The importance of free content

I love League of Legends, I really do. I have been an avid player since I would say, MF was announced to be the new champion. I not only love this game, I am proud to be a part of it's community (through both good and bad). Throughout the years I have seen many changes and tweaks, some good some not so good. But I have always trusted Riot to do the right thing and trusted in the fact that they cared about their community more so than many other gaming companies. Loyalty with riot always seemed to hold value. For instance, when xerath came out and his other two released skins were both blue and people regretted buying the skins, they changed them for no additional cost. Solely because people disliked the skins so much they wanted their customers to get the best quality for their money.

Or how about the time the community as a whole lamented about the fact that we needed a new mode/map. It took awhile (and one regretted announcement with magma chamber) but we got what we wanted and it costed us nothing! Just some time to patch it and enjoy the content. And just a short while ago we were rewarded with a completely updated map graphics wise, which was needed both for riot and for the community.

I am grateful and happy with Riot overall as a company still even to this day. This is the only 'free' game I have ever spent money on. Lot's of money. Like between 3-4 accounts probably well over 1.5 thousand. (and I know people who have spent way more than this!) I like to think of myself as a positive player. No one is perfect but I have never been suspended or banned, because I've always liked the fact that riot tries to push people to be helpful and promote teamwork instead of toxicity. Every year, no matter what I have going on, I make time to watch LCS with my friends, it has become a social event as much as just mere entertainment. I found a lot of people on league that are close friends now I never would have met without Riot. My S.O and I play together almost every night, it has become routine to enjoy some matches and watch streamers that teach us how to better ourselves. Being an artist since the age of 6 I have always been good with both pencil and paper, but have seriously thought about taking some graphic design classes so that I will be able to create my own line of champion themed artwork for people to enjoy.

So when I say I love this game and that I am proud to be a part of it, I mean it, wholeheartedly.

I want so much to understand the decisions Riot has gone through with lately. I know I am just a player and have no say in any of it. But I cannot help but feel that lately, when given the choice between the community or money, they seem to be choosing money.

I mean let's be honest, they are a company, they need money. This isn't a charity game, I get it. I just feel that almost every announcement lately is more options/ways to spend your hard earned cash on something. And I just find myself wishing there were other things to earn inside of the game itself without spending RP.

I know that labor = money is the business world, but that also goes for customers like us. Our money= our time we spent laboring at a job to earn said money.

This is considered a 'free' game, so when it comes to me spending money I could've used on anything else, I personally think of it as a way to say "Here Riot, I want to support you as a company because you listen and care about your community, I know that creating and releasing constant content is not cheap or easy, so let me spend this cash on you to help release more awesome content P.S. Thank you for all you do."

I dont spend RP to get the latest 'thing'. Of course I enjoy what I buy, that's the point. But I could definitely live without buying the Rp for a skin or ward or whatever I decide to buy. I do it because I want to give Riot the money, not some other company that may or may not spend it on their game.

I very well know that Riot must make a great deal of profit off of this game and probably wouldn't even 'feel' it if I stopped purchasing Rp. Maybe they could care less if I support them or not, seeing as how they most likely don't need it as much as they used to when they were smaller and struggled to keep people interested in their content. But I still support them anyway.

I want so much to be excited about announcements when I hear about them, and for the most part I am. I loved the teaser at the end of watching a livestream of one of the recent tournaments for PROJECT skins. And I dusted off my knowledge of lore when I saw the "they are coming" teaser, trying to figure out WHAT is coming.... I admire the way they do events like this, because they dont have to.

But a greater portion of those announcements are usually riddled with, as I have said, ways to spend RP.

I am left feeling that something big is missing because of it. I am of course, not just a f2p player. I spend money regularly (one could argue, more than I should), but I also enjoy free content I earn through playing the game. I know I am not the only player who enjoyed earning banners for teamwork or honorable opponents. Or getting icon rewards for events. I appreciate this content and do not wish to belittle it in any way. I just wish Riot would use free content more, in ways that are both fair to them and to us.

Just as buying RP is like saying thank you to Riot for all they do. Free content or extra content when choosing to purchase RP, should be a thank you from Riot for being active in their game when we could play anything else.

I am by no means saying that Riot should lessen the amount of RP content they release, I am only asking that they consider adding just as much free content to an already wonderful game. Doing this would not only help players get better at the game, but could also improve toxicity and coax players to playing league even more than before.

I just feel as though huge opportunities are being missed to have players earn more from their game for free, content that is earned through hard work and practice and getting better at the game or with a character. Or for being positive and staying that way. Or for being active and present for special events in League history. So instead of complaining and not being constructive, I decided to add some ideas and maybe (with any luck) some of them may get used.

I would be happy (of course) to receive some Red posts as well letting me know if any of this is just plain impossible or overall a horrible idea. I know in the past with certain things bad apples try to exploit content which makes riots job more difficult than it needs to be. My ideas try to avoid letting that happen. I am just posting here mostly to see what the community and possibly Riot thinks.

HOLIDAYS

I have in the past enjoyed many of the holiday events and skins, but the earlier holidays seemed to have more to them. Perhaps it was because there were less projects floating around and holidays were a means to make content for players. Here is my idea for adding free content to holidays without spending RP.

1. Make special Icons that are earned through random acts. For example, at christmas time change all of the potions to christmas themed foods and drinks, once a player has potted or "made merry" enough, they unlock an icon showing a minion so full hes about to explode.

2. For easter add hidden easter eggs on the map, and when players have found enough easter eggs they unlock a special ward skin. To stop players from fighting over eggs, or refusing to actually play the game, they could make it so each player sees their own eggs and unlocks them as they do things to help their team. Like placing a ward or getting a dragon.

3. For thanksgiving, people who use the emote to show they have earned a high rank on a champion, will instead explode in a poof of feathers while unleashing a crazed turkey onto summoner's rift that gobbles and follows your character for a moment.

EVENTS

I enjoyed the idea of events and earning with the community, but felt some dismay at the way players were rewarded contribution. I was also a bit disappointed at the lack of promotion of the events. Some have had little to no announcements or communication about them, leaving only the players who keep active on league related websites or who sort through the league site itself informed. Over the summer, the Pool Party event seemed to mostly be an incentive to buy even more RP than one normally would. The bilgewater event, in my humble opinion, was quite fun and a great way to 'choose a side' and unlock icons. I enjoyed how lore driven the event was, the death of gangplank was awesome! Here are some other ideas.

1. The interactive websites are awesome but it could also be a great way to reward players who use it. For a special event the interactive website that Riot has made could reward activity. For instance, reading the lore on the event and answering ten questions after will reward a small amount of IP once. Or unlock an IP boost. The website could also contain a minigame (like poro roundup) that rewards icons based on achievements or beating the game. Signing onto the website every day and completing a minor 'quest' assigned for you to do once you enter a league match might be fun as well. For example, you log in and see your daily quest for the day is to get a small amount of kills or assists, or to destroy or help destroy a small number of towers. Completing a quest would reward you with currency which could be spent on a small shop (with 4-6 rewards) you could buy. This would make even the most casual player feel involved and rewarded, as they could earn a tiny bit of currency and get one reward they really want.

2. During a special event, players could be rewarded for choosing to play champions that are relative to the event. For instance, during the bilgewater event, players who played a match with MF, Gangplank, Nami, TF, Graves, etc would unlock pieces of a treasure map that once completed would lead them to booty (it could be something like a ward skin or a free mystery champion). Skins shouldn't matter for an event, for instance if it were a pool party reward event just playing zac in a match instead of pool party zac should count.

3. At the beginning of an event, such as pool party, announce that the pool party champions started a game of marco polo or pool volleyball and two teams were formed (of one or several champions) each player must choose one side and play matches during the event, winning matches scores points (buying Rp should not be involved). Both teams are rewarded with an icon/ip boost/ etc, but the winning team also receives a small additional reward such as a mystery skin or a mystery ward skin.

CHAMPION RANKS

At this point the only thing you can really do when you hit rank 5 on a champion is get an emote, which is fun but this is a huge opportunity to add in incentives to learn and earn for certain champs. For instance rewards for unlocking a new rank on a champion could be something like:

Rank 1: free IP boost (4 win) Rank 2: One time team skin boost for summoner's rift (promotes positive teamwork right from lobby) Rank 3: Small banner (not a border) on loading screen similar to positive feedback rewards Rank 4: Unlock champion specific icon (since there are so many champions in the game, the icons should be simple yet associated to the champion. For instance, Morgana's rank 4 icon could be a broken halo or teemos rank 4 icon could be a shroom. Rank 5: Small but intricate banner (not border), rank 5 emote, and a really good reward such as a chroma skin pack for that character's original skin.

All players could only start earning ranks once they are summoner level 30, which ensures that they have put in the proper time to learn the game and are now perfecting their knowledge of specific champions. Each level should be time consuming to reach depending on the rank level. Reaching level 1 should be somewhat easy, but reaching level 4 to 5 should be quite time consuming for players considering the quality of the rewards but not so time consuming it is impossible to do. For people that have already reached rank 5 on champions, add a feature that allows each player to 'reset' their rank if they so wish. This will make it fair to people so they can keep their rank or start anew to earn the rewards depending on what they care more about. Or if that is too difficult add 5 more levels after rank 5 (rank 6-10) whereas players may start earning these rewards.

CHROMA SKIN PACKS

I dont understand why these are only earned through purchasing RP. I was shocked in fact, to learn that they could be purchased only through RP and not a ton of IP as well. I don't know about any of you but there are huge amounts of IP on my accounts that build up once you obtain every champion and rune in the game. It would have been awesome for Riot to include a hefty price of IP, I mean like 30,000 Ip for a chroma skin pack. I would have enjoyed a feature like this, since recoloring skins has been proven to take mere seconds and is done for free by other players. It takes very little labor to recolor as I understand, so chroma packs could be a 'go to' reward for riot in many cases. As stated in the champion ranks each champion could have a unique rank 5 recolor, and the store could have different recolors purchasable by Rp or IP)

Events could also make use of chroma rewards in many ways. So could Holidays or any future event. Imagine A chroma skin unlock during halloween whereas any of the champions receiving skins that holiday year also came with a holiday themed chroma pack you could earn by doing fun things in game.

NEW BORDER IDEA (LIKE THE PROJECT SKINS)

Borders, similar to the chroma packs could be used for rewards as well. By announcing that players can only receive these borders by purchasing the skins at full price and not at the sales price, you are essentially punishing active players who not only wish to support your company, but who actually stay active enough in the game to login and purchase the skin. Some people also do not wish to purchase skins above 975. (I happen to be one of these people and know a few who also refuse to buy a skin that expensive). Any skins I have that are higher than 975 were either gifted to me or unlocked with a mystery skin. It doesn't bother me so much that I will be missing out on a Leona border by purchasing the skin on sale, but it does leave me wondering why they didnt go a different and more friendly approach. Here is my idea for border unlocks in the future.

Players who do decide to purchase the skins while on sale, will be rewarded with their border once they win a small number of games on that champion wearing that skin, OR they can buy the skin at full price and earn the border immediately.

REWARDS FOR HITTING A NUMBER OF WINS ON AN ACCOUNT

Let's not forget that after a while people reach ridiculously high numbers of wins on their account. Small rewards could be incentives for doing things that promote teamwork like remaining positive in a losing match. The rewards should be small but something to look forward to instead of something to get right away. For example:

Reach 100 wins on your account: Free IP win boost Reach 500 wins: 1 Free runepage unlock Reach 1000 wins: Free mystery champion or skin Reach 2000 wins: Free mystery champion/ward skin or you could reward players with a Banner or a mystery chroma pack

The win rewards could continuously reward the player every 1000 wins with one repetitive reward after a while. For example going from 2000 to 3000 wins would reward you with 200 RP. 200 Rp cannot even buy you a skin but it can be added to a pool or Rp you already have leftover in order to buy something in the store or its an incentive to buy some Rp to afford something.

REWARDS FOR BOTH VETERANS AND NEW PLAYERS

A very simple icon could be unlocked when you create your account that has the year on it, showing when you created your account for bragging rights. Both new and old players would benefit from this as a new player would receive a thank you right off the bat and an older veteran player would have an unlock boasting how long they've been a part of the league community.

As for the difficulty of finding out when your account was created, it isn't very difficult at all. In fact there are websites dedicated to this very thing, and can even tell you what number you were making your account. For instance, the first account ever made in league was named "tester-001" or something like that. Point being, you can easily find the year your account was created, and riot could do this too and could take the time to reward players. From there every year, a new icon with only the year could come out rewarding players who are new that year.

THE TRIBUNAL

I really enjoyed the tribunal when it came out. I was one of the players who would daily sign on and earn my RP by actually reading through the cases given to me and punishing or pardoning. The thing is, when they took away the rewards for doing this, they took away my motivation to keep doing it. Just as Riot is not going to give away their services completely for free and does need to offer things for money, I cannot work for free either. I, like many players, do need incentive to sign on every day and read through extremely negative content several times over.

The issue with the tribunal was it was so easily exploitable. People just banned over and over again, bringing riot right back to square 1, they had to sort through all of the trolls who banned the wrong people just to earn IP.

But there are many other ways to freshen up the tribunal without allowing players to exploit it, and without punishing those of us who do wish to help clean up the fields of justice a tad. Keep in mind, tribunal rewards should be seen as something rewarded for being a positive force in league and so should not be something easy to gain access to. People in the tribunal should be rewarded because they want to make league a better place and assist rioters too, people who are there just for the rewards should be weeded out in any way. But at the same time people who belong there should be rewarded to stay and continue doing good work.

Here are some ideas/restrictions for people who would be interested in joining the tribunal.

1. all players must be level 30 in order to join the tribunal

2. all players must have gone a full year without being suspended or banned. Yes this means that if you are suspended or banned you go a full year without being able to use the tribunal. Players who have never been banned or suspended may use the tribunal right away when it comes out.

3. upon joining the tribunal, players must 'sign' a document on a website that acknowledges the rules and explains how the tribunal works so everyone knows what to do. Signing the tribunal must include also signing the summoners code. Before being able to sign the 'document', players will go through a mini quiz asking them random questions about the rules or what to do in certain situations.

4. Upon being greeted to join the tribunal, the tribunal will allow you to begin judging "false reports". At first these reports will always be false, over time the tribunal may slip in one or two real ones to test you. For completing false reports you will earn NO REWARDS. The point of this is to test your accuracy of judging reports and making sure that you are actually reading through and doing what you're supposed to. After reaching a high enough accuracy in your fake reports, you will begin to judge real reports with maybe an occasional fake one thrown in if your accuracy is low (the tribunal should not notify you once you start judging real reports, tribunal players will see this once they receive rewards for doing so, the tribunal player should never know if the report they get is fake or real until some time after the fact). The higher your accuracy, the more real reports you get.

5. Judging real reports accurately and assisting in the punishment of toxic players could reward the tribunal player currency in a tribunal shop where they can buy different things tribunal related. Perhaps a ward icon featuring a badge can be purchased, showing that you are a part of the tribunal. There should also be really difficult rewards to buy such as chroma skin packs that are tribunal related for a few champions, with the occasional added new one once in awhile.

6. Tribunal players should also be rewarded separately for how long of a streak they have been in the tribunal (in other words, if they have never been banned or got banned last year and have only been in the tribunal again for one) Once you earn a reward you cannot unlock it again. Meaning that if you earn a tribunal reward for being in it for one year, get banned the next, and reach another year after, you will not get the reward again this time around.

7. Tribunal players should be rewarded separately for the accuracy rating in which they ban accounts. The higher the accuracy, the better the reward. As with the previous reward, unlocking the reward a second time should not be allowed to avoid exploitation and promote staying positive and not getting banned.

8. Tribunal players should receive special borders in the forums and possibly in game on loading screen. These rewards should not be unlocked just from joining, and in fact should be something earned from being in the tribunal for one full year the prior year.

9. Tribunal players should not just be a means to get people banned, they should be a part of a force for good. Tribunal players should have at their disposal specific information for each case, including time stamps, lobby chat, prior suspensions or bans, and prior times that the person in question was reported. Reports without descriptions should not be allowed to go through. Players who report must leave a description of the offending players behavior. If the description itself is offensive, tribunal players should have an option to "throw that report out of the case" so it has no bearing on the final verdict. Tribunal players should be allowed to leave positive criticism for the offending player to read, this criticism should be view-able by other tribunal players and re-portable if it is not constructive. A tribunal player who has their feedback reported as negative or offensive should have their accuracy effected, as with players who wrongly report a comment as negative. Tribunal players accuracy should be their main motivation as it rewards them the most. Therefore, trolls and people who make it into the tribunal that are not a force for good, will find themselves judging mostly false reports for no reward.

10. Players who successfully report someone who is punished should be notified without specific information. No names, and no info on the punishment. Doing this will allow the community to see just how active the tribunal is, and experience justice firsthand. Perhaps a small measly reward for reporting an actual toxic player, such as an IP boost for 1 win could be rewarded as well.

11. and finally, anyone who is kicked out of the tribunal due to being suspended or banned should lose everything tribunal related until they have gone a full year without being suspended or banned, and have also gone through the process of rejoining the tribunal. Once they have rejoined, they should have access to everything they had owned or purchased with the exception of rewards earned for how long they have been in the tribunal or special borders. These rewards must be earned back over time.

I have many other ideas but this post has probably gone on long enough. What do you guys think? What are some of your own ideas?

Thanks in advance!

TL;DR Free content is just as important as RP content. Post your best free content idea. Thanks!