League of Legends player's plea goes viral: 'Riot, please save LoL in China'

It’s no secret that China’s Tencent, which operates League of Legends in China, owns a majority stake in LoL developer Riot Games. The two companies are close, clearly, but that doesn’t mean that League operates the same way in China (where Tencent is in charge) as it does in North America (where Riot holds the reins).

One former European-server player called “tzhikang” found this out the hard way upon his return to China, and his plea for help from Riot has gone viral on Reddit. After just a few months of play in China, he writes, “I am so sick of this game.” Among his complaints:

• Chinese gamers pay higher prices for many things, in RP (Riot’s virtual currency, bought with real money) and in IP (the in-game currency that’s earned by playing games). For example, rune pages cost 6300 IP elsewhere but cost 6900 RP in China.
• The new Lunar Revel skins cost significantly more in China than they do elsewhere (about $30 apiece!)
• Tencent offers “temporary skins”—skins that disappear after a week or two—as rewards, and sometimes when players give each others mystery gifts (which must be purchased with real money), the other player receives one of these disappearing skins.
• Tencent is unpopular in China

In the comments, other posts have piled on the complaints about Chinese League of Legends, adding:

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The original poster tzhikang claims to have received a reply from a representative at Riot Games that’s sympathetic but says “there is nothing much we can do for now.”

The post has ignited a debate in the comments about Riot’s ownership—many players outside China are clearly unnerved by the way Tencent does business—but it’s worth pointing out that tzhikang has a point.

In fact, Chinese gamers tend to get the short end of the stick on lots of international games. Sometimes this is due to poor localization, and sometimes it is due to the greedy monetization practices of local companies. In this particular case, it’s hard to argue that Tencent isn’t bleeding LoL players dry with its pricing, but given that it’s still the second-highest-earning game in the world, what impetus does the company have to stop?

Tencent may be reviled by Chinese gamers for a lot of reasons—money-grubbing and its tendency to copy other companies’ games chief among them—but it’s not likely to lower prices in the Chinese League of Legends shop simply out of the goodness of its heart. No for-profit company would. Nor is Riot in a position to dictate to Tencent how it chooses to operate League of Legends in China.

Ultimately, if Chinese League players want to see local LoL servers operated more like the servers in North America, they’re probably going to have to protest en masse, and be ready to vote with their wallets and switch to one of China’s other popular MOBA options if Tencent fails to respond.

But with League far and away the most popular PC title in China right now, how likely is that to happen? I’m not a prophet, but I’d say the chances are very, very slim.

(via reddit)