Avoid HoN, I think it is the better game but it requires a much larger time investment and the community is full of elitist pricks.

LoL has the community problem to a lesser extent but almost anyone can pick it up and enjoy it with little experience. Also don't judge LoL on bots, the game is meant to be played with people and you are doing yourself a huge disservice if that is all you play against.

For learning both games there are 4 roles. Carry is weak early but strong later on, this is what most people will want to play. Ganker/Support is strong early but gets weaker as the game goes on, these are meant to make sure the carry gets strong and keep the enemy carry down. Tank/Initiator is meant to jump into the enemy team and stun them or otherwise take the brunt of the damage while forcing a favorable engagement. Semi-carries are a weaker version of the carry but they are strong all game, they usually help the ganker/support get the main carry fed. Pick a semi-carry since they are so versatile and you will be fine. My favorite for League of Legends was Kayle.

The setup doesn't really matter so much in that sense - it is possible to have a 15min game in a 5v5, as it is possible to have a 2h. Those are one offs really, but they do happen.

I suggest you try some of the free heroes and find one that you like - then go on leaguecraft.com and look up a well rated guide on him. LoL is one of those games that hugely rewards you for spending 5min looking up the elementaries in a guide.

Also, when looking at heroes at character pick screen, pay attention to the 'difficulty' tab. Many of them are really meant for experienced players and are difficult to master. Stick to the easier ones at the beginning. I'm looking at the free champions this week:
- Master Yi is extremely easy to play! try him
- Annie is quite fun as well, but make sure you look up a guide on her beforehand
- Warwick is a solid pick as well, and you can also practise jungling with him once you have a bit more experience
- Caitlyn looks quite cool. I haven't played with her (since she was released after I stopped playing), but might be worth a go

I fired up LoL again today, I had a code for K-9 Nasus from PAX 2011, and I have to say, I think I finally figured out something I liked. Now I expect to be sucked in completely...

Hopefully I can score another K-9 Nasus code this year at PAX, I'll be doing a big giveaway for the hardcore LoLers if I do.

EDIT: THIS IS A THREAD NECRO!

LoL is pretty fun. For some reason though, I've been doing TERRIBLE. Also, whoever is on LoL at night completely destroys me and my buds lol.

Is it just me or is level 5 easy to reach and then it slows WAYYYY down?

I also found my code for PAX Sivir, which is cool, haven't used her yet, though.

Yeah. It speeds up eventually though. You'll get to level 30 before you know it. What's your favorite champ so far?

Nasus tank build, heavy on health regen. Mid-late game he can gank a lot of enemy heroes if they're stupid and overextend. Pretty much as soon as I can get Sheen I can really start pushing a lane.

Did Basshunter ever face those sexual assault charges from a few years back?

Nice, you necro-ed yourself. How do you call that? Autonecrophilia?
Btw, Dota 2 will be coming pretty soon and I have to say that current matchmaking system is not bad, because new players are paired with new players, so if you know only basic stuff about the game, you can successfully play it (well, with bigger or smaller success of course). Of course, in order to play better you need to spend a lot of time, but I believe that you can have fun even when you're relatively new, you just need to ignore a few smart-asses who know everything and will call you noobs but I guess that's with every game (but I have to admit that Dota 2 community sucks pretty much in Europe and you find a lot of assholes).

LoL has an ELO matching system, in theory you should be paired with people of the same power and skill. IN practice that may not work, during high volume play times it's probably less of an issue.

A few minutes ago, I had never heard of Basshunter. I was better off then. ;-)

I am here to help;)

lol

looked it up, Basshunter was cleared of all charges about a year ago.

Sometimes I feel like this is not an exaggeration anymore: http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/08/26

The ping isn't even the worst part, I've seen 50 ms ping that took 120 seconds to load the match...