The sun rises and you walk into your apartment wearing the same clothes you had on the night before. Your roommate asks"Netflix and chill?". You nod. "How was it?", they ask. "It...it...was earth shattering" you reply with the face of someone who genuinely feels like life will never be the same. "Holy shit! Was the sex that good?!?" asks you roommate. As you shake your head you answer, "no sex". Bewildered your roommate asks, "No sex?!? Then what the hell did you guys do all night that's left you like this?". In a distant voice you say, "we binged Arcane".
It's honestly probably better if you don't know anything about the characters. Caitlyn and Vi are pretty different from the game and really the only deep lore cut you'd miss is the Brackern crystals, and that's probably going to be spoilers for season 2.
The game and the show aren't really related at all. AFAIK, if you've played the game, you just get to be like "Oh hey that's one of the characters you can choose" once in awhile... But there's no overlapping plot or anything.
It has overlapping plot in the same way Overwatch does. Technically the characters all have backgrounds, and that's what Arcane shows some of. The game may use that to give character to the heroes, but the game itself doesn't really add anything to it. The game is probably improved by the existence of the show (I assume, I never cared for it I'm general), but the show really doesn't depend on the game.
(Technically I think there are multiple games in this universe now. I can't tell you much more, but I think there's an action game with some pirate character at least. That may have more story, but it doesn't matter for Arcane.)
Oh my god yes. Watch it. You'll be so happy you did. Riot did a fantastic job relaying such raw emotions through animation. If you know the game, then you'll know some of the characters but it truly doesn't matter if you do or don't.
Alright, thanks for that reassurance. It's hard to explain to people why they should watch a show you love, I know that through experience. I can tell you really loved this show, so I'll make sure to check it out. 👊🙂 Respect!