The New User Experience: The Daunting Task of Acquiring Champions (and a proposal)

There are too damn many champions in this game.

I've been playing for two and a half years, bought most of the 4800/6300 lady champs on sale with RP, and I've still got two champs left to buy. This is absurd.

And I started playing when Hecarim was the new guy. There have been 26 new champs since then, each one 6300 IP. A new player coming in now is going to be looking at an insurmountable challenge. Play rates vary; I get at least one or two games a day in and I get a 6300 about every two weeks, but someone who plays less than that is screwed. Do you think a new player is going to jump at the chance to make a daily commitment to this game that rewards them so slowly? (Especially when certain other games just give you everyone from the get-go?)

Here are the changes I would make to streamline the New User Experience.

1. All 450 champions are now automatically unlocked for all new players.

This is obvious; that these guys even have RP costs is just one of many noob traps that a player-focused company should not be inflicting on its userbase. You want your players to feel good about giving you money so they give you more. Tricking them into spending money on these is not the way to do that.

2. Players are presented with a free champ every five levels.

The time investment to get even one 6300 champ is a bit silly. Players want to be playing the game, not working towards earning the right to play the game.

Level 5: 1350 champ Level 10: 6300 champ Level 15: 3150 champ Level 20: 6300 champ Level 25: 4800 champ Level 30: 6300 champ

At these levels, the player will be presented with a selection of five champs, and they can pick one. Three of them will be based on current playstyle (if a player is playing mostly mages like Annie, they'll get more mage-type champs than someone playing Ashe, for instance) and the other two will be quasi-random. Brand new champs and already purchased champs, of course, won't be eligible. This choice will allow the player time to look up the champs provided and ask around about them if necessary.

3. Runes and runepages will be completely reworked.

Speaking of noob traps, the rune system is just awful and, when combined with the astronomical cost of champions, is a quick way to make a new player say "why bother?". I think we can do better here.

Tier 1 and 2 runes: removed Tier 3 runes: Prices adjusted to 50200 IP (quints 100400), available immediately

At Level 1 you have no rune slots. Each level thereafter you gain one mark, seal, and glyph at the same time. By Level 10 you're done. Quints unlock as well at 4, 7, and 10.

Rune pages are also prohibitively expensive. I propose starting with three and unlocking a new one every 10 levels. This allows an even number for the rune page bundle to be bought twice if desired. I also wouldn't mind rune pages being 3150 IP at the most.

4. Free Week champs and low level restrictions.

With the removal of the 450 champs from the store, the free week roster will have more room for 6300s. However, I propose that a "beginner" queue be opened that does not have free week champs available in it, that is available to all players at Level 10 or below. This beginner queue will restrict champions to the initial 450 pool, meaning that when you get shredded by a diamond II Kayle, you'll at least know who Kayle is and be a bit more familiar with what is happening. (It may be an idea to throw two or three more guys down there, particularly Tristana and Alistar, who are effectively free anyway.) This allows players to face the same smaller group of champs, lessening the learning curve quite a bit at lower levels.

What does Riot lose? What does Riot gain?

The value of the six free champs and three free rune pages is 6950 RP, or just under $45 in canadabux. (I'm not counting the 450 champs because that's stupid.) The rune system being somewhat more reasonably costed implies that more IP will be freed up to go towards champions.

However, it's a fact that the barrier to entry to this "free to play" game is MASSIVE. This barrier is turning off potential players who don't see the value in a long, sustained grind for rewards that come VERY slowly. Champ prices are bad enough, IP gains are a joke (double IP weekend rates are how it should be normally, to be quite honest) and rune prices are just insulting. You can see it as losing $45 per player, or you can see it as investing in giving players a starting point that will encourage them to play more, which opens up more opportunities for skin sales. (I'm not in the eCommerce department but I'm going to wager that skin sales make up the bulk of the profits.) A player is going to be more amenable to paying ten bucks for a skin if they haven't just spent ten bucks on rune pages and IP boosts they need just to support the champion that took them six weeks to earn!

Buying skins is fun. Buying rune pages is not. Grinding IP for champs can be seen as rewarding; grinding IP for runes is unquestionably awful. Wanting to play Jinx when you've got Sivir and Ryze and 80 IP in the bank at Lv. 6 with a month of abuse from smurfs ahead of you is BAD. You want to remove the bad aspects of your business, encouraging players to peruse the parts of the store that they will enjoy. Why not throw new players a bone? It's not like there's a shortage of meat to sell them later. ~Uiru