Regarding RP Sale Hiatus: My Five Cents

I'm writing this as a consumer. I have spent far more on this game than I care to admit and more than likely will continue, regardless of how disgruntled I may be about certain changes. I've been around for the RP Price Adjustment crisis for Canadians, the Team Up Pool Party Mundo reward fiasco, the new early sale model, and the most amazing thing for thrifty support mains everywhere - mystery wards. I've seen things. Things I like. Things I don't like, but can follow the reasoning for. I understand that Riot Games is above all a business. Things must be done that make sense financially. At the end of the day, profit is what matters no matter how you try to hide it under the rug of player base happiness. It's not a bad thing. It's just business. But if you want to be more than_ just_ a business, if you want to be a company people truly enjoy supporting, it's the little things that really matter. In my opinion, RP sales are part of the small things that make me happy to play this game.

I was perusing Surrender@20 and came across a blurb from Riot WizardCrab regarding RP Sales:

We've kind of phased out Extra Bonus RP for the most part. But it was never that intentional or explicit.
Essentially all of our data pointed to EBRP having low participation and low appreciation relative to other discount methods we offer. So when the time comes to design promotions that our players will interact with and enjoy, the right call for the best offering never seems to be EBRP. We'd rather give you "Your Shop" promos, Crafting promos, or other more interesting/effective offers.

Now, I've taken part in almost every RP sale since I started playing this game. It started out because I wanted to maximize the amount of skins I could get on sale. Then it progressed to me just wanting more RP because, well, more RP. I typically buy skins I want on release now, instead of waiting half a year for it. To find out that this is getting taken away (whether this has been expressly stated or just "kind of phased out" is kind of the same) is like having your cookies taken away. I want my milk and cookies.

In regards to the low participation, it's probably due to the lack of communication for these deals. If it's not in the client itself on the front page, people are going to miss it. I happen to peruse the League site often because I like to know things and don't like to be in the dark. This feels like being in the dark. It's like when the Team Up Pool Party event was on, and people weren't sure where we were on the reward tier. You could argue we all should have just bookmarked the promo page on the League site to keep up with it, but as a promo, that should have been front page of the client. It's hard to say you're promoting something when it's in the back, instead of at the front of the store. If you want to sell something, you make it clear what it is you are selling. When you fail to communicate that, you get angry customers and maybe boycotts.

As for low appreciation, sure you can say that it's relative to other promos. I for one, appreciate the Extra Bonus RP events far more. The "Your Shop" promos are cool, but honestly, I'm personally not impressed. I've been playing for a while. I've been buying skins for a while. I pretty much own everything I want at this time. I think the last shop I had threw in Glacial Olaf. The only reasoning I had for it was because I'd recently purchased the champion for trading purposes. I haven't touched the champ aside from maybe an ARAM and that was pain. I don't find the deal percentages useful for me either. Yes, I have picked up a 70% off 520 RP skin, but all in all I wouldn't call my personalized shop in any terms worth it. I'm not saying the personalized shops are a bad thing, because they're not. They're just far more useful for players who probably aren't quite the skin shopaholic I am. I'd just rather have RP sales back.

I looked into the Reddit post some more and it was asked why personalized shops and bonus RP events were exclusive. Why not both? I found Riot WizardCrab's response interesting, citing that many players don't notice the extra bonus RP from events, and how business costs come into play:

We could do EBRP simultaneously with Your Shop or any of our other promotions. The problem is that a significant number of players will buy RP during Your Shop, and many of them will not even notice or care about the EBRP they're getting. Now, whether or not they notice, it still costs our business the same amount. In fact it likely costs us more if they don't notice ('cause if you notice you may buy more). We want to you to notice when you're getting additional value, because it makes you happier, makes you like us more, and maybe makes you every so slightly more likely to keep engaging with LoL (whether purchasing or not). So if it's going to cost the business the same, we'd like to invest that into promos that players will appreciate more in the aggregate. Like any business, we want to maximize the Return on Investment of any expenditure. The only difference at Riot is the return we're looking for is Player Value as opposed to most companies' shareholder value :)

Again, from a monetary standpoint, make your sales known. I've worked retail. I know that no matter how many large sale signs you have, sometimes you just need the sales clerk to tell you what's going on. People see the product they want and they'll buy it. If there's a deal, typically, they'll buy more. Especially if they are aware. And trust me. I have been aware of the RP sales. I know exactly what I am getting. As a Canadian, I know that I get what Americans get for their RP purchases normally on RP sale days. This makes me happy, pretending that things are sort of like they used to be, before our dollar tanked.

I think the key here is a general difference of opinion, and that "Player Value" is best defined as "Majority Player Value." It's a tough situation, and I know this might not be the end of all RP sales. Or it could be like the Tribunal. Rest in peace. I know I'm now apparently in the minority here, but I believe my opinion is still valuable and should be treated as such. As is everyone's, no matter if you spent $1 or $1000 or flat out nothing on this game. Either way, I just want my cookies back. That's my five cents, anyway. Because I'm Canadian and we don't have pennies.