Motivations to read and learn in videogame

lore: the case of League of Legends

Marçal Mora – Universidad de Alcalá (UAH)

TEEM’16 – 4th of November 2016

What is League of Legends?

League of Legends is a MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena)🔸Played online by millions of players🔸Team-based competition (usually 5 vs 5)🔸League of Legends and DOTA 2🔸eSports leaders🔸Interesting interactions🔸Toxic behaviour🔸Player experience is particular, to say the

least

0. Champions and Lore

Champions are the played-controlled characters

- >130 Champions available- Can be owned: purchased with RP or IP- Can be used for free during Free

Rotation in Normal mode- Metagame impacts usage and roles- Lore: history and background

Bilgewater event- The Bilgewater Event took place during three

weeks in August 2015 and intertwined gameplay with lore.

- It introduced an approximate ten thousand words story in three acts that aimed to provide background details to, mainly, four Champions: Twisted Fate (TF), Graves, Miss Fortune (MF) and Gangplank (GP).

- MF and GP were fully reworked; this means that their abilities and aesthetics were changed over the Bilgewater Event.

- GP died and was disabled for a few days.

1. Previous Findings

Impacts on champion usage

1. There is a significant increase in average usage for free champions.

2. Increase in usage is also related to Champion cost.

3. The introduction of new champions and skins, and major and minor changes to Champions also impact Champion Usage.

2. What about special events?

Special events

Bilge. champions usage > Average Free Rotation Usage

Bilge. champions usage = Average Free Rotation Usage for Bilge. Champions

So, can drive Usage but not by themselves

3. Event-driven motivation to read and learn

Could events or videogame lore motivate to read and learn?

Google Trends Analysis for Gangplank

1. Searches for Gangplank went over the roof during the event2. Players were mainly looking for “builds” and “counters” so, to learn how GP was

played3. The Bilgewater Event brings onto the table a few unique search terms that are

specific to the event and some even make it to the top for the full year.4. These terms are about the Bilgewater story and GP’s death.

Summary1. Special Events can impact usage if focused.2. Lore motivates some players to learn more about the

champion and it’s background story.3. Therefore, they read and they actively look for these

readings, which are, at least, as complex as other classroom readings.While lore and stories in League of Legends doesn’t seem to

directly influence gameplay, we have shown that they have the potential “to give rise to important digital literacy practices, that these digital literacy practices are cognitively complex […] and that they can be seen as aligned with the acknowledged goals of education […] rather than in competition with them”Steinkuehler, C., and King, E. 2009. Digital literacies for the disengaged: creating after school contexts to support boys' game-based literacy skills. On the Horizon, 17(1), 47-59.

Thanks!Any questions?You can find me at @retromaquinitas & marcal.mora@edu.uah.es