Play, Rent, Buy?: League of Legends

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  What is League of Legends? Well, the basic core of the game is simple. Two teams of five player controlled fighters, or "champions", are pitted against each other in top-down view tower defense brawl. The objective of the game is to destroy the enemy towers and ultimately their nexus, or home base. Naturally, enemy champions and monsters will be trying to stop your team all the while. This is where the game gets interesting. There are over one-hundred champions to choose from, making each game fresh and varied.
     While there are indeed many champions to choose from, it takes a long time to acquire them. Because League of Legends is free to play, not all of the game is available right off the bat. The game features its own currency system with two separate currencies. One currency is obtained just from playing games and is called IP, or Influence Points. The second currency is purchased with real money and is called RP, or Riot points. Champions are purchased with both IP and RP and vary in price. Some champions can be unlocked by playing a few games, while some may take a couple weeks to rack up enough IP. To make sure there is always someone to play, there a free champions that change on a weekly basis.
    There are special options to choose to further customize a champion to your liking, such as runes and masteries. The three mastery trees upgrade offense, defense, and utility respectively. Masteries can be freely changed at almost any time, so if one tree is undesirable it can easily be changed. Runes are another form of adding wanted bonuses to your champions. For example, one could add extra health to their defensive hero or attack damage to their offensive hero, or vice versa. Masteries are unlocked by leveling up your account while Runes are purchased with IP.
     While League of Legends is an enjoyable game, there is one major downside. This downside is the community of the game. Just like any online game, you play with different people from around the world. However, because League of Legends has a steep learning curve, people can be pretty brutal to others in the game. It is not uncommon to be told that you suck multiple times in each game, even if you are matched with people of equal skill level. People are people and, unfortunately, Riot Games cannot do much about that. However, the game features an ignore function so you cannot see the negative comments, and a "Tribunal" system that attempts to reform toxic players.
     So! Play, Rent, Buy? What should be done with League of Legends? Well, that is the fortunate thing. It costs nothing to play the game. Because it is so entertaining and enjoyable and an overall good game, it should definitely be played. If you can deal with a little negativity from other players (or just ignore them with the ignore function) you will find a great game that offers almost endless replayability. Play it! There is no buying or renting needed. However, if you are like me, you will probably spend some money on that champion that just looks too cool to resist.

The Verdict

League of Legends: Play it.