I agree.
I made my first account a long time ago when I learned about the game from the Golden Joystick awards. League of Legends was competing for the award against the game I played most back then, Runescape.
Now, many former Runescape players are all too familiar with what happened to that game. There were many contributing factors to its fall, but a very major one, and perhaps the real beginning of the end, was their movement to micro-transactions and pay-to-win features. Jagex, the company who owns and runs Runescape, had long taken a moral stance against pay-to-win in ways such as strict punishment of players trading real money for in-game items from other players. They had also made an effort to prevent player-run gambling in the game.
Then after all this and more, Jagex had some changes of management and someone signed off on the creation of what is essentially a huge and obnoxious roulette wheel built into the game where you can gamble real money to win in-game items, gold, and advantages. They quickly made a lot of horrible decisions that further degraded the game into a quick facebook-esque cash grab, complete with constant popup reminders to spend money...
I always figured League of Legends would die in the same way, especially when Tencent started investing since they bought out Jagex shortly before Runescape was sucked dry. However, Riot seems to be avoiding the same pitfalls that destroyed Jagex. I think it's because Riot is still controlled by the original creators who actually care about their legacy and fans more than the money. Jagex was a much different company when it was run by its founders, the Gower brothers, but the original owner was eventually driven out, stating that he felt he had lost control of the company to internal politics (business management was handled by a hired CEO). I think if Tryndamere or the other founders leave, then their replacements might destroy League of Legends out of greed too.
I also agree that the Hextech Crafting was surprisingly generous to us players in the way it has been implemented. I was paranoid that it was Riot feeling the waters for some new aggressive marketing gimmick, but it seems I was mostly mistaken. It is skewed towards requiring players to pay for keys, but there are no high-pressure tactics involved that would outweigh the original generosity of the free skins. In the end, I feel grateful of Riot regardless of whether I decide to spend money or not. I am glad that they haven't turned to blatant manipulation to "squeeze" players for money, or annoying popup sale ads, or pay-to-win features. I think that Riot will keep going strong if the current management maintains control and they keep their passion for the game without getting greedy. I am usually somewhat cynical, but I have honestly been pleasantly surprised by Riot for the most part, and I think they really have pretty creative, benevolent, capable, and intelligent people in charge.
