For all its talk about being a big ol’ piece of ~~freemium content~~, League of Legends is really expensive. Too expensive, some people (like me) might say. But for all the grief critics give Riot for monetizing almost every inch of League’s virtual real estate, it’s really not as bad as a free-to-play MOBA could be.
YouTuber Randy Nova (via Reddit) paints a nightmare scenario of free-to-play microtransactions gone amok in League of Legends with a new video that asks what it’d be like if Riot’s wildly successful MOBA was somehow acquired by Electronic Arts, of all places:
It’s a real terror to behold. Just imaging having new items made available to purchase being shoved in your face like this every few minutes in a League match:
The specific dig at EA; casting everything in a hyperbolic caricature of The Sims 4 that isn’t really representative of how that game — which is excellent by the way — is an unnecessarily pointed joke at the company’s expense. Although that being said, it is a fair bit of shade-throwing considering that Riot’s proven itself to be far more tactful than EA at monetizing its freemium content in ways that its players consider fair and reasonable for the most part. That and the fact that EA gave up on developing its MOBA Dawngate before the game even had a chance to go toe to toe with the genre heavyweights.
Ultimately, my main takeaway here is I am so glad League of Legends hasn’t ever tried to dive into #social #media #integration, because those “share your latest baron steal!” pop-ups would be agonizing.
Thank you for sparing us that annoyance, Riot.
Comments
3 responses to “League Of Legends’ Money-Grubbing Could Be A Whole Lot Worse”
To be fair. Most of the stuff you buy with real money in LoL has a permanency about it that many free to play games do not. You aren’t buying a stock af available queues, everything you buy stays bought (at least originally) with ip boosts and skin unlocks there is some weight to the argument but they are minor quibbles.
This is why I love Dota. Everything that has any bearing on the game is free – you can play every hero for free, access every map, nothing with any relevance to the game has any cost associated.
That being said, I have spent more money on Dota than any other game I’ve ever played. I have been playing it for over 10 years, I figured for the (conservative) 5,000 hours of gametime I’ve gotten out of it, supporting the devs is the least I can do.
Same here. When you spend hours playing a good, free game, that doesn’t try and rip you off at every turn, you think “Hey, I’ve been playing this instead of buying a new game. I’ll buy a treasure chest, it’s only $2.50.”
I reeeeally don’t want to see how much I’ve spent on Dota >.>