Given the great accomplishments of individuals with far less than a million productive hours, what could be accomplished with 1.3 billion man hours (> 3000 lifetimes of productive work)?
Assuming phenomenal organization, League of Legends players in 2 months could construct:
- Panama Canal – 1.9 billion hours
- Transcontinental Railroad – 0.5 billion hours
- Hoover Dam – 0.2 billion hours
Surprisingly I was unable find a comprehensive timeline plotting the growth of League of Legends. I was, however, able to piece together information from multiple sources.
- I admit my blog is an odd place to find a League of Legend’s timeline, but as you may notice from browsing other posts, I have many interests :)
League of Legends Growth Explosion
Data Links -
October 2009 – League of Legends Officially Launched in North America and Europe
July 2011 – Riot Games Press Release
October 2011 – Riot Games Infographic
October 2012 – Riot Games Infographic
January 2014 – Wall Street Journal
Growth Graphs -
My LoL Timeline and History
Why I decided and continue to play League of Legends (LoL) –
- Friends
- Video games are an accessible medium to spend time with friends across the world. As I value developing these friendships, I decided to transition from Starcraft 2, largely single player game few of my friends play, to LoL, a multiplayer game many of my friends play.
- Fun
- While a grind in the beginning, I have more fun playing LoL today than at any other time.
- Competition and Multiplayer
- There is something in me desiring competition and measuring myself against the pool of other players. Single player games do not provide the level of competition or accurate feedback required to fulfill my desire.
- I find team games also provide greater rewards, albeit greater frustration at times.
- Popular
- As terrible as it is to be a bandwagon player, I prefer mainstream games. As stated in my inaugural blog post, I have a difficult time engaging in conversation with people, popular video games have a greater potential to build conversational bridges.
- Free :)
- Low performance PC/Mac platform. Does not require an additional $400 video game console purchase or a super computer to run. My 6 year old laptop runs the game.
- Heavily rewards time invested
- It is difficult for a naturally skilled player to understand all the champions and game dynamics. Thus less skilled players can gain a knowledge advantage allowing them to compete with higher skilled, less knowledgeable players.
- Random events
- Random events keep players interested for longer as there are always opportunities to learn and improve.
- Team Play
- Life is better together. (picture)
- So happy together?
- Variety of play styles
- Allows for everyone to find a niche. Myself for instance, I avoid squishy champions and gravitate towards more forgiving top, mid, and support roles.
What I don’t like about LoL –
- Promiscuous images
- I do not support the objectification of women. I am all about freedom, but as Lord Acton stated, “Freedom is not the permission to do what we like, rather, it is the power to do what we ought."
- Games can take too long with no means of breaking them up
- Sometimes it would be nice to leave the game without ruining it for 9 other people, answer the phone, or take a 1-2 minute break. Not possible with LoL.
- Large Learning Curve (double edged sword)
- A large learning curve also keeps players interested, however, finding a combination of simple to pick up, yet difficult to master is a fine line.
Season 4 SMART Goals –
- Ascend to Silver V or above
- Purchase a 3rd Rune Page with hybrid penetration or attack speed runes
- 50%+ win rate on 5 champions
- 2 mid, 2 top, 1 support
- Own 22+ champions
- Need additional support champion
While I do enjoy playing League of Legends, I do find video games can be an unproductive and foolish way to spend time and energy. It amazes me how much time (1.3+ billion hours per month) is invested into a single video game (LoL).
The average user invests ~8 hours per week playing LoL. I am surprised it is this low. In fact, according to Business Insider, the average American spends ~3 hours playing video games per week, which is surprisingly similar to the amount of time spent reading, exercising, relaxing, and socializing (3 hours for each of the afore mentioned activities). In fact, the only outlier is time spent watching television: ~19 hours per week.
I encourage all to consciously decide how to best invest their time, talents, and treasures. I have determined during my current season of life I am willing to allocate ~5 hours per week playing video games for the reasons cited above. This will look differently for all individuals. I am not here to judge values or how people spend their lives, I simply do not want anyone to be ignorant or foolishly invest their 300,000 productive hours, talents, and resources.
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