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Hextech crafting is pretty heavily monetized.

LiveYiOrDieHard··1 votes·1,061 views

There's several artificial limitations placed on the system, making it more complicated and less fun, in order to goad suckers into paying Riot more money.

Hextech crafting pushes you to buy more champions. You can only get one hextech box from one champion per year. Meaning anyone who wants a chance to get those chests is going to need to own 50+ champions. Mind you, I've played this game for years and I only have about 30 champions. Oh, and don't forget you can't earn chests from champions you do not own, even if you do get an S. So using free week champions isn't possible.

Key fragments are limited so players will feel obliged to pay RP for keys to open those chests they have sitting around doing nothing. Every key fragment in a given month becomes increasingly unlikely to obtain. Not only is it it difficult to get 16 fragments in a month, but anybody who slacks off for a month will find it even harder to ever catch back up later.

And on a more minor note, of course there's the admitted favoritism towards premades to push people towards Riot's ideal of filling out the game with mostly premades and treating solo queuers as nothing but filler, as well as the weekly/monthly reset on chests and key fragments to keep people addicted to grinding for them.

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What's funny, is if there was one part of the Hextech crafting system I had to praise, it would be Hextech Annie, which I've seen multiple complaints about on these forums. Hey, the fact you need 10 different gems at 4% chance actually reduces the variance in boxes you need than if they had decided "lol let's throw it in at a .4% chance". It's a perfect way to take advantage of big fish who want to throw money at the game, without bothering other players.

There should be rare skins, it spices things up. I've seen some interesting conversations when Hextech Annie shows up in a game, which is really saying something, considering how little real conversation there is between randoms in league nowadays.

5 Comments

Valexfor2 votes

Yeah, we all know about all of this. But think it by theyr perspective: you have a free to play game where paying players have no ACTUAL advantage on non paying ones, this means that you NEED to make whatever you're selling worth it withouth giving any advantage. It's pretty obvious that paying players will have easier access to these systems while non paying ones, while still having access to them, need to actually spend time (meaning they will be more prone to buy too since they spend more time on the game) to achieve what they want. Also you don't need to know how to play 50+ champs as long as you play with friends, you still need to own them but if you're really playing for years you have either enough IP to buy them or enough champs (I myself have about 45-46 champs if I'm not mistaken, and I started playing in s2, now I have more than 30k IP and I tend to take pretty long and random breaks from the game). If you're a one trick pony play your champ and snowball your friends, making so will ensure them an S rating, ensuring YOU TOO will get the reward for the champ your friends played. This system is incredibly fair and even if you've got all champs riot is finding a way to use those shards/essences for something else so even if the system is a cash cow it's ok, you can still play the game and have fun without using it if you dislike it.

Also you can get legacy skins from this which usually you can't get anywhere else (making them rare skins). As playrs we seem to forget a bit too much that it's riot's game, not our's. I can understand the balance complaints, but complaining on the hextech crafting is really stupid. If you didn't mean it as a complaint then sorry, but that's exactly what it seems.

LiveYiOrDieHard1 votes

{quoted}

This system is incredibly fair and even if you've got all champs riot is finding a way to use those shards/essences for something else so even if the system is a cash cow it's ok, you can still play the game and have fun without using it if you dislike it.

I doubt it. They said the same thing about the honor system years ago. The champion mastery system... was that a year ago already? Not sure. They never follow through with this stuff unless it makes them more money.

I can understand the balance complaints, but complaining on the hextech crafting is really stupid.

I've given up on the balancing in this game. No, really, I don't think Riot even has the intention to ever balance their game properly. Buffing champions when they get new skins used to be a running joke. Hah. Nowadays it's just a given.

If you didn't mean it as a complaint then sorry, but that's exactly what it seems.

Tbh I made this post because I just don't like the overall direction of Riot for the past few years. It's the same thing every time. Money money esports money.

Valexfor2 votes

They are actually expanding the champ mastery system now that hextech crafting is out. The honor system does work, it's because of the community that doesn't use it that it fells liek it's not working. The system is there to provide people who have good behaviours some kind of reward and to give others a general idea of what kind of people they're going to play with/against: If they're honorable opponents they should be those guys that don't start to insult you like mad for no reason, that even when winning don't try to be attention whores, and when losing admit theyr mistakes and compliment you about the outplay. If they are helpfull that measn they generally give good advices and make good calls for the team. If they help a out in fights (maybe that top lane tp ganks bot a lot and wins a lot of your fights thanks to that) you can honor them for theyr teamwork. And if they are chill guys who crack a lot of funny jokes, don't ever get mad, don't blame you and instead says "np, we'll get that kill back next time" you can honor them for beying friendly. The system works (untill 2 days ago, last time I played maybe I still have it, I hade the friendly honor badge on me) it's the community that usually doesn't use it. Balance is a delicate topic that we're not here to discuss about, but know that I agree on what you said about it. And about the money part: really, a company is there for the money, you don't work for nothing, you work to make money. Enjoying your work is another thing, but if work didn't provide money no one would work, anyone would just go on about theyr hobbies. And like I said the system doesn't force anyone to use it nor it gives actual advantage in game. Heck even skins, unless they have some kind of incredibly spectacular particle, are worthless (I own only a few skins and most of them are gifts and none of them is worth more than 720 if I even have one from the 720 tier...) since you won't look at your champ to see how pretty they look in game most of the times.

So tl;dr it might suck but in the end that's just how things are and should be: riot is a company made by human beyings and companies are there to make moneys. At the end of the day the world revolves around moneys.

Randomonium1 votes

Yep, yet again Riot taints a great idea with a thin veiled plan to get players to spend more money. I was so excited when this system was introduced because I thought it would actually convince some people to reform and be less toxic. No one wants to miss out on free stuff after all. However, with how difficult it is to get keys in this game combined with the fact that you can get champion and skin shards you already own really cheapens the system and will severely reduce its impact.

LiveYiOrDieHard1 votes

{quoted}

Yep, yet again Riot taints a great idea with a thin veiled plan to get players to spend more money. I was so excited when this system was introduced because I thought it would actually convince some people to reform and be less toxic.

Riot failed horribly in that regard too. I think. I'm not 100% sure. Because here's the thing, getting hextech taken away for an unspecified amount of time for something that happened in the past, with no way of knowing if, when, or how they can get it back and, while their friends talk to them about the rewards they're getting, does not make people more friendly.

So the only way Riot's plan could be considered a success, was if they intended to piss off toxic players even more in the hopes of getting them to permaban themselves. I'm 50/50 on whether or not that was the case, or if they simply don't understand human psychology.

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