Runes Reskinned
So in a recent post, Riot is talking about the new Rune system that League is going to have, but most importantly; Runes are going to be free. This is a very important thing, because, while skimming through the Riot comments on the post, I noticed that something was being stated that I'm very interested about,
Warning: frank discussion incoming.
One of the things we haven't talked about a lot with you guys, but which should come as no surprise, is that Riot does make revenue on runes, which we ultimately invest back into League to make the game better.
This is indirect revenue, because it comes from players purchasing champions with RP since they don't have available IP to get those champions, since some of that IP goes towards runes. Freeing up rune IP (in the absence of any other changes) would let players buy a bunch of champions and spend less RP overall.
Now we are making some other changes to the system, but overall, Riot is losing money on this deal. Potentially a lot of money. This was something we had to talk about a lot internally, but everyone was ultimately behind the decision, all the way to Tryndamere and Ryze. I don't want to make too big of a deal out of this, but if we seem cautious with some of our decisions here, this is part of the reason why. (Another big one obviously is that we are taking a gamble by overhauling such a core part of the game for something that we believe will be better.)
We are making the new runes free because we believe 1) That it's the right thing to do for League and for League players, and 2) Our business model has always been to make a fun game that players want to keep coming back to year after year. Runes Reforged is a long-term bet on League of Legends (and Riot for that matter).
If we thought that Rune Pages made no sense with the new design and risked feeling like a cash grab, we would absolutely just kill them as a feature. But we have found they are useful with Runes Reforged, just less mandatory than they were before. Definitely open to discussion on this topic however.
This is a very important matter, and it caught my notice, not because of Riot talking about them losing revenue (as some might see this as inclining the feature is bad for the company and thus the game will suffer from it), thus opposing the feature, but it's interesting because Riot as a company is very open about this, about the business model they achieved with the old Rune system, but the changes being applied to it causing the loss of income.
Anything I say here is not meant to make people think twice about the new Rune system and start opposing it because, frankly, the new Rune system is refreshing, allows for a lot of customisation and adding a theme to a kit. I'd love to see a Ziggs with Meteor, just because it feels so complementing to his playstyle. What about a Warwick with the new Hunt of the Blood Moon? What is important to keep in mind however, is that Riot is still a company, and as such needs some profit from worked out, extensive features like these. Looking through the post, I saw something about Snowdown and Harrowing Runes,
So, waaaaay back in the day, you guys sold special runes with things like the Harrowing and Snowdown. They were identical in stats to the T3 runes, but were basically just reskinned.
I'm a big fan of limited/exclusive content, so I bought one or two of them when they were available (didn't have all the extra IP back then to buy them all). Are these just going to be gone forever now? That'd make me a little sad. I don't even know what might fit in with the new system sensibly, but it'd be cool if there were a way we could keep an equivalent of that limited content in the new system, for those who still have them sitting around.
These reskinned Runes are a very interesting concept, because they function the same, yet look different and, as thus, are "special". This made me think that Riot could create "Rune Skins". There'd be literally no functional difference, but it's like a normal skin; It changes the looks. How cool would it be to have Perxie be a dragon floating around you? The dragon would be creating a small shield of fire, or spit out a fireball towards opponents. Berserk could be an ice cold rage, or being imbued with Void energy. It'd be exactly the same functionally, but it looks different. In the description of the Rune, it would state that it's a reskin, but has the function of [insert rune].
One might question why this should be a thing? It's quite simple; There are a lot of people in League who care about its aesthetics. They want their champ to look cool, but with certain things, such as having a Pulsefire Caitlyn, who is totally white and blue, being imbued with this red aura isn't the coolest thing. It would be fun to see Perxie be a Wharf Rat, a frog etc. etc. This not only looks cool, it could also help extend the world of League of Legends. Taking Perxie as an example again, making her (him? it?) into another creature could show more about the fauna of Runeterra, about the wild nature being imbued with magical powers or mystical creatures. Pricing model, I'd think it could be like Chroma's. Much like the aforementioned function, this would be a lower scale skin, requiring less effort (from a player's standpoint, it still requires the effort) to make this, because these changes aren't as massive and dynamic as a Champion skin. What more? IP sales, much like Chroma's, could keep the income here. Much like with Runes, champions are being bought with RP to buy Runes with IP. I'd see the same thing happening with Chroma's, because they're sort of skins. If you like a certain Rune Skin, because it is fitting with the Champion Skin, you'd buy the Champion Skin, which would be income again.
Anyway, that's just my 2 cents on the topic of Riot's decisions. I've never seen a company be so open about their decision from an income standpoint and think Riot did a good job with letting the peeps know they're doing it for the community
And remember, it's all for the sake of Ultimate Hope!
- N Komaeda.
