Hextech Trading?
I know, I know, Rito bad, player good, and they probably won't do it. What I want to do here is create a discussion around viable ways trading could be implemented via Hextech Crafting and an altered form of the gifting system. Obviously, we have several goals here, so I'll outline them below.
1) To keep Riot in the profit zone
Sounds stupid, I know, but it's key. Greedy or not, Riot is a company, and anything that provides a sustainable means to make cash is good for business. To wit, the system must not be a burden on the financial strength of the RP system, the common practice of its purchase, and spending money directly via the store. This will mean Riot will look at trading and see the black, or green, or the bear or bull or whatever economic analogy you want to use, and will be delighted to pick up and maintain such a system.
2) To minimize or prevent abuse, preferably the latter
Abuse is bad. It hurts the system, it hurts Riot, and in turn it hurts us. It might not seem so at this point; surely Riot Games can't be hurting for money, and what's a little foreseeable loss between friends? Well, the truth is more sinister. If the system is abusable, it doesn't end there, it networks out and creates problems at every level of the game. Take the refer-a-friend setup, sadly now resting in that client and web interface in the sky; it was a good idea, beneficial to all, and gave us some great things, but in the end, all it was known for was the endless legion of bot accounts it spawned.
If the system is to stay healthy, it needs to provide Riot profit, which in turn makes Riot smile when they think about it. The withering frown of accounting is not a presence we want lingering over any part of the Hextech Crafting or potential Trading system, if we are to see it through. And thus, you become Riot, and parasites on the system become your enemy.
3) To create a meaningful use of 'dead-end' content
This is where we start to get options. First and foremost, the title, or the phrase therein--dead end content. This is myriad objects accrued via the current Hextech Crafting system for numerous accounts which hold no use for the item in question. At the low priority end, we have people simply getting skins they do not want, for champions or wards. These are optional of course, and important on a subjective level, but they do still also have use in the form of creating raw essence, which makes worthwhile content--skins that you do want--a possibility.
At the middling region of the dead-end spectrum, we have content players can only feasibly use in a limited way. This primarily includes skins for champions players do not have. There is a small golden zone of content players nonetheless like, and this creates a nice, juicy interaction wherein said player then has more reasons, or a reason at all, to approach that champion via purchase or crafting. Outside of this positive uptick, however, we have people with content that, like or not, have no use for it. And if the player never intends to buy the champion in question, then their options cease to exist, and their option singular becomes to break it down. Which turns an exciting event, the opening of a long-awaited chest, into a simple and small paycheck.
At the worst end of the dead-end content tier is the full champion roster dilemma. It's understandable that the Hextech Crafting system wasn't created with players in mind who have a large number of skins or champions, much less all of either. However, while one is largely a neutral outcome, the rare 'every skin' situation, the other, possessing all of the champions in the game, has serious downsides. Despite Riot stating previously they were looking into a way to sort this out, the problem persists, and Trading is a potential solution I believe they should look into. The real problem here is that Hextech Crafting, when you are given champion shards with no need for any of them, gives you absolutely worthless content. It cannot be used, and it can be broken down but for no purpose. This is true dead-end content, and many players have felt the sting of its ill will.
Ideally, Hextech Trading would solve this, or at least apply a very large and soothing salve to the affected area.
So what are our options?
Well, thematically speaking, rather than list everything out and still point to my own arbitrary solution, I'll simply post my suggestion and see how it is received. I'm under no illusions as to my importance out of the several million players counted among the game's ranks, or of my 'importance' here; I'm simply another member. But, that's where you come in, if you're still reading this. I'm sure you have thoughts, opinions, and ideas, so let's have them. Between all of us and anyone at Riot who happens to take note and page through, hopefully we can at least produce a viable idea that might be considered. Who knows?
Now, onto the meat. First, I believe trading should be limited in three factors: Cost, amount, and fairness.
Cost is simple. As per Riot, it would be very easy to prevent some skins from being traded. These could include Legendary and Ultimate skins only (plus Mythic I suppose) and allow only 1,350 RP or "Epic" skins and under to be traded. This would be a very easy way to cap the potential RP cost from any gaming or abuse of the system. This would also allow Riot not to worry about damaging the value of these exclusive tiered skins, to keep the integrity of Legendary+ skins not having direct sales, and would allow them in turn to keep their rarity and allure within Hextech Crafting. Legacy skins could be added to this list if needed, and this would maybe let them retain some of the same second-tier rarity they're often known for. Wards could be untouched, as they are all mostly equally valuable.
Next, amount. This is how much trading is allowed, and like gifting, could be factored in quite easily along metrics such as friends-only trading, RP cost/tier limitations, and especially daily, weekly, or monthly caps. Even a severe limitation like one trade per week period would be acceptable, if the outcome was a huge amount of appeased players and a permanent boost to Hextech Chest and Key sales. I see the possibility for abuse in here somewhere, but by that I mean that I can't pinpoint it but I just know people will find a way. However, in the end, this still factors in gaining a new account, buying champions for it or pumping RP into it, gambling on chests, friending other accounts and waiting, and hopefully getting lucky. It would take an immense amount of work, I feel, to start a reliable platform of occasionally getting a cheap trade with yourself, and I feel like the cost would still make it profitable for Riot. Let me know if there's something I'm missing.
Lastly, the value of fairness is the worth of trading, what you get out of it. It's not necessarily fair to get something of lesser value for something of greater value. But, too, greater value is subjective. With that said, there is an absolute bottom line here, and that's the Hextech Crafting system's own essence cost. Is there a situation in which a player would trade something of lesser value for something of greater value? Of course. But the reverse? Well, perhaps. If something is less common, or just something you don't have, it might potentially be viable. There's a number of ways to work around this, as well. You could make champion shards worth drastically less than skins, so it would take a larger number of them or less at a higher relative IP cost to net a skin in trade, thus allowing full-roster players some form of eventual upside to the system. This would also help spread out potential champion access to newer players, and would simultaneously ease many of the complaints about the IP system by providing an alternative way to net champions, without ever touching IP gain or cost.
Another potential idea in this area would be altering trade cap numbers and times, based on your trade. Giving something worth more to a player than what you get back, for instance, could allow you to trade again more quickly. And the reverse could also be true, so players who make an opportune score and get a nice skin or champion shard(s) would pay the price of waiting a little longer before they could strike the same hot iron again. Fairness could also be controlled with essence, or even IP and/or RP; by allowing players to throw resources into the system at this level, but not including those resources in the trade, you create another alternate place for these things to go. There are players who will want to burn champion essence and IP, and allowing them to do so by setting a cost for trading in those currencies would create a currency sink with meaningful payout for players. And this doesn't even count potentially having players pay small RP fees for trading, which would create an overall huge net gain for Riot as the system would spread. This last factor alone might even directly contribute to preventing abuse of the system, though it's certainly true that an RP-only system would limit trading to paying players, never the best option.
As I said above, I know it's unlikely we'll see a system like this, but I also know it could work. And I think it would be beneficial to all. The players would have more freedom than ever before in managing content they get, and more opportunities to get skins and champions by earning them. And Riot would suffer from a sudden burst of goodwill at the very least, but could potentially clear any costs or the flat no-cost of the Trading system and gain boosts to RP sales for Hextech Crafting, making it even more popular than it is now. We all know chest drops are nice, and key drops are rare. And we all know you hate getting all those shards for champions you own. But I'm certain if players knew they had a much, much higher chance of turning some of that content into something they could actually use, many more would probably be willing to spend their time and money on the system.
Thoughts?
