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Casual games are more profitable than competitive ones.

Reynard the ƒox·4/11/2016, 6:55:43 PM·13 votes·1,796 views

Take something like Angry/Flappy Birds, or Nintendo games like Mario Party/Kart or Smash Bros., and compare it to something like Starcraft, CS: GO or any serious fighting game. You'll find one category makes alot more money than the other.

Probably at first, Riot thought they were really gonna rake it in from eSports and competitive events, but at some point the financial charts and graphs showed that casuals are a more lucrative demographic. I mean, just think about how much work doesn't go into every year's iteration of Call of Duty versus how many people buy it.

So this season Riot is switching gears, making hard and fast changes so their game appeals to casual gamers, but at the cost of competitive integrity. Isn't it "fun" to play with 4 friends in Dynamic Q as Devourer/Rageblade Yi, or tank Ekko, or Zed/Fizz/LeeSin/whatever? Honestly, the answer is yes. I love to pull out Yasuo in normals, even though I'm god awful at him it's still fun to zip around feelin' like Samurai Jack. I like silly fun sometimes, but for me and alot of others, fair/balanced competition is also fun.

To be honest with you guys, I haven't played a single featured game mode since 2014 (including URF), because meh, I'd rather play ranked and test my mettle. Same with Hextech crafting, I didn't even read what it is or how to do it. But there's more people that do like things like that than don't and lately it feels like I'm a minority that Riot has written off as an acceptable loss.

At the end of the day, I only play LoL for competition and nothing else, and it seems like Riot is pushing people like me away. When I play ranked solo, it just feels like Riot is telling me "go get some friends if you want to win, or just don't play our game." On a conceptual level, I get it. If the number of new casuals coming in is bigger than the number of solo players who leave, Riot's still the big winner. So idk, I can't really fault them on what may turn out to be a very profitable business plan, but still, I don't feel good about the meta/balance/gameplay shifts this season from a personal point of view.

:/

12 Comments

MrBuffington4/11/2016, 11:27:22 PM6 votes

It's important to remember that Riot isn't a monolith; there are people who have differing opinions within Riot, and there are different teams that work of different parts of the game. The balance team continues to try (keyword: "try" (◕‿◕✿)) to balance the game for a competitive environment; the skins teams work on purely cosmetic aspects that don't affect gameplay (except maybe particle clarity). One team's efforts to make the game more marketable don't necessarily affect the competitive integrity of the game at the highest level.

My two-cents on the balance issues: I think Riot's design teams are playing the long-game --- they're going through and reworking everything that needs to be reworked (very long list), so things are going to be in flux for a while, but the game is going to be in a better place at the end of it.

My two-cents on the dynamic/solo-q issues: I think Riot wants the social aspects of the game to really take root before they release solo-q, so that dynamic doesn't just die or become a secondary mode. I personally really enjoy the team aspects of the game and will likely continue with dynamic, but not if I don't have the social network to really get something going. Riot's headed in a good direction to support this with clubs and the mobile app, but I think they need more time for things to settle into the community.

Regarding issues with boosting: I think there should be a separate tier system for dynamic that basically just goes up to Gold, then one more tier for the best players (a "Challenger" equivalent). Players who want to hang out and play with friends (like myself) can get their end of season rewards, but I think if you're really shooting to improve beyond that, you're either a really dedicated team (which the "Challenger" tier equivalent is dedicated to) or really trying to improve individually (which is best served in solo-q).

DracosKasu4/11/2016, 9:50:16 PM2 votes

Actually, this isnt wrong but that the truth but some people dont understand it. Riot need those change if they want to still make profit, hardcore player will not stay forever. Casual gamer will generally bring more people with them so in general more profit in time.

WadeWilson13374/11/2016, 10:56:35 PM1 votes

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Tufio4/12/2016, 12:15:55 AM1 votes

why compare single/local mult games vs mmo ones?

Uh, i wish for a pokemon true mmorpg.

Samflash34/12/2016, 1:42:54 AM1 votes

What did Monster Hunter do that made them so successful initially?