Why I Believe There Should Be A Discrepancy For Level Caps - Legacy, Veteran and New Players

Credit, Thank You and Clarification

Starting off, I'd like to say I know there's a constant stream of complains following riot right now. I'm not really here to complain, but to voice my opinion and I'd hope you understand that whether this goes through or not, won't really change much of anything aside from my satisfaction and gratefulness. Moving forward, I would also like to say, before we begin, Thank You for all your hard work and dedication Riot.

Main Topic

Moving onto what it is that I want to say. I know people have been up in arms over Riot's recent changes. From the blue essences, to the IP changes, to the level being uncapped, partial refunds and unsatisfactory answers; however, none of that truly matters to me. What I really have an issue with is how they are implementing the current level cap system. As others have said, there should be some kind of flow to this. People should raise in level for the time they spent in the game. If you don't have any supposed level caps, then I see no problems, currently, with starting people off at different number values (because, in all honesty, that's all the leveling system is). I'm not new, though at the same time, I'm not a really old player in this game. I started at the end of season 4, so I can't really be considered a "Veteran", but I also can't be considered new. I have sunk multiple (practically ungodly) amounts of hours for the last 3 1/2 years that I've played league. While I don't expect any such "compensations" or asking for Riot to shell out "free" content, I do want to be rewarded for the time I spent putting into league. And I will explain exactly why it is that I feel like this is such an important aspect riot should be looking at.

Why I Appreciate The New System

You're adding a new way to see progress in league. I like it, I really do. People who are not interested in ranks can see progress without all the frustrations and agony that come with climbing through the ranks. People that like normals and only play normals and Arams will have a lot to look forward to continuing onward. They get to see and feel satisfaction from simply playing the game that they've never seen before. Each new level will be a reward and a sense of accomplishment without putting them in the super competitive environment, all the while keeping that slightly competitive nature. It's great and adds a lot of progressive factors to league without the feeling of just dredging through games without any sense of rewards aside from getting IP for champs or runes, and takes away that stagnant feeling of only playing for the sake of playing. This gives people a personal goal to strive for.

Growing up and becoming more active in life

When I started league, I just graduated highschool. I had no job, didn't go to college and had absolutely nothing to do, so I could spend most of my days (almost literally) playing nothing but league. I had no plans to go pro. I just found the game out, I was enjoying it and I sunk lots of time into it. A year and a half later, I got my first job. My game time went down significantly, but not too much. I could still manage to shell out 4-5 games a day and 10+ more on the weekends. Over 2 years, I've played more than 7k games. That, ladies and gents, is A LOT of games. That's more than 3k games a year; roughly about 1750 hours a year; which equates to about 72 days / 365 a year. Most days (during my time without a job), I shelled out 10-13 hours of league. After getting my first job, I was shelling out 3-4 hours weekdays and 7hours weekends (when I felt good and had nothing to do). I am now in College and I shell out 14 games (give or take, some times more, some times less) a week. Think about that. I shelled out 3500 hours in 2 years, 1750 a year, and in the past year and a half, I've shelled out around 3/400 hours (and that number is going down!). I can't imagine people with even busier schedules than me.

Why Starting Off On Level 30 After Uncapping Is Unfair

Most of the players starting league now are probably like how most of the older people were. They have time to spare and therefore can sink more time into the game. Someone, like me, who has played this game for quite some time, is now going to start off from people who are literally just hitting 30 this year. I've hit 30 3 years ago, and other people 4, 5, 6, 7 and even 8 years ago. How can you, in all honestly, justify starting people off on the same level? I'd find it completely preposterous to start off on the same level as a player that played from Season 1. We aren't really "losing" out on anything by having people start off on higher levels. League should be a marathon, not a race. But you can't start people just joining a marathon at the same spot from people who have already been running the marathon for quite some time. I know that's a pretty crappy analogy, but just trying to add to my point. Most people, especially the older ones, have already shelled out most of their free time and I don't want to say it's a slap to the face having newer players start off on the same level as the older ones (because I said this wasn't exactly a complaint, just my opinion), but it really is, kinda...

My Proposal

I believe that when the uncapping hits, you reward people based on their play time and give extra XP bonuses for seasons that hits. I also believe that the XP bonuses should be split as follows :

1. Legacy
2. Veteran
3. Newly Seasoned

I haven't actually attuned numbers to them yet, but here's my thinking process behind it. I'm not new enough to be called a "New player" and I'm not old enough to be called a "veteran" player. Or, at the very least, I feel like veterans are simply people that have been with the game from the beginning. But in that sense, I find that wrong. What veteran really means is someone that's been playing the game for awhile and knows most of the ins and outs about the game. I should, in this case, be considered a "Veteran" and my thoughts on what a Veteran was, should now be transferred to "Legacy" players. Legacy players should (if they've invested the time), start off on a higher level than most players. So for instance: People with 10K+ hours should be started off around lvl 200, Players with 5k+ hours should be started off around lvl 100, players with 1k+ hours should be started off around lvl 50. You can scale the level factors from that (this is just base ground works, this can be highly tweaked). Now, I know that there is suppose to be a ton of rewards going up levels, and I'm not asking for you to shoal out rewards. I have always bought what I wanted, and the free rewards from level up (the icons/skin shards etc) are not a big detriment to me. If you give an option for people that want the levels and not the rewards, or just get lesser rewards for the levels, I wouldn't mind that either.

Due to my lack of time that I currently have, I won't be able to level up the way I want to. But having the hours I've already sunk into the game turn into my total levels would be welcomed by me. I'm not the biggest contributor to the game, but I've already shoaled out over $1k+ on everything that I've wanted. I have stocked up quite a bit of IP and rinsed and repeat spending it on Runes and Chromas having nothing to spend IP on. I am a bit saddened I won't get the full price of all of the Runes I got, I don't necessarily mind as I know you're a business first before you're a gaming company, and I'm not trying to gimp you out of more profits to keep the game up and running. I just think a little more thought should be put in when considering the old to the new players. Keeping your player base, both old and new, should be what you're aiming for. New players can't really complain about veterans having added bonuses.

Think about it this way: For time limited events in most MMOs, older players normally have items newer players will never receive. You never see those newer players go, "Oh, well that's unfair how you got that item and I can't get it." Most people go, "Damn, I wish I was here during that event. Or I hope they bring it back." Special rewards, that set apart newer and older players also help to grow the community. If newer players see that you get special rewards for sticking around, they're more likely inclined to stay to see what they get. But what if you constantly get a stream of older players complaining about how only the newer players get it better? It creates tension and doubt to loyalty. Although you won't take huge hits, it will deter more people away from becoming loyal players that churn out and support you.

That's just my 2 cents.