There’s a lot to be said about League of Legends. It’s a fantastic game, free to play, and holds a huge fan base spanning almost every single major country, each with their own championships and eSports celebrities.
As with any good thing, people have spoiled it.
On Dec. 30, Riot, creator of League of Legends, posted that they would be giving away bonus RP during Jan. 12-18 to players redeeming pre-purchased RP cards. To understand this a little better, let’s get an idea of what RP means in relation to the game itself:
In League of Legends, there are two forms of currency, Influence Points and Riot Points. Influence Points, often regarded simply as IP, are points that accumulate as the players win and lose matches of the game. Winning packs your wallet, and losing leaves you a little light. It’s an incentive to try to win, because with IP you can buy new Champions, stronger Runes that will help you deal more damage, or other niche purchases such as name changes or region swaps.
Riot Points work very much in the same, except they are purchased with real world money. Some items, such as skin customization for in game items and Champions, can only be bought with RP. IP isn’t too hard to come buy, but newer champions will cost more than older ones. It can take upwards twenty or thirty games to have enough in-game currency to purchase more expensive items, thus providing incentive for players to buy RP and get what they want a little faster.
Now that we have some understanding of how RP affects the player, let’s get back to the issue. Riot tried to provide an extra incentive to continue purchasing RP even after Christmas, when plenty of players received pre-purchased RP cards as gifts. The problem the community has had is that they already used their cards, and now they feel as if they have been gypped by Riot’s late announcement for extra RP.
Many of the comments in the thread beneath the post decry Riot of their morals and carelessly toss around words like “greedy” and “stupid” in reference to their decision. One player laments that “he had not anticipated being screwed over by Riot since this sort of treacherous thing occurs so often” which is disgusting considering how generous Riot can be to their fan-base.
And therein lies the problem: these players received or purchased exactly their money’s worth of RP and were delivered that exact amount. In turn, Riot looks to pull up post-holiday sales by offering extra incentives for RP purchases, to which the community lashes out crying wolf. Riot works hard to provide an interesting game, tournaments, endless patches, and even gives free bonus money, yet is called greedy while players who have already been rewarded for their RP cards want more than what they payed for. It’s pretty easy to see where the greed lies.
League of Legends has come along way since its Beta, but not all the community has so far. This isn’t to say there aren’t great streamers and content creators who breathe life into this vibrant community, but all too often these accomplishments are overshadowed by a relentlessly bitter sect that seems to always push its way to the top. Here’s to 2015 and hopeful changes of heart, but if not there is always DotA and Smite!
About the author
