In class, we discussed how currency is used today and where the values of money is put today.
One thing we specifically honed in on was gaming and “Farming”. Farming is term used in the digital age, specifically to gaming. Its an action in which gamers will make gold aka: Farming. In the gaming community, there are workshops that we looked at which normal people that spend more than average time around a computer and play games all day for a living. It’s almost like a hobby/job rolled into one.
Since we started talking about paid to play, I thought about League of Legends.
League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game that is published and created by Riot Games. The game is completely free to play and in 2013 their revenue came to over $624 million and they have over 5 million concurrent players.
The game will continue to entertain people as an official spectating sport and for those that pursue the competitive side of LoL; that is another story.
League of Legends holds a tournament every year known as the LCS: League Championship Series. There are two servers in which the best of the best of those servers will move forward to The World Series: The North American and European servers.
There are many teams for each server and consist of 5 members that each have a role in the game.
As a pro team, Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) or Dignitas or Curse will train everyday to understand and practice their role, whether it’s last hitting as ADC to get the farm for gold or jungle to get the ganks when your team needs it. Teams are sponsored by companies to play and will fund the equipment for optimum playing capacity and to advertise their name and reputation across the globe. A popular way to advertise is through live streaming. This allows the audience to watch live what the pros are doing and spectate a game. TwitchTV is a steaming service that is very popular and used for gaming. Not only do the pros have to study their own roles in terms of which items to build, when to engage, know the champions, and understand the meta of the game, they must look to their competitor, both NA and EU, and know who they are going to go against, who they play well and don’t play well, and understand their strategy as well.
Managers for the teams will set up traveling and training for the players along with networking to spread their teams name to the world as well. As a paid sport, they must dedicate hours upon hours training to make it to the LCS and World Series otherwise they lose their sponsors and potentially their job as a pro gamer.
Life of a League of Legends Pro –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWdjCGpAZNs
Training and Home Space –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EHKBqmYqSw
The People Behind the Pros –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weCmYpFi2rs&list=PLPZ7h6L6LC7Vbe37XMR4Z8jAPFRp_513K&index=111
Article on money made by Riot serving as a free MMO
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/league-of-legends-revenues-for-2013-total-624-million/1100-6417224/
susancinderella 
Jan 24, 2014 @ 05:47:13
It was really interesting for me to read your blog post. I have never heard of League of Legends so it was cool for me to kind of learn a little bit about it. I found farming very interesting too and wanted to look up more information about it so I am glad you wrote about that topic. Your post reminded me to learn more about farming and how it works. Thanks for the post! I enjoyed it!
Jan 24, 2014 @ 08:30:33
Quite the interesting topic you elaborated on. I know a little about League, but I do not play it, I really don’t find it that appealing. But the most interesting part about your post was the fact that the game is free to play, but also pay to win. Seeing as how Riot makes hundreds of millions of dollars off their 5 million players with their schemes. “Buy these item skins, buy these champions, buy their skins” I do know that there are quite a few champions one can choose from, and each champ comes with different skins, and while one can play and play and earn each skin and each character via hard work and wins. Most people don’t have the patience or the drive to spend many hours to earn the champs. So of course the availability to purchase these champs and skins is available. And of course people fall for it. I know that mu brother, who is EXTREMELY broke, plays League all the time and he still purchased a skin for his favorite champ. His logic “I play him enough I wanted that skin.” That’s how they get you, its quite interesting just how easy it is for them to draw their players into buying the skins when all you have to do is play to win and not pay to win. Just some food for thought.
Quin
Jan 24, 2014 @ 17:50:01
Yeah, I downloaded the game for the Free Aspect. I myself won’t use real money to spend on skin since it won’t change the dynamics of the character (just looks), but I know that tons of people will spend money to speed up the process. It’s not impossible to get all the champions without spending money and just playing games to get the IP, but people don’t have the patience for it. It all comes down to the patiences for most games. There’s a certain pattern they follow along with many online games. Almost all facebook games follow the same meta of its free to play, but you can add more features and unlock more content by spending money. Simple and genius tactic to follow. If they’re willing to spend the money because they’ll play the champ that often, I say power to them (just when you can afford it preferably). Those that get good at the game and play professionally start reaching the “Paid to win” because they train 8 hours a day studying their strategy and their opponents strategy. Along with dietitians and personal trainers that work with their team to help keep them in shape for the face of the public.
Jan 24, 2014 @ 17:30:52
One thing that I thought of when I read your blog post was people playing games, recording it, and putting it on YouTube. You talked about Twitch tv and how gamers use that. I haven’t spent any time on Twitch tv but I’ve heard things about it enough to know how gamers use it. However, I’ve seen so many YouTube channels that are dedicated to post gameplay of video games. Not just walkthroughs either. Just videos of their gameplay with their commentary. Sometimes, while they are playing, they don’t even talk about the game, they just talk about whatever they want. And people watch it. The more people that watch it, the more views they get. The more views they get, the more money they make from it. So they are getting paid to just play games and post it on the internet. But people enjoy watching it, even if they have the game and have played through it, they will sit down for hours and watch these people play.
Just an interesting connection I thought of after reading your post.
Jan 24, 2014 @ 17:55:02
I have a lot of channels I’m subscribed to on Youtube for those gamers such as PewdiePie, GameGrumps, IGN, etc. Not only do they form common ground by playing a game that the viewer may be familiar with, but they are funny and just talk casually whether its about the game itself, food for thought, or just life rants. I have them play in the background as an extra thing to watch when I’m drawing or eating. But this is coming from a gamer myself. Twitch TV is newer to me, I’m not that familiar with it, but I’ve watched pros stream their League games or watch people play starcraft. Its pretty interesting.
Feb 03, 2014 @ 21:15:24
Gaming is my passion to put it simply. I am an avid fan of League of Legends and their company Riot Games. I’m extremely glad that you decided to talk about these in your post. I have a lot of experience using Twitch.tv and I personally think it is a step in the right direction for entertainment and esports. In regards to the free to play model with cosmetic bonus for pay I think it is the best idea for a game in this day and age. I personally buy RP to support the company producing my favorite game. League of Legends is the most popular game in the world right now and I think it is due to how Riot handles player interaction and how they handle business. Riot is player focused and that is the best thing a game company can do. I’m personally hoping that esports will become a household sport similar to football or basketball.
Feb 03, 2014 @ 23:06:25
That goes for the both of us. : ) If you look on ebay, there are tons of people that sell their accounts that have skins, masteries, and champions on them. I thought that was interesting since we were talking about people that play and sell their accounts to people. I also think that that’s one of the reasons why Riot is so successful as a free to play model because they have loyal fan and customer base in which they are getting money from all the people that want the skins and extra RP for stuff. Not to mention their customer service is FANTASTIC and they have real people that respond within 48 hours usually. It may not be a the choice game for everyone, but it recognized as an official sport!
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/12/us-government-recognizes-league-of-legends-lsc-as-sport