It should be no surprise that most modern gamers HATE microtransactions. The very concept of “pay to win” or “freemium” gaming makes our blood boil! And its everywhere, especially with the rise of smartphone gaming and news of big name companies like Nintendo and Konami now beginning to shift focus on the mobile, casual market. Hell, microtransactions are even rearing their ugly heads in full price console releases. Free to play games have a bad reputation, tainted by games and companies that came before and did it wrong.
League of Legends has PLENTY of paid content and, depending on the person, can be quite an expensive game… HOWEVER, Riot is one of the few to do the whole microtrasaction thing right. There’s no pay wall, progression blockers or pay to win mechanics– there is only cosmetics. Spend if you want, on whatever you want. Its all up to you how much or how little you put into the game, its brilliant! And yes, I know you can buy Champions with real money, among other things, but you can make that money in the game itself, and if you play as much as I do, you will NEVER be short on in-game currency. It should also be noted that numerous Champions are given out for free for a limited time so you can try out a varied number of new characters you don’t currently own to basically test them out. If you like em, buy em. Or just wait for a fresh new batch right around the corner. You can’t lose!
Now just consider for a second how LUCKY we all are that the game was made this way. It could have been a LOT worse, and if Riot followed the model of free-to-play games past, then we might not even be here right now writing about it. League would have come an gone and been forgotten long ago, like many others, or even worse…. it could have been a phone game, complete with a stamina/energy bar that refills over time that you can recharge for the low low price of $1!
OR it could have been bought out by EA and turned into something awful… kinda like the video below! Its funny (and a little sad) how close we could have been to this being League of Legends. We should all be thankful that’s not the case… yet…
