Riot Games is in the throes of a crisis over the monetization of League of Legends . The community has grown accustomed to being let down by the developer with cosmetics that don’t meet the minimum quality standards players expect, abusive policies, or future RP price increases. To speak frankly, a lot of players feel like they’re paying as much as they used to for less content. The criticism, although quite severe, is much more well-founded than one might imagine.
Community controversy with Star Guardian skins
Although no skin can please everyone, the return of the Star Guardian theme did not disappoint many, but controversy was sparked by the introduction of the second set of skins on the PBE. Most fans loved Akali, Taliyah, and the rest of the appearances. However, they witnessed one of the studio’s wackiest moves on the test server. Whereas chromas had recolored visual effects upon release on the PBERiot Games changed them to the default version.
In other words, although the work has been done, the developer has decided to remove them from League of Legends when the skins hit the live servers.
This situation has generated a lot of frustration within the community. In the corresponding Reddit thread , there are a total of 94 comments in which the word “chroma” is repeated 253 times. In almost all cases, players insist that the version of chromas that changed the color of skills should not be removed. However, there is no record of these changes on the PBE and a Riot Games employee assured that “VFX color changes are outside the scope of base chromas, although we are exploring the possibility of creating a new, more ambitious type that may have such changes in the future. Unfortunately, our experiments have arrived on the PBE by mistake”.
The day Riot Games accidentally criticized itself
This context has drawn a lot of criticism from the community, which has already racked up too many disappointments in a row with the studio – but also reminded players of a very special video from the company. It was part of a series called “So you wanna make games”in which developers gave advice to future designers. A basic approach that included more than ten minutes of sequences on VFX (visual effects) and in which, without realizing it, the developer fiercely criticized his own products.
The truth is that this question is difficult to answer and players have come to a conclusion. While choosing a color that matches the pattern is good for game clarity as it helps identify what each champion is doing, not doing so is bad by definition.. However, Riot Games has repeated this practice in League of Legends for the past few years, and it goes against the playbook of a developer who’s proven to have more than enough talent to level up. significantly the quality of its products. It doesn’t seem like a huge workload, and even if it means a slight price increase, there are plenty of players willing to take it on.
In all cases, the next 12.14 patch will not be the one that includes the changes the community is hoping for. Riot Games needs to transform and win back players on all things monetization. With the exception of a few champion balance issues or somewhat controversial releases, the game is pretty much balanced and it’s a shame that things like this marred what could have been a near-perfect year for League of Legends.
Source
League of Legends patch 12.13 has been out for over a week, and all eyes are still on Nilah, the newest champion. And yet, another champion is doing well… discreetly.