IP to Blue Essence: Have Riot Gone Too Far?

Hey All!

I'm sure many of you are aware by now (especially given EA's recent money-grubbing, loot-box riddled, pay-to-win progression system fuckery for SWBF2) that micro-transactions are, while not a new concept by any means, the new hotness among game publishers. Gone are the days when you could play a game, enjoy, discover and experience all of the content a game had to offer by just playing it and earning rewards at a sensible pace. I can't seem to be able to play any game without having content gated behind day-one dlc, pre-order bonuses or having a virtual storefront unceremoniously shoved into my face tempting me into buying into this idea of RNG loot-box nonsense to lessen the grind for inflated, overpriced and otherwise essential game features. Now here comes the integration of IP and Blue Essence. I can't say I'm at all surprised. Riot's had the infrastructure for this eventuality set up for a while now. Sounded like a good idea to me; at least at first. But did we lose something in the process? So, the old system you would be able to earn IP after every game and the amount you earned depended directly on the outcome of the game. Makes sense to me: you perform well, you earn more. Perform poorly, earn less. I don't think it was a perfect system, but the progression was reliable, tangible and functioned well as an integral mechanic in the way you progress as a player i.e unlock champs. With the integration of BE however, I feel like Riot have put all their eggs in the loot-box basket. Not only do you not earn any rewards by playing individual games anymore (other than XP) the rewards are shoe-horned into their micro-transaction driven "crafting" system bullshit. Much of the progression experience is now forcing you to familiarize yourself with the process of opening loot-boxes and dis-enchanting champ shards. I feel that all of this is designed so that the inconvenience of having to grind to the next level to see any tangible reward is tempting enough to just make you buy the champs outright. Granted, I've spent a decent amount of money over the years on skins, and I own most of the champs so BE isn't super relevant to my progression anymore, but this forced interaction with the loot-box system is tearing my heart out, Riot. I wanted to think (perhaps naively) that you guys could rise above this nonsense. And for the time being it looks like I was wrong. RIP Rito.

Sincerely,

A Long-time Fan

[zombie-nunu-bummed]