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The last hit gold system is at a glance an obvious design flaw; A result of faulty incentive crafting: Given that in the absence of player intervention the flow of creeps on the lanes is constant, and the number of creeps perishing over time is therefore also constant, then, if gold was given to players regardless of how creeps perished, this would mean there would be no incentive for players to try and defeat creeps. To counter this obvious problem, a solution was presented: Only the last hit for a creep grants gold to the person who delivers it. This way, there would be a reason for players to push the lanes forward towards the towers and eventual victory. The problem with this solution is that it's incomplete and flawed: When a team mate assists another in defeating the creeps, they receive no gold and therefore make no progress. It also causes that there's now a reason for the opposing team to defeat their own creeps, which seems highly counter-intuitive, to prevent their adversaries from advancing.
Nevertheless, from this system arose a player culture and a skillset, in which denying and last hitting creeps became a feature. Perhaps there are some valuable qualities to this feature, and while the underlying problem could be rectified, it does not necessitate doing it in a way that completely abolishes the feature. I already proposed one solution in an earlier thread, and still feel like the same solution - Distributing part of the gold to each player in the team always - would improve the game.
A major downside of this last hit and denial culture is that it's somewhat anti-social, and makes the team members compete with each other over what should be a common goal, in addition to being a counter-intuitive feature. It would make more sense to tend to your creeps, and help them survive, instead of denying them from your opponents. It is also part of the reason why a culture for support playstyle emerges that makes the game less fun: By avoiding to get farm in order to resolve this conflict inside the team, some players may now face a situation where they're incentivized to not do everything the game is about - which is getting this gold farmed and pushing your lanes - but instead save the gold for your teammate and watch somewhat idly by and allow them to progress faster.
Even if last hit gold and denial culture was preserved to some extent, I feel that an overall look at this underlying problem, and finding a design solution that caters to the issues would help the game's environment. Simply distributing part of the gold would steer the game towards a more pro-social environment where team members would collaborate to defeat the creeps, but that alone is somewhat insufficient. I could probably come up with a workable solution if I invested enough time into this issue, but I also think that most design-oriented people would find a solution after considering the phenomenon from this perspective.
Nevertheless, from this system arose a player culture and a skillset, in which denying and last hitting creeps became a feature. Perhaps there are some valuable qualities to this feature, and while the underlying problem could be rectified, it does not necessitate doing it in a way that completely abolishes the feature. I already proposed one solution in an earlier thread, and still feel like the same solution - Distributing part of the gold to each player in the team always - would improve the game.
A major downside of this last hit and denial culture is that it's somewhat anti-social, and makes the team members compete with each other over what should be a common goal, in addition to being a counter-intuitive feature. It would make more sense to tend to your creeps, and help them survive, instead of denying them from your opponents. It is also part of the reason why a culture for support playstyle emerges that makes the game less fun: By avoiding to get farm in order to resolve this conflict inside the team, some players may now face a situation where they're incentivized to not do everything the game is about - which is getting this gold farmed and pushing your lanes - but instead save the gold for your teammate and watch somewhat idly by and allow them to progress faster.
Even if last hit gold and denial culture was preserved to some extent, I feel that an overall look at this underlying problem, and finding a design solution that caters to the issues would help the game's environment. Simply distributing part of the gold would steer the game towards a more pro-social environment where team members would collaborate to defeat the creeps, but that alone is somewhat insufficient. I could probably come up with a workable solution if I invested enough time into this issue, but I also think that most design-oriented people would find a solution after considering the phenomenon from this perspective.
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