League of Legends is a corporate giant in the gaming industry that's managed to stay relevant all throughout the years. At least so far. They leverage their big marketing budget and popularity to reel in new players. Their presence in competitive gaming, Youtube, Twitch, and other mediums all play a big part as to how Riot Games has managed to maintain a big audience. On the surface it appears they are advertising a game. But the reality is that League of Legends is in the gambling business. Not directly from a person’s wallet but rather time. Riot has crafted an addictive game that uses the practices of gambling to keep players playing.


Everything from the music, art, and sound design is meant to create a strong connection to the brain. Every little aspect is meant to be distinguishable, recognizable. In League, Riot has not wasted a single opportunity to take advantage of the effects of human conditioning. CS’ng, tower plating, shelly charge, scuttle, etc. League is really good at having cause and effect shown to the player. This is important because these are all minor victories the player achieves in a normal game of League. This is why people tend to autopilot League of Legends. There is always something shiny for the player to look forward to. They ultimately want a win. But there are constant dopamine hits all throughout a game.

The end of a League game shows this the most. You get a build up noise of the nexus being destroyed, before the climatic explosion. The music transitions as you are shown the final message of the game. This all is meant to evoke an emotion. This brief time before you leave. Enables you to reflect on your current feelings. The game is simply being the catalyst for that. This is done because emotions and feelings are what causes addiction. At the end of every League game you are reminded how good a win is. Or how bad the taste of defeat was. Either way they want you to feel something. They want you to care about winning.

League of Legends is a cleverly crafted game. That makes you feel like your character grows stronger directly from your own achievements. All while getting constant stimulation. The big problem is when they add another layer to all of this. That is the ranked system. This is taking the emotion League has from the player and ramping that up even further. A game now has quantifiable stats of success. There are now stakes involved.

The Ranked tiers are strategically made up to not appear like a big difference between ranks. A player is never too far from the next milestone. From the math done here, it is evident that climbing the ranked ladder takes a long time. There is even a time limit, you have to reach your goal within the ranked season.

When people have spent so much time and effort they don’t want to stop short of their goal. That would be the ultimate failure. The sunk-cost fallacy comes into play. Some people will continue slugging along grinding games, simply so their previous efforts won’t be wasted.

This issue can be executed even further with the illusion of choice. Players are more willing to play when they believe they have control over the outcome. When in reality Riot’s system is dictating the pacing on when the next ranked milestone is achieved. Forcing outcomes upon players. A player plays a smaller role in the greater outcome of the game.

You don’t need to search very far to see that League addiction is real. The game is in fact made to be addictive. With every visual and audio cue playing a key part. Each online match locks a player for a long duration of time, where going to the bathroom sets you back immensely. The forced focus and intensity required for a League game embeds strong emotional feelings towards each individual game. The ranked system further exacerbates things. Since, winning becomes more important. A clear definable goal is presented to the player. But, reaching that goal takes a deceptively long time. The game offers distractions along the way. Then before the average player sees just how long the journey takes. They are forced to make a decision of letting go of their efforts or keep pushing through. This is all blatant manipulation from a big corporation. Where do we draw the line between a fun game and an addicting one negatively impacting people’s lives?