Do you think LOL would be healthier if it were pay monthly to play?

JosephAngelo·2/19/2020, 5:16:37 PM·1 votes·6,819 views

I think most of us have noticed more and more financially focused decisions by RIOT games and fewer decisions focused on the health and soul of League.

Do you think this would change if League was pay to play, like WoW?

My logic being if they knew their bills were gonna be paid by monthly player subscriptions, their prerogative would be on making the game healthy, fun, satisfying for us (the common player) as consistently as possible.

Rather than manipulating us with imbalance to encourage us to buy skins and watch and attend pro league events and merch, and other insidious ways they need to monetize their free to play game.

I highly prefer if you use complete sentences with your responses as well as decent logic. It makes our concerns more reasonable and real. tyty

53 Comments

IncrediPhiLL2/19/2020, 5:26:26 PM14 votes

Yes, it would be healthier... but it would lose a lot of the player base who wouldn't want to pay monthly.

I think the best way to fix the community is to keep smurf accounts from existing. Force a login function linked to your phone number in order to get past the client. Players in the community actively have up to 10 accounts, so they can add like losers and flakes without any fear of punishment because they can hit up another account or go back to their main account.

I'm not saying it's a fix all situation, but it would definitely help. You an't log in without your phone number to get a code. One account per phone number. Kind of like WOW.

kda akali2/19/2020, 5:35:59 PM13 votes

A large majority of the playerbase is under 18 without access to personal steady income that they could use to buy a monthly subscription. I think one of the large appeals to League and the upcoming riot games is that they're all free-to-play with optional cosmetics. League is a game that you can pick up and play with your friends without much hassle. The core monetary system which Riot is building their games around seems to be that (assuming all of the new games shown at the 10th anniversary are all free-to-play).

Imo monthly subscriptions are sort of outdated and only work well with WoW because it has a mature/older playerbase. Games like Wizard 101 or Roblox don't work well with it anymore.

Asamas2/19/2020, 5:29:05 PM10 votes

At that point in time i actually feel like Riot don't know how to create a compelling and fun champion without overdoing the kit. Senna can heal, deal a lot of damage at a great range, has global ultimate that is a team shield and a lux ultimate with a bit less damage, a team stealth and damage, crit, life steal and range bonus just for being near minions.

And when they are faced with something that they cannot balance with a number tweek they go to reworks or if items - removes. Yuumi and Sylas are the best examples of these rash changes.

The skin buffs are real and I am 95% sure of it but that's not the biggest problem. Riot simply don't know how to design a healthy for everybody and satisfying champion or interaction. I honestly could break down every single champion from last year and point out where the design falls short.

Gradeient2/19/2020, 5:43:57 PM7 votes

thats not the problem with League. The prob with League is the awful decisions that Riot has been making.

steven45474662/19/2020, 10:30:21 PM4 votes

I would quit, and I'm honor 5 every season and play a lot. I'mma be honest, I dont support riot as a company because they are owned by tencent. I would never purchase anything from them. I simply play their game out of addiction. It simply wouldn't be worth helping a Chinese multi-national conglomerate that gives more user data, specifically to the Chinese "government" (which is more broken that pre-nerfed Akali), than google or amazon.

Ayzev2/19/2020, 7:24:46 PM4 votes

{quoted}

if they knew their bills were gonna be paid

Do you seriously believe that Rioters have to worry about bills? That this billion dollar company isn't already making more than enough?

They're not pulling their scummy marketing strats out of necessity, nor are they making their god awful design/balance decisions out of incompetence. The only driving force here is greed. They have long since become just like any other gigantic corporation. Maximizing profit is their only goal. And that's the entire reason why League is still free-to-play - this has long since shown to be the more profitable model. Even if that wasn't the case and they switched to pay-to-play, they still wouldn't improve on anything. They'll milk the game of whatever it's worth and when it's dried up they'll leave it to rot. You can already see them preparing to do just that by branching out and making more games.

Face it - League is only going to get worse. And the devs are perfectly fine with that.

The thigh guy2/19/2020, 7:51:04 PM3 votes

The game would die overnight.

A large chunk of the play base would quit entirely. And by large chunk I mean LARGE chunk. Enough that their skin sales wouldn’t even be enough to keep them afloat.

Worst JG Wins2/19/2020, 10:21:09 PM3 votes

Definitely for a few different reasons

People would actually be scared of getting banned. So less trolls
Less smurfs and people not trying in ranked since most people would only have 1 account
Like u said Riot would actually spend more money on game design and less money on the 18 new skins and emotes coming out every patch.

Captainn Ginyu2/19/2020, 10:38:12 PM2 votes

no no it wouldnt im assuming most of you havent stopped to play WoW or ff14

being pay to play dosent mean that your environment is suddenly going to be better becuase its not wow is still full of toxic people and the only reason why its not up leagues ally of toxic is because blizzard actually does something about toxic attitudes and flaming people

look at ff14 its a fantastic pay to play game why? because square actually does something about toxic attitudes

and being pay to play wont fix the meta issue or riot catering to an asian audience in the end its going to be the same game just now with less people and riot is getting MORE money

Jbels2/19/2020, 5:36:26 PM2 votes

Wouldn't make a difference. Whatever profit gained would be equal to what is being made currently, since a majority of the playerbase would just pack up and leave. Nothing would likely change

Śhunpo2/19/2020, 10:29:01 PM2 votes

WoW's in the shitter though. Shitty game devs makes for a shitty game, money does not change this.

Riot now has billions under its belt and puts almost none of it back into the actual game. It's a joke!

yukumari2/20/2020, 1:25:48 PM2 votes

I would not pay monthly to play this game. I'd drop it so fucking fast, I'd probably get a job offer at Linus Tech Tips. The game is in a terrible state as is, and at this point I only play a game or two out of habit. (Old habits die hard). I imagine that, at this point in the games life, most people feel somewhat similar. The games player base is probably big enough to make it so that enough people would make the switch to keep it afloat, but it would absolutely become a shadow of itself if it ever went P2P.

Invexes2/19/2020, 9:50:02 PM1 votes

I don't think a pay to play system would work for a non-mmo. The best way for that to work is to have the base game for free then lock x-packs.

BenBaxter2/21/2020, 1:01:04 PM1 votes

No ,not anymore have a look at World of Warcraft now......IT SUCKS . Not to mention games from AAA companies

Lord Mayert2/19/2020, 9:27:02 PM1 votes

Despite what you see on the surface, WOW is not doing that great either and we technically do play monthly to play since they release that cool new skin for the cool new champ everyone gonna start one tricking. Well most of us wouldn't but the fact is if you look at WOW their balancing has gotten worse over the years just like league so it is an over all design choices and trying to pander to certain type of players over others. You can see this as riot is deciding to release a faster pace fps game in coming years so you should ready your wallet...

KFCeytron2/19/2020, 8:49:28 PM1 votes

Because WoW is so healthy, fun, and satisfying, right? Because games with monthly fees and full purchase prices don't have microtransactions these days, right?

Mikie742/19/2020, 10:41:41 PM1 votes

Yessss lol

Prestige skins/ Eternals/ random eggs that level up so u can waste money trying to get the one u want

Pika Fox2/19/2020, 10:51:08 PM1 votes

Theyd likely make less money and have less players. There would be no benefit to this model for anyone.

Smyrage2/20/2020, 12:08:25 AM1 votes

Implementing such system would cause:

Significant drop of players
It's likely to hit the less problematic players more; people just won't pay for a game, which they used to play for free
Paid games are just not less toxic. Sometimes on the contrary: people might feel more privileged. WoW is also full of toxic people
It would mess up the champion system
Less players -> Slower matchmaker

All in all, you would just decrease the number of players, make the matchmaker worse, while you would solve nothing, because the cause of the issue would persist, which is the lack of proper player behaviour management.

IndigoShroom2/20/2020, 12:10:09 AM1 votes

I would have to say, "prolly not". Mostly because of the type of game that League is (competitive, PvP, crush the other team). Also in some ways I think it might make things worst, I can already hear some one yelling in chat " ITS MY **** $15 I CAN DO WHAT EVER I WANT!!!" an once you jump down that rabbit hole you know there is no middle ground in that argument...

Yes I will say that FF14 has a great community that always seems to be there to help new/returning players but WoW is also a pay-to-play but that doesn't seem to stem the toxic players.

2gudaiya2/20/2020, 12:16:48 AM1 votes

game would be dead.

Yordle Gunner2/20/2020, 12:54:03 AM1 votes

Yes, it would. and this is coming from someone who does NOT want to pay a monthly sub, but I know it would improve the quality of games.

HEALTH FOUNTAIN2/20/2020, 1:08:50 AM1 votes

I think so, yes, and riot would need to actually enforce the rules, so that people calling their teammates re tards for performing poorly are appropriately punished.

the game in its current state is similar to African countries with tons of regulations and no means to enforce them. so, make it pay per month so that people actually have something to lose if they act like %%%%s and secondly, actually enforce the rules. this is the formula league of legends needs, I believe.

Evil Natasha2/20/2020, 1:35:46 AM1 votes

I think the playerbase would drop in numbers significantly... which would make queue times increase across the board.... which would make some people (higher elos specifically) miserable. And as people are now PAYING for a shittier game that's harder to play, it would be a bad idea.

It's not as if charging to play the game would make it better balanced or anything. If anything it would make people more pissy about the game being in a bad state, since they're paying for it!

Raiyza2/20/2020, 1:38:39 AM1 votes

No. Honestly, I'd uninstall immediately.

The problem isn't financials. Its poor leadership decisions.

Power Cosmic2/20/2020, 3:51:45 AM1 votes

Bad idea bc the player-base would shrink dramatically which would destroy matchmaking, and therefore also the quality of the experience.

Baby Ghoul2/20/2020, 3:55:33 AM1 votes

I'll never understand why people think Riot, a billion dollar company, needs more money.

I don't even understand why people think that more resources would alter a fundamentally flawed design philosophy.

They aren't designing champions with exploitable weaknesses anymore. Instead they're increasing damage and mobility. Do you think they're doing that because they're not getting paid enough? No, they're doing it because they want to change what League is.

What they're trying to do is keep League at the top in a shifting market.

Younger gamers in the west are used to faster paced games where you can get in and get out. Similarly, the newly opened Chinese market prefers those types of games as well. They're trying to pivot to please those gamers but it's hard to do when that's something that League never was.

More money is not going to change the fact that Riot wants to stay number 1 and the only way they're going to do that is by changing with the market demands. Unfortunately, we're trapped in this awful in between stage at the moment.

These are the reasons the game feels awful to play unless you're playing one of the new and improved champions or ones that were always broken like Yasuo. It's sad, but true.

Garson2112/20/2020, 10:08:45 AM1 votes

Yup Pay for game monthly and pay for champs.Like for playing mage you have to pay 10 cents and for bruiser riot gonna pay you 1 cent (because someone must be a whipping boy)

Eybdoog2/19/2020, 10:02:46 PM1 votes

100% yes

But it should be yearly

And the proceeds should go to maintaining/improving servers.

I’ve seen my ping go from 29 ms to 38 ms over the course of 2 years.

Indirectly this will also help alleviate the problem of smurfs plaguing this game

Fuya2/19/2020, 10:11:59 PM1 votes

lmfao no one would fucking play this shit anymore, if you can get literally permabanned for calling someone dogshit (which I don't do, but it's just an example of trash talk)

Not tryna pay money to get permabanned.