Riot is making a major change to League of Legends after 16 years. It’s adding the option to move around by using WASD controls instead of relying on a mouse to point and click, according to a video detailing the upcoming change.
Paul Bellezza, an executive producer on the game, says this is an attempt to attract new players. “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.”
The company says it’s “working hard to ensure that both control schemes feel great across all ranks, champions and modes.” One of the producers behind the new feature says it won’t be “changing what makes League, League,” which should assuage the worries of long-time players. The company is also not shy about reversing course if something doesn’t work.
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Riot has been testing the control scheme for some time to fine-tune the option. It’ll be arriving as a public beta in the near future, sometime in “the next few patches.” The devs say the feature will stay in beta so the team can “catch any bugs, unintended interactions and to ensure that your ranked games aren’t disrupted by someone WASDing into walls.”
It’s smart for the team to take the slow approach here to make sure that both control schemes are fairly balanced. This also makes me wonder if the introduction of WASD controls signals a forthcoming release on home consoles.