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@Riot Lifetime RP Rewards and treating people fairly

Hextech Revolver·9/19/2014, 12:33:51 AM·4 votes·1,172 views

Recently, there was a red post about lifetime RP purchase rewards, and it stated the following:

This has not been forgotten and is still discussed internally. Here's the tl;dr of the history.

The original plan, back when high quality summoner icons were rare, was to give out Riot Supporter icons that evolved in coolness based on how much lifetime RP was spend on an account. It was intended as a simple thank you to players who could then choose whether or not they wanted to display it to show they had supported the game and made it possible for so many to play for free.

We ran some surveys to make sure it would be well received, and the feedback from RP spenders was that it wasn't enough of a reward and didn't feel good. So we went back to the drawing board and came up with plans for scaling rewards that we also tested by survey. While those scored better with RP spenders, they were negatively received by the majority of the player base that hadn't spent money. They also felt bad to some Rioters who take pride in treating all of our players the same whether they have bought zero skins or 100. The only reason to launch this kind of program is to show appreciation to players and create good feelings all around, and so the interest in moving forward dies quickly when we realize that just as many bad feelings will be created. So more recently our discussions have focused on what we can do to benefit all players and not just spenders. This has resulted in the return of double IP weekends and an increase in summoner icons that can be earned without spending. We continue to evaluate other ideas (like cars and wives/husbands for all!), but if they happen, they likely will not distinguish between RP buyers and non-buyers.

I wanted to offer my perspective as a player who is relatively new to the game, yet has spent a substantial amount of money on it out of love for league of legends and my desire to support Riot as a company. I thought the following part of the post was especially interesting:

They also felt bad to some Rioters who take pride in treating all of our players the same whether they have bought zero skins or 100.

The reason it's interesting is because not all players are treated equally. For instance, those who were here for season 1 had access to Judgment Kayle. There's also Victorious Elise, Victorious Jarvan, and many other amazing skins I may never get a chance to own simply because they were given away as rewards before I even knew the game existed. I understand that they are a thank you to players who have supported the game in the beginning, but is their contribution worth more than the newer players who have spent hundreds of dollars support a game and a company that they believe in? How is it fair that if a player decides to start playing league today, they are permanently cut off from a significant amount of content simply because they joined too late?

Since you don't want to alienate non-paying players, how about having this as a scaling lifetime RP reward: For every 4,000 RP (or whatever number you want) that has been bought by a player they get to pick 1 rare skin from the vault. If you want to reserve Victorious Skins for gold players only, then make it so those can only be chosen if the player has achieved that rank or better. However, there's also stuff like Human Ryze, Pax Jax, and any number of rare skins that the vast majority of players had zero access to unless they paid an insane amount of money to a skin store (and now even that option is gone). It wouldn't cost riot any money to do this, and non-paying players wouldn't be able to tell in most cases whether the skin was purchased at the original time or if it was a lifetime rp reward.

I hope this helped moved the discussion along.

9 Comments

TerraRising9/19/2014, 4:08:47 AM4 votes

I'm with you in spirit, but Riot seems to be firm on this issue.

I spoke to one directly and they told me, in essence, that while they really wanted to do something for those who paid lots of RP, the vast majority of people would either bitch and moan about not getting something (something they always do) or they would feel compelled to buy RP for the macguffin.

Riot doesn't want people to feel compelled to buy RP for any reason. So, for the time being, the fact that you have your bling (skins) will have to suffice.

Personally, I feel screwed by the decision.

While Hippalus and DontHassleDaHoff. among others, made assurances that they were working on making sure the rewards would be worth the wait, the fact remains that Riot doesn't want to show appreciation for those of us who helped keep the lights on or helped the freeloaders use Riot's bandwidth to play.

Pryotra9/19/2014, 5:25:07 AM3 votes

I honestly think that the vault should remain closed, though I like the idea of allowing purchases from the vault based off of RP amount. That way, RP spenders would get a reward worth the wait, while Non Spenders will not feel left out. I mean, it's not like they buy skins anyways, so why should they feel bad that they can't buy certain skins?

Honestly, I feel like this whole carebear attitude is screwing older fans hardcore, but so has 99% of their recent decisions. It seems they really don't care for loyalty, and quite honestly I don't feel like I should give them repeat business if they aren't interested. If you try to make something for everybody, you make a product for no body. I felt this way when they broke their "LE" skin promise, and I have the same opinion about it now. It's trading their word for profit, as in this case, they just handed out the rewards for a straight price, and told the RP buyers to buy them (with more RP) if they wanted it.

Kronq9/19/2014, 8:02:46 AM2 votes

Just another instance where Riot didn't come through or changed their minds on something (ranked Dominion, Ao Shin, fighter rework, etc.). Should we be surprised anymore? It's certainly disappointing, you also raise some good points I hadn't thought of before.

Even if it's just as simple as giving one (or more) mystery skin gifts out as rewards, that would be better. I don't see how anyone would have a right to be mad about not receiving that, since the only way to get a mystery skin is with RP in the first place. The fact of the matter is t e IS a difference when a player financially supports the game and the ones that don't. It's not that they're better or should have special access to content, but without their money being spent,this game doesn't exist. You have have a billion players that don't chip in a dime and unless they start having advertisements, the game wouldn't have enough income to sustain itself.

They said there would be rewards for RP buyers, they should stand by that. It doesn't have to be huge, fancy, shiny, etc. Just something that says "Hey, we appreciate you for supporting this game. Have this!"

I just wish they never said anything about it in the first place. So much mismanagement runs rampant in Riot. They do a lot of things well, but they continually frustrate me these days.

cshakes9/19/2014, 1:32:16 PM1 votes

Honestly, they could just give out Refund Tokens or something else that's small, but potentially useful.

Daen9/19/2014, 3:53:25 PM1 votes

I'm going to preface this by saying that I agree with Hippalus to an extent. Using RP purchase as the sole metric for loyalty is, quite frankly, ridiculous. My reply here is mainly going to focus on the concept of loyalty in general, not specifically recognizing players for contributing money.

I understand that they are a thank you to players who have supported the game in the beginning, but is their contribution worth more than the newer players who have spent hundreds of dollars support a game and a company that they believe in?

Yes.

Something important to realize, players who were here in the beginning were early adopters. They were investing in League of Legends because they believed in the product and wanted to see it succeed, and in many cases players directly assisted Riot with beta testing and community involvement. No one had any idea it would become a huge product, people joined to support Riot and play a fun game.

There is a distinct difference in mentality between joining a community when it's in its infancy and joining it when it's mainstream. It's a bit like the idea of rewarding employees for how long they have been working at your company; an individual who helped build the company from the ground up tends to be someone that has made a huge impact on the business, as opposed to an employee hired ten years later.

How is it fair that if a player decides to start playing league today, they are permanently cut off from a significant amount of content simply because they joined too late?

It depends on your definition of significant. There is no gameplay content that is restricted; only skins. Even just considering skins it's a dramatic minority that are locked.

there's also stuff like Human Ryze, Pax Jax, and any number of rare skins that the vast majority of players had zero access to unless they paid an insane amount of money to a skin store (and now even that option is gone).

...or went to PAX/otherwise fulfilled the requirements.

It wouldn't cost riot any money to do this, and non-paying players wouldn't be able to tell in most cases whether the skin was purchased at the original time or if it was a lifetime rp reward.

It might not cost Riot money, but the community would be pretty up in arms about season-locked cosmetics being released for everyone.

If everyone has access to the same content, regardless of their contributions, nothing is special anymore. PAX Twisted Fate would no longer be an amazing thing to see in-game. There would be no way to see who had a profound impact early in development vs playing casually. We would have no recognition for players that have poured their lives into this game and into helping League of Legends become the best it can possibly be.

Recognition and reward are part of our physiology; it's part of why complete communism/socialism never work. If everyone in life has access to exactly the same everything regardless of what they have accomplished, nothing means anything.