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?

The long wait is finally over. Facebook Tristana is now available for free to anyone willing to become a fan of League of Legends on Facebook. It’s a completely painless process for what is actually a pretty cool skin.

Here’s the official post from the Riot forums:

It is my privilege to announce to all of you that, as of today, not being a fan of League of Legends on Facebook will constitute a tactical error! And do you know why that is? Because if you’re not a fan on Facebook, you’re going to be stricken with envy when you see all of your friends playing with their brand new Riot Girl Tristana skin!

That’s right, Runeterrans! You’ve waited patiently, and now your long wait is over! And all you need to do to get your very own gun slinging, rapid firing, rocket jumping yordle lady all punked out with a pink dye job is follow this link! Click here to become a League of Legends Fan and claim your very own Tristana Champion and Riot Girl Tristana skin!

That’s really all you have to do. And yeah, the skin rocks.