@Riot It Is Time To Realize LoL Isn't New Anymore And Realize The Audience You Need To Cater To
It is 2016, and this game was officially released in 2009. 7 years this game has been out, and for a large chunk of that, League of Legends has in fact been the "most played game" in the world, which is nothing to sneeze at. The problem is, it is 2016 and Riot is still treating the game like it is growing exponentially, and their focus is suddenly shifting very heavily towards the more casual audience.
This is the time in a game's life where the opposite should be done, or at least a lot more than what is currently being done; focus on the hardcore (core being the key part of that word) audience. Right now is when you want to do everything short of pandering to your hardcore fans, hardcore players, and those that are "Vets" because they are the ones that have spent hundreds to thousands of dollars on this game. They are the one who will nerd out about lore and fantasy LoL. They are the ones whol will watch From EU to NA lcs start to finish, then stay up late for some Korean games as well.
You want to keep your hardcore crowd happy FIRST, and the casuals happy SECOND. If the hardcore crowd is annoyed, then the casuals are sure to do the casual thing, and not stick around. I mean, the definition of a "casual player" is one that is not a regular of the game, not a PERMANENT player. Riot thinks the casuals will start spending money cause of their friends, but that is an assumption, and not a proven fact (regardless of how many people have been led to believe this).
I can say for a fact that the hardcore fans are the ones that WILL spend money. They are the permanent players. They are the ones buying statues online, spending money on themselves and friends, because they are realistically more likely to try and talk friends to start playing or come back and spend money to give them incentives to stay.
After all this time, it is time for Riot to realize that pandering to casuals ONLY is going to rub the hardcore players the wrong way, and when you lose the faith of your core players, the casuals will jump ship before you can even lower the first life raft. It isn't too late to make people fall in love with this game again. Don't wait until you start seeing worrying numbers a year from now to admit you made some mistakes. Start making things right today and all the angry people that want to love this game will turn around over night. Otherwise the trust will continue to fall until you get a bad wrap like so many other once loved companies did.
This is from a player that loves this game despite hating the things that Riot sometimes does.
This is from a player that hasn't quit despite being frustrated and angry at times.
This is from a player that was more than happy to spend nearly $1500 on this game and will never hide that fact.
I love this game and I don't want anything to happen to it, but I won't stick around forever, and small or large amount, I know I'm not only speaking for myself when I say that.
