I miss the Season One reward grind
I was worried this would happen. As the end of Season One drew to a close, I had a goal in mind: I wanted to get gold rating. There wasn’t really a personal reason, either. There was a reward; a reward that I wouldn’t use very much, but still, it was something I could point to and say, “I got that because I did X.”
It was a grind, too. I had to play a lot of games to hit gold. The grind pretty much killed any desire I had to play Lee Sin beyond the finish. I got incredibly close to the 1520 mark and then dropped ELO several times. But still, it was a goal. It was something to shoot for. It was a lot of fun.
Fast forward six weeks or so and I’m having a little trouble enjoying the game like I used to. There aren’t any in-game goals for me to strive for. I could try to rank up my solo queue ELO, but to what end? More ranking up? Not exactly a compelling sales pitch.
I know League can’t always be my number one game, but I do think there’s a lot more to be done to keep veteran players interested in the game. The Jarvan skin was a great idea – why not produce more skins that could be tied to certain achievements. Win 250/500/1000 ranked games, get a cool skin. Play 10 ranked games, get a one-time, one-day IP boost. These kind of things don’t cost a lot of money to put into the game and encourage more players to try more things. My assumption, which I suppose could be totally wrong, is that the more time players spend enjoying games, the more likely they are to spend on content.
Even if that assumption can’t be backed by data, it certainly breeds goodwill with the playerbase. Why not reward players for spending time with the game?
What are your thoughts? Are you still going strong with LoL or are other games starting to steal your attention. Has Dominion been enough to keep you coming back?
Posted in: league of legends
Tags: achievements, dominion, free skin, free skins, ip boost, ranked, ranked queue, ranked rewards, ranked solo, season one, season two
league got my mind back into the game when dominion came out but its the same as SR set champs rule over it and if you dont pick them you will most likely lose. i have my eyes on dota2 bc i started with dota so i want to try it out! And a big game that has alot of peoples attention *cough cough* Diablo 3!
Playing WoW taught me a lot about how my future with games would be. While examining my feelings towards that game through the ups and downs, I learned a lot about myself and what it is that draws me to play some games more than others. In the end, as you put it, it’s about goals. Whether it’s an MMO, Minecraft, or LOL, if I have a goal in mind, I want to play like crazy. If not, I find myself drifting away. Sometimes I don’t even mind putting the game behind me as games like WoW are more grind than fun. However, for a game like LoL, I find myself having to find mini-goals for myself. I wish Riot would build achievements into the game instead. Goals like “Learn to play champ X” can only last so long. Fortunately for Riot, I continue to have enjoy fun to keep playing their game, but they could do so much more.
By the way, I’ll add that Dominion cannot and will not be the reason I continue to play this game. I love the game type and I’m very excited that they added it. However, my need for goals requires a need for stats to track those goals. As long as Dominion does not have a ranked mode and the stats that are tracked with it, I cannot play it as anything other than the side dish to my Summoner’s Rift main meal. I don’t know if they plan to release ranked Dominion soon or if we’ll be talking about this same thing in 6 months as if often the case with Riot. Once they do, I’ll probably take the game type more seriously. Until then, it’s just a place for me to have some fun in quick games with random champs that I rarely want to play on Summoner’s Rift.
Dominion definitely doesn’t cut it for me, and the really the only fun I get from Summoner’s Rift is when I auto lock in with a random champion.
That being said, I think Dominion would be a TON of fun with a 5 player LAN party. Then things could get into a shouting match, which is always fun!
In the end though, if my roommates didn’t play this game, I would probably be playing it much less.
“Win 250/500/1000 ranked games, get a cool skin. ” Great idea. THe more value is added to an account, the more people value it.
Dominion is a great way to keep the game from getting stagnant – but a system that includes some benchmarks with goals and rewards would enhance Riots business success, as you mentioned
dude, what you are asking for is ACHIEVEMENTS, and im sorry to tell you, but like a month ago there was a red post regarding this and it was said that achievements were a really low-priority thing.
maybe that changed, i hope so.
Berseking, you’re right. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. And yes, Riot said it’s very low priority, which is a total bummer.
Right now nearly everything in the game can be had through cash. That’s not a bad thing – Riot needs to make cash. It would be great, though, to have more rewards based on in-game accomplishments.
in fact, they can combine both.
this is what i mean:
take the “summoner’s picture” as the example. you have a very limited selection to pick, but with achievements that list will expand, but hey! they can also have a purchase-only “avatar”, so they can make money and give ppl a thing to work for, both with the same idea.
so yeah, im really looking forward to the achievements, i hope that now that dominion is live they will have more time to do this.
As with WoW, the possibilities seemed endless when it was released 5years ago… grandeur World PvP etc. But all Blizzard gave us was grindy raid dungeons and gear progression.
Riot needs to serve up promised features as Achievements, Observer mode fast so folks have stuff to do or it’ll merely be constant grind and they’ll drift away (just like players in current WoW)
Maybe I’m simple minded but dominion has my complete attention. It’s very fun with how new it is and stimulating trying to figure out which champion and build yields what result in cap and hold.
Guardian force is a lot of fun as no one expects it
and they seem to not notice the halo when its active :-p
I’m less than thrilled by Dominion except that it gives me a new way to learn champs or play with a few RL-friends that have very little time to game.
Regarding ranked I was starting to get serious about 3×3 and 5×5 premade and due to the way those will be redone when S2 actually starts I’ve held off on playing. Right now my focus is on 2 things:
1. Learn to play Cassiopia at least as well as I play Karthus
2. Learn to play an AD carry well, this is the only type of champ that I cannot play decently.
3. Duo-queue solo ranked if someone >1400elo S1 wants to team up, otherwise don’t bother. I’m currently 3-0 with this approach and have a long term goal of breaking 1600.
Not gonna lie… I wasn’t thrilled with Dominion either.
It’s fast, which I love. Means I can (in theory) play the game again, even with school/work.
Dominion is more complex, but at it’s core winning involves one basic action: occupy certain spaces longer than enemy to win. In SR, you occupy space next to turrets (and auto attack); repeat 3x per lane. Dominion is similar, but more raw: occupy the spaces longer than enemies (no auto attack). If you team isn’t focused enough to do that in SR you lose. If your team isn’t focused enough to do that in Dominion, you lose.
Team Deathmatch. Find the Teemo. Capture the Queen. All-Mid-All-Random. I’m guessing those aren’t out there because they want LoL to be a “serious” e-sport, which is why they stuck with the “occupy space and win” variants.
@Slamtastic
im quite sure ive heard rumors about riot developing a “custom map creator”.
pretty much turning LoL into the new warcraft 3, where ppl could make their own maps.
the community asked several times for an all random all mid map, etc. and riot listen..(i think)
@Berseking: I haven’t heard that, actually; I’m out def out of the loop in forum postings. I’m intrigued.. I don’t think custom maps (ie. DotA) hurt WC3 sales or it’s longevity, and I think people might even help advance Riot’s R&D if they implement what you’re saying, it’d be interesting to see what people come up with