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LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD - My Response

SoysauceBananna·6/1/2015, 5:53:50 PM·26 votes·1,474 views

I received an E-mail from Riot stating that I was randomly chosen to take a feedback survey about the game.

Sadly, most of the survey centered around polling my interesting in spending money to try a skin out for a week, and paying full price for it at the end of the week or not keeping it. Personally, I don't like the idea at all. By the end of the generic questions about how much I feel Riot cares about the playerbase, there was a section at the end where you could write a comment.

Would love to know if I am alone here. This was my comment:

"I thought this survey would solicit honest feedback about the overall game itself, not a way to source opinions one specific "trial skin" idea.

Please don't take this as a Rant, but more of a list of things I think could be improved:

Overall I think what Riot charges for skins is akin to highway robbery. The new Sona and Teemo skins are like 20 bucks or something, which is the cost of an entire grade A indie game on xbox or PS. I wish your company would understand that instead of milking the hardcore fanbase you should lower the cost of skins across the board. Then people who perhaps have more invested in the value of their dollar would actually consider buying skins that are priced fairly.

And don't get me started on the price of Rune pages that are nothing to those who have been playing for several years but essential to being competitive and are expensive to the point of posing a barrier to entry. Unlke skins, rune pages are pay/grind to win. And yes I get that skill is more important, but an advantage IS an advantage.

As a consumer I do not expect to pay any money at all for a recolor when many games let you do that for free. If a lot of work is put into graphics and sound then maybe 1-4 dollars. You have the most played video game in the entire world. Why not get more of the playerbase to spend some money whenever a new skin comes out instead of just those that are hardcore or young people with money to blow?

I would think you would make more money if the skins were more affordable. I would love to get the Teemo and Sona skins. However, I feel that purchasing them sends the wrong message to game companies and sets a bad example for my family's spending habits.

What am I supposed to do with IP once I have all the campions and rune pages I need?

Also, the new player experiece is absolutely ridiculous, for both those new to MOBAS and those with experience in gaming. I had to completely skip your tutorial when trying to show my wife how to play. The hotkeys were completely messed up where the indicator on the HUD was the wrong key due to it still having my hotkeys. Why aren't things like hotkeys and item sets stored server side like StarCraft does? Has anyone at Riot actually took someone who has never played a MOBA or RTS and sat them in front of this tutorial?

As a former compettive gamer I also do not understand why levels 1-30 completely gimp new players and force them to learn bad habits. This was painfully obvious to me when last year when your servers were getting DDOS attacks and I went to the Brazil server just to play. I had forgotten that at levels 1 through whatever you don't get to have things like flash, smite, and ignite.

I get that you don't want to overwhelm new players, but limiting these early is essentially the same as grind to win, pay to win, and learn to play the wrong way. One player has flash and the other doesn't because they haven't grinded as long. One team can have a jungler and the other can't because they haven't unlocked smite. Really?

You are teaching players to lane without any fear of ganks and complete ignorance of the jungle for like the first 10 levels, where players should be learning to watch the minimap from game 1. Getting flash as one of the last abilities only makes it take longer to both get good at using it and responding to it. I would prefer new players learn to work with it as long as possible before getting into ranked.

Why can't players set up their hotkeys and game settings from outside of the game? It is completely unintuitive that one has to make a custom bot match just to get into an environment where one can set up the game. This is the first game I have played that has called for this.

Why is there no "training mode" like in streetfighter where I can practice mechanics? I should be able to cue up a bot game and practice flash-ulting with lee sin against a practice dummy with no cooldown. This is a basic competitive gaming tool that just isn't there. Having it would increase the skill of the majority of the player base immensely.

Why do I have to download 3rd party software to have replay functionality? It is unintuitive and for some users who are worried about having too much 3rd party software on their system it is both annoying and perhaps something to avoid downloading. This should be built right into the interface.

Lastly, mobility isn't going anywhere and I don't expect new champions to be released that are slow and uninteresting. Still, it is very sad that fan favorites don't get as much love in this area. Some say it would make the game worse, but given the direction the game is going and the sheer number of champions in the pool I don't see how it could hurt.

It would be nice to see champions like Lux and Anivia be a viable choice in the LCS or something. Would it hurt to do something like give Lux a very short burst of movement speed when she uses W, or Anivia more control over how she walls?

Again, I like the game, and play it more than any other game.

I would spend more money if the pricing wasn't so off the charts to me. Am I alone?"

10 Comments

Angry Monster6/2/2015, 7:17:38 AM5 votes

You do not understand what a survey is for. You do not sen out surveys just for random information but targeted information on a plan that you have or want to implement. You were targeted for some reason. You may of burned all your refunds , may very rarely buy skins, or purchase in bulk as soon as you put money on. The point is that you fit a demographic that riot is interested in reaching out to.

You should of filled out the other box more completely. That information is recorded and looked at. If enough people mention similar things companies tend to look at that info. Just saying disjointed about the scope of the survey just means you have other concerns which could anything.

Also some of you things listed have been answered in the past by riot.

I am going to hit your list real quick.

Recording can not be done cause of all the different quality of computers. The only way to make it work for every user is to make server side qudarpiling server load.

Riot does not tell people what to play in the LCS, it is completely up to teams unless the champ is disabled to game altering bug. A champ can be strong with out being good for 5 man pre mades where in a 5 ping environment everything can happen so fast. Basically its child's play to dodge a lux ult, which ruins the champ. With ping greater than 40 its way harder.

training mode. you would eat of server space for a one player mode. Practice comes in actually playing normals

The game client is not part of the actual game, but a redirect.

could answer more but i think you already know the answers but just looking for an official reply. OR SHOULD

Sammystorm6/2/2015, 4:44:59 AM4 votes

I had to stop reading too much bias in this post :/

PiRoScOuT6/1/2015, 9:30:37 PM3 votes

Soon (tm)

Gavran6/2/2015, 7:20:56 AM2 votes

Riot often sends surveys about a specific thing they're shopping. They're generally fairly well done, really. As for the rest I'd suggest organizing your thoughts a bit better, deciding which things are truly important to you and making a thread for each. It's not that your thoughts don't matter, it's just that it's very hard to reply to something like this.

TwitchInMyPants6/2/2015, 7:03:32 AM1 votes

TBH the best way to dictate Riot's pricings is to vote with your wallet. They only release skin prices so high because they keep generating sales. People have complained about overpriced skins for a while which is why they stopped doing the 1350 RP thing and went to release sale at 975 into 1350 later, which helps but doesn't address the main concern. Tho the fact the sale is there does help generate more customers. The reason the prices are the way they are is kind of our fault as consumers tho I only buy skins I think are fairly priced and that I'm interested in myself, tho I'm not their exclusive market. Considering that I can get a good quality skin at 8$ (leftover rp considered) for a character I play all the time, I think its a fair deal.

Baron of Bread6/1/2015, 9:33:17 PM1 votes

The last time one of the champs I played got mobility added to their kit I almost completely stopped playing them (Mordekaiser). Adding mobility to kits that previously lacked it can make fans of that champion feel like the champion is losing identity. Mordekaiser was the ONLY champion in the game with no cc or mobility, and I didn't feel like he needed it. He doesn't have that anymore and I nearly stopped playing him for that. Please don't get mobility added to kits that don't need it and don't have it.

lDontLiftIcarry6/2/2015, 11:30:09 AM1 votes

this game is f2p. the moment you bitched about skin pricing in a f2p game where if you didnt know, makes it money from the cash shop... and has since its release.... well...then idk what to tell you other than you're dumb.. I can tell you that their "e sports" didn't matter financially speaking until around season 3 when there was an actual crowd and actual solidified sponsers finally. (you can go off of how large the worlds crowds are and its quite obvious when league starts getting popular among the masses)

So they were basically making money strictly from cash shop and any 3rd party supports/people streaming and show casing the game on major streaming websites.

This still is how they get most of their money is the cash shop and new players coming in and buying skins and their 3rd party supporters at their pro games.

Sonatria6/4/2015, 9:49:13 AM1 votes

As what others have already said but I feel an imperative to restate, surveys are generally made to get specific information and based on the habits of players. I also got a survey the other day, but it was asking about a different very specific thing. It wanted to know if I'd be interested in buying, or at least approve of, a mystery icon box. It said the box would be 150RP (usually icons are 250RP) but it would be a mystery icon (only ones that could have been bought with RP would be available in the box), and it could be bought for one's self or for a friend. I thought the idea was really cool as I love icons. So the relevant feedback I gave was that having another option (a Themed one like "winter icon pack") that cost more, say 300RP but the player could pick a skin, and then gift a random to a friend, would be cool. I also gave the feedback, that even if I didn't buy it, I thought the idea was neat and didn't make me angry. There are many kinds of surveys, some are really specific (in fact many are, because companies need to know about small specific details over generalities usually), and some are more broad like you were originally anticipating (both of which I have received from Riot). I myself was momentarily shocked by the survey as it was different from the usual, but the shock wore off quickly.

Survey aside, Skins cost a lot, and why, because 1) RIOT needs to make money 2) a lot of time, and skilled labor goes into skins, frankly they are cheap. Just look up how much effort, and time goes into them, and $20 is nothing. I'm sure the designers, musicians, artists, and everyone else involved with making DJ Sona for instance, all individually worked for at least 5 hours, and even if there were only 4 people working on it, and minimum wage such as you would receive at a shitty job that doesn't require lots of education like McDonalds, so $8.00 per hour, that is still 5x8x4 which =$160. Yes Riot employees do get paid at work, but the company makes most of it's money from selling skins, so the price seems pretty reasonable.

NoMonku6/4/2015, 11:17:07 AM1 votes

For surveys they target you depending on what information they want. For me, I got a survey after DJ Sona came out. I assume I got surveyed because I bought the champion.

As for the price of skins, I feel it is just a matter of perspective. For me, I find the price fair mainly because I've played games with less rewarding transactions. I would pay less $$$, but the cosmetic change was only temporary. At least this one lets me keep it permanently after I've paid for it. Also this is a F2P game, so the skin prices don't bother me as you don't need to buy them to succeed or do well in the game, you just get them to make you happier, which is no different in my mind to buying candy or chips. It can also be healthier if you are using your $$$ on RP instead of junk food :P.