I've been noticing a problem with multiplayer games that have a large cast of characters/items. Instead of learning how to play the game, a large amount of time must be spent learning how all the characters differ from each other. Since the point of having a large cast of characters is to support different play styles and add variety to the game, newer players shouldn't have access to the entire roster.

League of Legends somewhat fixes this by forcing players to stick to the free roster or champions they have grinded for. Unfortunately its viewed more as a cash grab than a method of keeping the game understandable. Also, it stops players from learning how the other characters play by not letting the player use them, even though they still have to play against them.

Basically I was wondering what your ideas for solving this problem are (if you think it is a problem). My idea is to add a challenge/achievement behind unlocking characters that would test your knowledge of the game. And matchmaking would tend to only put players against people with a similar cast without change to the algorithm.

Alternatively there could be tiers of characters which would be unlocked dependent on your matchmaking tier, so the player would only ever play against characters they have access to.

Maybe having the ability to play single player against an AI in a skirmish mode where the player can choose from all characters would help. This way they can try out the characters so they can learn to use them (or learn to fight against them) and see which they want to work towards unlocking without affecting the multi-player game.

I'd go for drip-feeding characters based on player performance. E.g. detect the player's style and unlock characters that are appropriate for them over time. Almost like an invisible hand that's guiding their choices.

I think no matter what, with large cast of characters, you will always need a large time investment to learn all the characters. I also think locking characters can make the game frustrating for some people, where they maybe saw a youtube video of someone playing a character and want to try it out for themselves, but they can't because it's locked.

Another thing League of Legends did to help with making sure people learn the game is the leveling system. Players are not allowed to play ranked games until they hit level 30.

In order to really teach the players how to play the game, the best way to do so is a well crafted tutorial. And for learning all the different cast of characters, I think Heroes of the Storm did this well, where they can "try" out a champion and brings you to a small map and you can use all the skills, freely level up on command, etc.