User blog comment:TheTobarMethod/LoL and its future audience/state/@comment-3476718-20130611155914

It's possible, but hard that LoL will become mainstream like CoD. After researching in some sites like this and this I came to a conclusion that CoD became mainstream because of these factors:

1. Simplicity of playing- you point the mouse, and click.

2. Reputation- CoD has been famous because of its RPG nature (good) gameplay.

3. Rated M- this might be a minor one, but blood and gore seem to fit kids these days a lot.

4. Campaign AND multiplayer- you could play with your friends, or with the story.

5. Smoothness- There aren't a lot of glitches to capitalize on.

6. Advertising- Gamespot and co. seem to love FPS games.

7. Variety- Customization is prime for this one.

8. Culture- Post 9/11 storyline and terrorist killing actually looks fun.

9. Rewards- Getting kill streaks literally shower you with congratulations and prizes.

10. Player anticipation- People were waiting for the next game to come out. And it didn't fail.

11. Free after first buy- No stupid monthly subscription.

12. Sheer numbers- Lots and lots of players.

Well, I could throw in a bit more, but let's get to the point.

LoL certainly meets a few of these categories, such as 5. (smoothness) 11. (Free-to-play), and 12. (Sheer numbers), but it by no means touches the other factors. Like, the only customizations you can actaully have in the game are skins, and with only 3-4 per champion, that's not various at all. And unlike DotA, there is no campaign mode where the champions' stories are followed in-depth. The most we have is a 10-line lore, and that's literally it.

I guess the biggest trabuchets that would catapult LoL into the mainstream would be 6. (advertising), 9. (culture), and 10. (Player anticitpation), but since 6. Riot advertises mostly on Youtube, 9. LoL Champions and their lore are nowhere appealing compared to Dota or HoN (except maybe Karthus), and 10. Our community is bullsh*t, ragers and afkers everywhere, on top of all the QQ towards Riot because of nerfs and balances, with Riot not having a good way nor idea to actually please the community as a whole, mainstream for LoL will be pretty hard.

I honestly have to say that I joined LoL just one day before 2012's christmas, and thus may be incompetent with this game and post at 200 wins (not to mention that I play AP mids only, albiet thrice a day), but I'm a writer, and I like studying lore and information of champions far more than actually playing the game. ([Fanfiction.net].) I screw up a lot, sometimes at the finest of points, but I am right at (some) points of the story as whole. So I may know and not know a lot, but I can say that LoL is neither going up nor down at a landslide at anytime soon. It might come bit by bit, it might go up and down in intervals, but unless TSM/CLG/etc decide to start playing DotA and become famous there as well, or Riot decides to sponsor NASA's latest rover to Mars (with lots of advertisements, like AstroNautilus or Astronaut Teemo), this game will still be pretty stable.

Well, until they hit their planned "200 champion" thing, as far as I am concerned, and I am a lot.