Home Gaming Stop accusing Riot of being greedy

Stop accusing Riot of being greedy

2 min read
40

Riot isn t greedy m kay

Season 4 of League of Legends is upon us – if you haven’t already, now would be a good time to fiddle with your masteries and whatnot. However, there is no need to download a new client; Riot isn’t releasing a new one for the new season. Some people took to Reddit to rage and call Riot greedy. Warning, their response includes some less-than family-friendly language.

The Reddit response begins with the typical explanation that Riot isn’t greedy because their game is free. Not Pay to Win free, but actually free – plenty of players never spend a cent and still get to enjoy all the game has to offer. Fair enough, but the post goes on (again, if foul language offends you, you may just want to skip this part):

We do all this because Ryze and I are gamers. Always have been, always will be. We play the shit out of League of Legends. When servers go down, we flip out. When we don’t deliver on something we promised, we flip out (Magma chamber where?) and change the world internally. When we overreach on legal language with eSports contracts to prevent competitors from paying our pros to promote their games, we acknowledge the error and change it immediately.

And guess what else? Most game businesses focus on metrics like ARPU (average revenue per user) and try to build their entire companies and organizations around optimizing for driving to a sale (think Zynga). We do the OPPOSITE.

We train our entire company to drive towards ENGAGEMENT. Meaning, MAKE COOL SHIT and deliver VALUE and if people PLAY enough because they love what we do, then they will WANT to spend money. Our focus is entirely different.

[…] So, thanks for the additional reminder we need to do better at explaining who we are. But FUCK me if I don’t allow a little emotion to slip in when the takeaway is so utterly wrong for who we are as a company.

I love the selective use of all caps. Looking past swearing and caps lock, I think it is a fair enough point to make. Riot is focused on community engagement, adding features, champions and events that the gamers want. They play their own game, and there’s a reason that it’s the most popular MOBA out there. I think we’ve gotten to the point where any game company that dares to make a profit is seen as greedy and cashing in or selling out. Why do we expect game developers to be purely altruistic? Of course these guys want to make money – what could be better than making money from doing something you love? At least the mindset over at Riot seems to be gamer-focused.

Is Riot greedy in their handling of LoL? How about Valve with Dota 2? Does it even come close to the level of greed we see with COD or Facebook games? When are games allowed to make money without being seen as greedy?

Last Updated: January 6, 2014

40 Comments

  1. Alien Emperor Trevor

    January 6, 2014 at 15:12

    If the existing client works perfectly well then why would they need to create a new one? That’s not greed, that’s not being stupid.

    Reply

    • Wifulated42

      January 6, 2014 at 21:21

      ?? ???????’? ??? ????? $60 ????? ???? ?? ??? ??????. ??? ??? ???? ??? ?? ???? ??? 7 ?????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ?????? ??? $16141 ???? ??????? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ? ??? ?????. ????? ??????????? fox200&#46com

      Reply

  2. Lardus-Resident Perve

    January 6, 2014 at 15:13

    Wait, why are they “greedy”? Because they didn’t create a whole new FREE interface, but are continuing with the previous one that works? Kids these days, sheesh!

    Reply

    • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

      January 6, 2014 at 15:22

      It’s all because of the general hype. The general hype is “Microtransactions are bad for games” and in general this is bad. Imagine Skyrim with MT’s? Or Mass Effect? Full, paid for games with MT’s are teribad.

      But now people go and take that hate for MT’s and cast it everywhere like a big net. No matter what the game is, it gets caught in this net and so gets blasted even if the game is F2P. It pisses me off.

      Reply

      • Lardus-Resident Perve

        January 6, 2014 at 15:43

        Indeed!

        Reply

      • Falcon D. Stormvoice

        January 7, 2014 at 05:12

        To be fair, even games that are free or a lower price can take this way too far. See Star Trek Trexels and Final Fantasy: All The Bravest. Oh, and most mobile games. Oh, and most Facebook games.

        LoL seems to be the RARE example showing us that there is a right way to do Free To Play games. Hopefully, Deep Down gives us another example.

        Reply

        • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

          January 7, 2014 at 08:29

          For sure. There are those that are way to “liberal” in their use of in-game transactions. But let’s be fair, if that’s the way they want to go with their free to play game then it’s their right. They need money too. They simply will have no one to blame but themselves when they realise too late people aren’t going to carry on paying forever. That’s all. The more MT’s a game has and the more it forces you to use them the less chance it has of suviving

          Reply

  3. Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

    January 6, 2014 at 15:15

    This goes out to each and every gamer who freaks out in a completely selfish, childish way when a free-to-play title includes microtransactions:

    If a game is free to play then it has a right to make money to keep up support so that they have enough tech guys and support agents onboard ship to support the community which is often very demanding.

    When a server dies there isn’t just some magical hamster (Oh no the hamsters have fallen off the wheel again!) that fixes it. Someone actually has to pick that hamster up, nurse it back to health and put it back on the wheel for goodness sake.

    If you pay full price for a game and a company then demands/requires further microtransactions to make the game enjoyable, THEN you can complain. Then you can claim greed.

    But if it’s free to play? Then you have no right to demand every single feature free because guess what… People need to eat and have a roof over their head just the same as you have you selfish, self centered, embarrassment to the gaming community.

    /rant

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      January 6, 2014 at 15:18

      Hamster wheel-powered servers are obsolete, gerbils in hamster balls are the future!

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

        January 6, 2014 at 15:19

        Oh really? I missed that. What are the benefits? 😛

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          January 6, 2014 at 15:24

          They can’t fall out, thereby reducing medical costs.

          Reply

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

            January 6, 2014 at 15:27

            Ah naturally. The corporates trying to cut as much costs as they can.

          • VampyricSquirrel Monk

            January 6, 2014 at 15:35

            Also if they pass out or hurt themselves the ball will still spin a little before stopping and the balls are hot swappable.

        • VampyricSquirrel Monk

          January 6, 2014 at 15:24

          Gerbils live through more and can be trained to run until they die?

          At least it’s not lemmings…

          Reply

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

            January 6, 2014 at 15:27

            Whahahahaha. Lemmings would be teribad

          • SaintsRowNigri

            January 7, 2014 at 08:18

            You know what is worse than Lemmings? The liberal usage of the non-word teribad… I am sorry, but it is as bad as cANCer…

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

            January 7, 2014 at 08:31

            It exists in the urban dictionary therefore I am allowed to use it on the interwebz which is the perfect place for teribad words such as interwebz and teribad 🙂 *pictures @SaintsRowNigri:disqus cringing from the use of the words teribad and interwebz*

          • SaintsRowNigri

            January 7, 2014 at 08:40

            Interwebz is ok. I can live with that. Teribad is just so bland, like listening to a Zuma speech…

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

            January 7, 2014 at 08:41

            You know what’s teribad? Duke Nukem Forever…

          • SaintsRowNigri

            January 7, 2014 at 09:52

            Duke Nukem Forever is as bad as wearing a “Give Bestiality a Chance” T-shirt.

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

            January 7, 2014 at 10:21

            That’s just badong

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            January 7, 2014 at 08:47

            These made-up words are wrong. And bad. There should be a new, stronger word for them. Like badwrong, or badong. Yes, made-up words are badong.

          • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

            January 7, 2014 at 09:05

            Ooooooh! I will henceforth use the word badong for any teribad words that I see or anything that is just plain wrong.

    • Falcon D. Stormvoice

      January 7, 2014 at 05:20

      As people are proving, you can complain no matter how much or how little you pay. What the spazzes who complain about video games need to realise is that unless their criticisms are reasonable and cogent, complaining is useless. It just makes it harder for a developer to pick out real criticism from trolling. And then you end up with developers giving equal attention and effort to making sure that all of their characters have an option to be transgendered and fixing game-breaking glitches. Picking apart stupid crap without thinking makes it difficult for a dev to know what the consumer is legitimately wanting.

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

        January 7, 2014 at 08:27

        agreed 100%

        Reply

  4. Admiral Chief in Vegas

    January 6, 2014 at 15:25

    • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

      January 6, 2014 at 15:35

      Thank you for putting it all in to perspective. That gif actually hits right at the heart of the problem.

      Reply

      • Weanerdog

        January 6, 2014 at 15:40

        Yes, if it was a Riot banana it would be a banana from last year.

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          January 6, 2014 at 15:54

          and still be good to eat, similar to long-life milk.

          Reply

          • Weanerdog

            January 6, 2014 at 16:04

            Stupid GM bananas. No offence Jim.

  5. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    January 6, 2014 at 15:31

    The one thing that puts me off greatly is that you need to purchase the other heroes… Nope

    Reply

    • Daz

      January 6, 2014 at 17:02

      It takes a while before you will learn all the heroes, so purchasing them 1 or 2 at a time has its advantages, gives you the personal time to learn your heroes. U have to purchase other heroes yes, however you get ingame currency to do this everytime you.win or lose a game called “IP”. Ofc you get more if you win. You can then purchase “RP” with real money which gives you a second ingame currency that you can use to buy heroes or skins straight away instead of playing games and building your “IP” up. Which is what i love about the game… even if you pay 100000000$ if your not skilled in the game you will get owned..you will look pretty doing it but alas the pawnage hammer will come for you.

      Reply

  6. Galbedir

    January 6, 2014 at 15:35

    I play LoL and it’s in a good place at the moment. The only issues are the server issues which happen almost every 2nd to 3rd day, and the older character models which are being updated anyway. As a company, they are definitely NOT greedy at all, and I put away R100 a month or so to buy skins or characters ect quite gladly, and I know many others who do too. Just fix the servers stability 😛

    Reply

    • Falcon D. Stormvoice

      January 7, 2014 at 05:16

      So what is that, 10 USD? Not bad.

      Reply

  7. Willem Swanepoel

    January 7, 2014 at 07:02

    I find F2P more boring than monthly subscription games. ^_^

    Reply

  8. Dale

    January 7, 2014 at 08:26

    http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3832701

    Yeah, actually they are greedy. Take a look at this thread, and you’ll get it. It’s 81 pages long though, and to really appreciate the story that has unfolded, you’ll need to read quite a bit of it, especially the long silence following the Riot response, and the lack of a follow up which they said would come.

    Reply

    • Falcon D. Stormvoice

      January 7, 2014 at 22:55

      And here’s a counter-link to a 27,000 page thread that demonstrably proves that they are not greedy.

      Please just tell us why you think they’re greedy in your own words.

      Reply

      • Dale

        January 9, 2014 at 00:35

        I am one of the frequent posters in that thread, so my own words are in there. Also, for the longest time, I was one of the ones who refrained from calling them greedy, but the longer things went on, and the more things came out, I had to eventually face the truth.

        Reply

        • Falcon D. Stormvoice

          January 9, 2014 at 05:56

          I am not going to pore over 80 pages of an internet forum. There are actually books I want to read.

          If there’s a case, just state it plainly right here.

          Reply

        • guest

          January 13, 2014 at 11:35

          asking stranger to spend 2 hours scrutinizing a forum is a bad way to prove your point, please summarize

          Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Valorant’s next character is KAY/O, a silencing robot

Usually one suppresses the enemy with a gun rather than a blade but clearly Valorant knows…