Hey there Riot. Let's talk champion pricing.

UPDATE: my friend has informed me that a lot of champions are priced based on how recent they are, and it's entirely possible that champions have just gotten more interesting as the team behind League gets more experience. But this time=price trend isn't universal and I think that my discussion still has some points worth exploring.

I'm a relatively new convert to Lol. I've played a ton of Dota and put a good chunk of time into Smite and Heroes of the Storm, so I consider myself to be a pretty experienced MOBA player in general and to have a somewhat unique perspective when it comes to comparing them.

 And let me say, I'm having a great time so far. I love the gameplay and art aesthetic in League. You guys have got a pretty good game here. But after a while I began to notice something. Every single one of the champions I was really excited about the possibility of playing was in the absolute highest price tier. Thinking about it further, I realized that that's because the champions are generally sorted from least to most complex in ascending order of price. This is all well and good; I think that using game mechanics to encourage new players in the right direction is exactly what games should be doing. But the way that you've gone about it helps alienate the admittedly small minority that is experienced MOBA players that are new to League. 

The sliding price scale makes it so that the truly mechanically interesting champions are all, let's face it, prohibitively expensive. The two best examples I have of this are Illaoi and Azir . They have truly interesting mechanics. Working around tentacles/soldiers, with a kit designed around placeable objects and whatnot. That stuff looks super fun. But let's do some math on how long it would take me to unlock just one of them.

IP per game = about 70 on average. Games time = about 35 on average. Price of champ = 6300

6300/70 = number of games to unlock champ = 90

90*35 = minutes needed to unlock champ = 3150 minutes or 52.5 hours or just over two days of continuous playing.

That's a lot of playing. Just to unlock one champion. Now, that's just for the most expensive ones. But as I said before the most interesting ones tend to be there. When I first started out, I went through the wiki and made a list of the champions that I was interested in playing.

Notice anything? As I found out to my dismay, every single one of these is in the highest price tier. Even just aesthetically, they are more interesting than their lower companions. Compare someone like Bard or Vi to some guy with an axe or crossbow gal .

We must, however, take into consideration that player involvement is not Riot's sole goal. The system is also designed to make money, and, I'm a little ashamed to say, it certainly works. I took a look at my options when I started out and shelled out some cash to get Vi before starting my first game. But, this money does come at the cost of amplifying and encouraging player burnout. But I'm not just here to gripe on the forums. There is a better way to do this, and to see it we look to a MOBA that I feel has done this more or less right.

The system that Smite uses differs from that of Lol is several key aspects. First off, almost all the gods are priced equally. Only the newest god is more expensive than the rest, and it settles down once another comes out. That way you get the openness that dota has (which is one of it's best qualities) while still giving players a sense of progression. This also allows them to encourage new players to buy simpler gods, since some of the more noob-friendly gods are half price, without restricting their choice of god since the can buy pretty much any god that interests them without over two days of continuous playing.

Just a few of my thoughts on the pricing system. I am by no means an expert, but it's sad to see such a potential smothered by a clunky, not-well-thought-out pricing system. Or maybe it is well thought out, since it's succeeded in sucking five bucks from my pocket and will probably get fifteen to twenty more by the time the month is out. But it does risk making players like myself just throw our hands up in frustration and leave the community to go play a more accessible game, which is a tragedy since this one has so much to offer.