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PSA: don't buy Little Legends when TFT releases, this pricing model is scummy even by Riot standards

Naalith·6/24/2019, 11:29:35 PM·327 votes·64,632 views

For those of you who are unaware, Riot has released the monetization model of the new Little Legends (your avatar for Teamfight Tactics games) and uhhh... suffice to say it's a big yikes. You can read these two pages to see for yourself.

https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2019/06/dev-little-legends-in-teamfight-tactics/ https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/teamfight-tactics/p7QvZW11-little-legends-series-egg-guide

For those who didn't see, people in the comments of the first post have been doing the math and it turns out that, because you have to randomly roll your Little Legends and don't get to buy them a la carte, you could theoretically spend up to 13,230 RP to get the fully leveled up version of a Legend you want. Obviously, this is scummy. Obviously. we don't want more shitty loot boxes in the game. Obviously, Riot is just trying to get people with gambling addictions to waste money on the game.

My personal favorite quote from the first article is as follows. Whoever wrote this shit should go get hired for EA because this is some high quality corporate garbage: "When designing Little Legends, we were inspired by some of the feelings we had while playing TFT, and we wanted the Little Legends system to capture those same feelings. For starters, we really enjoyed the moment when you can finally upgrade that one-star Tristana you started the game with to a three-star powerhouse. This is why we wanted you to be able to evolve your Little Legends—so you can watch your humble one-star Pengu Featherknight grow into a much cooler three-star one.

We also wanted to mimic that feeling of seeing the clutch tier-5 unit you need to win in the shop, and we hope you can feel some of that same joy when you get an unexpectedly rare drop from a Little Legends egg. Finally, we hope that your Little Legends collection feels unique and special to you, just like you’re able to construct a one-of-a-kind team comp in TFT."

Yes Riot, having a paid-only upgrade to your Little Legends in which you spend $100 to upgrade the single Legend you actually want to use feels exactly as good as pulling a clutch win. They are basically admitting that they love the randomness in the game mode (which is fine, it's a chill mode) and want you to feel that same level of satisfaction after spending hundreds of dollars on pixels trying to get what you want. Very cool, Rito Arts.

It's funny because they try to act like good guys a lot as well, citing the excitement of upgrading your critters etc. That would be exciting if you could actually upgrade them and obtain new Legends through gameplay, which you can't. They also cite that you have a 30% chance to get a duplicate legendary when you open a rare legendary Legend, essentially immediately boosting your little guy to level 2. Riot expects people to be so stupid that they don't realize you are only giving us a level 2 legendary so we spend a shit load on loot boxes to try and get the avatar to level 3 afterwards, even though there is a 5% chance of getting another legendary.

Riot, just quit being scummy. The prestige skins, the paid loading screen borders, the 3000 RP ruby chromas, the grindy events with laughable rewards compared to other games, etc. This game used to be pretty consumer friendly all things considered, instead of slowly inching towards fleecing people more without saying anything Riot is coming out and trying to spin you getting fucked out of money as a good thing. Come on, just let us buy the Legends a la carte and give a slow path to obtaining them for free to play players. This system could've been so cool if it was gameplay or achievement based, but you guys had to go ruin it.

132 Comments

I Like Things 6/25/2019, 3:32:24 AM40 votes

Riot, just quit being scummy. The prestige skins, the paid loading screen borders, the 3000 RP ruby chromas, the grindy events with laughable rewards compared to other games, etc. This game used to be pretty consumer friendly all things considered, instead of slowly inching towards fleecing people more without saying anything Riot is coming out and trying to spin you getting fucked out of money as a good thing. Come on, just let us buy the Legends a la carte and give a slow path to obtaining them for free to play players. This system could've been so cool if it was gameplay or achievement based, but you guys had to go ruin it.

Welcome to the tencent business model & why I will forever despise / mock / ridicule both Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck for being stupid enough to sell to them.

I've played this game since 2010 and used to enjoy their monetary model a lot .. like https://i.imgur.com/jpLtcDF.png a lot.

Fast forward to now and my disposable income will forever go elsewhere as predatory marketing tactics are all tencent is known for, at least for those of us in the know. Sad. Shame on Marc and Brandon for being so short sighted.

#Great write up by the way, +1 from this space wanderer.

Taurean Blessing6/25/2019, 10:34:47 AM23 votes

Honestly the whole "they need to make money SOMEHOW" argument for this just sounds like spineless bootlicking. There are much more constructive and honest ways to make that money to make this new game mode tick. This isn't one of them. It's just more of the same over priced exclusive nonsense that Riot, and most all corners of the industry, have been peddling because patronage, player trust, and loyalty aren't enough respectable incentive for big companies to just do business honestly. The iron hasn't even cooled and Riot is already hammering it into exploitative shape.

And just because you don't have to buy it doesn't mean you won't get screwed over if you want to buy it. People like skins and little flashy doodads for video games and shouldn't have to pay an arm and a leg for cosmetics. Cosmetics being optional honestly make the situation worse because when you decide to show your appreciation and excitement for the company to get something you want you're rewarded with.... stuff you dont want. And you spent over 100 bucks on it. I dont know about anyone here but that doesn't exactly sound like a fair shake.

Kelg6/25/2019, 4:24:17 AM22 votes

Riot has really gone down the drain... I miss old Riot, I used to unironically believe riot was one of the best game companies. They used to care about their playerbase. Now they just care about how many 100$ golden chromas they can make for Yasuo/Kaisa/Ahri/Lux/Etc, how many items they can cram into loot boxes, and how much they can milk people for in general.

The Violent Lime6/25/2019, 1:57:34 PM21 votes

When Riot said, "here's a really cool skin for that champ you love, it costs $10" is said, here's $10. Simple, effective transaction. I got to look cool, they got money, and the game stays live. All these God damn loot boxes are preventing me from spending money on the game because I don't know what I'm getting. If I go to McDonalds and ask for nuggets they don't give me a big mac and tell me to pay again if I want the nuggets. The only time chance comes into it is gambling, which this is and this should be regulated the same. If it was regulated better, companies would have less profits from it and would stop doing it.

Ifneth6/25/2019, 2:15:07 AM21 votes

Yeah, this is big yikes. Riot needs to just post the Little Legends for sale.

MorgManBasher6/25/2019, 2:20:40 AM21 votes

Also, "surprise mechanics" lulz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSyUgTCIkA0

MorgManBasher6/25/2019, 2:18:52 AM16 votes

Is there no way to get upgrades without paying cash? Like, does essence do anything or no? Either way I hate loot boxes, let me buy what I want for God's sake.

I only put up with the current loot boxes because I don't have to buy them to get what I want skins wise, they are just a side thing for me to get free items when I can.

lolipopevelynn6/25/2019, 12:31:04 AM14 votes

im pretty sure they will release a way for you to level up the little legend of your choice ingame without RP, meaning you would only have to buy the 1 stars you want to level initially.

thats just my humble assumption tho. Riot tends to not be very smart.

Romans VI XXIII6/25/2019, 2:59:28 AM13 votes

Yea my wife and I stopped spending money on LoLs about a yr and a half ago. And these loot boxes are just further giving us reason to continue as such.

Kaisha6/25/2019, 12:59:26 AM13 votes

Why anyone would give RIOT even a single cent at this point is beyond me. But you know what they say about a fool and their money...

HiredGûn6/25/2019, 2:41:57 AM12 votes

yup scumbag rito at it again, gotta love how they enjoy trying to drain every bit of money possible from their player base. how you guys release this thinking we wont see through your BS is beyond me, you guys at rito games must really think were dumber than a sack of rocks huhXD

SAILOR SATANA6/25/2019, 1:28:53 AM12 votes

Oh nice, a whining post about COSMETIC stuff in a TRUE f2p game. Cause yeah: being able to play the game TOTALLY for free is clearly not enough, having the possibility to gain LOT of free skins etc is clearly not enough: Riot is still clearly greedy af, not like is the other way around, LOL.

PS " even by Riot standards", LOL. One of the fairest, best business model EVER, one of the very few TRUE f2p games but...fuck Riot, right?

boricCentaur16/25/2019, 12:54:52 AM11 votes

It's free to play WHO CARES god I hate people like you, lootboxes have been a thing FOR YEARS but now after they started putting them into paid games IT SOMEHOW NOT OK TO PUT THEN FREE GAMES ANYMORE and now people will say bs anti player or what ever. If it was not popular to say this and there was not big youtubers saying it people like you would say NOTHING.

Like this quote shows me all about you "the grindy events with laughable rewards compared to other games," What other games? Dota doesn't, heros doesn't, overwatch is about the same,battlerite doesn't, vainglory doesn't, so smite? Unlike you I play other games especially modas and I can easily say the amount of free stuff riot gives out is the 3nd most I have seen since most games don't do events.

Like people like you need to stop overreacting and come down.

Nyahr6/25/2019, 4:33:02 PM10 votes

Logged in specifically to upvote this. We have to make it known that as a community, gamers are SICK of scummy microtransactions and business practices. "It's now P2W" in games that take 1000 hours to get the reward without paying. "It's rewarding to grind and unlock" for cosmetic grinds like this. It's disgusting, and they need to be called out on it.

FOR JUSTICE6/25/2019, 3:35:15 AM8 votes

are little legends way overpriced? absolutely. these are even more expensive then the first loot based prestiege skins

HOWEVER, we do need to actually remember the fact that riot is a company; and as such, needs a way to sustain itself when they do risky things like this. it absolutely sucks, but its a necessary evil, as in order to dump any amount of resources into any new project, they need to justify it to their stock holders.

these terribly overpriced legends are the way of showing said stockholders that they can turn up some form of profit.

hopefully though down the line they make it like the prestige skins at the very absolute least, where you can still earn them without spending hundreds of dollars for RNG bullcrap.

MagicFlyingLlama6/25/2019, 3:37:45 AM8 votes

level of satisfaction

Pride and Accomplishment!

Karfuss6/25/2019, 10:40:37 PM8 votes

Riot is owned by Tencent.

League to them, is just another Chinese battle arena clone, a quick cash-in, that by some miracle blew up.

Eleshakai6/26/2019, 4:34:25 PM7 votes

I'm normally pretty okay with Riot's monetization methods... but I can't defend this.

Summoner Rokutaa6/25/2019, 6:49:54 AM7 votes

Signal boosted this by posting it to the TFT reddit. I really hope something changes in this system.

Reiizm6/25/2019, 11:38:38 PM7 votes

We are so lucky LoL was conceived before the rise of lootboxes. If LoL was released today we would undoubtedly have to hextech craft the most coveted skins. (I mean, we kind of already do). I still find it criminal that you can't just buy the skin you want in Overwatch.

NelsieLisnen6/25/2019, 11:05:28 PM6 votes

Riot will never quit being scum as long as there are people who defend them. I made a post the other day about how the grind system for BE is designed to coerce you to spend even more money on the game and how it's toxic and draggy. I got all kinds of riot white knights and bootlickers spamming shit like "poor Rito has a right to make moneyzzz", "you just want everything to be freeee, reeeeeee". Honestly, the extent to which people are brainwashed is scary.

Power Cosmic6/26/2019, 1:41:45 PM6 votes

The community needs more people, like you, who actually think about others well being. A lot of people fail to understand that some folks do not have the capacity to say no to schemes such as this.

Woodchuck6/26/2019, 6:12:31 PM5 votes

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Ηuawei6/26/2019, 10:27:37 PM4 votes

"Let's be as greedy as possible and test people's limit to see how much more money we can make" is today's modus operandi for companies.

Come up with some outrageous s*** that will make you tons of money and just scale back if you get too much negative flack.

MegaHuff6/25/2019, 10:47:10 PM4 votes

I stopped spending money on Rito years ago, when I realized how awfully they'll handle a person's account, and I don't want to invest money into something that somebody else is just going to take away. I originally bought the pass thing when prestige Kai'Sa was a thing, because I have a ton of free time and play a lot of games so considering that, the price vs. the rewards I could get felt worth it. Then they kind of made the prestige skins even worse with prestige points.

I already felt bad buying the passes because I know it encourages Rito, but now I feel like with how they handle their game, among other things people have said in this post, I don't even feel like it's worth buying the passes anymore, let alone playing the game.

So disgusted with the state of things here that even the forums disgust me. Not many good times to be had really anywhere under this company.

Iron Rubric6/26/2019, 9:29:56 AM4 votes

Greedo games wants to be like papa EA with their own surprise mechanics

Pater Gascoigne6/25/2019, 3:04:30 PM3 votes

We like to call this "surprise mechanics" /s Oof, that's very scummy from Riot to be honest

allupinyobase6/26/2019, 2:54:43 PM2 votes

all ur doing is paying for a skin they don't give u any advantage/disadvantage on having them? just don't buy them its like when we had too pay for skins with rp?

AIIan6/26/2019, 2:27:00 PM2 votes

{quoted} My personal favorite quote from the first article is as follows. Whoever wrote this shit should go get hired for EA because this is some high quality corporate garbage:

Why did I read all of that in Jim Sterling's 'Corporate' voice ?

Original Sin6/25/2019, 10:26:11 PM2 votes

why would anyone buy something so damn pointless

Modl Ryden l6/25/2019, 6:18:18 PM2 votes

Riot's gonna get some moderate sized youtube channel to promote TFT by giving him or her 20x hextech chests, enough RP to buy all the little legends, AND a little legends emerald chroma giveaway.

Our voice in how RP should be spent or handled has very little affect on the boards compared to the bought out youtubers that will promote anything for free RP.

Really, if you want Riot to listen to this kind of stuff, you'd have to get one of the Youtubers to side with us and have them express our opinions on this kind of stuff.

T1DECALLER6/27/2019, 1:44:23 AM2 votes

i want to add in that this is very true from my personal experience. Today when tft came out i was excited and i had rp saved up for this event. i spent a lot (idk if you call this a lot but its 9k rp and i consider this a tremendous amount since im not rich) of rp on the eggs and i got 1 3 star and a few good little legends. compared to the amount i spent this was NOT EVEN WORTH at all and i didnt even get a good 3 star. I still gotta be happy its not a damn hauntling but its srsly not worth. If you really want a little legend then i recommend buying 1 or 2 eggs but otherwise don't spend any money on them.

Don't hate on me for spending money on little legends*[sg-ahri-3]*

IdaMayn7/26/2019, 9:45:41 AM2 votes

This is my fave post ever, out of any forum sites, ever!!!