户体验的部门中受益。从Riot最近的公告中我们可以清楚地看到，其最近以及即将发行的补丁便是为了帮助新玩家更轻松地玩游戏。与nudge units类似的是，一次或两次的成功试验将通过提升玩家留存率而轻松地正视大量投资的合理性。

《英雄联盟》不合理的学习曲线推动着竞争者不再专注于改变Riot现有且强大的玩家基础，而是转向为新玩家购买市场。更能够挽留新玩家的更易亲近的游戏与大量的市场营销开支的结合将让竞争者能够在拥挤的MOBA领域获取巨大的市场份额。所以对于我这样面对着游戏成熟与玩家不成熟的双重压力的菜鸟级玩家来说，Riot仍存在完善《英雄联盟》并不断平衡玩家于资产负债表的可能性。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转功，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Maturity and immaturity in League of Legends

I’m 28 minutes into my 4th ever match of League of Legends when it happens. Another player lets me know that I “is noob” and “suck ballz.” Post game, the player antagonizes the chat room saying we are “so fricken bad” and the “worst team ever”. That’s when TwoBigButts comes to our defense, letting the abusive player know they were not so great either and that they should go back to Heroes of Newerth because “we don’t need more toxic players.”

And I was terrible that round. I had 1 kill, 11 deaths and 8 assists in a 40 minute match ending in a miserable defeat. I was roughly 5 hours into learning League of Legends as a complete neophyte to MOBAs and I experienced the oft mentioned toxicity firsthand.

I played 6 more matches and experienced one more act of toxicity. Despite 0 kills, 9 deaths and 13 assists in my 9th game I was not the target of the abusive behavior. One player on my team told another “go kill yourself.” Other than playing against a player named TittyQueef, the toxicity experienced in my first time user experience (FTUE) was much lighter than I was expecting when I started this project.

Immaturity and multiplayer gaming go hand in hand

“Someone will call you a c**t,” remarks my friend after I tell him my plan to jump feet first into League’s PvP with the Summoner name BeckyLovesRaichu. I was talking to a fellow San Francisco developer who happened to be working on a MOBA game. To familiarize himself with the world of League he had just finished playing 20 hours of co-op PvE before jumping into a single PvP match. Based on his experience, his hypothesis was that with an obviously female handle and predictably poor play, I would not only be the target of toxicity but that it would take a misogynistic spin. That was my hypothesis too when I choose the name. I wanted to see if being obviously female would make a notoriously toxic game even worse.

I joined LoL with the intention of writing about toxicity and it’s probable impact on the bottom line. Riot knows it has a toxicity problem and is working hard to reform members of its playerbase. I wanted to see firsthand what it is like to join the community. Although I did experience abuse from immature players and a general air of misogyny, it was nothing compared to the beating I took from the user experience itself.

Joining a mature game and community

LoL is undoubtedly one of the most popular games in the world. Just this week it boasted daily active user numbers of 27 million and a recent analyst report estimated the game brought in $624 million in revenue in 2013. It has been live for over 4 years and I have no doubt the game will still be popular 10 years from now. However, when running a juggernaut of a game on the level of LoL or WoW, one must anticipate and fix problems not just months but years before they fully manifest. After my experience joining LoL, I believe the maturity of the game and its overwhelming FTUE pose as big if not a bigger threat to long term health than toxic player behavior.

As a new player and a hardcore gamer, my general feeling in my first 10 hours of LoL was confusion. With a backlog of unplayed games as large as mine, it is rare for me to give a game more than an hour of time if I am overwhelmed or not having fun, no matter its reputation. Had I not been playing for the purposes of research, I would have moved on to another game either at or before the match where I was informed of my predilection for placing male anatomy in my mouth.

This confusion came from 3 main vectors. The first is the jargon inherent in joining a mature community. Where I was expecting other players to type furiously away at how horrible I was I mostly experienced silence. When players did talk it was simply to declare top, mid, bot or jung or to gg before exiting to find another match. I figured out soon enough what these terms meant but have no idea the strategy implied by each of these choices. Additionally, players on my team frequently began votes of surrender early into matches that felt wide open to me. I did not know why they wanted to give up so quickly.

The second vector was being shown but not taught the game’s deeper systems. 10 hours in and I have little to no idea how to make decisions about what items to buy. Runes and mastery are a mystery to me. For the first half of my play sessions I chose Heimerdinger; as a turret based support character I was able to play adequately and rack up my fair share of kills and assists. When the champions rolled over and I had 90 seconds to make a decision with very little information, I picked Trundle and was trounced for the remainder of my matches. I was overwhelmed by game systems I did not understand and time pressure to make choices.

The third vector is inside the game itself. When I was playing poorly, it was not clear to me why I was playing poorly. I had no idea what other players were doing to level so fast, or why I was slaughtered so quickly while my opponents seemed to take no damage. I knew that I was bad at LoL, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do to play more effectively

When I debriefed with friends who are years into playing they let me know that item choices are incredibly important and that Trundle is a particularly hard character to play. If I wanted to get better I needed to read strategy guides and watch gameplay videos. I needed to learn to read my opponents’ item choices and know how to counter them with my own choices. I needed to research the right runes and masteries for my champion and play style. All of this sounded like a lot of work in the name of having fun.

For players who love LoL, this complexity is what makes it magical. For players new to the game and genre, this learning curve is so steep as to be nearly insurmountable.

The cost of maturity and immaturity

LoL is a monster of a game, and has many years of organic and paid growth ahead of it. The issues highlighted are likely eclipsed by the positive benefits of a game where many new players join alongside experienced friends who show them the ropes. When a game is pulling in an estimated $624 million a year, it is easy to overlook the jagged edges confronting those players who churn out of the game within the first few days. However, this challenging FTUE is the sort of problem that rears its head years down the line in quarterly earnings statements. It is inevitable that some day, parent company Tencent will start reporting a declining player base. The market does not care about the billions of dollars made in the past. It is a shortsighted beast that only asks “what have you done for me lately?”

I spoke with a 15 years experienced marketing executive with a history in the F2P MMO space. This executive estimated that Riot is spending between $5 and $8 for each new player acquired through marketing. Compared to estimated average revenue per player of $10 – $15, this is a healthy arbitrage.

But the deposits of players willing to install LoL is a finite resource. Over time this acquisition cost will only grow as the pool of players receptive to LoL advertising shrinks. Improving the FTUE for retention will boost revenue both by creating a larger veteran play base and by making advertising dollars more efficient.

Both the British and US governments run “nudge units” inspired by the ideas of behavioral economist Richard Thaler and co-author Cass Sunstein in their book Nudge. The purpose of these behavioral insight teams are to run tests and experiments with the purpose of increasing tax revenues and social welfare. These projects are hugely successful; in a recent episode of the Freakanomics Radio podcast, Thaler revealed that “running one of these experiments paid all the expenses of the [UK] team of the first three years.”

A game that operates on the massive scale of League of Legends would benefit from a department tasked with improving the FTUE using the same methodology as the US and British governments to increase new player retention (if it does not already exist within the company). Clearly from the announcement that recent and impending patches seek to make the game easier for new players, Riot is hard at work to improve the game for noobs like me. Similar to the nudge units, one or two successful experiments can handily justify a substantial investment by raising retention rates.

The steep learning curve of LoL creates an opportunity for competitors (albeit handsomely bankrolled ones) not to focus on converting Riot’s existing and rabid fan base, but instead to buy up the market for new players. A more accessible game that better retains new players combined with a massive marketing spend could allow a competitor to gain an appreciable market share in the crowded MOBA space. So long as noobs like me face the dual pressures of game maturity and player immaturity, there is still room for competitors to make headway. So long as acquired players face a daunting FTUE, there is the opportunity for Riot to make improvements to League that are equally positive for players and balance sheets.(source:famousaspect)