After almost 16 years of pointing and clicking, League of Legends is trying something a little different by adding the option to move around with WASD instead.
In a video detailing the upcoming control scheme—complete with an abhorrent pronunciation of WASD (who the hell says waz-dee? You heathens)---executive producer Paul Bellezza said that traditional League movement can often be a barrier of entry. "We found that a lot of new or returning players struggle a lot with League's controls early on," he said. "Click to move just isn't the sort of control scheme they're used to, and it puts a lot of people off including many that we believe would otherwise really love the game."
Bellezza said that introducing WASD movement as an alternative should "help get new players to the fun parts of League faster and with less friction."
Producer for WASD/Wazdee Darcy Ludington echoed the sentiment: "Ultimately our goal with WASD is to make playing League more intuitive for first-time players or those returning, without changing what makes League, League." She iterated that striking a careful balance between both keyboard and mouse movement was important, with Riot "working hard to ensure that both control schemes feel great across all ranks, champions, and modes."
Designer Dean Ayala noted that the team has been testing the control scheme across an internal team, new players, and pros in order to try and fine-tune the option. It'll be hitting the PBE first "in the next few patches," with Ayala and Ludington saying that WASD'll hang around in there for "an extended run" to "catch any bugs, unintended interactions, and to ensure that your ranked games aren't disrupted by someone WASDing into walls."
It seems Riot doesn't want one control scheme reigning supreme over the other, with Ayala continuing to hammer home about the importance of balance: "Our goal is to make sure WASD is an awesome way to play League for the players who want it, but no-one should feel forced to switch control schemes just to stay competitive." As an example, Ludington noted that kiting while attacking with point-and-click controls takes "serious precision", with WASD potentially lowering that skill ceiling significantly.
The community reactions seems fairly on the negative about it right now, with some folk comparing it to playing an FPS with a keyboard and mouse versus using a controller with aim assist: "This WASD change is going to ruin League like mixed lobbies have ruined FPS games," one Reddit commenter said, while another stated "They're never not gonna be unequal."
One comment called the introduction of WASD "a major blunder," writing: "I have not seen a single person in favor of this, a lot of changes made I can see a reasoning for but this one I can't find a single reason. This is undoubtedly the stupidest decision I could see possible with the most flawed logic I've seen."
It's understandable to an extent. Folk have years and thousands of hours of built-up muscle memory developed and skill expression is an important factor. Feeling some type of way over a new addition muscling in and threatening to cause you to relearn everything in order to keep up is valid, and it's not the first time in recent memory where veteran players of a game have faced friction with a developer's desire to broaden its appeal to reel in newbies.
Ultimately it's going to be difficult to gauge just how drastic an implementation it is until the thing's actually hit the PBE. With a patch every few weeks we can probably expect it to hit sometime in September, and I'll be interested in coming back to see what people think once they've managed to get their hands on our four beloved movement keys for themselves.
