Honestly, why bother.

Niyumi·4/10/2016, 6:27:49 AM·5 votes·570 views

So, I was going to come on here and make a big post about "balance" and the lack of it in League... but then I thought, "Who cares?." Riot sure doesn't give a damn about balance, and anyone who isn't in higher ELO where CC spam is king just pretends that the whole reason people complain about things is because they're bad and don't how to spam CC -- as if that excuses a champ like Yi or Kat being fucking absurd.

See, Riot is an F2P company that was bought out by an even bigger F2P company, so quality of content isn't really high up on their priority list.

  • In a P2P game or a more traditional B2P (like a console game), companies make their money through player satisfaction and/or retention. So, they make their game as good as they can make it, and make money because of that. Sure in an MMO they may timegate a bit, but the content is usually fun regardless, and you'll come back week after week to do the raids anyway.

  • In an F2P game, however, you don't make money because people have fun playing your game. In fact, it's almost the opposite. In an F2P game, you make money through micro-transactions, usually in the form of a cash shop. So, this means that quality and player retention aren't really all that high on the list, since they ultimately have no income potential. They'll do the bare minimum to keep people playing and whales paying, and nothing more. The only place they'll spend dev resources is in the cash shop.

Anet (who runs GW2) is owned by NCSoft (an F2P company). Since Bellevue is basically in my backyard, I know a couple people who work there. They tell me that they all have quotas on the cash shop, and part of their job is to meet that quota -- and, if they don't, they can potentially be fired. So, they will literally drop any real content they're working on to fill that quota. Now, of course, that doesn't apply to League. In League, we see things like a total disregard for balance (since balance isn't lucrative in an F2P game), favoritism (they talk so much about how they hate "balls of stats" but that's what every ADC in the game is // the easier champs make whales happy, so the harder, more fun champs will never be allowed to be strong), and things like Taric taking what, 8 years to get a VU?

After I sit down and think about it, I realize that Riot really just doesn't give a damn, and all my posts about balance are just meaningless, even if I have thoughtful suggestions that would actually make the game far better off -- 'cause, quality isn't the focus here, profitability is. So why bother? Not like Riot will ever do anything for the good of their game. Solo queue doesn't make money, nor does balance, so neither will ever happen -- despite everyone asking for them.

I just really wish fucking morons never enabled shitty F2P companies and companies who thrive on the scam called DLC. Gaming used to be great, but now... It's just kind of disgusting. Where did my childhood hobby go?

4 Comments

Tormentula4/10/2016, 6:49:16 AM2 votes

It's not that riot doesn't want to balance their game, it's just that there is currently so much rampant and broken that it's hard to pinpoint what is and isn't actually disgustingly broken.

Yi is stupid to deal with in bronze and silver, then you go to gold/platinum and yi isn't as big of a problem. Silver amumu is majorly annoying to deal with, then you jump to platinum and amumus are rarely seen.

It's not a matter of whats broken, it's a matter of "which champions are broken, and which champions are balanced but people don't know how to handle or use right themselves to be broken?" Then there's the issue of "Is the champions they're complaining about broken, or do the champions they play seem weak and just need buffed?"

They do patch stuff and try to fix things constantly, but once thing 1 gets balanced, thing 2 takes it's spotlight or thing 1 wasn't totally balanced yet (Shyvanaitem 3930).

Overall, you try making a F2P game with 5 primary elos (b/s/g/p/d) with a roster of over 100 different characters and see if you can balance them all as equals. I give riot credit because it is a very unimaginable thing to succeed in doing, balancing this game, but yes there are some things they need to look at much more in depth. Granted they do focus on cash grab, but we vote with our wallets, so who's to blame there? I kinda miss casual gaming myself, but I do love certain DLC that don't alter the actual gameplay in any fashion (skins).

kyocrisis4/10/2016, 6:50:40 AM2 votes

Kat isn't a problem at all right now. Didn't even bother reading after that part so yea